Granada, Nicaragua

Hoppity-hop hop
It took almost a whole day to get to Granada. I hitched a ride all the way to the docks and I jumped on the last ferry to the mainland. I hopped a bus to the outskirts of this city and it was pitch black by the time I got there. Luckily some locals showed me where the city was and I hopped onto another bus.

The hostel (Bearded Monkey) has lukewarm showers and I’ve never been so happy. Most showers are quite cold.

This city has a lot of beautifully restored colonial building. I think the history is that William Walker burnt most of the city down and a lot of the buildings have been or are being restored.

I’m gonna stay here for a week and take some more Spanish classes. My first class was good. 1 hour of practice exercises to review the usage of the verb -to like, which I thought I knew but I obviously needed the practice. The second hour was with a different teacher who drilled and drilled me on verb conjugations. I also learned debe- must and debe de-might be. Tomorrow I get 3 hours. I think the 3rd hour will be vocab building and conversation. The place is called One on One and charges $5 USD and hour.

Man Biking through Mexico and Central America
I was talking to this older gentleman who was riding his mountain bike through Central America and Mexico. Highlights from this conversation because the guy kept talking and talking and talking and talking….

* Mexico is dirty, as in garbage and dead animals he had to ride over.

* Most villagers are friendly, allowing him and his son to camp on their land. They are often invited in, sometimes even for a meal at no cost, as in the villagers refused to take any kind of money. The gringos would then try to give some of their belongings, like a shirt, to them. Some people accepted that.

* They once camped in a town’s recreational court, like a basketball area or something, and the kids kept coming to them, giving them some food in case they were hungry, and blankets in case they got cold.

* They bought clothing from some of the indigenous citizens without haggling and have seen some jump immediately on a bus to the market to buy necessities. He doesn’t mind paying $20 USD for a shirt an old lady took 2 weeks to sew and embroider. Makes absolute sense, as the $20 could feed the family for a few days. A week, if you’re cheap.

* They took family portraits of them and plan to send them each a copy after they get home.

Week at the Bearded Monkey Hostel
The first few days were tough. I was feeling like shite so I didn’t do much but wake up, eat, nap, eat, computer, movie, sleep. I did sign myself up for Spanish classes, so Tuesday to Friday, I sub’d computer time with classes and I fit homework time before the movies.

Movies I watched: Manchurian Candidate (remake), The Fourth World War, A Place Called Chiapas, a movie in German about the last few days in Hitler’s bunker, The World According to Bush and Perro Sangre or Sangre Perros (Dog blood/Bloody Dog). They were all pretty thought provoking.

Then, starting Friday, things started to blur because the drinking began. Over the course of the weekend I went to 2 salsa clubs, 1 regular club and a bar. General drunken debauchery. Other people, that is.

The coolest thing is that I met this guy from BC who gold pans and we spent quite a bit of time talking about it. I wanted to talk to him some more but I didn’t want him to think that I was trying to pick him up. I hung out with some really cool guys and I was laughing most of the time. Hanno is from Austria and looks and acts rather politely but would, now and then, throw a comment in that would send me rolling with laughter. David is from Seattle and is interestingly laid back. This kid is such a sweetheart. He drew a picture of me on the whiteboard in the hostel. I thought that was so sweet. Jason was the most appealing. We talked a lot about outlooks on life and personal philosophies. Really deep conversations, which is a nice changed from, “Hey, Dude.”

Then there was Adrian, whom I met the last night I was there. She is (I might get this wrong) a social anthropologist who works as a post disaster, pre-morgue de-morguer (collects data off dead people before they go to the morgue) who is working on her Ph.D. in economics. Plus she can crack a dirty joke better than any of the guys. I had a lot of fun in that hostel.