The end of the road

8-02-08

Luckily(again), my sickness was only a 24 hour thing, and though the trip back to Granada on Tuesday was a bit uncomfortable, I felt much better. My last three days in the city were quite fun—I did all the little things I had been wanting to do once more before leaving (I got ice cream, went to one last baseball game, bought some Flor de Caña rum to bring home, went back to Euro Café, etc). Also, on Friday I got to go riding; I had given up the idea, thinking that it wasn’t going to happen, but then on Wednesday evening Jose Jesus told me that if I wanted to I could go riding with him on Friday after my classes. I imagined that we would be going to some sort of farm and then on a trail ride, but instead we went to the Cocibolca Jockey Club! Started in the 60’s, it’s apparently one of the only places in Central America where they play polo. Who knew? They have lots of horses, a regulation polo field and also a race track (though I’m not sure how much actual racing goes on…). I found it immensely strange to find such a symbolically pretentious and upper class sport here in Nicaragua, but I suppose that if it were going to be anywhere, the historically conservative, colonial city of Granada would be the place…. I rode a cute 4 year old dark bay horse whose name I can’t remember and Jose rode a chestnut. I was under the impression that Jose had ridden a great deal, but shortly after mounting he told me that this was only his 4^th time in the saddle! I must say that he did very well for not having ridden much at all, but he couldn’t steer to save his life, and clearly had troubles stopping (this, however, didn’t seem to faze him much—he once told me about how he has fallen out of trees or off of balconies from more than 15 feet 4 times without seriously hurting himself, and how he can drink upwards of 30 beers without much in the way of ill effects, so he doesn’t strike me as a “timid” sort of person…). Despite Jose’s lack of control, we trotted and cantered around the inside, grassy area of the track, and then got to go out and gallop around the track. I had never galloped on a real track before, and my little horse had a lot of go in him, so that was quite a thrill!

After riding I went back home to pack up. All of my purchases have made my back pack a little unwieldy, but I fit everything in (with my hammock poles sticking about a foot and a half out the top of the bag…). Then I got ready to meet a few of my teachers and friends from the school for a last evening out in Granada. I had booked a spot on a shuttle to the surfing town of San Juan del Sur (where I am currently) which was supposed to leave at 5:00am! They told me that that was the only shuttle that day, and I had decided not to take public transport in the interest of keeping a closer eye on my big bag, so I set my alarm for 4:30am, and went out with (of course) every intention of being in bed by 12:00 at the latest…. We had a great time out, and as these things often go, all of the sudden it was 3:00am, and I only had an hour to sleep before getting picked up by my bus! I made it here to San Juan, utterly exhausted, but happy to have arrived, and checked in to my hotel, the Villa Isabella (with TV and air-conditioning and a pool, etc). I then watched a few hours of TV dozing and trying to recover a little before going out to check out the beach.

San Juan is on a calm crescent bay with lots of fishing boats on one side and a nice flat sandy beach on the other. Every other shop in the town is a surf shop, and the beach is lined with open-air, thatched roof restaurants with delicious, fresh seafood. Mmm! I’ve still been speaking Spanish with most of the people I meet, but you really don’t need to be able to speak Spanish here to get around… The owners of my hotel are (I think) from the US, and my imperfect Spanish is better than theirs! I walked down the beach front road, had lunch watching the various swimmers and boogie-boarders, and then walked back through town to make some phone calls. Then I booked a surf lesson for tomorrow morning! I’ve never surfed before (though I did take a windsurfing lesson once…), and I’m pretty psyched about it. My lesson will be at a different beach, for an hour, and then I get to use the board for as long as I want to. I’m anticipating that I’ll only last an hour or two, given that I’m still sore from riding!

Tomorrow I’m also going to go check out the nice big resort that’s on a hill close to my hotel, use their internet and pool, and watch the sunset from the fancy restaurant that my book raves about. I’m excited to pamper myself for these two days before heading back to Costa Rica to meet Lisa!