Return to Granada

I woke up really early with the hope of watching the sunrise since we were facing east, but the cloud cover got in the way, so I couldn´t see it. I finished packing before breakfast, checked out of Buena Vista, and took our bags to the curbside, waiting for the bus to take us to Moyogalpa. We kept ourselves busy by taking lots of pictures of the lizzards that were hanging around, and before we knew it the bus arrived and we boarded. Even though the distance to the ferry is only about 30 km away, the bus ride took about 2 hours before we reached our destination. It was a very scenic ride however, and we were rewarded with some of the clearest views of Volcan Concepcion, including the smoking crater, which is normally enveloped in clouds. Once we arrived in Moyogalpa, we rushed to make it onto the ferry, until a cop told us to slow down, as it was not leaving for another half an hour. The ride back to the mainland was fairly uneventful, except for the rain that started to fall towards the end. Walking away from the ferry terminal, we encountered the usual mob of taxi drivers, all offering to take us to Rivas, though the minibus was right there, and considerably cheaper. During the 20 minute drive to the main bus terminal, it started to really pour, and I joked that I understood why the town is called Rivas, as rivers of rainwater were formed in the middle of all the roads.

At the terminal, we asked around and found the next bus to Granada, and even though we were told it would leave in the next 5 minutes, it was a good half an hour before we got moving; at least our bags were stored inside the bus, thus being protected from the rain. An hour and a half later we pulled in to the now familiar mercado in Granada, and we started the quick walk (though slowed down by the rain) towards Hostal Dorado. Once we settled into our rooms, we took a walk through the city, this time stopping at Convento y Iglesia de San Francisco to take a few more pictures and admire the architecture. Since we were starving, we stopped at TelePizza, where we ordered a full pizza each, with the thought that the leftovers would make a good snack for the long trip the next day. In the evening, we returned to the hostel and had a very interesting encounter with an old and slightly senile drunk guy who was on a visa run from Costa Rica. He talked for hours on end, mainly to hear himself speak, and even started singing at one point; I would say he was a bit entertaining at first, but that quickly wore off and he became plain annoying. When I started talking to Jake (my roomate at Dorado), we automatically had something in common, since he used to share a room with him for a few days, until he had enough. We ended up staying up until about 3 am, while surfing the net, chatting about books, traveling, women, spanish courses etc. At one point he mentioned that he had a part in a small, art-house movie, and he followed that by saying: ¨I´m just like Diane Keaton¨... to which I replied with a blank stare before bursting out laughing. It took a good ten minutes for us to calm down enough for him to explain that Diane Keaton never watches the movies she is in, and that´s what he meant by that comment, but you could see why it sounded so out of place. Eventually we had to put an end to our conversation, as I had a few really long days of travel ahead.