Our last day at the beach, conceivably for a long time to come, so after porridge for breakfast, we rushed out for a final swim… beautiful. Unfortunately, upon our return to our room to pack, we suffered an altercation with our landlady, who was labouring under the misapprehension (+ refused to be enlightened) that we hadn’t paid. All very unpleasant – there’s a limit to the number of times you can say, “Sorry, you’re wrong”, especially in Spanish, so we just carried on packing, + then took our stuff out to the café to drink an orange + wait for our bus. This first journey was most unpleasant – the road was bad, the bus’s springs non-existent, + we took the most tortuous route, stopping off at one village for half an hour.
However, arrived in Santa Cruz, + booked ourselves on the 4 o’clock bus, giving ourselves an hour’s break to eat + recover. A mistake – we should have taken the slightly earlier bus, since ours went via the ferry, + turned out to be a long + bumpy ride. The only consolation was the ferry ride, where we were lucky enough to catch a terrific flaming red sunset. Finally arrived in San Jose at about 10 – booked back into the Managua, then went out for a Big Mac, McDonalds being about the only place open.
The next day, Saturday, we more or less killed time all day, not having anything constructive to do. We ran into Pat + Kevin, so spent time chatting with them. We bought breakfast, milk shakes, coffees + cokes in various establishments. We spent ages wandering the streets looking for a craft co-operative, and then it wasn’t very exciting when we found it. We ate, finally, after visiting various places we’d considered before + finding they no longer offered their specials, at Mas Papas – beautiful baked potatoes. Then to the pictures, about the only constructive thing we’d done all day. Saw “Stir Crazy” with Gene Wilder + Richard Pryor. It was very funny – they’re both such natural clowns – but I think “Silver Streak” was a better movie.
Not the most exciting of times, finding ways to kill time in a place that, though comfortable enough, was not especially interesting. And it is always hard to have uncomfortable encounters with local people, when both sides are convinced they have right on their side. And, finally, no idea who Pat and Kevin were – I don’t think I have mentioned them yet.
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