Day 4 Managua to San Carlos

Playing some catch up now since I was without Internet for three days in El Castillo so pardon the myriad posts I'll probably do tonight.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Getting up at 5:30 am was definitely a chore. Particularly after having stayed up chatting with the Italians until midnight and then taking a shower before I went to bed. But I did it so that I could catch the 7 am bus to San Carlos in southern Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border and the Rio San Juan. Octavio, the taxi driver with whom the Italians had confianza (trust), arrived at 6 as promised. I got to the bus station at 6:20 which was nice for getting a seat, but sure meant a lot of time to kill. I bought some water and snacks for the long trip ahead, then loaded up on the bus to wait it out.

The bus filled up fairly quickly after that and we left the station at 7 on the nose. A man with his 5ish-year-old son, whose name I later learned was Jovan (the son, not the man), sat next to me, the boy on his father’s lap. We stopped pretty much anywhere someone told us to or where someone hailed the bus from the side of the road. Almost every time we stopped vendors got on selling fried chicken, fried plantains, cheese with tortillas, fresh fruit, gum, chips, candy, juices, pop, underwear, belts, mosquito nets, vitamins, and lotions, almost anything you could think of. The old school bus, with seats definitely meant for children, not full grown adults, was jam-packed. It was difficult to move your arms and legs. There were people standing in the aisles on and off for parts of the 7 hour trip. The windows were all down, thank goodness, but it was a hot day and while the breeze made it feel a little less sauna-like it was still pretty stuffy.

With only 5 hours or less of sleep under my belt from the night before, I found myself nodding in and out of sleep. Mainly I leaned forward and rested my head on the seat in front of me, because if I leaned back in the seat I would start snoring and snort myself awake which was decidedly embarrassing.

However, when I was awake it was beautiful. The bus crept up steep hills covered with forests full of a variety of trees, most of which I don’t know the name of. Then there were the high plateaus where herds of Brahma cattle dotted the landscape and you were as likely to see people riding down the road on horses rather than in vehicles. We passed through many small towns that lined the highway with multi-colored houses and businesses painted in blues, reds, greens, yellows, every color you could think of. Nicaraguans, old and young, sat on porches or in the shade of trees chatting away or ambled down the streets on their way to the corner store, or church, or to visit a friend.

We finally arrived in San Carlos around 2, just in time for the fumigation crew to be wandering around the city spraying massive white clouds of chemicals to control the mosquito population that bring so many sicknesses to the country. On the one side the chemicals are nasty, harmful stuff that likely have long term effects on the health of the people in the towns and particularly the men whose job it is to wander around town and spray these chemicals with backpacks full of the stuff on their backs. On the other hand it helps prevent people from contracting dengue, malaria, and chikungunya which can be devastating and even deadly. Having had dengue while in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic I can attest first hand to how miserable it is. Your body aches so badly that you feel like it’s going to fall apart and your head throbs so incessantly that all you can do is lie in a dark room downing ibuprofen alternated with aspirin for every two hours to try to bring your fever down. After that goes away, your body is covered with an itchy rash and your joints are stiff for several days. The lethargy lasts for several weeks. And I had a mild version.

Now by the time I arrived in San Carlos, I was sweaty and tired and hadn’t had anything to eat except water and some chips. But I needed to figure out what to do with the backpacks I was carrying, one on my back, and one on my front. I wandered around town for a while trying to figure out where all the hospedajes (hotels) were, passing several but not sure of how reliable they would be. I read the chapter in my guidebook about San Carlos over and over and studied the map in hopes of being able to familiarize myself with the town as much as I could because I refuse to pull out a guidebook when I’m walking around the street because I don’t want to stand out as a tourist any more than I already do. Although wandering the streets looking lost probably doesn’t help either. I remembered the name of one of the hospedajes in the guidebook and began asking around and eventually a woman pointed me in the right direction. After viewing the room I said yes. It was definitely rustic, but clean and it had its own bathroom, granted with no running water (This was a city-wide problem, not specific to the hotel). However, there was a 50 gallon garbage can full of water and a couple of buckets to bath and flush the toilet with. I had practice with this from my time in the Peace Corps as well.

After bathing I went out for a late lunch and then wandered around the streets of San Carlos. I went down to the malecon (boardwalk) along the lake and then up to the Spanish fort which was a simple group of buildings, not particularly fort-like at all really. I also went to the mirador (lookout point) with three cannons that had been brought up river from the town of El Castillo where I was heading next. There was a spectacular view of the lake and the two river that converge at San Carlos. I also managed to catch an amazing sunset. The sun set over the lake with the silhouette of the Soletiname Islands in front of it and fishing boats floating on the shimmering water tinged with reds, oranges, and pink from the setting sun.

Dinner was another entertaining experience. I went out to a nicer restaurant because there were very few places open in the evening and ordered a stewed chicken dish. It came with the following sides: salad, rice, French fries, tostones (fried green plantains), and mashed potatoes. Plenty of carbs to fill me up that was for sure!

After dinner I went back to the hotel and sat outside with the guy who worked nights at the hotel and chatted for a while since it was too early and too hot to go to sleep in my room, even with the fan on. As we were sitting there chatting a car started up down the street and proceeded to back into another vehicle, then pulled forward and rolled back into it again, both times with a fair amount of force. It looked like the guy might just drive off but the owner of the other car came out and confronted him and they stood talking on the street for quite a long time, so long that I decided it was time to head in for the night.

Here's some pictures from the evening in San Carlos. That's right finally some pictures!

Egret perched atop one of the lanchas (boats) that will take you down river and out to the islands.

The old Spanish fort up on the hill in town.

I can never remember what these flowers are called but they are lovely.

View from the highest point of the fort. You can see the Rio San Juan in the foreground and sort of where the Rio Frio comes in in the middle and Lake Nicaragua in the background.

The street where my hotel was located. There are a lot of cobblestone-like streets around here.

Prettier than I can describe it!

This time with a fisherman floating through it. The islands are just barely visible on the horizon.

A fisherman paddling over to his next net while the sun was setting.