Griff the Traveler’s Guardian Angel
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008While 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!!
Peggy Rehm