Colombia, South America
9: Managua with a Twist, Part I
Cartagena – San Jose – San Juan del Sur – Ometepe – Managua – Tegucigalpa – Copan Ruinas – Coban
5 March 2002
I arrived the next day in Cartagena, Colombia. I felt strangely excited and brave. The notorious reputation of Colombia being what it is. I shared a taxi into town with an English girl, the only other backpacker on the flight, who was also feeling brave.
I got a very nice and cheap room at Hotel Familiar in that part of town I should not be staying in, according to my book.
Immediately I went for a walk through the famous old part of town, which was nearby. And yes, I have to agree with many other travelers, the old part is the most beautiful I have seen during my traveling. The old, colorful two-story colonial buildings are all beautifully restored. You definitely get the picture of a once-powerful and rich city of the Spanish Latin empire.
The other parts of Cartagena are the rich, poor and very modern business districts, not very interesting.
Colombia is more rich and developed than countries like Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Strange considering its history, but it has been able to develop a strong industry exporting many products to neighboring countries like shoes, clothes and CDs.
It is also very hot here, and so I fell asleep under a heavily spinning brown fan hanging from the newly painted white ceiling.
The evening found me at one of the nearby internet cafes hoping for a mail from Arlen (see previous entry). Since we said goodbye in San Jose we have been keeping in touch through email and she has been a lot on my mind and, apparently, me on hers.
Before I left San Jose I had told Arlen that I liked her and that it was too bad we didn’t have more time to get to know each other better. There seemed to be a mutual interest in each other. But the situation was a little complicated, not in the least because of Nathan. She and Nathan had ended their relationship in Playa Samara and continued now as friends. But their situation was still sensitive. And even though Nathan and I got along well, I have to admit to some feelings of jealousy. So I had left, hoping to soon forget Arlen and continue with my trip, which was running behind on its tight schedule.
Well, in Cartagena I was spending all my waking hours writing and reading emails to and from Arlen now. The emails were becoming more and more emotional and filled with words slowly indicating very strong feelings for each other. Like the Irish I have met, like to say, “fuck this” and on my third day in Cartagena I bought a ticket and rushed to the airport to catch my flight back to San Jose.
I arrived late in the evening again at the Hotel Costa Rica Backpackers in San Jose. This was not the great welcoming scene as in the movies. Both of us were nervous and uncertain about this new situation since we had not really made any plans, only that we needed to see each other again. Writing about our feelings for each other in emails is definitely not the same thing as being together in real life. After talking a little bit and me being very tired, I went to bed, agreeing to talk more the next morning.
The next morning I was up and early, reading in the garden when Arlen came to tell me she would be visiting her cousin here in San Jose. Later she and her cousin Miriam came to the hotel so we could meet each other. That evening we went to diner together, joined by her other cousin Joshep and after diner we went to the dance club Salsa 54 and danced for many hours (luckily not only salsa but all types of music).
After a couple of hours of sleep we met up with Miriam and Joshep again the next morning. We went to the big amusement park just outside of the city and amused ourselves. I was the only “real” foreign tourist there and enjoyed watching the local families having fun. That evening we bought some food in the supermarket and I cooked spaghetti with a delicious tuna-tomato sauce for all four of us at the communal kitchen of the hotel. After that we all went to bed exhausted after much activities and little sleep.
The past days had brought Arlen and me closer again, and now we came to a point where something had to happen. We decided we would travel back together to Leon, Nicaragua, stopping along the way at some of the places I had previously missed. In the evening we visited the home of Miriam and Joshep and ate our dinner there and said our good-bye’s since we would be leaving the next morning. After arriving back at the hotel we were invited to go out dancing by some of the other people Arlen had met at the hotel. Arlen makes contact very easily, so there is always something happening. Very easy for me. This was not a great success because on Monday nights, even in Latin America it is quiet.
Still, it had become late again and we left San Jose tiredly for the 9-hour trip to Managua. We got off at the junction for San Juan del Sur, our first destination. This is the primary beach town of Nicaragua, especially for the rich. The beach in front of the town is not really special, but there are many other small, secluded and empty beaches nearby which are the actual treasures.
The view of our balcony over the bay during sunset was picture-postcard perfect. We only stayed for two days before heading to Ometepe, the island in Lago Nicaragua with the two giant volcanoes. Here we went to Finca Magdalena, an actual working coffee plantation that also offers low-budget accommodations.
The view from the huge terrace over the lake and Conception, the biggest of the two volcanoes, is unparalleled during sunset. Here I also met up again with Ewout, or Eduardo as he called himself among the Latinos, another Dutchmen I had met two months earlier in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, and again during new years on Roatan Island, Honduras. He was traveling for several months in Central America. Besides relaxing, talking to Ewout and just enjoying being in this little paradise, Arlen and I had come to climb Madera, the smaller volcano. This turned out to be a memorable 7-hour hike through a changing dry forest to a fertile green rainforest higher up on the slopes of the volcano. On the way back a lot of rain made a river out of the single trail we were following. We returned completely covered with mud, which we washed off at the special mud-rinsing facility for just this purpose.
Between Arlen and me things had gone really well, and on the way to Managua we decided to continue traveling together for 3 more weeks and see Guatemala, one of her biggest dreams, and to stay together for a while.
In other words, we were taking our first official step of starting a relationship. The next day we prepared for the coming trip by unloading some excess luggage and dumping this at Gaby’s, a girlfriend of Arlen’s.
At 4 in the morning the alarm went off and we were on our way to Tegucigalpa, Honduras and using local buses we arrived there 9 hours later. We used the last hours of the afternoon to buy Arlen a new pair of shoes after discovering her favorite (and expensive) Reebok sport shoes had been stolen somewhere along the way.
The next morning at 9 o’clock we started on our 10-hour bus ride to Copan Ruinas, where we visited the Mayan ruins the next day. This was a special moment for Arlen, being partially Mayan herself (mestizo) and very interested in her roots (being the main reason for us to travel to Guatemala) and now seeing her first ruins.
After visiting the ruins we left for the long trip to Coban, Guatemala, where we arrived in the evening. We were very tired after three days of traveling, and fell asleep with our clothes and the lights still on. But the traveling was not yet over. The next day we took the beautiful five-hour bus ride to Lanquin, where Arlen gave a sigh of relief on seeing that the location of the El Retiro Lodge was as beautiful as I had described a couple entries back.
Visiting Semuc Champey again, this time with Arlen, I was again enthralled by the beauty of the place, with the clear, green pools of water in the midst of a wild, green luscious jungle. Arlen enjoyed herself a lot at the Retiro lodge, talking with everybody. She loves having contact with people from other countries, including the local Guatemalans. She talks with everybody and so learns many things quicker than I do. Many people are surprised to see a Nicaraguan girl traveling, and they like talking to her – especially the guys, which admittedly gives some feelings of jealousy at times. Too bad she isn’t learning to speak more English though. It is amazing to see how many other backpackers speak enough Spanish to have a conversation with Arlen.
