Day Seven - Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010

Early morning today...Amanda was up and out by 8am to meet her World Vision sponsor child in a rural village a few hours outside of Managua.  While she was gone I had arranged to meet Gene Cotton (the guy I met on the plane) to help out at his school for a few hours and drop off the clothes we had collected from home.  Edwin (my personal taxi chauffeur) drove me to the heavily gated school, where I waited for Gene.  The kids were all eagerly waiting by the classroom doors to wave at me as I walked by...made me reminiscent of my days teaching in Asia.  After a detailed tour of the school and a video outlining the construction work Gene's team has been able to complete, we settled down for a delicious home cooked lunch.


The hours flew by quickly and before I knew it I was on the phone again with Edwin arranging a ride back to Jenn's.  Once Amanda returned, we grabbed our bags and headed to the main road to see if we could flag a bus to Granada.  Like always, the minute we got there a bus pulls up (of course there's no seats on it, but they will never turn down a customer) and we jump on.  Managua to Granda cost us only 20 cordobas ($1), which was shocking considering it's over an hours drive.
After walking in circles and receiving numerous bad directions we eventually stumble across Bearded Monkey, where we plan on spending the next few nights.  
It was $6 a night, but included free internet and free coffee/tea...not a bad deal.  Amanda and I even got the same bunkbed this time, meaning I wasn't going to have to share with anyone as crazy as naked Lee.
After ditching our stuff we headed to the main walking street for dinner.  We discovered some great fahitas at a pub called the Irish Pub and after a mojito or two headed back to the hostel to bed. 

Poetry Reading in the Central Square - Granada

Things I learned from day seven:

1) Nicas have no problem giving out directions even when they have NO idea where they are sending you

2) Poetry is extremely popular in Nicaragua.  There was a poetry reading taking place all week and people had traveled from all over to attend

3) The really cheap mojitos are made with this 'firewater' concoction that causes a certain amount of people to go blind every year...not worth the .50 cents you save, but equally as delicious.