Thursday May 5th and Friday May 6th

The next day we woke up at five and headed for the border. Jeff was furious when we were told we had to pay $12 each to cross the border but eventually we did and exchanged our money and took a bus to San Juan del Sur. Then we alternated between walking and hitching rides to Playa Madera. The area looked the way I pictured California to look and it was on the Pacific Coast so I don’t think I’m too far off. We went to the Surf Camp Hostel and met up with Matt and Carolanne who had managed to make it all the way there the night before and had spent the night. We debated getting a surf board but Jeff wasn’t a fan of beaches so we decided to climb on the rocks, swim, and eat and then head out. It was the most gorgeous beach I’ve ever been to and it was a super relaxed atmosphere with tons of surfers lounging around in hammocks and playing guitars. We walked around the rocks and looked at crabs and sea urchins in the pools of water and then got pina coladas and hamburgers and got in the water with the waves crashing over us. Then we split into groups again, this time Jeff and Carolanne were together and Matt, Destiny, and I were together. We walked a while before being picked up by a couple living in London with a second house in Nicaragua. The man was from Sweden and the woman was from New Zealand. They dropped us off in Rivas and we took a bus to Granada where we met Jeff and Carolanne at the coolest hostel we had been to by far, called the Bearded Monkey. It was half inside and half outside with all kinds of cool wall paintings and hanging chairs and pools of water. Unfortunately, I was getting really sick and laid down on the bed in our room and passed out. The sun from the beach gave me a migraine and my body felt broken in like a hundred places from all the activity. Plus eating the fruit and drinking the water was catching up with my digestive system, which was pretty miserable. So while everyone else was enjoying happy hour and taking advantage of the free wifi, I slept like a baby. They went out and got dinner and brought me back something and then we all went to sleep.

The next day we wandered through the markets of Granada which had stands with every type of food imaginable: fruits, vegetables, grains, breads baked in the shapes of animals, and all types of meat including enormous decapitated pig heads. One thing that was really popular down there was this drink that was sold in plastic bags with ice. It was called cacao and was similar to chocolate milk but better. After perusing the market, we decided to visit the Pueblos Blancos (white towns) between Granada and Masaya. We took buses to them and at one of them there was an extinct volcano with a huge lake in the center that beat the lake at the top of the Volcano Maderas a thousand times over. We took a little taxi up to the top of the volcano and then hiked down the lip to the lake to go swimming. It was completely deserted and ridiculously beautiful. The hike back up wasn’t fun but we got some cokes at a restaurant up there and rested up a bit before heading to the next village. There we saw a sloth hanging from a tree in the middle of the park and went to a restaurant for lunch where we got tripe soup. I’ve never thought Latin Americans were particularly good at making soup and this was just their usual broth with a heaping pile of cow intestines in the center. It was revolting. I ate a few spoonfuls of the broth but that was it. I had already been feeling so sick that I had no appetite to begin with. Jeff wolfed his down while Matt and Carolanne made a valiant effort before giving up and Destiny was the only smart one who ordered the roasted chicken. After that, we got on a bus to Masaya and found a cheap hotel. I was feeling really sick once again so I slept while they went out and got dinner and looked at the town.