Moyogalpa - Altragracia - Merida - Moyogalpa - San Jorge - Rivas - Granada

Ok, So I'm no longer on the the Isla de Ometepe and back on the mainland of Nicaragua in Granada..

The rest of the time on the Island was pretty relaxing... we stayed a couple of days in Moyogalpa and just explored around town and out into the tiny villages and farms that surround it... We met a woman by the name of Sue who is from Washington State and actually just moved to the island.. She said she had visited Nicaragua two years ago and absolutely fell in love with the Island and with Moyogalpa.. and she moved there without knowing much Spanish at all.. which gives me a lil hope from improving my speaking ability a little more while I'm here.

After we got a little restless in Moyogalpa (you can only watch soo many horse drawn carts make there way down main street) we caught a few of the ancient buses that cross the island and with a little town hoping we managed to make it down to the town of Merida, which is on the south end of the island on the other volcano. I use the term "town" very loosely here since there wasn't much of a town at all. We stayed at the Monkey Island hostel that is run by an amazingly nice and hospitable family. Believe it or not it is located across from Monkey Island which has a troop of extremely violent monkeys on it... people are afraid to go to it since everyone who has in the recent years has been attacked by this group of monkeys that are stranded on this island an unable to find enough food for them selves...The first day we were there we were the only ones staying in the whole place so we just lounged around and read books and tried our best to talk with the family who were hard at work cleaning/painting/cooking/etc... The eldest son actually spoke a bit of English so we were able to talk with him later that night over dinner for a bit. It turns out he works at the hostel 6 days a week and has a 5 hour commute to go to University in Rivas 1 day a week...

While we were staying in Merida we also hiked a couple of hours up into the Jungle to what was supposed to be an amazing waterfall but turned out to be just so-so since the country is experiencing a drought right now... never the less swimming under the water fall brought some much needed relief from the heat...

Today we walked North out of Merida and caught a bus headed back to the North Island... we were planning on staying another day in Moyogalpa but once we made it into town we figured we would have enough time to finish the last leg of the journey up to Granada where we are now... The bus ride from Merida to Moyogalpa was probably one of the worst ones I've been on... We were in an old U.S. School bus (which is the standard mode of transportation down here... after they're deemed unsafe for school kids they go to the raft companies... once they are deemed unsafe for the raft companies they come to Central America...) anyways... the bus was probably designed to fit 40 passengers... so naturally we had about 70 people on board... and just when I thought it wasn't possible to cram any more people aboard... sure enough the bus stopped and let some more on... Not to mention the fact that it is still well over 90 degrees here with a 200% humidity... So about after 2 hours on the bus and a few more stops the girl who was squeezed into the small seat with both Paul and I leans over and pukes everywhere... and we still had about an hour left on the bus... full of people.. smelling like puke... gotta love traveling...

So, after that wonderful bus ride we hopped on a ferry to make the hour long crossing of Lago De Nicaragua... in a rickety old ship that had a permanent lean to the right... and probably travels at 2 knots... at least the sun was out and we had amazing views of the volcanos....

Then we hopped into a taxi and were dropped off in the middle of the market in Rivas and had to find the Bus Station on our own. I actually enjoyed Rivas, or atleast the little bit of it I saw. It was fun to be in such a lively atmosphere again... with people yelling out the items that they are trying to sell.. people chasing you down trying to get you in there taxi... trying to sell you shoes... or drugs... just the whole deal was pretty fun.. and then we found the bus station which was its own mini-market...Tons and tons of vendors were circling around hawking anything from sodas to little bags of chicken and rice to underwear and shoes... and the parade didn't just stick to the bus station.. they were constantly climbing onto and off of buses ... even as they were pulling out of the station people were hopping on and off... and there method does work. After sitting there for about 45 minutes.. in that stagnant, too hot to handle bus, even I was willing to shell out a couple of Cordoba just to buy a drink or an ice cream... anything to bring a bit of relief from the heat... no wonder beards aren't in style in Central America...

After wandering around Granada for a bit we found the Bearded Monkey Hostel which has a pretty sweet deal on Dorms right now and it even includes free internet and coffee... so if you want me to reply to an email send it to me soon!

Tomorrow we are going to wander around this beautiful city and hopefully get a little bit lost...