Nicaragua (Fin)

Friday, March 29.

3:20 AM

Sounds of a door opening. Closing. Shuffling. REALLY LOUD BELCH. Lights on!

I said to Sarah later (when I could form complete sentences), “No one has been on time for a single thing this entire trip. Then, at 3:20 in the morning, they are 10 minutes early to wake us up! What the FUCK!” We laughed. By then we had learned that’s really all you can do.

By 4:05 we had eaten breakfast, had some coffee and said our good-byes. We hugged all around and threw our stuff into the trunk of the taxi for the three and a half hour ride back to Granada. The three of us piled into the back because the taxi driver, his son, and Myra’s brother were all in the front. It was a painless ride and we were pulling up to the front of the hotel before 8.  We took pictures with the driver and Myra’s brother and we thanked them and paid for the trip. Then we went in to get our stuff and to figure out our room situation for the next two nights.

Our room situation for the next two nights was a whole other series of misunderstandings, unwanted cancelations and miraculous vacancies, the details of which I will spare you (partially  because it would probably be boring, and partially because I’m not sure anyone actually knows just what happened).  I’ll only say that we ended up staying right where we had started, in room 8 at the Hotel Casa Barcelona. Perfect.

Friday and Saturday were exactly what a vacation should be. Our biggest problem (room issues aside) was the inordinate amount of sun we exposed our poor, un-screened bodies to. We laid in the sun, we read, we ate, we swam, we drank, we laid in the sun. Saturday night we went out with a couple of new-found friends and laughed and shared stories like old buddies. By the time we went to bed that night, we were properly rested and ready (or as ready as one can be) for the 10-hour bus trip Sunday.

So that was it. That was Nicaragua. That night we were back in Heredia, and I was back to…well I guess normal life. The emotions of coming home to a place that isn’t exactly home when you are homesick…as if I could put that into words. HA!