I returned again to Nicaragua this weekend. I went back to the city of Granada where I first visited way back in March. This is the first time I visited Nicaragua since the elections were held. The Nicaraguans elected Daniel Ortega and the Sandanista party as president at the beginning of November and there were still lots of elections signs up, including signs thanking people for voting.
This time I stayed at the Bearded Monkey which is a hostel in the middle of Granada. The hostel was full of tourists and was geared for backpackers. They had a very good restaurant inside the hostel and there was a nice courtyard where you could hang out on hammocks. They also had plenty of books to read and movies to watch. I explored Granada again, now that I have my Nicaragua guide book, and came across quite a few beautiful old buildings in the oldest city in the Americas. Later that night I went to a popular dance bar near the hostel and enjoyed the music.
The next day I managed to get up and had excellent french toast in the hostel. The rest of the morning I checked out the chaotic market and picked out a couple of cheap T-shirts. The easiest way back to Bagaces was to take a direct international bus, but the bus was full. Instead I took a couple of old Bluebird school buses to the border just like the kind I used to ride when I was a kid. I picked up two more stamps for my passport. I have used up close to half of my passport pages now, but some of them still have room left over.
On Wednesday there was a party for my birthday down at the new pool. The pool was closed but they were nice enough to open it for us. It was kind of strange celebrating my birthday outside at a pool without freezing to death, but I can hardly remember cold weather anyways. There were about 15 people that came and they bought me a bike for my birthday because my other bike had been stolen a couple of weeks ago. I just need to make sure I get a chain lock this time. I also got a card with my head pasted onto a sloth. Apparently, other people have noticed that I don't do any work. I got an excessive amount of free drinks so making it in to work the next day was somewhat of a challenge.
