Omentepe

This was an interesting trip.  I planned to leave at 5am and reach the Island by 12pm.  This clearly did not happen because I ended up on the 3:30pm Lancha.  So I didn’t leave Granada until 12pm.  I hopped on a bus going to Rivas.  This is about a 2 hr bus ride going down South.  I enjoyed views of the volcano Mamboucho from the opposite side from Granada.  As we pulled off a young Nica guy sits next to me and decides to play 21 Questions with me.  I limited my Spanish and listened to my phone for music.  Then I remembered that my friend had advised me not to ride the bus to the end, but instead to get off the bus at San Jorge.  I hop off the bus and meet a taxi waiting to escort people to the Ferry Port.  The bus driver informs me that it should cost $2USD.  Instead I end up paying $4, which is $100C, which is a lot.  I was so mad!  The taxi raced to the port only for me to miss the 2:30 Ferry.  Instead I had to take the 3:30pm Lancha.  Man what a difference!!!  I board what I thought was the waiting area for the boat.  There were wooden planks to sit on and there were metal bars around the perimeter.  A Nicaraguan man starts talking to me and comes to sit next to me.  I speak with him in Spanish.  All of a sudden the lancha takes off.  What I thought was a waiting area was the vessel itself!  The waves were insane!  The boat tilted from side to side so violently that one had to hold on to their seat or to the metal bars to avoid falling over.  I said to the man, “Es siempre como esta?  Es horrible!”  He kept talking to me and asked had I eaten and would I feel sick.  I was so sickened by the movement of the waves that I stopped talking and simply tried to keep my composure.  My stomach felt like a blender and I was so thankful that I hadn’t eaten much.  I noticed that my new buddy was laid across the seat and covering his face with his hands- hey maybe he was tired.  After 10 excruciating minutes I notice the blond on the other side of the man quickly got up with a disgusted look on her face.  I look at the man and he is puking his brains out!  I almost lost it when I saw that!  I immediately got up and almost fell onto the other people sitting across from me, since the boat was still rocking forcefully.  I sat across from my original spot and saw the orange vomit and decided to move.  I stood up and clung for dear life to the side of the boat and looked ahead to the volcano, my destination.  I noticed someone below on the deck beneath puking.  I then began to pray and breathe deeply.  I focused on that volcano for the next hour as water sprayed passengers from the unsteady condition of the boat.  I seriously thought we were going to flip over at any moment.  Finally we reached and I thankfully   walked off that darned thing and vowed NEVER to take a Lancha again at any costs.  The crazy thing is that it cost the exact same price as the ferry!  By this point it’s getting late and the sun is starting to go down.  So I rush to catch the LAST bus to Altagracia.  The bus filled up quickly and I sat on an outside seat.  A woman with a huge gut kept knocking her stomach into my arm.  Gross!  Finally we reached!  I was greeted by my friend Linda Campos, who’s on the Route from Mexico.  She informed me that there was gathering going on and that I had to stay at the Bed and Breakfast because a brother from Costa Rica was staying an extra night and there was no room for me.  $8 bought me a room at a cozy hotel right downtown.  (So cheap!!!)  I quickly showered and met her in the lobby.  We started off to the sister’s house.  On the way, we met up with a brother from Mexico who just finished his Route assignment in Costa Rica who joined us for the weekend.  The gathering was so cute!  The whole congregation was there!  Half were inside playing a numbers game and half were outside chatting.  We said a prayer and dinner was served.  The sister served us rice, carrots and chicken out of a huge bucket and bread.  The Coke also came from a huge bucket that they stocked with large chunks of ice.  But, there were no forks.  We ate with our fingers! Lol  I thought to myself, wow these friends sure are poor!  But afterward my friend told me that they simply had forgotten to purchase some and we laughed because we all thought that that was a normal part of life but it wasn’t.  After dinner, the friends gathered around in chairs and Linda sang songs and played her miniature guitar that the friends had given her as a gift.  The friends all sang along to the Spanish tunes and listened quietly at the English ones.  It was a nice way to end the night.  I climbed into bed at 10:30 and fell right to sleep.  Then WHAM!!! A mango woke me up!  They fall periodically onto the roofs of homes where the trees are grown.  Nevertheless I slept happily for I had arrived safe to the lovely island of Omentepe.