Lonesome Travels ...

---Monday 6/30/08---

Becky and I left in the morning for Granada and eventually made it to Laguna de Apoyo.

This place is just as beautiful as I remembered. When I get rich, the first piece of real state that I purchase is going to be there. We left for the laguna at 10am and came back at 5pm. I spent a few of hours swimming and on an inner tube, just relaxing. The weather was great. It was cloudy, not too hot with some patches of sunshine just to mix it up. It did not start to rain until we started to leave for Granada.

I love meeting the people from the Monkey Hut, they always have interesting stories. I wish I could have stayed the night there.

We went back to the volunteer house in the evening and waited for a potluck that was supposed to happen, but never did. The other volunteers were planning to order pizza, at which point we decided to go to a restaurant. We went to a place recommended by a friend in Granada. It was a spanish restaurant with a very romantic garden setting, candle light dinner and a man walking around with his guitar serenading the tables (great singer!).

After dinner we decided to go out for a drink and stopped by one of the other volunteer houses to recruit a drinking posse and say goodbye. We ended up going to a nearby bar and had some drinks. The other volunteers were really interesting people. I wish that I had more time to spend with them. We talked about politics, policy, and gender roles.

We left the bar pretty late, back to the volunteer house where I had a most uncomfortable sleep on a tiny couch.

---Tuesday 7/1/08---

After a great breakfast. Becky took some time to do some final shopping for music, crafts, and powdered fresco de Cacao.

We then took the bus back to Managua and the airport. I waited until she checked in and left for my hotel, Maracas Inn. I checked into my room and rested for a bit. I was planning to have dinner with some friends and then spend the night back in my room relaxing. That didn't happen.

Since I could not reach the friends whom I was having dinner with, I made alternate plans. I called an old dear friend from childhood, Rita, and invited her to dinner. She suggested that we go to Las Galerias de Santo Domingo, this is a recently opened mall, a real mall in the American sense. This place was huge! Teenagers sitting around with their laptops, a large arcade room, movie theaters, and fine restaurants. Now keep in mind that while this is common in the U.S., Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America. I was impressed.

Rita and I had dinner at a spanish restaurant where I had some great paella and mediocre sangria. Afterwards she invited me to go out with friends to a club.

The club was packed with teenagers. Although you needed to be 18 yrs old to get in, most times bouncers did not bother to check IDs. I felt old. The place was packed! I mean 400 people in a tiny venue, and half of them smoking. It was horrible. Although we tried to dance, we ended up most of the night just being pressed up against each other because there was no room to dance. Us being the older, boring couple, we left her friends and exited the club.

I went back to my hotel, had a couple of beers and went to sleep.

---Wednesday 7/2/08---

This day was supposed to be much more exciting.

I had a cancellation for lunch with a friend. I spent the afternoon watching Shutter at the movie theater (tickets are $2.50, $1.50 for afternoon matinee!). Bad movie. I then went to the Cancilleria (ministry of foreign relations) to see old friends and had dinner with a friend from there. I was supposed to go see other people later at night, but they also cancelled. I was back in my hotel by 8pm, and asleep by 9. Weird how yesterday was supposed to be relaxing, but ended up being exciting and today which was supposed to be exciting was not.

Thursday should be prove to be fun. Wedding on Friday.