Day 25 6/16/13 (Day 2 of the 2013 Tour de ‘Tepe, ringing Maderas, chain problems, a rural bike expert, the coast, breaking my bike, Ojo de Agua, walking coasting repeat, paying for a ride to Moyogalpa, only got 10 Cordobas in my pocket (even less than Macklemore), problems resolved)

 

            This was day two of the 2013 Tour de ‘Tepe (self-created and named and biked). The day was a good one to start: sunny, no rain, solid breakfast of French toast and eggs and advice from Holly (not actually the Brit’s name) on the bike ride. He said the ride would be around 5 hours to complete the whole affair for a decent biker. After paying my tab at the caja (register) (which ended up being quite expensive (close to $12 I think), I started on the epic ride with 4.5 liters of water and the WIY (wrap it yourself) chicken supplies in my bag. Initially the lack of refrigeration worried me, but the 4.5 liters of cool water formed a nice refrigerated pouch around the WIY chicken lunch. The initial part of the ride wasn’t bad at all as this was the smooth paved road to Balgüe (2.5 miles). Not even 15 minutes after biking off the paved road, my chain popped off the back sprockets and wedged itself inside the sprockets and the spokes of the rear wheel. This jawn was stuck. No amount of pulling was going to free that. Another biker (Nicaraguan) had seen me bike past and then seen me stop cold as the chain locked. He eventually rode up and tried to help by pulling on the thoroughly stuck chain. Eventually he pulled out a machete and used the tip to torque the chain out of the spokes. I paid him 2 cordobas and we rode a bit more. Eventually he stopped and head off to work in a field. I continued on the rocky roads. These roads were pretty bad in places; basically there were parts of “road” that consisted entirely of loose rocks or pebbles in the dirt. Needless to say trying to find the “smoothest” ride was virtually impossible some time. Even more fun were the larger rocks that would occasionally futz up the decently manageable bumpiness and throw the steering out of whack. Not too soon after the guy with the machete turned off, I was cruising through a small farming town and passed a church that sounded like it was gearing up for the morning service. Not 100 feet after that church, the chain locked again. This time I couldn’t get it undone by hand or with any of the tools I had (tools? None). Basically I started asking people if there was anyone that knew how to fix bicycles around. Luckily for me there was one dude. People told me he lived further up the road so I put the bike on my shoulder and started walking. It wasn’t too long before I reached this hill with the bike and walked up the concrete on the hill (the interesting thing about the trail around Maderas was that the hills were sometimes covered in concrete to form a nice path while there usually wasn’t any concrete elsewhere. I suppose this is for traction on some of the steeper hills as the loose rock could be dangerous. Anyways, I talked to a bunch of people who told me the biked guy was back down the hill a bit. All I had seen was a house barn thing and a bunch of foliage. I at first went to the wrong house and the woman told me the house was one more down the house. At first the bike repair dude’s house was pretty decently sized. The house consisted of a covered porch and sitting area and then the barn/house that seemed to be a large room inside or several rooms (I couldn’t tell as the door was closed). Anyways I walked up carrying the bike and said hello and asked if there were anyone capable of fixing bikes. A young guy maybe in his 20s came out and looked at the bike. He went and tried unsuccessfully to pull the chain out. He then went and got some wrenches and proceeded to untighten the nuts on the back of the bike and take the back wheel off. Eventually the mother brought me a chair that I could sit in as he worked on taking the back wheel off. After letting a bit of air out of the back tire and removing the chain, the back wheel came off. He then proceeded to take the entire back axel out of the wheel, all the way down to removing the sprockets from the wheel and having the wheel without the axel through it. The ball bearings were more or less just sitting in the hub and he rearranged them and greased them a bit before reinserting the axel. While all of this was happening, I was basically just sitting there or trying to help hold stuff as best as I could. I also got to watch the parents feed some of the roaming chickens and watch the one dog take a sun nap (big things happen when I am around…haha naw it was a tranquil day there) (the little kid in the family was trying to shoot arrows (sticks) with a piece of rubber tied to a stick and was not very successful, but he was trying (someday you’ll be Legolas bro)). Anyways the guy then basically put everything back together on the bike (although I still swear he left out this one circular piece (just like a washer but thinner and wider). Anyways, the guy also checked the breaks and tuned up the shifting on the bike (and also warned me not to keep the shift knob too close to the top of the shifter as this causes the problem (I had thought similarly immediately after the chain locked the second time and had decided to avoid the easiest back sprocket as much as possible)). The guy also tightened the handlebars and re-inflated the back tire all for 10 Cordobas (that’s about 42 cents! Try getting that rate in the States)! Anyways I paid him 14 because I was happy to have the bike functioning again. After some goodbyes and receiving my change, I headed back out to the road and continued on with my trek.

 The bike repair stop had taken over an hour and it was close to like 9 or 10 ish. I didn’t make it very far before I had to stop and get some water and take in the view. The views along this ride were stunning. I could look to my right and see Maderas towering above and could look to my left and see the shining Lake Nicaragua and sometimes even beaches. I liked the open roads and the jungle along the road in some places. I also liked the solitude and the peace and quiet offered by the winding rocky road. I at one point stopped to take a photo and realized I had kept my camera in the refrigeration pouch created by my water bottles; which caused my photos to take on a dream-like state to them (at least for the first few as water had condensed on the lens):

After that I changed my camera to a different pocket and the water dried. The scenery was beautiful. The contrast between the lake and Maderas was so intriguing and striking. All the while I was biking I wouldn’t really see that many people. The few people I would see were usually just walking along the road or maybe biking the opposite way and everyone was incredibly friendly. Most people would say hello or buenas or nod. Eventually I reached a flat part of the road that curved around this corner in front of a farm. This was probably the southern tip of the island as the road was not very far from the coast and Maderas was most of the way behind me. I opened my pack and sat down to make my WIY chicken tortillas with the chicken and the salad. These were so delicious. I had passed the family that lived at this house and they eventually caught up again and smiled as I had my lunch. The sad part about this was that there were a ton of flies. Literally there were about 20 or so that just showed up. So I had to sacrifice some lettuce to keep them entertained.

After this I continued my trek around Maderas. The road wasn’t all that bad from this point onward (until I arrived at the latter part of ride near the good road). Before lunch I had passed these two guys and I guy peddling different bikes (teenagers) and they had passed me back during lunch. It wasn’t that long until I passed them again on the twisting roads around the coast. I also came upon a decent beach area with a dock that I could swim in. I had to stop and try the water because I was quite ready for the swimming. The water was decently warm and had little tiny wavelets coming inward. The sand was more just very small hot rocks that had baked in the almost direct overhead sun.

The beach where I stopped to swim. I swam in the part right behind this photo on the other side of the dock that was there. I also saw the 2 girls and 1 guy on the bike heading past while I was swimming. I dried off a bit and continued my trek. Along the way back I passed through a town with a soccer match going on. This may have been before the beach, but I’m not sure. Anyways I didn’t stick around for the match, but talked to some friendly store owners who told me that is was like 40 or 50 Km back to Moyogalpa O.o (like more than 25 miles). This should’ve told me that I wasn’t all that far from Santa Cruz, but I was just like aw yeah more biking! Anyways not too long after I started hitting the more rural part of the trail again with loose rocks and more accentuated slopes. I also met this guy named Joshua who was biking with me towards the end of the trip when my pedal started shearing off. This probably happened because I was cranking up some of the final hills standing on the pedals (my bad guys). Anyways, I even had to walk up a hill because I didn’t want to ride on the pedal or the seat which had started acted funky (was broken). I eventually reached this one corner with an entrance trail to Maderas. This one guy eventually approached me who spoke a bit of English and told me he worked as a tour guide and lived basically right next to where I had stopped to check out what was happening:

I talked to him about the happenings in the area and how the good road was like 30 feet from there. I was so happy to get back to good roads. I said thanks and goodbyes and wished him well and set out along the good road. The road was the nice road formed by pavers. The hostel in Santa Cruz was basically only a quick downhill section away from where the trail around Maderas ended. I had accomplished the trip in about 4 hours or so as I started at around 7:15 AM and got back at around 12:50 PM (minus the hour + for both fixing both of the chains and talking). It was pretty solid too! Lunch was a fantastic tasting chicken sandwich. After lunch I chilled at the hostel for about an hour or so as Alex spoke to some folks about EWH and the others headed off for Ojo de Agua (basically a swimming pool tucked away in the jungle). Alex was heading to Ojo de Agua and then back to Moyogalpa and I decided to do the same. He and I stared biking there and it wasn’t that long until I realized I could not ride my bike as the pedal was shearing off even more. I resorted to walking us the hills and coasting down leaning on the seat and the frame and the good pedal (and hoping the wicked sketch steering column didn’t let go and dump me on the road at speed) (as I learned the next day I actually broke the handlebars off of the steering column inside the frame (in the column slot) and the wheel would vaguely follow the position of the handlebars but wasn’t actually attached at all). Alex and I caught up with some members of the group fairly quickly as the Ojo de Agua was quite far from the hostel. I kept going as Alex biked off, but I could follow decently on the hills. Eventually we got within a km or so of the Ojo and Alex headed off ahead while I did the last distance on foot. After I was heading down the turnoff to the place (it was 500 m long) I saw even more members of our group who had gone back to the hostel and had hitchhiked a booze cruisin’ ride to the Ojo de Agua with a local British hostel owner and his family. The Ojo de Auga cost 70 Cordobas to enter (as this pays for the maintenance on the place). This place was epic! Seriously take a look:

This was an old lagoon or something that was converted into a fresh water swimming pool tucked away in the jungle cover. It is clear water and is about 7 foot in places. It also has a smaller pool on the other side of the picture and a mini waterfall to return the water to a filter or to a river or something. It was epic (despite being a tad cold)! It was pretty fun as most of the group was here and I stay until about 4:20 PM when I started heading back to Moyogalpa. This turned out to be awful.

           First off, I knew I couldn’t bike at all save for coasting on the hills. So I started walking. I walked for so so so long. Luckily today happened to be Sunday so absolutely no buses were running back to Moyogalpa, so the plan was to start walking and to try to hitchhike back with someone there. Basically I walked from the Ojo de Agua for about 5 or 6 miles before the sun started setting and it was getting quite dark. During this time I encountered all manner of people including some probably high school girls who I said I was handsome (in English) (but I think they were joking). The people along the way were quite nice and always seemed to smile, say hello or some greeting. The best chance I had to get back to Moyogalpa early was this micro-van that rolled up with two gringos and a driver inside. I asked how much it was to go to Moyogalpa and he said $5 (I should have checked to see how much I had as I had $3, but I didn’t and he drove off. I also could have asked to pay him when I was in Moyogalpa -.- FUTZ MAH LIFE). Anyways I continued walking up the huge-A hill that I was one (this thing was an absolute monster as it was over a kilometer long). Anyways after that hill I was able to coast at one of the fastest speeds I’ve ever gone on a bicycle (and with the sketch handlebars (broken) it was quite the adrenaline rush (I was hoping the handlebars stayed in the correct direction and decided not to throw me off the bike)). I eventually came upon this guy in a tan Toyota pickup chatting with another guy. I asked if he was going to Moyogalpa and he said no. I looked around to see if there were any cars headed to Moyogalpa, but there weren’t any that would stop. So eventually I asked how much it would take to get to Moyogalpa and I got him to do it for $10. I called Alex to see if I could borrow money (as I only had $3), but he said he had enough money to make it off Ometepe and get a room. Anyways the trip back seemed to take forever (even as I rode in the truck bed with the bike). It took around 30 minutes and it was completely dark by the time we reached Moyogalpa, so it was quite good that I went there by car as the walk would have been quite sketch as the guy said there were thieves ahead along the road sometimes. Anyways I tried to use my VISA at the ATM in Moyogalpa, but the danged card needed a PIN number that I never set and consequently I could not use my card -.- // VISA (seriously thanks on that one). Anyways I then asked Bob at the American if I could borrow $7 from him to pay the driver and luckily he leant me the money (I paid him back later that night). Alex then showed up as I was talking to Bob about what I could do: he mentioned several places with a credit card machine (I couldn’t get any money from the bank as I need a passport or copy of it to do transactions there -.- (no copy with me either)). Anyways Alex and I started walking toward the bike place to drop off the futzed bike. The guy initially was saying that we were cool and that he could just solder the pedal on (like that would really hold for more than 5 pedals on a hill) (and I said to just tighten the steering as I hadn’t learned it was busted yet). I asked if I had to pay (wrong decision) and he said we would go to the bike shop the next day (-.- // me trying to good). Anyways I didn’t really care as I had broken the bike pretty badly. Anyways we agreed to meet at the bike shop at around 8:15 AM the next day (Monday) and sort the issue out. At this point I had no place to stay but tried the ATM again at a different bank. Alex met this chick named Sarah and was telling her of my problems when I left the bank empty handed (I had 10 Cordobas at this point) and we went to buy ice cream and chill and talk to Robinson at his hostel on one of the side streets (Yogi’s). Anyways we got there and I was kinda down about my luck with everything at this point, but while I was talking to my folks, Alex asked Robinson about having a charge machine for credit cards and it turned out that Robinson had one (luck FINALLY!). Robinson and I then left for his ATV, scooter and bike rental shop with the machine. I was able to charge about $52 on my card and get back $47.50 in cash (the $7.50 was for the room for the night at Yogi’s). I then had money! Alex joked we that we should go to the casino (my luck would probably have been pretty good at this point), but I went back to the hostel and chilled and wrote about the weekend while Alex, Robinson and Sarah chatted a bit. I got this epic cheese/dough bread thing for dinner. At this point everything had more or less worked out and I chilled back at the hostel. The 2013 Tour de ‘Tepe had been fantastic! So much bike riding and so much fun! It was close to 45 miles or more. The total Tour de ‘Tepe includes biking around Concepción on the nice road, but I wasn’t going to try that after my luck with rental bikes over the 2013 tour. With that I went to bed after some quick words with Alex and Sarah. Day complete.