Today was quite a relaxing day (which was quite
needed after yesterday’s excursion to nowhere). Breakfast this morning was
something completely new for me. It was a tamale of rice and this red meat and
some mushrooms or something like that. It was actually quite tasty (after I got
over the interesting texture of it)! After eating at like 7:30 AM (as Dan was
going to Mass), I just passed out again (as I was extra tired). I didn’t really
sleep at all, but just rolled over and closed my eyes. I then “woke up” and
worked on my blog entries since I’ve been behind on them. I took a shower and
headed down Calle Consulado to meet the group (Charlotte, Mary Kate, Mark, Ally
and Kendall) to head off to Catarina for the day.
We
arrived in the bus station near my house and got on a bus to Masaya. This bus
wasn’t so bad at first, but we kept stopping to pick up folks along the way.
Keep in mind that this bus is an old decommissioned school bus that was driven
down from the states. Basically my legs would not fit straight in front of me with
the seat ahead being so close. It wasn’t all that bad of a ride as the breeze
cooled off the bus quite a bit and there was upbeat music too. The bus was
pretty packed as we rolled into the bus station in Masaya (which was not quite
what I expected).
We
boarded another bus bound for Catarina and waited for 20 minutes as the buses
leave every 30 minutes or so. This bus was a bit more open and cooler
(temperature wise). The interesting thing about the bus system in Nicaragua
(besides the cheap bus fare of about 9 cordobas (a little over 30 cents) is
that vendors will walk through the buses selling goods when the bus is waiting
to leave. These vendors will be selling soda in a bag, chips, baked goods and
all sorts of other goods. It’s quite the small business opportunity!
After
arriving in Catarina, we needed to travel to the top of the lookout there. We
could have walked, but instead we decided to grab a Tuk Tuk to the top.
Normally a Tuk Tuk is set up to take 3 or 4 people with a driver, but we had 6
people. Thus, we squashed four people in the back and put 3 in the front
(including the driver). The back was quite comfortable and I had more room in
the backseat than I had had on the bus! Ally and Mary Kate upfront were
worrying about staying inside of the Tuk Tuk while it was moving. Sort of similar to that Visa Commercial with Pierce Brosnan. We Tuk Tuk-ed
to the top of the lookout and paid the 20 cordobas entrance fee.
This
lookout was spectacular! We could see the entire lagoon (la Laguna de Apoyo; the
one we had visited yesterday) and it was a tad foggy (just enough to give the
impression of a mountainous overlook, but not enough to obscure vision. I really
loved this whole city. The feel was just so relaxing and Zen as it reminded me
of the TF2 level Thunder Mountain (a payload map) how the city is up on this
hill overlooking the water. Some will say this doesn’t really resemble Thunder
Mountain at all, but I think the atmospheric feeling is much the same (I’m
hoping the mountains of Matagalpa will feel the same way when I get to visit
them). One neat thing about this city is that you can look down the side of the
hill and ride down on a horse if you felt like putting your life on the line.
There were also small benches on the hill where one could sit and take in the
view. At the start of one of the trail heads I saw three powerwheelz cars
sitting and I said that we should powerwheelz down to see the lake (only down,
as those things don’t have enough torque to make it back up). We walked around
a bit looking for a restaurant get some good food. There were several
restaurants but they were quite expensive (as they were more for tourists as
Catarina is a Nicaraguan tourist location (where Nicaraguans go to visit)). I
also saw some cool leafcutter ants taking their prizes back to the nest. We
eventually decided to eat at one of the restaurants on the side street and I
had this really good grilled chicken with plantains, B&R and coleslaw. It
only cost 90 cordobas whereas the fancy restaurants had cost upwards of several
hundred. While I was eating I had the privilege to make the acquaintance of
several dogs and even a chicken.
After
lunch, we walked down the hill toward where we got off the bus from Masaya. We
stopped and looked at several street vendors of all sorts of small handicrafts,
but I didn’t buy anything. I saw Duracell batteries and should have bought some
as those Maxwells I bought started to wear down (and eventually died later that
day). Some of the handicrafts seemed quite strange (take for example the
following multicolored figurines trippin’ on something):
We
eventually made it down the hill and got on the bus back to Masaya which
actually had a TV in the front that was playing music videos. These videos
featured dudes rapping interspersed with chicks dancing in many locales. One
video was even about how the fat rapper gets all the chicks (the rapper in the
video called the guy fat). The rest of the ride was uneventful. Dinner was also
uneventful and consisted of taquitos, B&R and coleslaw with that
mayo/ketchup recipe. I got to sit and talk to little Adrianna Elena today and
she was having funny paging through my Spanish/English dictionary and loved
when I made it rain cards from the sky on her. Anyways, it’s late. Y’all have
been reading for a while, so I shall peace. Goodnight!
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