So I think I’m getting better at letting things roll on the unplanned side. A good thing, too, because our plans yesterday went right off the tracks and we had a perfectly lovely time of it.
The plan was this—Catch the 9:30 bus from our hostal to Moyagalpa. Catch the noon or the 1:00 p.m. ferry to San Jorge on the mainland. Take a cab to the bus station in Rivas and catch a bus to Granada, where we would stay for the weekend.
As has been our pattern on Ometepe, we were up with the sun. Had ourselves a nice big breakfast and had plenty of time to break camp and pack. But that’s not what we did, because that would have broken our pattern of talking, and talking, and talking to anyone else who was down at breakfast, even if this meant speaking broken Spanish where I frequently used the word “bota” (which means boot) instead of “barco” (which means boat).
So I spent a week in Ometepe telling people about the lovely boot ride we had across the lake. Nice.
Anyway, by the time we broke camp, it was already 9:30, and that threw everything off. Moyogalpa was less than 20 miles away, but it’s a slow bus ride and the busses are infrequent, so we sat down at the hostel next door (rather than lug our gear all the way back up the hill), had a banana smoothie and waited. No problem, we thought. It’s a nice morning, and even if we miss the ferry at 1:00, there’s another ferry at 2:00. Plenty of time to get to Rivas and catch a bus.
Plus, we met a couple nice Canadians (isn’t that redundant?) and ended up having lunch with them at the Cornerhouse, where we had a nice talk with Gary and Laura, the couple who own the joint, and who are a damn fine inspiration for anyone looking to set and out and make a life wherever you catch the Paradise bug.
Gary and Laura are even nicer than they look.
Now, we could have caught the 1:00 p.m. ferry if we ran. Some people sprinted off the bus when it hit Moyogalpa. But why run? There’s another ferry at 2:00. It says so on the schedule.
So we walked down to the port for the 2:00 p.m. ferry and it didn’t exist. Oh it was on the schedule all right, but when we asked about it, they said there was a lancha (smaller boat) at 3:00. I pointed to the schedule, where it had the ferry listed as leaving at 2:00, but the guard just shook his head. No ferry.
Well, okay then. We went back to the Cornerhouse and I discussed politics with the Canadians before moving on to the safer topic of hockey, and returned to the port for the 3:00 p.m. lancha to San Jorge. We all sat on the top deck of the lancha. And if you’ve never crossed Lake Nicaragua on top of a lancha before, you’re missing out on some serious roller coaster excitement. The boat pitched at some meaningful angles, and people had to hold their bags to keep them sliding over the side at a couple points. One guy almost lost his tool kit to the waters but it was saved by a tire someone left on the roof of the boat. I’m not making that up.
We hit San Jorge a little after 4:00 and were informed that we’d missed the last bus to Granada.
Ah, well.
We took a taxi into Rivas with our Canadian friends (David and Alex) and bid them farewell on their trip to the surf of San Juan del Sur, then walked around until we found a hotel for the night, then walked out to the main plaza, bought a few pupusas (and if you don’t know what those are, go find some at your nearest Salvadoran restaurant—they’re divine) and a piece of chocolate cake for five bucks, and sat on a bench next to the old church, eating our dinner and watching the town go by. There are a lot of motorcycles in Rivas. One of them had three guys on it. The two passengers were too crowded to put their feet up, so they rode with their toes dangling an inch above the road. I’m not making that up either.
This morning, we woke up bright and early and caught the first bus to Granada, where I now sit. I’ll have a post about this town soon. But not now. Right now it’s almost sunset, the air is cool, and a stroll through the colonial architecture beckons. All around town, you can hear the sounds of the Nicaraguan Baseball Championship Series, which features the Granada team (Oriental) and Chinandega. Chinandega is up in the series, and I suspect it’ll be a sad time in the town tonight if Oriental loses. But we’ll leave that to the baseball gods.
All the news on Granada tomorrow. I got walking to do.