Laguna de Apoyo

So, we moved from the "Bearded Monkey Hostal" to the "Monkey Hut" (owned by the same folks) at la Laguna de Apoyo, about a half an hour from Granada. Nicaraguans refer to both places as "La Barba del mono." The Laguna is a huge crater lake formed by a volcanic explosion many, many, many years ago and is incredibly blue and beautiful and only slightly salty. But we didn't make it there before I had to make a quick visit to the doctor (nothing serious).

La visita I won't go into details about my symptoms, but I finally decided to go to the doctor after a few days of resisting. I'm used to taking other folks to the doctor (mainly Abigail, in Mexico), but I never really consider going myself no matter how sick I feel or think I am. Still, I thought it would be a good idea and we had about an hour and a half before our transport to la Laguna would leave, so we went to the nearest farmacia for a consulta. It's very common in Mexico for pharmacies to have doctors on hand for quick and cheap visits and I was glad to find out that in Nicaragua this is also the case. At the first pharmacy we stopped at, we sat down in the open patio in beautiful, wooden rocking chairs but then were informed that there would be a bit of a wait because the doctor was doing a surgery (in the pharmacy.) So we walked a few more blocks to an actual doctor's office and began to wait there. After about 20 minutes I asked the secretary how much longer it would be. He said a couple of minutes, I looked at the clock and then at him again, and he said "I'll go check." A couple seconds later he poked his head out of the room the doctors were in and waved me in. First, the woman doctor insisted on giving me an ultrasound (apparently this is what the office was for) and finding nothing, refered me to the other doctor. I stepped into his office and he gave me a quick check-up before essentially repeating the same thing the previous doctor had told me. Behind his desk a picture was hanging of him with his small son on his shoulders. At first I thought, "How cute," until I realized that the doctor was displaying an incredibly lewd t-shirt (and a big grin) in the photograph. Next to the picture, a carved, wooden Virgin Mary prayed above his desk.

The visit cost quite a bit more than the visits to the pharmacies that we made in Mexico. It felt a little silly after going to get a check-up for Abigail in San Cristobal, which even ended in an injection of penicillin, and then only handing the doctor 25 pesos. Imagine giving a doctor back home your pocket change in exchange for a visit- collection agencies would be after you in no time.

La Laguna We missed our transport to the laguna due to all the delays with the doctor and later the pharmacy. But as we were leaving the hostal we saw 3 people also looking for a way to get to the laguna and we all jumped into a taxi, convincing the driver that if we got stopped one of us would get out of the car (only 4 were supposed to be allowed at a time). During the ride we found out the gal was from Canada and the guys from Australia, though they both teased each other back and forth about being from the states or from New Zealand (jokes that made more sense to them I suppose).

But as soon as we started descending on the laguna, it was all we could focus on. It was a lot bigger that I'd thought and sparkling blue, completely surrounded by forest with only a house here and there showing in the trees. It only takes a few minutes in a place like this to forget that cities exist.

We throw our bags in the dorms and head straight for the water. It's warm because of the sun but also because of the thermal waters that flow under the lake. We grab inner tubes and splash around like kids and spend the day cooking, laying around in the sun and breeze and taking some kayaks out as far as the wind and waves would let us. From the middle of the lake we could hear howler monkeys start to make loud, roaring noises as the evening set in. I told Abby, "Ok, this is great but soon we have to see Nicaragua too, you know." It didn't feel real or perhaps it just wasn't what I'd imagined before coming to Nicaragua. Being surrounded almost completly by white folks speaking English greatly added to this sentiment.

After a couple nights in the hostal, my patience was waning with the "backpacker" community. True, I have a backpack too, but I mean this group of folks that travel in countries for the sole reason that the places are cheap, this apparently allowing them to indulge more in drugs and alcohol and guided tours and easy transport. I don't want to generalize but I've seen so many of these folks that they really could be classified as a distinct class of tourist. They want things to be "safe" so they stay in hostals owned by foreigners where everything from movies to food to drinks to internet are available and in essence they never even have to leave the hostal. Usualy around 9 or 10 am, after we'd already been awake a few hours, these folks would stumble out of their beds, groggy and hungover. I can't say I never traveled that way but I just can't imagine doing it now. Travel through Nicaragua without interacting with Nicaraguans? Too strange for me.

So after spending a beautiful day and night at the laguna, where we pretty much kept to ourselves, we jumped on a bus to Masaya to check it out on our way to Jinotepe, where we would be staying with a family through Hospitality Club.