San Juan, Fiesta in so many ways. And Adieu

Fiesta, Tuesday 24 June
It is the feast of San Juan. Strangely coinciding with Summer solstice and the fiesta here seemed more in tune with a pagan festival than the religious feast of a catholic saint.
The whole month of june has been a lead up to this week. The rodeos were part of it and this week was the culmination.
I went to Maderas beach to do a bit of surfing. Hmm not so good I missed all the shenanigans of the day. That evening I went to the central park by myself, as the boys were coming later. I missed the pig, duck and pole games.
The pig game involved a bunch of grown men, chasing and throwing themselves on a poor greased little piglet. The one who got to catch the pig and retain it until they got to some point, won.
The duck game involved this poor unfortunate live duck tied to a pole. The guys had to grab the duck, and run with it. Again the retainer won. The duck, of course died.
The greasy pole didn´t involve animals thank god. Just whoever got to the top of this greasy pole, won $100.
This was all told to me by Ryan,(US) and his friend Silvio (Switzerland), who came up to me. Ryan was still avoiding this girl, he had a one night stand with, a month ago. She wanted him to call her so they could talk. Oops.

Then Sarah came, chatted and dissapeared again with her volleyball team. A German girl, Katharina, I had met in the bar with Garreth, started chatting and we bemoaned the lack of single female travellers.

Edward the Irish guy from limerick joined me, with a few of his friends. Had a really good laugh with them. They were very witty and sarcastic. He was a lot more friendly than when I met him the first time. He is off to Ireland tomorrow. He said he was mising San Juan already. He has been living here 2 years. I didnt realise I had got to know so many people here. I was only alone for about 3 minutes over several hours. Mad.

Thomas and Aidan then came along and as Edward had not been very friendly to Aidan in the bar the other night, Aidan chose not to be friendly with Edward. A shame but… So I joined the boys, as I have spent most time with them. We watched the celebrations. There was a big stand with the statue of San Juan surrounded by beautiful arrangements of fruit. This was about 100 metres from the church. One group of locals, mostly male, carried this big statue above their heads. Another group, mostly female, carried a smaller statue. The 2 groups chased each other making it looked more like a mating ritual rather than anythign else. Later 3 bands took it in turns to play at different points around the central park. It was mad but brilliant. At the end it was just myself and Aidan, along with hundreds of locals. Everyone else had dissapeared. The dancing was frenetic. It was lovely to see grandsons dancing with grandmothers and aunts with nieces etc.

Wednesday.
Pelican eyes tonight. oh dear. Going to be late one. I had a Macua. This is a coctail of Flor de Cana, guava and orange juice. Nicaragua is making it their national drink. So now I have ticked another off my list of coctails from around the world.
Later at the iguana, we met Luis, the salsa dancer extradinaire. He has a degree in dancing and is a total charmer. Fun guy. Aidan remembered it was his birthday tomorrow as he hadnt realised the date. So we gave him a few drinks after midnight. Then went on to the late night bar L´mche, til 3am.

Friday night, which of course means Pelican eyes night. Aoiffe has nicknamed us Team Irish. Today Aidan found out that the guy we hang out with was the key witness in the murder trial. In fact was the person who pinned the murder on Eric Volz. He apparently could have been an accessory to the murder, as he had scratch marks on him allegedly. He seems a nice chap but doesnt hang out with that many locals here, except gringos but then again he is allowed hang out at our hostel and does errands for people and Elizabeth the owner is running for mayoress. so he appears to be accepted here. It is a very strange situation. Aidan also realised this morning that we will be learning salso with Luis, in the very house the girl was murdered. It turned my stomach a bit. Aidan wasnt too happy either. Bizarre.

In the Mercado, whilst breakfasting with Aoiffe, we saw the old lady from the restuarant next to ours, chase this guy and whack him over his back etc. with a big plank of wood. She was furious, shouting and really going for him. We couldn´t figure out what he did but she chased him out onto the street, with the locals gawping on. This guy goes around town topless with one flipflop. His trousers are too big and he is always holding the trousers about 4 inches from his waist. He seems to keep looking down to make sure nothign is missing... He seems to have obsessive compulsive disorder and he often passes by our place, turns around, then goes back and forth a few times. Jesse told me, her teacher says that the odd time he hits gringas.

I was lounging around in the Gato Negro, chatting to Katharina and Garreth, when the lady with the monkey came. The monkey was climbing all over these swinging chairs like he was back in the jungle. It was sooooo sweet. She fed it from her plate of fruit. He had his nappy on too. She seemed a nice lady and said she only takes care of the monkey but it lives in the Pelican Eyes hotel. So not completely cuckoo...

Our group has grown phenomenally. Two girls from S. California, Sarah and Christen have joined Team Elizabeth. They are total party girls. Sarah comes out with the most irreverant things and Christen says less but when she does it usually is a quote to remember. They are hilarious and fit nicely into the gang. Two English guys big into surfing, Leon and Jack rock with us on the rocking chairs as does Jesse from Montana, whom moved in a few days ago. She is such a doll and fits in like a bug in a rug.

My last Saturday night, we all went to the Iguana and then the sunset after. Sarah and Christen met up with 12 Norweigens and the rest of us just entered the mayhem of the Iguana. It was the maddest night there since I arrived. People were dancing on tables and were even trying to dance on the bar, until the bar staff turned the music off to calm things down.

At the sunset, it was busy and I met with Sylvio and Maxime from our hostel. I danced with them and the others. Maxime and I were the last of the gang to leave. We got to Elizabeths and then I heard Aidans voice. So we waited for them to catch up. I couldnt believe my eyes. Aidan was just in his boxers, with his hat on and his boots in his hands. The Dutch girl he was with Marlous was just in her tshirt and flipflops. They had decided to go for a midnight swim in the sea. Whilst they were swimming, someone came along and stole their clothes. Oh how we laughed. Poor old Aidan, tho lost his favourite tshirt and his money belt which was not so funny. Amazingly though he didnt loose his hat. Maxime got a foto of the 3 of us. So I have to chase that.

Sunday
A gang of us went to the last rodeo. It was uneventful, although a few got trampled but got up to walk away. Luckily!
Sarah and Christen, moved into the appartment in Elizabeths. As they had a kitchen, we cooked fajitas. As well as the 2 girls, Aidan, Thomas, Aoiffe, Sinead, Brandon and Esther came along too. We had a great evening and the food wasnt too bad either.

Brandon, a Canadian, is here to set up a diving shop in Pelican Eyes. He is such a sweety. Aidan got to know him one evening. Poor old Brandon hobbled along to our impromptu dinner party, on his new crutches. He had a rather bad motorbike accident a few days ago. The skin was shreded on his knee, ankle and elbow. He could barely walk and is in a lot of pain. Esther, another canadian that I had met a few weeks ago, has been of such an angel to him, even though they have only know each other a few weeks. She is quite a cool girl. Brandon had been given a zimmerframe. Not good for this oh so cool dude. Nor helpful. Esther being the angel she is, went on the hunt for crutches. She tried the clinic, they recommended the pharmacy. The pharmacy was out but recommended the priest. So the priest told her he would ask at mass the next day. However, she found out about this lady who has stuff for rent and lo and behold, she had a pair of crutches. This is how it works in Nicaragua. Amazing!!!!

Sunday, we all went to the Republik bar. There I met the bar girl there called Angel, whom I had spoken to before. This local lady started talking to me and I had no clue how she knew me. However, she told me she owns L´mche, in fact that is her name . She recognised me from when we were in her bar a few weeks ago when I complained how expensive the chips were and got stuck watching this bizarre horror movie on the tv. Oh dear. I was laughing tho… I had a great chat with her. A cool lady and I wish I could go back to her bar, I really liked it…
It was Aidans last night, so we had to celebrate. It is sad to see him go. He is such a ringleader and an amazing social being. I will miss his quick wit and our long conversations.

For the first time, I have a few pople to surf with. So I have to stay a bit longer...
Sarah and Sinead came with me one day. That was the best day. I got to stand up again a few times. The waves were out just far enough to get a good run. However the other days I tried, it was too difficult, as the tide was in and I didnt want to get trundled on the stones. The same was the case, when we went to Romanzo beach but it was a lovely beach and day.

It is the first of July. Canada day. So we all went to help Esther and Brandon celebrate. Esther, the sweetie gave us all Canadian flag pins. Then it was off to the Iguana. Oh dear another late one.

02 July. Today I have been in San Juan del Sur for 1 month. I only came of r 3 days.I only came for 3 days. Oh my god. What a month. I have loved every minute of it and it will I think go down as the most memorable of my trip. I have met some fabulous people both local and gringos. San Juan Rocks.

Jesse and I got up early, packed and said our goodbyes to who ever was still around. It was soooooooooooo hard to leave. Elizabeth and Orlando both gave me a hug. I will so miss them. They are such a lovely couple. I will definitly come back I just have to. I have had such a lovely time here.
We got the 9am bus to Rivas and were on board the 10.30am to Grenada before we knew it. We got a private room in the Bearded Monkey. We needed some peace and quiet, as were knackered. Jesse left the next day. I am now alone. It feels good to be on the road again though. I miss moving around. I wandered around Granada, then ate at the bearded monkey that night. I was a bit wary of going out by myself after Aoiffe had been stabbed here. Walking around here you would never believe it could have happened but it did.