For the first two days in a city its like being a freshman. You graduate to a new grade every other night. I was a senior in Leon. When you're a senior you know all the ins and outs - of course I'm no expert of the city - I've been there only seven days, but in terms of a traveler I know all that needs to be known. I know new people that arrive at the hostel. I know how to close the door to the bathroom that's slightly off its hinge so you can have your private time after the morning coffee and where to find the only good knife in the kitchen. It starts to feel a bit like home. I can walk to the market with my eyes closed and I know the cheapest and best places to eat. In the beginning of this trip I generally only became a sophomore in the cities I visited, but now I've come to appreciate the perks of being a senior. It's not always worth attaining senior status and it's not always possible, but it's a great way to travel. 35 times now I've started over as a freshman in a new city and I've only become a senior three times. Twice in Nicaragua. All these countries are cheap, but Nicaragua might be up there as the cheapest. Plus, since its mango (.45 cents for a whole fruit of juicy heaven) and avocado season (.23 cents for creamy smoothness which makes your knees wobble and cave in pleasure) there's really no reason I should leave for a long long time.
Leon is a beautiful city in northwest Nicaragua. The many old churches are the main tourist attraction in town and lord knows (at least he should), that one CAN see entirely too many churches. The Spanish did an amazing job of spreading Christianity in the 1500 and 1600's. They built thousands of churches in every city from Mexico on down to Nicaragua. Every colonial city has five or six. Unfortunately Nicaragua, along with all of Central America also lies adjacent to the volcanic "Ring of Fire" and destroys many of the churches every hundred years or so. A sign from God saying "Stop building churches...please".
There is one very young volcano (150 years old) known as Cerro Negro (Black Hill) where some genius thought up the idea to hike to the top with a sled and have someone at the bottom with a speed gun. The record holder (87 km/hr - 55 mph) was an Israeli girl who didn't speak or understand English very well. She nodded all cute and Jewish as the instructions for slowing down and stopping where explained, but she had no clue. She lifted her feet on the board (what you use to slow down) and just bombed down the sandy, pebbly 30 - 45 degree slope of the 200 meter decent down the volcano. She set the record and as a consolation price crashed close to the bottom and received 20 stitches in her forehead. I would be setting no records. We were told once you hit 60 km/hr you have about a 60% chance of crashing. I hit about 55 km/hr. If I had another chance it's possible I would have gone to that illusive 60 km/hr - a Dr. Evil scar down my face might be good peacock for picking up girls.
From Leon I left Norway, the guy I'd been traveling with for almost a month. I gotta face it...I'm a Lonely Man traveler. I like to be Lonely Man in restaurants with my Lonely Man book and Lonely Man journal. I like to walk the streets as a Lonely Man with my Lonely Planet. I like my Lonely alone time with my book and my Lonely alone time on the bus. The truth is, there is Lonely Men all over the place - less common, but still possible to find is the Lonely Woman. One day Lonely Man will meet Lonely Woman - but this Lonely Man is perfectly happy with his Lonely self. Don't take this the wrong way - Lonely Man is not lonely. It's just the term for solo travelers eating solo in restaurants and walking solo through town. Sometimes, that's me and most of the time, that is how I love it. It's possible that gets me a few notches closer to Loser Man, but at least I'm Happy Man.
After Leon (and a couple days of beach time on the north pacific coast) I headed as Lonely Man to Granada in southern Nicaragua. Leon and Granada are both wonderful little cities, but sweaty balls hot. So hot its difficult to function in the day time. Granada sits right on the edge of the worlds 19th largest lake - Lago de Nicaragua is one name it goes by. The heat was boiling my brain and thus I only became a sophomore in Granada before severely needing some beach time.
San Juan del Sur is nestled in a little cove on the Pacific ocean. Its lovely and despite the still ever present heat there is always a nice breeze rolling through the streets. Perhaps the best thing about San Juan del Sur is the women. Not only the beautiful dark skinned, dark haired local beauties walking around, but only the cutest foreigners seem to swing through here. My only problem is I talk to the beautiful German who reminds me of the hot Nazi in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade only for her to drop the "my boyfriend...." line two hours in to great conversation or I talk to the sexy Costa Rican only for Ripple Pecks to walk over with his shirt off and steal her away. Then I think I'm doing pretty good with a cute local before I learn she's a prostitute from Managua. So it goes...
I took 20 more hours of Spanish lessons, 2 hours a day for 10 days, I got a 5 time pass to the local gym, and took surf lessons while in San Juan. I even got to be an extra in a movie being shot by Paramount Pictures in the five star hotel up on the hill over looking the entire city and ocean. It wasn't as cool as it sounds, but I did get free 5 Hour Energy's and EmergenC packets. The movie is a comedy called "Destination Wedding". I got to be one of the guests at the wedding. When the movie comes out I'll probably be the blurry out of focus bald dude. Be sure to peep it. We were there for 8 hours to in reality probably not actually be in the movie at all. So it goes...
I'm leaving San Juan del Sur on Monday the 16th after 12 days here. I have slightly more than 3 weeks left. I won't be a senior in a city again on this trip. I'm going to be moving quickly. One more stop in Nicaragua (the volcanic island Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua) then I hope to see some of Costa Rica and Panama before my flight home from San Jose, Costa Rica. With luck and proper planning I'll make it as far as Panama City where the grass is green and girls are pretty.
Hombre Solitario hits the road manana and goes back to being a freshman...So it goes...
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