plans?

when you meet people traveling you often ask a few typical questions—where they are from, where they are headed next (most people here are traveling through central and south america), how long they’re traveling, etc. in short, what their plan is. when these questions are asked of me i usually respond with “um, i really don’t have a plan.” it seems a bit ludacris now, but i seriously didn’t plan on traveling at all. i thought i’d come to guatemala for about 2.5 months, learn some spanish, and head on home at the end of march. as i type this, i am on ometepe island in nicaragua, have spent the past few days figuring out the best way to cross the border into costa rica, and i am fairly sure i won’t be home before mid-may. things change.

people move fast through central america—two days here, three there, and onto the next place. this type of schedule allows for flexibility in travel plans (though i am not so sure anyone backpacker *really* has a plan), and it also makes it easy to hook up with other travelers so you never have to travel alone. so, last friday, after about 5 days in leon i decided it was time to move. i’d heard about ometepe island in southern nicaragua and decided i needed some nature in my life. another guy from my hostel in leon, adam, along with two girls from the hostel across the street also wanted to head to ometepe so we headed out bright and early saturday morning.traveling is often an adventure, and if anything, it is never quick and often involves multiple forms of transportation. first, we flagged down a taxi outside our hostel where we proceeded to cram four packs and four people into a tiny cab to the bus terminal. the bus terminal could easily have been mistaken for a friday night party based on the sound level of the reggaeton (no complaints over here—if anything my complaint is that i haven’t heard more). from there, we, along with our packs (and mine which is entirely too big even after dropping a lot of stuff), crammed into a mini bus with some locals to head to managua. just as with a chicken bus, on mini buses there is a driver and an ayundante which means even though the van was full, the ayundante still summoned more passengers aboard in an effort to make a few more cordobas. in a little over an hour we arrived in managua. thankfully on this ride we’d made friends with some locals who were traveling home quite close to where we were headed. and thank god for them, cause we might still be in managua trying to find a bus if we hadn’t met them. we hopped onto a chicken bus from there for another 1.5 hours, a 20 minute taxi to a ferry, and then an hour ferry ride to the island. total travel time= 7 hours.

apparently we'd decided to visit the island the weekend of the ometepe ultra marathon so most places in the main port town were booked. that first night we split up really with no plan at all. the next morning we all ran into each other and decided to head to merida (which, as a random aside, is my name in spanish—or at least how it is pronounced). adam and i planned to meet up at 10 am and catch a bus to the other side of the island. but as 10 am approached i went to meet him, all of a sudden some car was honking at me. turn around and it’s adam in a jeep with our two israeli friends. how this all happened, i have no idea. we ventured (and it was an adventure) towards the other side of the island, swerving through dirt roads, avoiding boulders, and constantly hoping the jeep made it out of first gear. adam and i decided we were gonna stay on that side of the island while the girls were headed back to go to costa rica the next day. on this side of the island there were some sweet organic farms to stay on and we thoguht we’d check ‘em out. but, of course, plans changed. once we’d made it to the other side of the island we found out there was only one dorm bed left. but there we met a french couple, jerome and lise, who were also looking for a place. as jerome and lise walked down the dirt road towards the crossroads of the towns we followed suit. we met up with them at a tienda and decided we’d all just wait 2 hours for the next bus (it was sunday which means really infrequent buses). but then, like a freakin miracle, out of no where we saw a mini bus. we bargained with the driver for about $5 per person to get a ride to merida and in about 30 minutes we arrived at quite possibly one of the most beautiful places i’ve ever visited (pic is lise and i kayaking at sunset)

i often joke i vacillate between a planner and a free spirit. literally, day to day i don’t know where i’ll be. i think i’ll spend a few more days here (as some friends from guate are cycling through--from vancouver to argentina—how fantastic!), head on to costa rica, and take it from there. not that this was ever in the plans, but some of the best things never are.