I find myself in a nice air conditione
d net cafe near the beach, so it´s time to do a more legnthy update. I ended up deciding to stay in Grenada for an extra day so that I could hike the nearby `Volcan Masaya´. I met another gringo yesterday, Robin, who had come up from Costa Rica so that she could get her visa extended. She voulenteers on a Chocolate farm down there with a lot of other gringas. They don´t get paid for their work and in fact they have to pay out $10 a day to stay there. There´s no electricity and they all date the local Ticos. I think they might also be communist. Anyways, she didn´t seem so bad and we met up the next morning to catch a bus out to the volcano.
When we got to the volcano we vowed to hike the 7km from the road to the top and after a lot of sweating and swearing I made it there. Granted, it was one of the shortest volcanos that I´ve ever seen, but it´s also the first I did completely so whatever. The crater at the top has a very dramatic depth and the Spaniards considered it the mouth to hell itself. They put a big cross near the top for good measure but that didn´t stop it from eruping a few years later to wipe out a couple villages. Maybe they just provoked it. It´s been fairly tame for a while now, but last year it spat up some rocks and crushed a couple tourist vans but nobody was hurt somehow. Anyways, it still took a s
wipe at us with some killer heat but there were some girls selling cold cokes at the top so it didn´t bother me too much. At the bottom of the volcano was a rather large museum on the mountain that had mroe volcano maps and diagrams than I´ve seen in my life. They really went above and beyond. Robin turned out to be interesting in at least one aspect, she knows a lot about my new favorite historical figure, William Walker. Not that he was great in all aspects but he was an American Confederate who tried to conquor Central America with a band of mercenaries and was the president of Nicaragua for a while. He ended up losing a key battle (which is celebrated around here) after he pissed off one of the Vanderbilts who paid for another army of locals and mercs to fight him. Anyways, you should
read a little about him... it´s a crazy story.
After the hike I returned to Grenada and wandered around town looking for a nice bar. While searching, Robin and I heard a lot of music and clapping coming from one building so we went in and watched what I´m guessing was a school talent competition for a while. There was some dancing, singing, poetry, and some funky costumes. After that got boring I found a bar with fantastic mojitos (my favorite) and I chatted up some welsh guy who´s sponsoring a local girl to go to university. Charitable fellow. I bought him a beer and headed back to the hostel so I could get to bed
early for my ride out of town the next morning. I rode out to San Juan del Sur, the most popular beach town in Nicaragua. Oh, and on the way I got to stop by the lake and take a cool picture of the volcano island that sits in the middle. Some of the people in the van were going there and I was feeling a little jealous till I found out that they were going to hike up it. That thing is way too tall for me. Upon getting to the beach town I got a cheap hotel and started wandering. It´s pretty but seems kinda dead and I think that I´ll try to catch the ferry to a different beach a little ways north where there´s a famous surfing school. Lord knows I need it. The other thing
that´s going on in this town is a diving school and if the prices are right I may try to get my certification here. I´m gonna go find some grup so ttyl.
I find myself in a nice air conditioned net cafe near the beach, so it´s time to do a more legnthy update. I ended up deciding to stay in Grenada for an extra day so that I could hike the nearby `Volcan Masaya´. I met another gringo yesterday, Robin, who had come up from Costa Rica so that she could get her visa extended. She voulenteers on a Chocolate farm down there with a lot of other gringas. They don´t get paid for their work and in fact they have to pay out $10 a day to stay there. There´s no electricity and they all date the local Ticos. I think they might also be communist. Anyways, she didn´t seem so bad and we met up the next morning to catch a bus out to the volcano.
When we got to the volcano we vowed to hike the 7km from the road to the top and after a lot of sweating and swearing I made it there. Granted, it was one of the shortest volcanos that I´ve ever seen, but it´s also the first I did completely so whatever. The crater at the top has a very dramatic depth and the Spaniards considered it the mouth to hell itself. They put a big cross near the top for good measure but that didn´t stop it from eruping a few years later to wipe out a couple villages. Maybe they just provoked it. It´s been fairly tame for a while now, but last year it spat up some rocks and crushed a couple tourist vans but nobody was hurt somehow. Anyways, it still took a s
wipe at us with some killer heat but there were some girls selling cold cokes at the top so it didn´t bother me too much. At the bottom of the volcano was a rather large museum on the mountain that had mroe volcano maps and diagrams than I´ve seen in my life. They really went above and beyond. Robin turned out to be interesting in at least one aspect, she knows a lot about my new favorite historical figure, William Walker. Not that he was great in all aspects but he was an American Confederate who tried to conquor Central America with a band of mercenaries and was the president of Nicaragua for a while. He ended up losing a key battle (which is celebrated around here) after he pissed off one of the Vanderbilts who paid for another army of locals and mercs to fight him. Anyways, you should read a little about him... it´s a crazy story.
After the hike I returned to Grenada and wandered around town looking for a nice bar. While searching, Robin and I heard a lot of music and clapping coming from one building so we went in and watched what I´m guessing was a school talent competition for a while. There was some dancing, singing, poetry, and some funky costumes. After that got boring I found a bar with fantastic mojitos (my favorite) and I chatted up some welsh guy who´s sponsoring a local girl to go to university. Charitable fellow. I bought him a beer and headed back to the hostel so I could get to bed 
early for my ride out of town the next morning. I rode out to San Juan del Sur, the most popular beach town in Nicaragua. Oh, and on the way I got to stop by the lake and take a cool picture of the volcano island that sits in the middle. Some of the people in the van were going there and I was feeling a little jealous till I found out that they were going to hike up it. That thing is way too tall for me. Upon getting to the beach town I got a cheap hotel and started wandering. It´s pretty but seems kinda dead and I think that I´ll try to catch the ferry to a different beach a little ways north where there´s a famous surfing school. Lord knows I need it. The other thing 
that´s going on in this town is a diving school and if the prices are right I may try to get my certification here. I´m gonna go find some grup so ttyl.
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