Life is like a box of chocolates...

...except, sadly, in a land where cacao is produced in abundance, there is no dark chocolate to be found. Why oh why. Anyway, while I crave a bar, I'll do a bit of writing to take my mind off of my woes.

Another woe is living on an island. I mean, seriously. Life is tough. So after Granada we landed in a junction town called Rivas. Eric was on lodgings duty, so he walked around looking for a place to stay while I hung out with the bikes. The verdict: all crap. Luckily, we spotted a cheerful little hotel for about the same price just a bit down the road, so we took it. The women in charge were nice, and they even let us cook in the kitchen. However, one thing turned into another. The shared bathroom was seriously shared. It's pretty common to have to walk to a nearby bathroom that other guests are also using. What is not normal is to walk in and find that the only thing separating your business from the two adolescent boys next door is a holey fitted sheet hanging from a doorway. Meaning that the shower stall is basically in their room. You can't knock on a sheet, so we changed rooms. Only to find that the 'private' bathroom wasn't actually so private. You can watch the video to see what I mean. And, after all that, there wasn't any water anyway. Oh well, at least we got to go to the urination station in peace even if we couldn't flush. Y'all enjoying this yet?

The next day we headed over to Isla de Ometepe. We hopped on a rickety old boat, started off, nearly took out the dock with a rope that hadn't been released, got stranded for half an hour while the water pump wasn't functioning and, finally, made it to our destination. We pulled our bikes off the top deck, thankful that they hadn't met a watery grave, and pushed them into town. Right away we met Jerry, a Moyogalpa expat staple, and he recommended that we check out the hostel up the street. So we did, and I wound up chatting with the owner. Turns out two volunteers were literally heading out the door as we came in, so I offered to work in exchange for room and board, and so here we are. My bathroom scrubbing skills can't be beat, everyone finds uses for Eric's long reach, and I think we are going to leave this entire place squeaky clean at the rate we are going. We are enjoying getting to know every one and explore the island, and it is the perfect solution to our time crunch problem. Patrick is going to try to bring us some supplies (hello, we need peanut butter! And spokes.), in Costa Rica, so hanging out here allows for us to coordinate schedules.

I'd like to take this opportunity while I have all of your attention to tell a story that we heard from a chica here on the island. She, a young Canadian, had been in touch with an eco-village for several months. However, when she and her friends arrived they found it abandoned by the owner and containing only a couple of coke-snorting squatters and no food. Luckily, an old man living in a shack on the property took them in and helped them survive for a couple of weeks. "He taught us a lot of cool things. He showed us how to make bed mats and weave baskets, but since there was no food we ate leaves. Edible should not be confused for tasty. One day he brought back a half-rotting crocodile carcass and ordered, "Boil!" I didn't know how to boil a crocodile! Imagine me, with a machete, hacking up this crocodile carcass to boil. To eat. But we made some cool jewelry out of it later. It was all about having an open mind." Ah, the adventures of some make ours look like a weekend at the Hilton!


Photos: Hammocks are good, Isla de Omotepe; checking out Concepcion behind a banana field; Lake Nicaragua; corn field