A Broad Abroad

While I was catching some good hammock-time on my last evening in Granada a flurry of activity commenced at the desk. I heard her before I saw her – a Katherine Hepburn-type voice, clear but aged and very, very welsh. Then I saw her, standing no more than 5 ft tall, carrying a small bag and trying to make clear what she was looking for, in English, to a group of 4 people who spoke only Spanish.

She explained “I’m exhausted, I’ve been traveling for 2 days and I just want a bed: a bed no more than $10, preferably not a dorm and certainly not a mixed-dorm. I’ve been in those and they tend to couple-up, you know? this one here won’t do as I can’t get down the stairs in the dark for the bathroom.”

The fact is this is a difficult task in Granada which is certainly not the cheapest town in Nicaragua. Ian stepped-in to help interpret and some calls were made around town. No luck. Several of the cheaper places have no phone so a run was made to check for availability. This woman was someone you wanted to help. It was hard to look at her and not be instantly captivated and curious.

While all this was going on (the calling and the running) I made her a cup of tea and we sat down to talk. Griff is her name. she is from wales, traveling alone and is a month and ½ away from 90 years. The story of her flight from the UK, through 2 US airports, to Managua, finding a cheap place to stay and making it on local and regional buses to Granada is amazing. She nearly passed out on the streets of Managua. Griff says “they’ll tear the earrings right off your ears, I hear!” but on each step of the way someone appeared, to give a hand, just as we were right then.

I don’t want to make her sound helpless by any means. She’s traveled all over the world and is a wise one but at this point the success of her travels depend rather heavily on the people who are drawn to her. There IS something of a mr. magoo quality to the story of how she arrived at the hostel but there is not time for that.

She was in the army during WWII. First defending Belgium (some sort of message interception), and then moving into germany immediately after the surrender, where they occupied a german calvary unit and learned to ‘ride’ on the german’s first-rate horses. she was taught by a world famous Russian equestrian who was there for the horses as well. Griff says “oh, we were bad – galloping thru the villages so fast the germans could scarcely get out of our way!” After the war she married an army man and they were sent to upper volta (now Ghana) while the british still had troops there. Wow!

Ian asks if there is anyone back home to whom we can send an email and let them know she’s arrived in Granada safely. No. No one knows or cares where she is. Back home she’ll not be missed. It strikes me then – I can see why she wants to travel like this. She has already befriended a handful of people, all eager to help her, and she’s only just arrived. Back home, she says, nobody talks to anybody.

In the mean time a gentleman using the internet at the hostel tells us of a home-stay just around the corner. It’s $10 for a room and that includes 3 meals. How perfect is that!? Ian and I walk her over to a lovely nica family’s home and she gets settled in. we walk over to check on her in the morning before we catch the bus to Managua and she’s just heading out to find a bank to change money. We give her directions and she is one her way, but not before we snap a photo together.

Over the next few days when some good luck strikes (like catching the bus just as it starts to rain) we say it is griff and her travel-charms looking out for us. I hope she is having a wonderful time in Granada.

there is a pic of me and griff below (yeah, i’ll make an exception to my “no pics of peggy rule”) and no, i am not a giant. she is just very, very tiny!!

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Ometepe, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

in ometepe i came across a very mellow group of howlers and got some decent pics. if you’ve been within a mile or so of a howler you know where they got their name, but here you can see their howl in progress!

i have not written nearly as much as i thought i would as i lazed around wi-fi filled granada. i had a lot of fun with regina and linda, two gringas who live in MX. they got me off the hammock one day to tour the isletas by boat. these are small islands in lake cocibolca, created by rocks thrown from the mouth of volcan mombacho. i took the bus one day to masaya, a nearby market town, but my camera acted up and i got almost no pics. and yesterday ian from Oz (whom i met in cerra punta) popped up and we all had a great dinner together – ribs at johnny three-finger!

several days ago i moved from hostel cocibolca to hostel dorado because it has wi-fi and a hammock area. i am all about hammocks in the shade on a hot afternoon. i really recommend this place for a private room with bath. ian says the dorms are pretty hot and noisy, tho. also – not all rooms are equally cool. avoid those that get the afternoon sun. otherwise, it’s stellar and NOT in the lonely planet, which is getting more and more important to me 🙂 tho they have proved a good tool for me generally. i am using the latest Nov 2007 edition of central america on a shoestring.

granada has been a lovely place to wander around visit markets, eat good food, etc. how long have i been here? it will be 6 nights total. tomorrow ian and i made reservations to fly from managua to the corn islands. this has been a place i’ve looked forward to seeing for awhile. it will be my last beach destination (i think) until i get to MX. very tranquilo. we’ll head for little corn and i think most places only have electricity at certain times of day and most likely no internet (but i am often surprised).

There are a number of people who share my trajectory thru central America, tho maybe only part of it. We greet each other, have a little chit chat, etc. with some I am on a first name basis and with others I know only the relevant facts: where have you been, where are you going, where are you from and do you have any info that I might find helpful?

With a handful of people throughout my travels I have shared and learned more: the Canadians and jenny in tortuguero, Roberto in punta uva, Jessica and Ian in cerra punta, Duncan and Nancy in osa, gina and Linda here in grenada. I find that at 40 I’m sort-of in between the 2 major groups of travelers: college-age and retirement age.

I am not unique by any means (ok I’m unique but not special ☺) but I’ve observed some interesting dynamics. At first I believed that older men talked to me more frequently because they were more curious about why I am traveling solo, but now I think it’s just because they want to talk – and mostly about themselves. I am getting a great lesson in humility and the art of conversation. And young people….well, I applaud them for getting out and seeing the world. it will certainly serve them well in the future and we’ll just leave it at that.

When I meet people who welcome multi-dimensional conversations it is truly a pleasure. And here is my big epiphany: it’s no different than at home or anywhere. As a matter of fact, my position may have less to do with age and more to do with my personality. I’ll try to boil it down further over the coming months but what I have right now is this: people traveling abroad are no more special than anywhere, contrary to what they might believe (and what I believed before I left). Unique, as is every person on the planet, but not special. People who’s company I truly enjoy seem to be fairly evenly distributed throughout the world’s population without regard to geography, interests, religion, etc.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a disappointment. i take this away from the lesson: I’m just as likely to meet people I like here, back in CA, TX, in timbouctou or anywhere. They aren’t all magically drawn to one place or one activity (like traveling). That’s good. I like good people and the world needs them everywhere ;). I can share.

i’m reminded of something my friend shawn said before I left TX for CA. he was kind of griping that I was leaving and Kathy, his wife and one of my dearest friends, asked “Don’t you want Peggy to be happy and move somewhere she’ll find more people she likes?” and shawn said “I think peggy will find people she likes anywhere she goes”. Shawn, oh wise one ☺! btw, you and your lady are 2 of those people I like!!!

Granada, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

fish from lake nicaragua. now that is a thumb made for cleaning fish!

Usually when I get to a town I am exhausted when I arrive. I suspect there is a look of desperation in my eyes that hotel owners can easily see. I generally take the first place who’s threshold I actually cross (yes, I have some loose criteria for getting me in the door). But upon arrival in granada, fortified by air-conditioning and tim’s entertaining stories, I actually check out 3 places before I settle on hospidaje cocibolca for $12/nt – private room and bathroom, nice bed, etc.

it was nearly evening so I just wandered around granada, getting my bearings and soaking in the lovely colonial atmosphere before getting a beer with chips and salsa (real salsa!) at a Mexican restaurant (oh glorious Mexican food!). the beer made me sleepy so I went back to the room to work on my photos/nap for a bit before emerging to get a snack before calling it a night. I found a nice wine bar on the square and ordered some hummus and wine. On my way back to the hostel I sat and watched a game of street soccer, with prone bikes and lampposts as goals. I’m really looking forward to exploring granada more and enjoying diverse foods, good photography opportunities, and whatever else I can rustle up.

Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

Wooden frames with stones slabs on top serve as laundry mats for Ometepeans.

Then I’m at the ferry and the twin peaks of concepcion and madera loom in the middle of the lake. Lake Nicaragua is IMMENSE with white-caps and swells like the ocean and rising from its waters are these 2 huge volcanoes which, attached, make up the island of ometepe. The swells induce vomiting in a few young passengers ☺ but other than that it’s a lovely trip. I arrive in moyagalpa ready to find a place to stay and have cold cervesa. Oh yeah! I have to learn new beers! Here it is Victoria or Tona. I find a $9 room with private bath, at hospadiaje central and am very pleased. Actually, the bathroom has a bit of a “saw” character about it, minus the dead body. But I plop my pack down and go up front to the colorful restaurant to have those beers. I try one of each and can’t tell the difference but maybe it’s because they are very cold and that is really all that matters.

Despite recent eruptions it’s lush and filled with wildlife. I also find that I really like moyagalpa. it’s a clean, friendly and pretty little town with streets that in one direction look up to the peak of concepcion. Lonely planet is not kind to it, but I rather like it and decide to stay 2 nights before I move to one of the other towns on the island.

by the end of my stay here I have become “camera lady” again, an honor I hadn’t had since bocas. I went out without my camera in the evening and kids still shouted “photo!”. It’s nice to be around people who get excited about having a photo taken. I also found plenty of interesting subjects, like the small, wooden platforms out in the lake where the women do their washing, the 3 stray horses that wander thru town, and lots of interesting buildings and people.

there is obvious devotion to Our Lady of Nicaragua, an apparation of the virgin that the catholic church “approved” in 1983 and a marked increase in the “catholicness” of the population compared to costa rica or panama, both of which have provided the evangelical churches with big gains in recent decades. I especially liked the novelty store called Variedades de los jesus infante. i guess because jesus loved all men and women he wouldn’t mind the red and white checked hotpants and yellow tube-top worn by the mannequin in the window

Moyagalpa also has jerry, the ex-pat owner of a local restaurant who is recruiting for “volunteers” to work there. You get room, board (including alcohol) and weed but will have to fight off the old guy’s advances. Actually, he’s only 55 but I gathered it’s not his good clean living that gave him his looks. He’s been rode hard and put up wet a few too many times. So despite the temptation (ha!) I will not be volunteering there. if you want info let me know :).

I waivered on whether to just make moyagalpa my base and do day trips but in the end I decided to pack up and head to chaco verde. I’m glad I did. I found a room at Hotel Finca Playa Venecia (hehe – hotel farm beach venecia – that just about covers it!). it’s a great place with average food. the afternoon I get there I hike thru chaco verde reserve. There are nice views of the volcano from the miradors and I ran across the most mellow group of howler monkeys ever. There must have been at least 10 in their group, including 2 babies, and they were so close! I was glad I’d brought my camera.

There was an interesting mix of people at the hotel and I got myself socialized. The lake is nice to swim in so the next day I spent mostly walking the area and lounging lakeside. I decided to move onto granada the next day and was happy to score a ride with tim from marin, in an air-conditioned car (!), most of the way there. This means skipping the hike to the road in chaco verde (with all my stuff), a bus to moyagalpa, a bus from san Jorge to rivas and most of the bus trip from rivas to granada! He and france, another traveler we met, were going to head for leon so they just dropped me off at the cutoff to granada and I only needed to wait about 5 minutes for a granada-bound bus to come by. that was the easiest travel day yet!