Happy Birthday to Me!

It’s been a little while since I’ve updated, so let me catch you up on all of the happenings here in Nicaragua. We enjoyed another week of work last week. Our time has been full, between working at the clinic in the mornings and going to Carita Feliz in the afternoons. Carita Feliz is the learning center for kids to attend outside of school. I helped out with the English class (though still had plenty of opportunity to practice Spanish), and Rebecca worked with the younger kids in math. We met another volunteer, also helping in the English class. Her name is Esmee and she’s from Holland. I enjoyed working with her a lot, although the teacher we were assigned to help was extremely frustrating. She is really nice, but her teaching method is all over the place. There doesn’t seem to be much of a system, and on our first day, she handed the marker to Esmee and said, “Teach about the verb, ‘to be.’” Then she did the same to me once Esmee was finished. I had no idea what she was asking for and had to request that she give an example on the board first. I was incredibly surprised that she handed over the lesson to us on the first day. I wouldn’t mind so much if I knew ahead of time what she wanted to cover and which part she wanted me to do. I could go on, but I’ll spare you ALL of the details... :)

The week was busy, but we were looking forward to a fun weekend away on the large island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It’s called Ometepe, and everyone recommended going there. We started out by walking to the bus station in Granada and finding the bus to Rivas. That part was easy. We knew that once we arrived in Rivas, the taxi drivers would try to get us to go with them over the less expensive bus to San Jorge, which is where the port is. What we didn’t expect, however, was for the bus drivers to be in cahoots with them. They actually stopped the bus BEFORE arriving at the Rivas bus station and ushered all of the foreigners off, leaving us with a taxi driver who wanted 40 cordobas each to drive us to San Jorge. I asked the bus driver where the bus to San Jorge was and they emphatically told me that there was no bus and then left. I was so irritated, because I knew there was a bus...more than one person had told me that there was a bus. I was just about ready to start walking and ask for directions along they way when another taxi driver pulled over and offered a ride to us and two other tourists for 20 cordobas each. More expensive than a bus, but better than 40. FYI: 20 cordobas = $1, and a bus to San Jorge probably would have cost 10 cordobas.

Once we arrived in San Jorge, we had to wait about an hour for the ferry to leave. On the ferry we were subjected to possibly the worst movie I have ever had to watch. I’ll spare you the synopsis. And yes, I could actually write a synopsis in spite of the fast that I could hear very little. Anyway, once we arrived at the port on the other side (a town called Moyogolpa), we asked some questions in the tourist office and opted to head to a little town called Charco Verde. We jumped on a bus and about an hour later were walked down the road to find a hotel. There were 3 in the area and we ended up sharing a dormitory for $5 per night with a married couple from Canada. Ryan and Rebecca invited us to go to dinner with them that night, as they had discovered a cheaper restaurant up the road. The hotels have their own restaurants, and if we hadn't known better, we'd have just eaten there and spent much more money.

We hit it off with Ryan and Rebecca and spent the entire next day with them as well, which was my birthday. :) We began the morning with a hike in the Nature Reserve in Charco Verde. The views of the 2 volcanoes on Ometepe were beautiful (they're called Concepcion and Maderas). The other highlight of the hike was watching the tiny frogs. They looked like little flies, but once we noticed them jumping, we took a second look. There were hundreds of them, if not thousands, some of them still tadpoles...very cool!

After the hike, we ate lunch at our restaurant again. Since it was Sunday (and a lot of buses don’t run on Sundays), Rebecca (Canadian Rebecca) negotiated a good price with a taxi driver to take us to Ojo del Agua, which is a natural spring nearby. We enjoyed a few hours of swimming and relaxing. At one point, Rebecca suggested we stop somewhere on the way home and get a cake or something to celebrate my birthday. As we were discussing this, a lady came up to us with a huge slice of cake, wished me a happy birthday, and handed it to me. Apparently, she had been at the spring to celebrate another birthday and had overheard our conversation. We shared the cake and chatted with her for a while. It made my day!!! She turned out to be an American who was working at a Franciscan Monastery on the island.

Back at the restaurant for dinner, we enjoyed another delicious meal and ice cream for dessert. We all left the following morning; Rebecca and I back to Granada, while Ryan and Rebecca took off for another part of the island. We’re hoping to meet up with them again this weekend when they’re in Granada. Meanwhile, it’s back to work for us!