Friday, 31 July 2009

Leon and Granada, Nicaragua

We arrived in Leon at night and all the hostels were fully booked, the only place we could find was Hotel America. Dont let the name fool you, we walked in find find about 10 grannies on rocking chairs doing their knitting and crosswords. We walked back outside to see if we walked through the right door and that we hadnt walked into an old peoples home. To our surprise, it was the right door.

We have noticed since that eveybody in Nicaragua is crazy for rocking chairs.

The reason for being in Leon was hearing from people we have met about the Volcano boarding here..... and it was a good as everyone said it was. We had to carry boards up the volcano and then donning our sexy orange boiler suits and goggles we raced each other down two at a time.

GRANADA -
We were moving on down through Nicaragua to Isla de Ometepe to climb a volcano but first we had to get a ferry at Granada, a Colonial town on the banks of the massive Lago de Nicaragua which has bull sharks in it, you know. We decided to stay a couple of nights and on the first night we treated ourselves to a proper hotel room, air conditioning the works.




After a good nights rest we went out and made some friends...










Saturday, 18 July 2009

Playa El Tunco, El Salvador

After a long week studying hard we felt like we deserved a rest so headed for the sun and beach in El Salvador. The night before we were due to catch the bus there at 4 in the morning Alex in his true style got absolutely wrecked! He made the mistake of passing out an hour before we were leaving, he woke up feeling so rough and sick. We said our goodbyes to Elyse (well one of us did while the other one had they're head down the toilet!).Luckily the border crossings were easy and we were the only people on the bus. The difference in weather was unbelievable, it was so hot in El Salvador compared to the rain and cold we had become used to in San Pedro.
We slept our hangovers off ...

and then headed down to check out the beach...


We headed out to the beach restaurant and as we sat down a surfer was running out the sea carrying a boy with blood gushing out of his side. We immediately thought shark attack but later found out he had collided with a little sword fish jumping out the water (bad luck)...this is what we got from out Spanglish anyway. We soon forgot the commotion with a beer and a lush sunset when a guy sat next to us with a Boa Constrictor wrapping around his neck. Deb almost ran out the restaurant when he put the snake down on our table even though he told her its only a baby!!


The next day everyone in the hostel ( all 8 of us ) got taken surfing to a beach 10 minutes ride away by the owner of the hostel. It was a lush and quiet beach with a bar on it. After our attempts of surfing we all went to the bar early and got drunk.


After a week of doing nothing it was hard to get ourselves motivated to do anything so we thought it was time to leave and booked our ticket to Leon, Nicaragua.

San Pedro, Spanish Classes and Cocks

A day after arriving in San Pedro we decided to enrol at a Spanish School..as part of the package we moved in with a Guatemalan family for the week to help us practice..it was really weird experience..there was a lot of smiling and nodding at first. Alex knew slightly more Spanish than me so he did his best while I was mute because they cant speak any English!
They lived right by the lake in the heart of San Pedro..they had five children, the youngest is 4..she's wild.. dressing up, running around with loads of teddies and dolls, generally showing off..she was the one that talked to us the most! We spend 4 hours a day in spanish lessons..my teacher is really good, Alex's couldn't speak any English and said he was lazy!ha and Elyses' said "wow" after everything she said and then went on about the amount of drugs he had taken during the fiesta all through her lesson..he was ridiculous.

Our 'mother' got breakfast (cornflakes and bananas) ready before school every morning, then lunch veg stew type thing when we got home from school, then omellette and refried beans for tea. Everything was served with tortillas..we are sick of them! We had free horse riding and Kayaking with the school, it was so funny seeing Al on a horse.


While we were there there was a big fiesta, It was San Pedro day, there was loads of music everywhere and a fairground set up..the fairground rides were more dangerous than those at Porthcawl if you can believe that. The ferris wheels were propped up by bricks and powered by tractors. Obviously health and safety isn't an issue here.


Our Guatemalan family told us to go and watch this Traditional dance in the fiesta.. it is to tell a story about the history of when the Spanish arrived..they all looked freaky in masks.


The festival lasts a week and the women parade around in a brand new outfit (they only have one each year)..and the men just get really drunk..there were grown men passed out on the floor everywhere..just like a Friday night in town.


While we were there, San Pedro had its first ever Cock fight... so of course we had to go and watch. There were Guatamalan Girls in hot pants and bikini tops parading the cocks around and dancing, definitely not a glamourous job! It was brutal and we left wondering why we paid to go and watch it.