At the moment I’m in Liberia. There’s not much to do here, so I’m taking a break, updating this site, and may go to the cinema later. Here’s what I’ve been doing for the last few days.
Friday night, as I was getting ready to leave Nicaragua, I settled in to the hostel in Granada. I’ve been trying to find the first Harry Potter book in Spanish, because everyone tells me what good books they are, and that they’re easy to read in another language. So I asked the people at my hostel where a good bookstore is… they said there really isn’t one, but that I should try a book exchange place down the street called Mavericks. I got a bit lost on the way, but ended up running into Tony, the American pharmacist that I met a few weeks ago. We chatted for a while and he gave me the correct directions to Mavericks as well as good advice about where to go to get some pizza.
I found the bookstore, didn’t find the book, but found a couple gifts for people back home. Wandered around a bit looking for the pizza place, and when I finally found it, Tony was there too. We sat and talked for a while, then he left and I ordered a large variety pizza. It was damn good. Then I went back to the bookstore to get dessert (it’s a small coffee shop type thing too) and ended up talking to the owner who is from Canada. She was really nice and almost let me get away without paying for my chocolate cake.
When I got back to the hostal, there was a simultaneous party and scavenger hunt going on. I ran into Peter, the guy I met at the waterfall in Esteli, and then later I also ran into Christoph and Lisa, the two germans that I met two weeks before at Finca Magdalena. Yes, the Gringo Highway really does exist. I also met this girl Sofia from Sweden who was exceptionally nice.
I didn’t get much sleep that night… about 4 hours. The party was loud and I was nervous that I wouldn’t wake up to catch the 6am bus back to Costa Rica. But I did. It was an uneventful bus ride, except I did get to watch about half the the movie “White Chicks”, which I have to admit was insanely funny even though I didn’t think it would be.
Although I arrived in Liberia around 10:30am, I felt like it was already mid-afternoon. I went straight to the hotel, unloaded my things, took a shower, and went searching for a bookstore. I finally — finally — found the first Harry Potter book in Spanish. It was hot outside so I walked to the park and sat on a bench in the shade. There was a vendor selling these… well, I don’t know what the hell you call it… kinda like an Icee, if you know what those are. Basically shaved ice, some kind of cherry syrup, a layer of milk powder in the middle, and sweetened condensed milk on top. Yes, it’s good.
Another guy was buying the same thing and we started talking. He introduced himself as Daniel and asked me what I was doing here in Liberia. I told him I want to climb the volcano, but that’s about it. He asked me if I had any plans for the day. I said no. And so the adventure began.
We took a taxi to visit his friends. Then all four of us piled in a car, and we dropped one of the guys off for work in town, then took the highway to the beach. Daniel and his friend both work at the Four Seasons resort. When we got there, I couldn’t believe it. They told me the cheapest room is $400/night and the most expensive is around $5,000. Wow.
Anyway, we dropped off his friend, then headed to Daniel’s hometown of Filadelfia. He wanted to show me around and also needed to buy some groceries for his family. We searched at about six different places before we could find some tortillas… in this country, that’s crazy. Once we secured our payload, we hit the dirt road to visit his family. He told me to be prepared, cause his family was really poor and he makes more money than they do. It was true, they only had a shack. His mom was incredibly generous and gave us both some fresh orange juice and some really good meat wrapped up in a tortilla. I also met his nieces and nephews, who all seemed to be really thrilled that they could meet a gringo.
Eventually we made it back to Liberia around 5pm. Daniel wanted me to meet his girlfriend too. Remember, this is on Christmas Eve! Crazy. So we went to his girlfriend’s house, and she also gave us something to eat and drink… insanely good ceviche and some fresca. Mmm mmm. Her neighbors were having a cookout so we headed over there once it got dark outside. We sat around watching Sabado Gigante… they were surpised I’d never heard of it, since it’s filmed in Miami. The neighbors gave me beer, bbq chicken wrapped in tortillas, toasted marshmallows. I was so full by the time Daniel took me back to my hotel that I didn’t need dinner or breakfast the next morning.
Damn I love Latin America.