El Volcan Mumbacho:
I have never seen a volcano, so naturally I was excited! There are 3 craters and you get to choose what hike you would like to do whether it's the long hike with a guide or the shorter hike with no guide. Well... Before I proceed, let me explain the strenuous ordeal that occurred before. Strenuous not on my brain, but rather my muscles. The price for transportation up to the volcano was 16 dollars or you could walk up for 3 dollars. Cost friendly vs costly? Easy choice. We began the trek unaware of the path that lay before us. It is pretty much an incline straight up, which took us 2 hours to get to the top to begin the volcano hike. Great workout, lots of sweat, add a little delusion from the heat and you have yourself a quality adventure. The road was never ending! Along the way, Amanda and I were walking up and we hear rustling through the trees getting closer and closer. Our first reaction; JUMANJI!!! Then we froze in preparation for what was most likely not jumanji. It was a group of howling monkeys jumping from tree to tree as they progress over us. The baby monkeys were attempting to follow the clan, but kept missing the branches... I felt their pain in my exhaustion. Very cool moment!
By the time we made it to the top, not only did we want to do a 'Rocky' celebration, but we decided to do the shorter hike with no guide. Amanda ended up knowing someone who worked their and he gave us a free guided hike to places tourists are not allowed. Volcano VIP's, BOOM! He brought us to the home of Tarzan. He let us swing on the Tarzan vines like in the movies. Weeee. He showed us a small pond along the volcanic rocks that provides the water for the coffee plants. Informative detour. The rest of the hike around the crater was spontaneous, exploratory, and whimsicle. Whimsicle because I honored Amanda and Andrew with my B-E-A-utiful singing voice that turned into a Spanish, Portuguese, and English mix. I know they loved it, I just know it. We met this French guy who was by himself traveling around Latin America to Volcano destinations (about 9 months now). He would video tape himself talking about that destination. A truly fascinating story and he had a mysterious duck with him. Not real (but how cool would that be), but a little rubber ducky. He explained during the 9 months he was traveling that the duck was his only gift. In Mexico there is a story about a traveling gnome or something, and this Mexican girl decided he needed one, but said the duck will surffice as his replacement gnome. Interesting story. I digress, we caught a ride back down from some workers and it was a perfect volcano experience! The volcano is not active, but it is warm to the touch if you place your hand in a hole. The day was far from over...
La Fiesta:
After an 8 hour day of hiking/ traveling, plus exhaustion, I had to find a second wave of energy for another 6 hours of dancing at La Fiesta en la Concha. Let me just say I didn't have enough energy for the chaos of the night! The title "la fiesta" is a clear indication that it will be a night for the books. Starting with our bus ride to La Concha (van, in better terms). It was packed; a stranger sitting on my lap, some stranger stroking my hair behind me, and the van moving backwards going up hill from the mass capacity of people. You know, everyday occurances, nbd. We arrived in one piece; great success!
I realize the fascination other cultures have for foreign girls, but man oh man I was reminded. The word to describe the attention: piranhas! At one point (not even kidding), there was a swarm of about 6 guys surrounding Amanda and I, so what do I do? Run! Serious, not a walk, a run. While pulling Amanda behind me as if we were running from lava. In my head, they would understand my gesture of running was indicative on the situation, but nope. Even through the game of who can get the "Chellaes" (gringos aka foreigners), I had a fun youthful night. Even learned the Nicaraguan dance. ¡Muy Bien!
Sunday Funday:
Baseball. Not soccer! Gasp. Baseball is huge here, so we went to the game in town at a local park and it was packed. ¡Muy popular! In the small amount of time I have been here, I have made some acquaintances/ friends with some locals. After the game people stuck around and we all drank beers while conversing in Spanish. It began to POUR rain, so we sat under the shelter in the stands for hours talking. It was worth a mention in the blog because it is the little things in life that bring the most warmth to my heart (I am laughing with the full intention of making this line as corny as possible). Add an array of fireworks and music and ta da!! Corny moment achieved. I even made my first language barrier mistake. I wanted to say: I have to pee. However, this is what I said: "yo tengo caca", which translates to "I have to shit". Everyone busted up laughing as well as myself because I discovered too late that I said the wrong word. It was a fun day nonetheless.
I have a million more things to talk about especially my Spanish classes and volunteer work, but I will have to fit that into the next blog. ¡Hasta luego!
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