Nicaragua Day 4

Today was a good day. We woke up early and met our new friend Joe, who is from the southern part of england. She is terribly nice and has the most beautiful dread locks i have ever seen. We all decided to go to Laguna de Apoyo, which is an inactive volcano that has been filled with water, we could not figure out how the water got there but I am assuming that it was from the flood. We started out on another chicken bus going to Masaya, which has a huge market, which we later got a small taste of. On the ride to Masaya, we saw a large parking lot full of semi-trucks, and all of the drivers had their hammocks hung underneath their truck and were just lounging the day away. After arriving to Masaya, at a huge dirt parking lot/bus station/trash dump, we quickly jumped on the next bus to the Laguna. About half way to the laguna we saw some men digging a ditch for a water line. There were men from the 10 or 11 years old all the way up to 50 or 60 years. it was interesting to see the diversity in workers, where in america those ages would not even be allowed to work, but I guess when there is a job to be done and there are no schools to occupy the younger generation, they just work. We finally arrived at the top of the crater and started heading down to the water. With the windows open you could hear birds and monkeys (the book said that if you approach the mokeys to quickly that they will fling their poo at you, so we stayed away from them), and through the trees you could see the Laguna. Once we reached the bottom, we asked around for a public entrance and eventually found a little area right on the water that had tables and hammocks. We tested the water, and then the girls got in first (Dylan and I just wanted to make sure that it was safe before we got in), then dylan and i joined them. The water was perfect, not too cold and not too hot. the bottom was very rocky and it slightly smelled like sulfur (from the volcano). Looking around there was about 4 or 5 miles to the other side of the crater (it was huge) and surrounding the water were huge mountains that formed the top of the volcano. It was a beautiful sight, the water was refreshing and the air temperature was actually slightly cooler than in Granada.

Me, Erika and Joe posing for the camera (baywatch style)

Me, Anna, Erika, Joe, Stacy and Dylan just after play time in the water

After playing to our hearts content, we all got out of the water and went to find a restaurant to get something to eat. We found a small place right on the water, sat down and ordered our food. There were hammocks all around the resaurant (which was all outside), and knowing that people who prepare food in nicaragua take their time, we decided to lay in the hammocks till it was meal time. After we ate we layed in the hammocks for a few more hours and then decided to start making our way back to Masaya.

Erika happy in the sun

Joe enjoying the rays as well
Me laying in the most comfortable hammock ever

Erika and I waiting for our food

Can you tell how tired I was?

We were lucky to find a home near by who´s occupants were taxi drivers, so we quickly flagged them down and got a ride back to the market in Masaya. Joe wanted to look around the market for some last minute gifts before she went home. The first part of the market was mostly food so we just kept walking deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of vendors set up on small tables under the protection of a roof made of tin, cardboard, wood, palm leaves and any other material they could make use of. We finally found the area with all of the tourist souveniers, t-shirts, necklaces, bracelets, pots, bowls, hammocks, bags, hats, paintings and all of the other typical things that you would find in any other market in central america. After looking around for a few minutes we all got split up and just started looking around in hopes that we would eventually meet up again. As we hoped, we all found our way back to one another, but it took at least two hours of wandering around the hot, stuffy market where every person in there was out to make a buck off the big white american tourists. We finally all had what we wanted, Dylan, stacy, erika, joe and I all bought hammocks (dylan got his for cheapest, and I think I payed the most for mine) and stacy got some things as well. When we were ready to leave we knew that we were in the market (that was obvious) but we had no clue where in the market we were. So we just headed for the closest exit and started trying to find the bus station to get back to Granada. Luckily, we found it quite quickly and were on our bus in no time. After another 30min ride on the chicken bus we ended up in Granada where our day had begun. We all went back to the hostel and took much needed showers. I have also been having problems with my armpits stinking so I decided to shave my pits in hopes that it would help the smell (for everyone elses sake), and it seems to have helped. After our bodies were clean, we decided that food was in order. For the sake of not running all over Granada on empty stomachs we decided to go back to the pizza place that we had eaten at two nights before. After dinner we went back to the hostel where Joe let me braid her a decaration for her dread locks. I was quite honored and I think she liked it too (now she will always have us with her). Joe and erika talked about horses and joe said that if we were ever in england we could come and stay with her and ride horses. This made erika smile like a kid on christmas morning (it was beautiful). We discussed our plans for the next day and decided that instead of running around to 3 or 4 more destinations and spending too much money, we would just head up to Leon and spend the rest of our time there. Fortunatelly Anna is also heading up there tomorrow so we can all just go together. After saying goodnight and goodbye to joe (she is leaving at 5am for the airport) we are just heading to bed.