Ive taken a brief hiatus from blogging due to the impending fellowship applications that are due soon for grad school. However, we have been fine. it seems like the days are going by faster and faster. we started out our time at the conservatory with long periods of working broken up with only a day off at a time. weve gotten it down to only about 5 days on at a time, followed by a day off which is much easier to handle. grant is over his cold finally, and weve gotten used to the grocery situation. since our visas ran out on january 2nd, we decided to renew them in december since were already taking a lot of time off in january when my family is here.
so, we left for nicaragua at 8am this morning. glenn dropped us off at the bus stop in front of the police station right at the turn off to el castillo. we took a bus to tilaran, then one to canas, then to liberia, then to penas blancas where we crossed the border (i cant imagine a more disorganized or unmarked border crossing. its bad enough that i dont speak spanish so everything is a slight mystery to me, but add a COMPLETE lack of signs and its a nightmare. basically, its a mysterious 1km walk where you have to find your way into both the costa rican and nicaraguan customs offices to get your stamps and fill out your customs forms. the plus side is there is a duty free store after moving into the nicaraguan side, where we bought a great deal of chocolate). after leaving the border area we decided on a bus that was bound for the capitol city managua. we were on it for a total of 2.5 hours, and got off somewhere (the name is a mystery of me, but we knew where to go becaus two ladies helped us) then we ran across the street and literally just made it into a tiny van bound for granada. it cost us $.50 each. there were at least 16 people stuffed into this van. i clung to the side of the front seat, and luckily grabbed my backpack right before the guy opened the side door to let off a passenger. his door opening was not timed with the van stopping...we were always going easily 20 mph when he actually opened the door, which was a bit startling when it first happened since i was teetering precariously on the ledge behind the front seats, clinging to the front seats and my backpack and relying on the rather large man seated right there.
anyways, the van dropped us off and we jumped in a taxi across the street. the man made a very illegal (in the USA) turn and took us to the oasis hostel, where we had a room reserved. granada is obviously a very beautiful old city. the buildings, from what were seeing so far, are absolutely rich with architecture and history. were going to explore tomorrow, possibly meet up with a friend of grants family, and maybe make it out to ometepe, the volcano in the middle of lake nicaragua. then on wednesday midday, were going to head to san juan del sur to spend the day on the beach. friday we reverse our trip, ideally with fewer buses. we have to get to tilaran by 12:30pm if we want to get a bus back to la fortuna. otherwise, were basically SOL for friday. its a whirlwind trip, but a welcome break from work.
