Woodley's Wanderings: Day 5 From San Carlos to El Castillo

I slept in a little on Monday and dawdled packing things in the hotel. The fan and the darkness in the little room had allowed me to sleep a little better, and probably the lack of sleep as well. However, by 11 I was packed up and ready to go…and wait for a boat down the Rio San Juan. I went to the boat office first because I had heard that the boats sold out fast and sure enough they were calling the boat operators to see if there was space or not. I decided to wait until the later boat that left at 2ish. So I went to grab lunch at one of the comedores (restaurants that serve breakfast and lunch) near the bus station. I was immediately hailed by several women all trying to get me to eat at their locale. Apparently there is stiff competition to attract travelers to each comedor, all of which are right next to each other and only divided by a short wooden fence.

Then it was back to the boat station to buy my ticket for the next boat leaving at 2:15. I had two hours to kill and not much to do so I sat around the bus station and watched the news which makes American news seem pretty tame. They literally show dead bodies and blood-soaked accident scenes. They did the same in the Dominican Republic, but I didn’t watch the news much thank goodness. I couldn’t really stomach it for very long. The usual flow of vendors selling everything under the sun was present here as well and I realized that they must have a route that they follow because I saw the same vendors over and over as I waited. There were a few more tourists like me wandering around too. A family I had seen the day before in one of the restaurants, a young couple that I think are European, and a woman with a baby (although I don’t think she was a tourist, it looked more like she had married a Nicaraguan man and stayed in the country).

Finally it was time to board the boat. They are called lanchas and they are long, skinny boats that hold about 60 people. It was a full boat as well and the ayudante (helper) would yell in that more people needed to load on one side or the other to keep the boat balanced. The ride was gorgeous as we moved down the wide river. The water is a little murky, but the shores are brilliant shades of green. Some areas are more meadows with a few trees dotting them and usually some livestock as well, mainly cows and horses. Other areas were thick with trees, with vines entangled every which way and epiphytes sprouting in odd places from the trunks and limbs. I swear I saw the nose of a crocodile but it was so brief it was hard to say for sure and no one else seemed to see it but I kept my eyes peeled after that. Although of course since I thought I had seen one, every time I saw a stick in the water I thought it was another one for a few seconds. At one point, the sunset was behind us but as we pulled in to the shore to let someone off the boat we turned sideways and this brilliant orange and yellow orb shown brilliantly, setting right over the river for a few moments until we pushed off and rounded a curve as we headed further downstream.

There were a few stops along the way as well, some you could tell there was a community that lived there, but others looked like people were jumping out of the boat to head into the middle of the jungle, which I guess might be true in some places. The place names were great too, Los Cocos (The Coconuts) and Poco Sol (Little Sun). The communities along the river all had houses elevated on stilts to protect them when the water level rises which it can when the rains are heavy. There are also houses perched like sentinels on the tops of small hills.

We arrived in El Castillo at dusk and I went straight for a hospedaje that I had already picked out from my guidebook because they supposedly had internet, a restaurant, and breakfast included. Of all of those things they supposedly had, they did have breakfast included. The shared bathrooms were also a little funkier than I had anticipated. Apparently almost nowhere in the town has internet except the nicer hotels and I don’t think they’re sharing unless you stay there which I don’t plan on doing. Also, I had to go find dinner, and followed the recommendation of the staff at the hotel.

Apparently, the restaurant was about the only choice in town since I saw the young European couple and was shortly joined by Eelko, a Dutch man who has been traveling by himself for 6 months. He came and sat with me and shared where he had gone and wrote down a list of things in Nicaragua that he’s enjoyed so far. It’s literally just been him by himself except for maybe six weeks when either friends from home flew in to meet him or he met someone to travel with for a few days. He said the hardest thing is having had all these experiences and not really having anyone to share them with for the most part. There’s no one he can turn to and say, “Remember when…”, which I can totally see.

The thing that’s getting to me is boredom, especially in the evenings. In the daytime I can wander around and visit different places, but in the evenings, particularly in small towns, there’s not much going on and so I’m often left without much to do or much of anyone to talk to unless the hotel staff are feeling chatty which doesn’t seem to happen much around here. They are likely to leave you alone unless you need something. So far I’ve been reading my guidebook incessantly, reading a novel, calling Mom and Dad to chat in the evenings (which is actually quite cheap), listening to podcasts, and typing up these blog posts to share with all of you once I find somewhere with Internet again.

Here's a video and some pictures from the boat ride.