Cosiguina

This past weekend I had the pleasure err... opportunity to go on a three day backpacking trip to the far northwest corner of the country. My friend from Holland, Cecile, and I left Granada Thursday after class and headed to Leon. We checked into a great hostel and used her guide book to take a walking tour of the city´s churches and murals. Leon is a very politically minded city, so it was really fascinating to check out the murals and their strong statements. I also met a group of three siblings who where guarding their mom´s bike cart while she was selling fruit on the street. They asked for money, so I said I´d give them ten cordobas if they´d let me give them a ride on the bike. Their mom was totally cool with it, but as soon as they climbed on and we started out for a spin around the park about ten other kids appeared out of nowhere and jumped on. It was kind of like riding the bus here - when I think it´s a bit crowded I get a quick reminder that I have no concept of crowded. It was a lot of fun and quite a workout with kids hanging on everywhere, but most definitely worth the fifty cents I spent.

The next morning we got up way too early and packed up and headed out towards Cosiguina. The six hour bus ride was a pretty typical chicken bus ride until we stopped for a break with about 40 minutes left to go and our guide suggested that we could ride on the top of the bus if we liked. I was super excited and climbed on up. Not only was it cooler and quieter up there but the view of the villages and the ocean was fantastic and constantly ducking to dodge tree branches was a fun game. I also got to help a little bit with lowering things down from the roof when passengers got off at the stops.

When we finally arrived at our stop, we grabbed our bags and hiked to a deserted beach. It was absolutely gorgeous with black sand and views across the bay of both Honduras and El Salvador. The village nearby is truly isolated, so many people came down to the beach to see what we were up to. One young kid even let me take his horse for a ride on the beach. The water was wavy, but not too strong and perfect for swimming. The local kids showed us how they search in the surf for what they call chiquitin. They are some sort of shell fish-beetle type thing they use to make soup. We collected fire wood, watched the sun set, and ate dinner around the fire. One of the locals who helped teach our guide the trail to the nearby volcano told us jokes and stories in Spanish, but also had this amazing ability to look at the Orion constellation in order to tell what time it was. No matter how many times we asked over the two nights we were there, he was never more than five minutes off with the time.

The next day we headed off to hike the remnants of what used to be the tallest Volcano in Nicaragua, Volcan Coisguina. Fortunately, because I had to climb up this thing, after a huge eruption it's no longer as tall and there's beautiful crater lake where the top used to be. Most of the hike was in the scorching sun walking through sand. It was much better when we finally reached the forest section which provided a bit of shade. The view at the top was stunning. The crater lake was about five hundred feet below the summit with cliffs going straight down to it. I've never wanted to swim so badly, but it just wasn't possible. However, four hours later when we finally returned to camp it felt so great to jump in the ocean!

That night we had dinner in the home of a local family. This was one of the richest families in the community, but that is definitely a relative term. They lived in a tiny shack without electricity or plumbing. They had one bed and the kitchen was outdoors. The animals roamed freely including a rooster perched on the footboard of the bed. They also had two pet parrots that had babies that they spoon fed milk. There were also three dead iguanas in the sink that the grandpa was cleaning. I'll spare you all the details but the noise it made when he pulled off the skin will haunt me forever. Fortunately, we had fish for dinner!

We camped on the beach again that night and got up early to head back to the city. The long bus ride was really crowded and especially interesting because lots of people got on the bus carrying their game cocks for the big fight that day.

But the most exciting part of the ride came when the guide said it was time to get off, so I activated my chicken bus departure skills and grabbed my pack and jumped off. Unfortunately, I was a bit too efficient because when I got off I was standing alone in a cloud of dust with nobody else from my group around. I was kind of pissed and confused, so I decided I'd better just start figuring out how to get back to Granada from this middle of nowhere town. I asked somebody where the bus terminal was and he said it was three blocks ahead. So, I started walking. After about ten minutes and no bus stop, I asked again. This time the guy said the terminal was about four miles up the road, so I tried to hail a taxi that passed but it didn't stop. I kept walking along this deserted road cursing the guide. After about a mile, a bus came along so I hopped on and headed to the terminal. At the terminal I actually caught up with the group again, and the guide felt so bad. He said he had made a mistake and by the time he told everybody to stay on the bus I'd already hopped off. He said he was totally impressed with my speed, but apparently it didn't serve me well. He did buy me a banana pineapple smoothie to make up for my troubles, though!