Days 717-723! I had such a fantastic week. I left El Gigante and headed to San Juan Del Sur with a new friend. We ended up having a really fun weekend full of sunsets, good food, and surf. Then, my friend Ryan flew from the US to hang out with me in Nicaragua! We met up in Managua and then headed off on our adventure. He’ll be around for the next, almost, two weeks. Hope you enjoy reading about this week as much as I did!

The day was finally here, it was time to head out from one paradise and head to, hopefully, another. I woke up on Thursday. December 18th at 7am, had breakfast, and then read for a little bit.

I didn’t need to leave until my bus at 1pm… or so I had thought, and planned my day around that accordingly. I packed up my bag, paid for my extra nights at the hostel and board rental. Then it was time to kick back and relax until the bus.

I asked multiple times if the bus was at 1pm and was told yes… but around 10am I was told that the bus was coming at 11am. I couldn’t believe it, but there wasn’t much I could do since I wasn’t traveling alone today, I was traveling with my new friend Anne-Sophie (who just goes by Sophie). Sophie was staying in Popoyo and had already booked at taxi to head over at 11:15am. So, all I could do was wait for her to arrive and then figure out my plans from there.

Thankfully, a couple from Germany were also leaving today, but their Spanish class didn’t finish till 12pm. They also thought the bus was at 1pm, and I gave them the unfortunate news when they returned. That made 4 of us in total that needed to get to Rivas, which would make for a cheap taxi ride! The hostel apparently offered them for $20, which was a good enough deal. But before I could work out the details with the receptionist, Sophie arrived.

I went down the hill to meet her and helped carry her bags up to the hostel. I was looking forward to getting to hang out in San Juan Del Sur (SJDS) together. We got to the hostel and I chatted with the front desk about the taxi. The earliest the driver could come was 1pm, but at least he was offering the $20 taxi ride. While we waited for him to arrive, we all chatted and played the card game Cambio.

Just before the taxi arrived, my friend Bohdi came to see me off. I’ve really enjoyed getting to hang out with him over the past few days and I’m looking forward to our paths crossing in California!

The taxi arrived just after 1pm and the four of us, Phillip, Toni, Sophie, and I, grabbed all of our belongings and hauled them to the taxi. We got it all shoved in to the trunk and then set out to the Rivas bus station. It was around a 45 minute ride and we all ended up chatting about miscellaneous things throughout the ride. It’s always fun getting to experience these situations with pretty much strangers, it forces a lot of time to get to know each other.

We arrived at the busy bus station. The driver put us away from the scamming taxi drivers, so we didn’t have to deal with them. We immediately got on the bus to SJDS and as I got on the back, my bag snagged the top of the door causing me to bang my shin very hard on the bus. I didn’t realize till later but I had a solid contusion and drew blood… whoops!

A new thing happened on the bus, the guy who collects money made us pay him 50 cordobas to put our bags on the back of the bus… I had never encountered this before. I tried to counter it and say I’d never had to do it and the guy was adamant, pay or get off. So we all paid. It ended up covering the bus fair too, which appeared to only be 20 cordobas. But oh well… it was only a $1, just disappointing to experience something like that.

Sophie and I chatted the entire ride and we split a big bag of rambutan for 20 cordobas. She’s apparently had never had them before, they’re like a mix of lychees and grapes. The bus ride honestly flew by as we chatted the entire way. Sophie used to work in logistics and now is looking to work at a surf camp, kinda sounds like we’re on similar wave lengths. She’s been down in Central America for surfing and we were both pretty excited to check out the new set of waves in SJDS.

We got dropped off at the market bus stop in SJDS and then walked two minutes to our hostel Nalu Nalu. We dropped our bags off and then immediately set back out to wander the city. It was a lot quieter than I had expected, especially with how busy and hectic Managua was. We walked the main beach and continued chatting before finding a beachfront bar to have a couple beers, continue chatting, and watching the sunset. While we were walking on the beach, a dog started following us around. She was super cute and looked kind of like a hyena. But eventually we lost track of her when we went to the bar.

We continued our wander afterwards, as we went in search for dinner. And pretty much immediately the dog found us again and ran over tail wagging. Our wandering took us to a street food meal of grilled chicken and beef with gallo pinto, salad, and a ton of plantain chips. We split the beef and chicken and both agreed, the chicken was better. Our new dog friend hung out with us the entire time and continued hanging out with us as we continued walking the city.

We eventually decided to head back to the hostel, where we played cards and kept on chatting. I taught Sophie how to play one of my favorite card games, Casino. With a little help, she ended up beating me and we said we’d play more tomorrow. We transitioned into Mikado, better known as pickup sticks. We thought this would be a chill game to be able to chat while we played…

But we ended up taking it very seriously and got pretty competitive. So our focus was intent on the game. This caused a lot of laughter though, especially for how serious we were taking it.

Throughout this entire time of game playing, I went through a new experience. I was pooped on by a gecko MULTIPLE times. My guess would be around 10 times by the end of the night… probably on me for not moving but, come on!!

We chatted a bit more and before we knew it, it was 11pm and we called it a night! We planned on getting up early to rent a motorbike, surfboards, and figure out which break we were going to surf.

The dorm we were staying in wasn’t the best. My bed didn’t have a fan and the beds were super loud if anyone moved. So I was up nice and early on Friday, December 19th. I sat in the cool breeze of one of the hostel’s common areas and read more of the Brandon Sanderson book in reading.

I waited for Anne-Sophie to get up and when she did, she was wanting to play more games. Which I’m totally always down for. We busted out connect four and our competitive sides came right back out. 8am rolled around and we went on a walk around the city to a couple stores for a few things. We also stopped by a few motorbike rentals to try and gauge the pricing for renting one for a few days. They were all $20 a day no matter what, so we went back to the hostel to eat breakfast with plans to rent one after.

After our small hostel breakfast, we went next door to rent the motorbike. It was the same type I used on Ometepe, a solid low CC automatic one. Our first stop of the day was Playa Remanzo. This beach was highly recommended to me by a couple that came to Free Spirit Hostel when I was volunteering there. They said it was a perfect longboard beach, so I was very keen to check it out.

Unfortunately, since there’s pretty much no swell in Nicaragua at the moment, the waves were teeny tiny. There were surf boards to rent at the beach and we got pestered by the few shops renting them out. Specifically a man named Robertito, who claimed to be a former Nicaraguan pro surfer. He came up to us a number of times while we relaxed on the beach, trying to get us to rent a board… but we weren’t really interested in surfing the really small waves.

We spent a few hours lying in the sun, chatting, swimming in the ocean, and then we went to one of the beach bars for a snack. We got a couple smoothies and some tostones with fried cheese on top, a very delicious snack! Also getting to look out on the beach while eating, you can’t top that!

One of Anne-Sophie’s friends said he was going to Playa Maderas. We decided to go check it out since there wasn’t much surf happening at Remanzo. It was about a 30-40 minute drive to Maderas and the beginning was mostly paved roads or at the very least bricked roads. Before the roads got worse, we stumbled into a police stop… my favorite!

Of course, the police motioned for us to stop and we pulled over. They immediately asked for the bikes documents (which I had from the motorbike shop) and my drivers license. Usually the police are just looking for people not wearing their helmets… but we were. Instead he took a look at my drivers license, translated it with his phone, and then said he was going to give me a fine since my license couldn’t drive a motorbike. I tried talking my way out of it, knowing he was in full right to do so since my license doesn’t cover motorbikes.

I walked over to the car with him and was like “come on man, what do you want?” And he said “1,000 cordobas.” I scoffed at that and was like “really?! I was wearing my helmet, I’m driving safe, there’s no way I’m giving you 1,000 cordobas.”

I said what about 500 cordobas, still more than I would want to give but I’m negotiating with a police officer. He was quick to accept and I walked back to my motorbike to get money. He wanted to keep the exchange very discreet and we quietly exchanged the money for my documents back and we were on our way. These situations always make me feel a bit disheartened, but it’s the price to pay for hanging out in these countries and motorbiking without the proper documents.

Maybe it’s time I finally get a motorbike license in the US?

We continued on to Playa Maderas and the roads turned to loose rock and construction zones. It wasn’t the most pleasant of drives, but we eventually made it safe and sound to the beach (after a couple wrong turns). Again, as we arrived, the surfboard rentals were quick to come up to us to get us to rent from their shops. We told a kid, that was soliciting us, that we wanted to look at the waves first. He followed us to the beach, right next to another shop. The waves looked much better, not saying much but we were actually game to surf here.

We looked to the kid and asked how much for each board. He said $7. We looked to the other shop right next to us and I jokingly asked how much, and he said $6. Then the kid immediately said $5. It was a funny exchange that definitely worked in our favor! But when we went to check out the boards the kid had, they weren’t what we wanted. So we apologized and went to the other shop. They still gave us each board for $6. We actually ended up paying 400 cordobas in total which is just under $11.

We took out some longboards and paddled out into a semi-crowded and small beach. But the waves were consistent and I ended up catching a couple quick ones right away. I was on a 9 or 10 foot board (it didn’t say), it had been a while since I road such a long one, but it was needed for the waves and I had a good time. We immediately ran into Anne-Sophie’s friend, but he’d been surfing for the past 4 hours and left soon after we arrived.

Anne-Sophie is still learning to surf, but is pretty good still! She just needed someone to help her read the waves and give her some advice on when to start paddling. Nice to know I can help in that situation, especially since I’ll be doing some surf instructing soon!

We had a really really nice time. We did a lot of chatting and waiting around for waves, but we were in good company, so the waiting was enjoyable. We surfed up until just before sunset and then got out of the water to head back to San Juan Del Sur.

We drove straight to the main beach in the city and grabbed a couple beers from a convenience store. Then we went to sit on the beach to watch the sunset. We ran into Anne-Sophie’s friend again and sat and chatted with him as the sun went down. He eventually left and we finished up our drinks before heading back to the hostel ourselves.

We got ready to head back out for dinner and met up with my German friends from Gigante, Phillipp and Toni. We went to a cheap buffet that Anne-Sophie and I had seen the day before. It wasn’t the biggest food portion, but it was 120 cordobas per person which was a great price.

In Gigante, I was enjoying an ice cream shop that had 40 cordoba ice cream… and right across the street there was the same type! So we all got some cheap cones and headed to Hostel Pachamama for their beer pong tournament. This was where a miscommunication happened between our group. I asked Anne-Sophie if she wanted to go to the beer pong tournament, her friend had asked us. She had said yes, thinking that I wanted to go (and I thought she would want to go since her friend was going), I in turn asked my German friends and they said yes think Anne-Sophie and I wanted to go… when in fact all of us would’ve probably rather just played cards.

But alas, we were there and paid the 100 cordobas per team to play. It took a long time for either of our teams to play, so while we waited, we played cards on the floor near the hostels pool.

Phillipp and Toni won their first game. Anne-Sophie and I went up against two locals who creamed us in under 2 minutes. Whoopie! Definitely not my best beer pong performance, but I’m rusty and getting old! We waited with Phillipp and Toni for their next game and it took forever. We kept thinking they’d be next but then it just wasn’t their turn. Eventually they finally played and were playing the team that destroyed us. They wanted to leave as well, but were committed to playing. When I saw who they were playing I said, forget leaving, you gotta redeem us! And… they did!

But that meant even more waiting. We stuck it out with them and they unfortunately barely lost the next round. We were all ready to head back to our hostels after that and we parted ways hoping to see each other. Anne-Sophie and I played some cards before calling it a night.

It was time to move out of the hostel on Saturday, December 20th. Which was much needed after two bad nights of sleep. The hostel itself was fine, but the dorm room was just not great to sleep in. People were still sleeping in the dorm when I got up, so I read for a bit in one of the common areas. Anne-Sophie eventually joined me and we chatted a bit before eating breakfast.

We packed up our bags and stored them with the hostel reception before setting out to start our day. We stopped by a convenience store for some snacks and then hopped on the motorbike to head to Playa Hermosa. This beach is a bit further south than Playa Remanzo but majority of the ride was on the paved highway. The end of it was a bit of an off road adventure, but we arrived safe and sound to the beach.

Just as we arrived, we immediately ran into Anne-Sophie’s friend, Kenzo. It’s funny how timing can work out on the road. We knew he was planning to go there but that we both arrived at the same time was a fun coincidence, especially since he took a shuttle and we drove ourselves.

The beach was much bigger than Maderas and Remanzo but only had one small surf shack for board rentals. The waves were tiny, so Anne-Sophie and I wandered down the beach to relax in the sun and enjoy each other’s company. We chatted a lot while listening to music, I shared with her a couple of my songs and it sounded like she enjoyed them, which was nice to hear! I ended up getting a bit sunburnt as we sat in the sun for a number of hours.

We took a couple dips into the ocean and swam around. Eventually, we decided that instead of driving all the way to Playa Maderas again, that we’d just surf with the waves we had here. So at high tide, we walked back to the surf shop and got a couple boards for $10 each. They had a 7’4” board which was exactly what Anne-Sophie wanted and the only other board was a 9’2” board. Since the waves were tiny, this was going to be a fun board to ride for me.

We paddled around for a while, catching small waves, sometimes party waving (catching them together), chatting about reading waves and popping up on the surfboard, and just enjoying floating around in the water. We had been going for a bit and then out of nowhere a wall of white came slamming into us. A rainstorm out of nowhere had snuck up on us, so we paddled back in. The rain stung as it pelted down on us.

We walked back to the surf shop and returned the boards. It was close to sunset already, so it ended up being a perfect time to call the session. The rain eventually stopped and we headed out, back to our hostel. The off roading was a bit sketchier, as there was mud and puddles everywhere. But it was nothing I didn’t learn how to handle while motorbiking across Laos. We got to enjoy a beautiful sunset as we wound through the hilly roads back to SJDS.

We got back to Nalu Nalu Hostel, where we grabbed our bags and got them ready to move to our new hostel. Anne-Sophie has a fairly large and heavy bag, so we took her stuff over first and while she got us checked in I went back and grabbed my bags. This hostel was much better than the last. We got ready for dinner and then headed out to wander and find where we wanted to eat. We decided upon the street food we had a couple nights before.

I was super hungry this time and devoured my massive amount of grilled chicken, gallo pinto, salad, and plantain chips. Just as we finished eating, it started raining again. So we waited till it passed before walking around town again. We were on the lookout for a crepe place that we had seen the day before, but instead we stumbled onto a Christmas parade.

I’ve seen a number of these little parades now while in Central America. The biggest of which was in Guatemala. These kids practice pretty much everyday and you can almost always hear them when walking around a town. It was really fun seeing how invested the kids were in it and all the parents and locals out supporting the little parade.

We didn’t find the crepe place in the end, so we went to the store and stocked up on sweets before heading back to the hostel for a little movie night. It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a movie and even longer since I’ve watched the movie Robots, which is what we ended up watching. It really held up and was a cute nostalgia trip. I had forgotten what the plot of the movie was and thoroughly enjoyed.

We called it a night afterwards and planned on sleeping in to catch up on the lack of sleep from the beer pong night.

We had a lazy start to our day on Sunday, December 21st. Anne-Sophie had a job application to finish up so we didn’t leave the hostel till closer to 11:30am. I worked on some of my blog post until then, and when we did set out it was straight to the beach!

We had to get the motorbike back to the rental by 5pm (when they closed), so we wanted to get as much surfing in as we could. We rode to Playa Maderas, which was a much easier, and cop free, drive. I guess all the construction was done so most of the ride was actually paved this time around.

We sat on the beach for a little at first, reading the waves and enjoying a snack. We then rented surfboards, two for 500 cordobas this time (about $7 each) from a different surfboard vender than two days prior. He had a 7’ surfboard that Anne-Sophie wanted to try out and he had a 9’ board that I was game to use. The waves today were the same size as the previous trip to this beach, on the smaller side, but the waves at Maderas were much better than Hermosa or Remanzo.

We paddled around for a while, chatting and catching waves. I helped Anne-Sophie with timing onto a couple waves and we caught a couple party waves too. Eventually she wasn’t needing my help as much! I caught my fair share of waves and even started working on cross-stepping, which is a longboard surfing technique to get yourself to the front of the board for a hang 5 or 10.

There were some really nice surfers out today, cheering people onto waves and giving up priority to surfers who hadn’t caught as many. There were also plenty of surfers frustrated at people “dropping in” on them. It was a bit of a mixed crowd.

We surfed for a few hours, calling it quits around 4pm. We quickly returned our boards and headed back to the city to drop off our rental. We filled up the gas of the motorbike, which was almost empty, for 100 cordobas and then returned the motorbike. When we arrived to the rental, the employee seemed very excited for us to return. He apparently had been trying to contact us (but we didn’t have service) to tell us that we needed to return the motorbike already. I was a bit confused, since we paid for 3 days on Friday morning and technically that would mean returning the motorbike Monday morning… but he didn’t make us pay anything extra so I didn’t press him on that.

The sun was getting close to setting, but we had a little time to spare. So we wandered around the streets in search of a sweet treat to enjoy while watching the sun set. We landed on a cheap gelato place, that actually had dairy free gelato! I had a very rich dairy free chocolate scoop, which I was super excited about. It’s very rare to find dairy free options in Central America and I was ready to risk my lactose intolerant stomach on a real scoop. We grabbed a couple beers as well from the convenience store and sat on the beach.

After the sun went down, we walked back to the hostel where we showered and then got ready for dinner. The usual street vendor was too full, so we walked a couple blocks down to another one. We tried to get two pieces of chicken, one of which with all the sides, the other just meat, so we could share the massive meal. But instead we got one with all of the sides and one without gallo pinto… oh well. It also ended up being more expensive than the other stand, for less food.

It was delicious, nonetheless, and then we headed to find another dessert. Earlier, while walking to the beach for sunset, we actually stumbled upon the crepe restaurant! We finally got our crepe fix after dinner and brought it back to the hostel to enjoy while watching another movie. This time, we watched The Spiderwick Chronicles. It was another older movie that I’m not sure if I ever watched or not, but it was a good one still.

Unfortunately, the German couple, Phillipp and Toni, left San Juan Del Sur today and we missed hanging out with them the day before. But we had a nice time hanging with them while they were around.

Monday December 22nd marked the end of Anne-Sophie and I’s time together in San Juan Del Sur. But we still had the day left together, it would just be spent on a couple busses all day. We had an early breakfast, packed up, and headed out to do one final shopping trip. Anne-Sophie was heading to a surf camp so she needed some items to last her through the camp since it was in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to see if any of the surf shops had a surf bar and finally found one that did. The options weren’t great and since I wasn’t surfing for a little bit, I decided to hold off purchasing it until I came back to SJDS in a week or two.

Speaking of, I was heading to Managua to meet up with my friend from Kansas City, Ryan, who was coming to Nicaragua to hang out with me for the holidays! Since both Anne-Sophie and I were headed to Managua, we decided to navigate the busses together, which made the experience much nicer.

I enjoy the craziness of the chicken busses, but to have a friend along makes the trip a whole lot better. We chatted on our 10:45am bus to Rivas, which took about 45 minutes. And then waited together at the Rivas station for the bus to Managua to arrive. It took about 10-15 minutes or so and once it did, it was a mad rush from the locals to squeeze on and get good seats. We waited for the madness to die down and when we got on the packed bus, a local, who had been saving a seat infront of him with his backpack, immediately gave the seat to us.

I was expecting him to ask for money but he truly just did it to be kind and helpful. He asked us where we were going too and told us exactly how we needed to get to where we needed to go and what busses/mode of transport to take. He was such a sweet old man!

The ride this time was around 3 hours, and again we chatted pretty much the entire way. The old man made sure we paid the correct amount and got off at the right spot. And even led us through the Huembes Marcado to help show us where Sophie’s bus to the airport was. He actually gave her the exact fair too which was 3 cordobas, but still, that he tried to give HER money was just such a kind gesture.

The bus wasn’t leaving immediately, so we sat and hung out a bit longer before it was time to say “see you later.”

I had such a fantastic last few days hanging out with Anne-Sophie. She is such a good, goofy person and we got along super well. I’m really hoping our paths cross again soon… but as always, we’ll see!

I was back on my own and back in Managua, not a city I ever planned to spend much time in. But I wanted to make sure I was in town for when Ryan arrived. I booked us a night at Oasis Hostel, where I stayed last time. I needed to get a taxi to the hostel and found one who would take me for 450 cordobas. I didn’t have cell service, so I couldn’t get a better price on the InDrive taxi app, but this was okay.

I didn’t have enough cash, so the driver took me to a gas station with an ATM, which was a bonus too. A win win for both of us since I didn’t have to try and find one later on and the hostel I was going to only took cash.

He dropped me off at the hostel and I was greeted by the bubbly receptionist, Judy. She recognized me, which was nice, and got me checked in. I then relaxed in bed for a bit before working on ordering myself dinner. I chatted with a group of Canadian guys for a bit and then my food arrived.

I ate a feast of a quesillo, pollo asado, gallo pinto, and sweet plantains. Then it was time to read and work on my blog post a bit. I started nodding off, so I took a power nap and then went back to reading, waiting for Ryan to arrive.

Ryan’s flight got delayed for an hour. And then I waited and waited…

At 2am on Thursday December, 23rd, Ryan finally arrived at the hostel! I greeted him and gave him a big hug. We pretty much went right to bed after he got there, but we woke up at 8am for breakfast.

Ryan got his first taste of gallo pinto and was a fan of it for breakfast! I think he’ll enjoy the food here in Nicaragua then. A friendly Nicaraguan was staying at the hostel and when he heard we were planning on going to Matagalpa, after Granada, he was very excited to share his thoughts on the place. He really encouraged us to go, we were glad we had the conversation.

We packed up our bags and went on a short walk to the main road. The bus stop for Granada wasn’t far from the hostel. And pretty much as we rolled up to the bus stop, the bus pulled up as well. There was a bit of a mad rush to get on the bus, just like the other day, but Ryan and I were able to get seats across the aisle from each other and stored our big backpacks at the front of the bus. Eventually, my seat mate got off the bus and then Ryan and I sat next to each other the rest of the ride.

We chatted the entire way, we had plenty to catch up on. We also had a little planning to do too.

We arrived in Granada around 11am and we were dropped off just around the corner from our hostel, Hostal Azul. Funnily, we had to walk by the bus station to get to the hostel (we were dropped off on the street) so the bus drivers saw our backpacks and assumed we wanted to go to Managua. They were disappointed when we told them no and kept walking.

Hostal Azul immediately “upgraded” us from the fan dorm to the AC dorm for free and also the beds were ready. They really wanted to get a nice review and I was already planning on it, this was just icing on the cake. Not only were there activities every day of the week, the facilities were insanely nice. There’s a pool, pool table, ping pong table, and foosball table. Plus the kitchen is super nice and there’s hammocks everywhere. The hostel was relatively cheap too, $12 a night, hard to beat this!

The hostel did laundry for fairly cheap, so I dropped off my laundry. The receptionist told us about a cheap place to eat, a comedor in the bus station, and we went there for lunch.

For 130 cordobas each, we got a big plate of meat, rice, beans, and plantains. I was stoked to have Ryan around and that he was already enjoying the atmosphere and the food. It’s also just nice to have a familiar face around and welcome him into what my life has been the past 2 years.

Over the next hour after lunch, we wandered around the town. It was very very hot and we were both super full, which made for a slightly uncomfortable walk. But we saw a lot of beautiful architecture, walked through a market, and got to see a fair amount of the “downtown” area.

The architecture is very European, probably very influenced by the Spanish, if I had a guess. Today’s plan was to head to the Masaya Volcano by motorbike. Allegedly it had been close due to big eruptions and would also be closed for the holidays starting the following day. So we meandered around town till we found a motorbike shop.

We rented a motorbike for half a day for $15. It was similar to the one Anne-Sophie and I had been using… so I knew it was going to struggle up any hill (foreshadowing). We didn’t set out on our adventure quite yet. We went back to the hostel and relaxed for a bit over an hour, cooling off and chatting with a German traveler, Kira.

We talked for a while and then I started losing steam. I went up to our dorm room and took a 20 minute power nap, which was interrupted by multiple phone calls from a number I didn’t have saved. Turns out it was the motorbike shop, they had forgotten to give us the registration documents for the bike! Whoops! The worker came running over to our hostel, they weren’t far apart.

We put on sunscreen and then set out for our adventure of the day. The streets in Granada were busy, but paved. We didn’t have to worry about potholes at all on this drive! The oppressive heat had already toned down for the day, so our 40 minute drive wasn’t a sweat fest. It was a fairly pretty drive as well and we arrived at the national park entrance just before 4pm.

Unfortunately the park closes for a bit between 4:30pm-ish and 6pm. We originally were told we’d be okay to stay up in the park till 5pm and then head up again at 5:15… but that wasn’t the case. We also had to pay for both the day entry pass ($5) and the night entry pass ($10). We chugged along on our motorbike, enjoying the views of the volcanic rock and green rolling hills.

Once we started the drive up the side of the volcano was when the motorbike started having problems. Thankfully, not enough problems that the motorbike stalled out… but enough to make us go 5km/hr max on the steep incline. Definitely not ideal! We made it to the top of the volcano and pretty much had this part of the park to ourselves. We could see all the surrounding area and of course the sulfuric smoke coming from the volcano crater.

The workers told us we only had 5 minutes to look at the crater. I’m not sure if it was a safety thing or a crowd control thing… but there was no crowd and they didn’t tell us to leave until the park had “closed.” Which was frustrating since it was just before sunset and we wanted to watch the sunset from up top. But what we got to see during the daytime was beautiful, eerie, and provoked a lot of questions all at the same time.

Ryan and I didn’t know much about volcanoes, so we went down to the visitor center to hopefully learn more. The center didn’t have a ton of information, but we discretely walked with a tour group who had a guide explaining a lot of the information.

We had some time to kill still as we waited for 6pm to roll around. We walked through a little garden/kids play area and a small tourist trap market. Eventually we saw cars going through early, so we hopped back on the motorbike to head up the volcano. But… as we rounded a corner, we arrived to a line of stopped cars. We then waited and waited but it turned out they only let up to 40 people to the top of the volcano per group. So we had to wait till the 3rd group of 40 to head up.

We met a nice German couple while waiting who were also on a motorbike. They had the same struggles as us trying to get up the volcano with the not so great motorbike. The waiting to go up the volcano was disorganized and annoying, but eventually we made it up and got to see the volcanic lava glow.

To be honest, the pictures look way cooler than it did in person. But, it was still cool nonetheless. To see lava glow is just other worldly, even if you’re only able to see it for 10 minutes before being whistled at to go back down the mountain. Was it worth the wait? Was it worth $15 a person? I’m not sure, but I was glad to do it with Ryan!

Unfortunately, with having to wait so long it meant driving back in the dark, which I majorly dislike doing. But the 45 minute ride went by and we got back safe and sound. The motorbike rental told us to be back by 7pm… but we got back just before 8pm. Thankfully they didn’t say anything and let us go on our way.

The hostel was doing 50 cordoba taco night, but when we got there they were done… and apparently we were supposed to sign up, which we weren’t told. But, this turned out to be good, because I found a spot on google maps that did local food. There isn’t much of street food in this town for some reason. But when we walked up to Asados Caña de Castilla, we knew we were in a good spot. There was a line out the door for the food. We also ran into a Masaya Volcano tour guide who was waiting in line as well.

His name’s Fabio and he was really nice to chat to. We ordered our food, which was only to go, and walked back to the hostel with it. This place gave us SO much food. For 300 cordobas I was able to make two meals out of it, since they just piled the meat on.

We took our food home and devoured as much as we wanted to, saving the rest for lunch the next day. After dinner, I grabbed my clean laundry and then played Ryan in a couple game of pool (beating him each time). I was exhausted and needed sleep. So I said goodnight to Ryan and passed out for the night.

We got out of bed and ate breakfast around 9am on Wednesday, December 24th (merry Christmas Eve to those who celebrate it). The hostel had a free breakfast and we sat and chatted with a few hostel volunteers and guests while we ate.

Ryan and I decided we were going to go to a local museum today. We didn’t know what to expect, but we wanted to learn a bit more about Granada. We went on a short stroll to the San Francisco Convent Museum. It was a $5 entry per person and then we started exploring.

The museum mainly covered Christianity and its role in Granada. It talked about the holidays, how they’re celebrated, what saints they celebrate, etc. The rooms were full of paintings and dioramas, but the museum as a whole was fairly small. There was a cool model of the city and an area full of old statues.

We took our time, but it didn’t take us super long to make it through the whole museum. Next up on our list for the day was to go to a nearby cafe to enjoy a couple smoothies. We went to the Garden Cafe, a cafe Ryan found that was surrounding a beautiful garden.

There weren’t any tables available, so I went up to a guy sitting by himself at a table for 4 and asked if it was okay for us to sit with him. He said yes and it turned out his name was Anton, from Germany. He was a very nice guy and we had some nice chats about all sorts of topics from power plant design to random traveling spots.

Antón had to skedaddle, Ryan and I sat at the table for a bit, finishing our smoothies and went back to the hostel to relax. Relaxing didn’t last long as we decided to start playing darts. We played 3 games of cricket. Ryan took the first game, I won the next, and then Ryan finished the deal winning the tiebreaker.

While we finished playing, we started chatting with a Norwegian traveler, Khurram. He was on the road for 6 weeks as a break from med school. He ended up joining us as we went for a walk into town.

We wandered through a bustling street market, which was full of last minute Christmas shopping. We actually even saw a fight break out between two locals, not sure over what, but the community of locals swooped in to break it off and properly berate the two young boys who were fighting. We steered clear of the action and continued in our walk to the part of town that sits on Lake Nicaragua.

It was super buggy by the lake, and I mean SUPER buggy. There were hoards and hoards of little gnat like bugs flying around. It was quite unpleasant. We didn’t stay long because of that and continued back to the city center. We made it back in time to catch the sunset and in Granada there’s one spot in particular that’s the best for it. The top of the bell tower of Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced.

Not only did we get to enjoy a beautiful sunset, but we had front row seats to the bell tower being played. As you can expect, it was insanely loud and happened a few times while we were up at the top.

We hurried on home, because we had plans for 6pm. On our walk home though, a friendly local started chatting it up with us. At first it seemed like he was just wanting a fun conversation. But then it turned into a sob story about his life and then asked us for money. This is one of the sad parts of traveling and tourism in the Central America (and beyond). It turns a really wholesome and fun conversation into making us, as the traveler, feel bad for not helping. It’s a double edged sword where I wish I had the extra money to help, but at the same time the governments of countries with these “problems” should be doing something.

Anyways, I’ll step off my soap box.

Ryan, who was raised Catholic, was wanting to attend Christmas Eve mass. And as a good friend, who wanted a cultural experience I hadn’t had yet in these religious countries, I joined him.

We made it a few minutes before the service started and then sat in a very hot, but pretty cathedral for a bit over an hour. The service was all in Spanish and the church goers were all very passionately into it. Ryan enjoyed it and it followed pretty much the same service he knew from back home with a few different songs. The singing was very pretty, but the speakers were cranked up to the max. Ryan also said there was more theatrics and clapping than he was used to. But it made for an interesting thing to do on Christmas Eve and something I’ve never done before anywhere in the world.

The service ended and we walked back to the hostel. Tonight was pasta night and they served free pasta! It was actually very tasty and it was fairly close to a full meal, but I was definitely going to want a snack later. This type of hostel event is always nice since you get to sit down with the other hostel goers and get to know each other over a little “family” style meal. Ryan and I chatted with other guests for a while and then decided to head out into the city one more time for a couple beers.

Ryan had yet to try any Nicaraguan beers so I introduced him to Victoria Classico and Toña (my personal favorite). We went to a bar called Sand Bar, which is the name of a bar at the University of Kansas. But, this bar actually had a sand pit where the pool table was located. Ryan and I enjoyed a couple games of pool and a couple beers and then a local, Miguel came and joined us to play pool.

He was really nice, but asked me if I could buy him a beer. Which I wouldn’t normally do, but I felt like I could cough up the $1.50. And then when we finished playing pool he was like, okay guys let’s go get food… and we were like uhhhh we’re going to get food just us. Ryan gave him a few cordobas and we parted ways. It was kind of disappointing that we had a nice time playing pool and it was, again, tainted by him asking for things/money from us.

We walked home and found a cheap quesillo to snack on. We also ran into our German friend Kira and some of her friends and joined them on our walk back to the hostel.

We called it a night as we had a travel day the following day! We originally were planning on going off the beaten track to a town called Matagalpa. But due to traveling around holidays, we changed plans and are heading to Ometepe! But you’ll hear all about it next week.

This was yet another incredible week on the road. I got to spend the week with two amazing friends, one new and one old. I had such a blast with Anne-Sophie in San Juan Del Sur and I’m so excited to have Ryan on the road with me for around 2 weeks! I’m sure we’ll have plenty of stories to share from it!

See you soon!

– Elie