When in Doubt, Travel: Isla de Ometepe and San Juan Del Sur

August 27th - 31st

We headed out for a long day of travel after some quick errands and inquiring about Red Cross volunteering opportunities in Granada. Chicken bus to taxi to a very charismatic old tugboat-style ferry that took us across the HUGE Lake Nicaragua to Isla de Ometepe, a larger island consisting of twin volcanos, Ometepe and Concepcion. The ferry ride made the island appear magical...two humungous volcanos that just emerged from the water forming this crazy island! We shared a shuttle, or rather the tiniest little transport "van" we'd been in thus far, and headed towards Merida, the town furthest away from the port in which we arrived. We had been told the journey would be about 2 hours in total, but it didn't seem possible when almost 3/4 of ride had been completed in about 40 minutes - that was until we saw/felt the unevenness of the remaining unpaved...pathway? To call it a road would give you the wrong idea - you know the tracks they create for ATV tours or motocross, more like that. You can't help but giggle (pretty much the ENTIRE time) when you ride on something like that in a little 19-year-old, tin can of a vehicle, bouncing around uncontrollably while simultaneously being thrown from side to side. We almost got used to hearing the sound of the undercarriage scraping across the uneven, rock-ridden "road" below. Our lovely driver stopped to let us take some pictures of the beautiful landscape along the way and got us to our hostel in time to catch the sunset on the water! We settled in for the evening, attempted to buy dinner from their "supermarket," but realized that oversized machetes, second-hand clothing, and sandals that appear to have been attacked by the Bedazzler were not what we had in mind. On the walk back, Hannah nearly got clocked by a spastic mule who ran full speed from out of nowhere, causing a short bought of palpitations for the pair of us! We later learned that resident mule Fiona likes short sprints on the beach, scaring the crap out of visitors, and arriving uninvited to your dinner table - she takes to veggie burgers, rice, and chicken quite well.

Though not completely aware of what the island had to offer, we had planned to stay a few days. However, due to the ridiculous bug situation, our plans changed quickly. There were fly/gnats/ small bugs with an insane affinity to light bulbs EVERYWHERE! We found it difficult to speak without some flying into your mouth or breathe through your nose without bringing a few along with the air! We wiped our beds free of dead bug carcasses but found them to be covered once again within 30 seconds. Though we are by no means high maintenance travelers, we had a few diva moments about the bug situation. Getting upset never resolves anything, so our solution was to bust out the sweet mosquito nets Hannah brought back with her! The ones we have must be for king-sized beds because when we finally figured out how to hang them, we felt like princesses in our own forts of bug protection. They work so well! In the morning, in one of my smart-ass moments, I said while grabbing the shorts sitting in the top of my bad, "hey, lemme just shake the dead carcasses out of my pants!" As I did, a gigantic 5-inch scorpion flew out of my shorts and hit the floor with a sound similar to what a set of acrylic nails tapping on a desk makes, and then scurried across the floor out of sight! Umm...AHHHH! Probably the only time my wiseassness has ever saved me from a potentially horrific situation! At that point, our casual preference of leaving the island quickly morphed into an urgent necessity - we did by way of a chicken bus that took 3 hours to traverse the same and only "road." Though not exactly a cup of coffee, scorpions in the pants is definitely one way to jump start your day!

From ferry dock, we took a crowded collectivo ride to San Juan Del Sur, your ultimate surfer's destination where almost every store rents boards and the minimarts are well stocked with board wax and Pringles. After exploring the town in the rain, we made dinner and took in a movie to help recover from a long travel day. In the morning, we shoveled in our free breakfast (heck yea!) and headed to Playa Remanso with the crew from Arenas Caliente in hopes of learning to surf! We were given rash guard shirts and boards resembling small kayaks that we would barely carry.they had us practice getting up onto the board while still on land, but only 3 or x4 times before we all piled into the water. Hannah and I were actually able to get up on our second or third attempts, but staying up is a different story. Due to my fabulous upper body weakness, I was unable to propel myself forward while getting to my feet, so the majority of my weight landed on the back end of my board, allowing the front end to shoot to the sky! We each had a few long, solid runs while the instructors helped with wave selection and initial acceleration (aka, little push). We had always wondered what rash guard was and understood by minute 4 - the constant friction of your body rubbing against the top of the board actually causes this peticheael-looking rash on the skin having most contact with the boards. The most tiring and difficult aspect of surfing is fighting the large waves coming in that literally clean your clock each and every time. On average for the day, we probably aspirated 500ml and swallowed 1.5 liters of Pacific Ocean. Our success rate for catching waves drastically decreased when our instructors left after their two-hour guidance session. However, we discovered riding a wave into shore while lying prone on your board is equally fun as surfing, and much easier! Upon returning to San Juan, we took some smaller boards out to their beach to "practice"... apparently fiberglass boards are much more difficult to get up on due to their slipperiness. So, surf practice quickly became watch the sunset while using our boards as flotation devices! We felt total serenity amongst the pink, cotton candy-esque sky and setting sun, sound of crashing waves, smell of salty sand, and rocking sensation of the waves passing us that had not yet broken. Occasionally, we would "ride" belly down on a wave to shore, which ultimately became a spectacle for those on the beach - gringas bodyboarding on a surfboard. We had a BLAST and laughed constantly, which was only ever a problem when we'd fight the waves and inevitably swallow/aspirate more salt water because it'd be difficult to take a breath between giggles! Though calling it a success would be an overstatement, now when people ask us "oh, do you surf?", we can reply , "we tried it once!" Hannah and I have so much more respect for the difficulty of the sport/hobby of surfing. Completely knackered, we laid low for the remainder of the evening. The entire next day was a catch-up day for errands, journaling, and exploring the whole town.