Day 24 6/15/13 (Starting the Tour de ‘Tepe, old money, new money (Gatsby reference obligatory), the playa Santo Domingo, Cafe Campestre and Holly from Red Dwarf serving sandwiches)

Today started out at the bright early time of 5:30 AM. Every day I’ve been in Nicaragua so far has seemed to start at this early hour or at 5:45 AM (-.-\\ (putting myself back to bed)). Anyways, we grabbed breakfast at the American which was only scrambled eggs and toast and home fries (potatoes). It was quite good and we headed off into the wild, but well paved unknown on our bikes (Mark, Alex, Dan and I) to start the 2 day Tour de ‘Tepe (around the most of the island). We had been biking for close to 10 minutes before we got to bike across the runway being built on Ometepe! Seriously, it was cool! All the little lights there and luckily no jets to dodge as the runway isn’t open yet. Anyways not too long after that we stumbled upon a sign for the museum of pottery and money of Ometepe and Nicaragua (this museum was 2 Km off the main road). The bikes were not all that great as they had rim brakes and really awful knob shifters. My bike’s front wheel was already potato chipped when I got it and would experience a bit of speed wobble when at high speeds on the down hills leading from Moyogalpa to Santa Cruz. The museum was split between a collection of old Nicaraguan coinage, bills and some interesting trinkets from the revolution (most notably a pin with a smiling Reagan on it with a circle and red line through him). The pottery museum wasn’t all that good save for a few trinkets and some well detailed animal faces on some pots (one interesting artifact was the pot that housed some blood (to drink?) and for human sacrifices O.o). The other museum housed bills from Nicaragua was back to the 1800s where the first coins entered circulation. The museum also showed the first Cordoba bills and some of the private money from the campesinos. The progress in the styling of the bills was fascinating. Also it was interesting that there were 10 million cordoba bills during the Revolution due to high inflation rates (if only I could cash one of those now!).  After the Alex and Dan tried this corn whiskey shot and we waited for a quick rain to pass before venturing off along the route to Santa Cruz (which we didn’t know was our destination until later that night). The riding along the road of pavers was actually quite good. The road was smooth and didn’t have any real issues. The scenery along the road was also quite lush and green (and was quite a sight to see) as we encountered everything from jungle like canopies to farm land to small towns. About halfway to the Santa Cruz/Altagracia Y intersection we hit a hilly section and I ended up ahead of the group and then doubling back to talk to the people. From this point onward, Alex basically said I could go ahead and do my own biking (which I was quite happy to do as I love biking on my own and flying along).

            From that point I went onwards on the road toward the Y intersection. The intersection was at the bottom of a very long and somewhat shallow hill (that I was able to fly down; people probably thought I was a crazy gringo) and the right path lead down the playa Santo Domingo while the left was for Altragracia. I took a left and headed to Altagracia about 4 KM (2.5 miles from the turn off).

 (Map of Ometepe borrow from http://www.ometepenicaragua.com/ometepemap.php The Ometepe Tour Guide website I DO NOT OWN ANY PART OF THIS IMAGE. I added the badly painted on colored lines and text about Tour de 'Tepe)

Altragacia was a nice city, despite being a tad small. It had the standard road front stores and even a nice central park and some nice churches (even a graveyard!). I biked to the hospital at the end of the road and then headed back. My destination was the Santa Cruz turnoff and I was biking down the road with the playa Santo Domingo on my left. I could see the clear water lapping at the grey (but nice) sand was the time passed by biking. I met the others (Alex, Dan, Hannah, Mark) past Santo Domingo along the coastal road for some lunch at this resort hotel. After biking for most of the morning I was famished and ordered a chicken sandwich; which ended up being more of a BBQ chicken sandwich than a hunk of chicken as I was expecting (s’all good as I wolfed it down with my hunger). I also bought another 2L water bottle as I had leant one of mine to Alex to use. The resort was a nice respite from biking as I could see the beach from there and enjoy the company and food. Unfortunately I felt absolutely awful at lunch (I just felt like I had a cold and chills) and it was weird, because as soon as I started biking it stopped (note to self, don’t stop biking then). Ally and Hannah had rented a 4 wheeler and had ridden the toy from Moyogalpa to the hostel in Santa Cruz (where we decided to meet them after lunch). The ride to the hostel was also in the same vein as before with the beach basically right next to the road and the occasional sand on the road or speed bump. At the end of the beach, the road took a turn upwards with a last final hill to the hostel on top (final push to get there!). The hostel was cool! It had spectacular views of Concepción from the patio area and had a dorm bed for only $7. I signed myself, Mark and Alex up for the room and tried to find people that would fill the other 2 beds so that I wouldn’t have to worry about funked out travelers staying with us (naw they would’ve been personable I’m sure). Eventually the majority of the group (that had spilt into 3 sub-groups and ascended to various altitudes on Concepción) arrived at the hostel and I booked Dan and Alex for the other two peeps in our dorm. A decision was reached to head down the hill to the beach and chill for a while. I was the first person on a bike to reach the beach and found Ally, Hannah, Dan and Mark and Alex already there. The water was actually a tad colder than I had thought. It was still warmer than any water by the US. There was even this warmer tide pool about 4 to 8” deep in places that many of us ended up congregating around and playing Frisbee in and around. The waves of Lake Nicaragua were small, but just large enough to enjoy them without them becoming a nuisance as several of us stood/knelt/floated around a ways out from the shore talking about life. The sand under the water was interesting in the fact that there were ridges about 2 inches high and evenly spaced about 2 or 3 inches apart on the sandbar. The water was only about 4 foot deep in most places (even quite far from the shore). Also during this time Hannah (with her superb driving skills from her childhood driving around ATVs) took many of the group on wild rides around the beach with sand flying and drifting the ATV and all sorts of crazy driving (safe despite the seeming danger). As it was getting later (about 5ish PM or later), several people decided to start heading back to the hostel. Lucas asked if I wanted to bike to Balgüe (about 4 Km = 2.5 miles away from the hostel) while he ran there for his daily run. Naturally I couldn’t resist more biking and went there and back (adding an extra 5 miles to my ride for day 1 of the 2013 Tour de ‘Tepe (27 miles total). After getting back, the group decided to head off to Balgüe for dinner (walking there this time in the dark). We were a somewhat noisy group heading there, but even louder on the way back (as several members had decided to partake in some local alcoholic drinks). Anyways, the place we chose was this epic café mentioned in the Nicaraguan guidebook (called Café Campestre). There wasn’t any particular place in mind when we set out for dinner, just fine food and eat. I wanted to eat at this place as it sounded good, but as I walked up two dogs from some of the other Gringos there barked at me (I stood there and let the dogs sniff me and they instantly became my best friends). The dogs belonged to a group of Americans who had come down to Ometepe to work on this plantation to establish eco-structive efforts or something like that (maybe eco-sustainable). Anyways I met one woman named Leah whom I talked to for quite like 20 minutes while the others ordered drinks. I had a fantastic time talking to her about her work and also about WPI and EWH a bit. It was fun and I wanted to talk to her again after dinner, but never got the chance. I was happy though because I got to mention and discuss Cradle to Cradle by Michael Braungart and William McDonough (which I had to read for GPS: Grand Challenges at WPI (theory and PRACTICEd BAM!)). Her two dogs were quite friendly and the one really liked to get scratched under the chin. Don’t remember their names though. Anyways the server on duty was this Brit who sounded exactly like Holly from Red Dwarf (for those who don’t know Red Dwarf is a British Comedy series from the 80s/90s. Readers should check it out, well worth watching). I had this delicious chicken salad make-it-yourself (components in different piles as on a Liz plate) chicken and leafy greens wrap. It was so good I had to order it for the ride around Maderas for the next day too. Back at the hostel I watched some of the group polish off a bottle of Flor de Caña rum and 3 cokes, tried to DJ unsuccessfully as my iPod had too low of power for the speaker and then conked out.