A fairly pleasant little town, but made less so by a nasty new infection. Developed a huge pus filled lesion on my elbow (no pictures in case anyone is eating while reading this). Spent the following day sleeping for 15 hours with an intense fever. It´s a bit disconcerting to be shivering cold when you know it´s ungodly hot outside. Went to a pharmacist but as I later learned my condition was misdiagnosed and the infection eventually started to spread to my face. Not cool.
In between bouts of self-pity and borderline depression at my deteriorating medical condition I did get out a little bit. The town of Leon was celebrating the anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution that defeated the Somoza government forces in their corner of Nicaragua. Was a big demonstration and celebration with lots of ex-guerrillas in attendance, martial music, and what I´m sure must have been rousing speeches. The culmination was a march up to an old hillside fort and a strange re-enactment type thing where all the townspeople charged the fort yelling. Very interesting.
Oh, funny hostel roommate story from Leon. This older British guy was staying in our room and got completely smashed one night. So, he stumbles into the room, and ends up stripping buck naked before climbing into bed. At some point he then begins thrashing around and moaning at full volume. It´s hard to describe, but it was incredibly loud, and seemed to alternate between horrific nightmare noises and disgustingly orgasmic sounding noises. It was so loud someone from another room came by to see what in god´s name was happening. To top it all off the moaning was punctuated by regular intervals by him farting. And his feet stank. The entire room was laughing uncontrollably for a couple minutes. Needless to say, not the best roommate all in all. The malaria prevention pills I´ve been taking have messed up dreams as a reputed possible side effect and I have noticed they´ve been especially bizzare and vivid, but no moaning to speak of luckily.
I also decided I had to try and enjoy the one of a kind experience of sledding down the slope of a volcano. Yes, that´s right, the wonderful new sport of ¨volcano boarding.¨ Climbed the slopes of an imposing black volcano carrying a makeshift toboggan type contraption.
Was actually pretty daunting up at the top due to massive, gale force winds that buffeted the board in my hands and seemed on the verge of blowing me off the rim of the volcano. The tour company helpfully provided a giant hazmat suit thing to lessen abrasions from when you, I assumed, go flying off the sled and tumble down the mountain through sharp volcanic rock. Oh, and goggles.
After some sightseeing from the crater rim we were given some fairly cursory instructions, ¨try not to fall, use your feet to brake,¨ and sent on our way in pairs. Fairly exhilarating ride, and you can get going fast as all hell. There´s a spot where you seem to just drop off and I even caught a little air. Thank god for the goggles, I had pieces of volcanic rock between my teeth and was picking them out of my hair for 2 days afterwards. Eventually hit a bad bump and took a little spill but the suit did it´s job well. They also have a guy with a radar gun who clocks you at the fast part. I hit 46 kilometers an hour, which is a bit less than 30 miles an hour. Good fun, and helped distract me from my infection for awhile.
Met a cool girl, Ashley from California, in Leon, and must have triggered some feminine sympathy instinct in her, as I moped around depressed in a hammock reading to distract myself, because we struck up a friendship and made plans to travel to El Salvador together. Spent the night in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, and bought tickets to El Salvador for the next morning. Ashley had previously traveled in C. America and speaks almost fluent Spanish. She knew a local from Managua, an amazingly cool and nice guy who took us around the town, found a hospital for me to go to and then sat in the consulting room with me and the doctor and translated. Doctor told me I had a staph infection, it wasn´t the antibiotic resistant kind, and that no I wasn´t going to die or be permanently disfigured for life. Proscribed the correct antibiotics and topical cream and sent me on my way feeling way better than I had in a week. Price of walk-in doctor visit on a Sunday at the hospital and prescriptions: 40$. Peace of mind: Priceless.
Trip to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, through still troubled Honduras was fairly smooth and uneventful. The bus driver played us a pirated copy of ¨Twilight.¨There was one interesting travel roadbump though. The bus was full of a huge group of Evangelical Christians on their way to save the children of El Salvador, and one of the flock violated the strict ¨liquids only¨ rule for the on-board toilet, leading to an angry bus driver and a slight delay at the border as the issue was somehow resolved. Luckily I slept through the immediate olfactory offense, which I was assured was horrific. Shit happens, eh?
San Salvador was actually really nice and modern compared to all the other capital cities I´d been in. Takes some getting used to the huge amount of well-armed private security guards in evidence everywhere. Come home to the hostel at night and there´s a guy with a submachine gun who answers the door. Used to seeing guys with shotguns at banks now, but El Salvador takes it to a new level. Despite, or maybe because of, that I felt safe in San Salvador, which was not the case in Managua. I´m pissed I didn´t get a picture of this, but there´s an interesting ad campaign they have in San Salvador. Did a double-tale first time I saw Osama Bin Ladin staring at me from the large standing advertisement things that line the medians in the city. It´s an ad for the ¨lo-jack¨device which is put in cars and used to locate them if they´re stolen. The ad copy translated to, ¨If they´d been using this device, they´d have found him by now.¨ Tasteless, no?
Checked out the city a bit and went out for drinks with a couple guys Ashley knew from Guatemala that were traveling there on business. Went and saw the church where Archbishop Romero was assassinated. Kind of creepy and morbid but very cool. They have his bloodstained robes on display. As was explained by an adorably tiny nun who knew him, he had been speaking out against the atrocities committed by the then government and his death made him a martyr for the resistance and kind of the face of the revolution. Also checked out the University, they´re still very into Communist imagery and slogans, took an interesting pic of a banner they had up addressing the Honduras situation.
Sweet relief, antibiotics and cream worked like a charm and killed the infection. Elbow´s going to have a nasty scar, but my face is fine and you can´t even tell now. We celebrated by going to El Zonte, a beach on El Salvador´s Southern Coast. Very small and remote little village, comprised of lots of shacks. Amazingly good and cheap food to be found though. Can eat like a king for less than 3 dollars down here. Chicken burrito and 3 pupusas for 3 dollars. Pupusas are kind of the national dish, beans and cheese packed in the center of dough and grilled up, they´re awesome and filling, covered in a cabbage salad thingie and slathered with salsa. Tried my hand at surfing again, swam, enjoyed the black sand beach and generally took it easy and relaxed. Was a nice hostel too.
Saw the strangest thing one day from a local boy that lived nearby to the hostel and liked to ride his bicycle naked around the area. A puppy he was playing with ran off, the boy gave chase, captured the puppy and returned to his previous spot. He then suddenly pulled his shirt up, squatted on the side of the road where he was standing and started pooping while vigorously petting the puppy. It was a bit shocking I must say, but who am I to judge I suppose. Anyways, it´s cool, the locals go out with boogie boards and spearguns and you can see them coming to shore with these huge fishes hung from a rope on their back, which they then proceed to clean in the river.
Pretty scary event happened while we were at the beach. This particular day their was an amazingly strong cross-current at the beach where we were swimming. Had been perfectly fine the previous days. I noticed it and went quickly back to shallower water, but could still barely walk sideways down the beach against the current even when I was waist deep. Turned around and noticed that Ashley was past where she could touch and rapidly floating and being pushed by waves and the current towards a huge rock that was one border of the swimming area. Watched in horror as she was swept into the rock, tried to climb up it, slipped and fell a ways down and then finally, agonizingly made it to relative safety up on the rock. Really scary and shitty feeling standing there watching, knowing there´s not a damn thing you can do to help. So, she was stranded on this rock basically, no way to walk back to safety. Luckily there were two locals around and they attempted an amazing and daring rescue. One guy took his surfboard between the rocks, climbed up next to Ashley, threw and then threw his surfboard out to his buddy treading water a ways out. After awhile he convinced Ashley that she had to jump off the rock, back out into the water when he told her, overriding her objection that she´d prefer to be stranded for two hours until low tide by mentioning that the wrong wave could sweep her off the rock still. They jumped holding hands between waves and he managed to swim out and under huge waves with Ashley clinging to his back, over to where his buddy was waiting with the surfboard and safety.
Really was an amazing rescue and she´s very lucky not to have died or gotten worse than the few scrapes and bruises she did. Her rescuers even then bought HER a beer to help with her nerves. They came by the hostel later and were treated to rounds though. She was basically unharmed but very shaken up and I can´t blame her. Scary.
After a few great days on the beach, split up with Ashley (gonna meet up in Antigua) and am now travelling with a fellow Washingtonian girl, and a Californian and Israeli guy. All very cool, of course. We headed to the city of Santa Ana, and as our first hostel choice was full, ended up in the ghetto. It´s never a good sign when the place your staying offers rooms by the hour and there´s no seat on the toilet. The guy driving by who very seriously warned us to ¨be careful!¨wasn´t very encouraging either. Went and checked out the town a little, there was a nice festival and a church of course, had some dinner and called it a night.
Decided to get out of there the next day and made the great choice of travelling to the small mountain town of Juayua. It´s amazingly beautiful and great here. Super nice people, awesome vibe, and only a couple town drunks instead of an entire neighborhood full. Plus, the hostel we´re at has proper hot showers! It´s been over two months since I had a real hot shower, had forgotten how great it is. Also, got a haircut and my face was sufficiently healed enough to shave. Spent a couple days checking out the town, wandering nearby trails and hiked up to a lake for a swim. Good times.
Fields of delicious smelling coffee fields, separated by trees acting
as wind breaks
Today was a great day. Went on the ¨7 Waterfalls Tour.¨Our guide was funny and cool and full of local lore and knowledge and the tour was breathtaking. Got to the top of the first waterfall, our guides attached ropes and told us to use them to get down. Was kind of like rappelling, only you were just clinging to the rope for dear life and trying to find good footholds. Very scary actually, but cool as all hell.
Checked out a few more waterfalls, hiked through the jungle, got bitten by gigantic ants, and generally just had a great time. Ended up at the final waterfall, the guides made us a great lunch and we swam in the cool clean waters and I did some jumping off the final, huge waterfall. The guide also took us through these crazy small, dark and narrow tunnels in the mountain that connected some waterfalls. Only me and one other guy were brave enough to go. There was only a half foot of air between the water and the ceiling and it was pitch black and claustrophobic but fun.
All in all, staph infection excepted, things are going well and I´m having a great time. Can´t wait to check out Guatemala, which we are travelling to tomorrow. Love hearing from everyone, stay in touch! -Azi
So we have had the animal testies post and this is the poo post?
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are having fun!!
Stay SAFE NOT STAPH!!
I´m glad you´re noticing the thematic content of my posts...Will stay safe, not staph, you do the same!
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