13/6/23
Thirteenth, unlucky for some!!
After a double breakfast, first an oaty one, and secondly, a bougie one in a cute cafe, with a passionate singing waiter, we caught tge local bus to Rivas, and then got a collectivo to the ferry port. Then we got ourselves on the ferry and headed to the island of Ometepe, a small but popular backpacker destination in Nicaragua. We arrived in the port town in the afternoon and decided to treat ourselves to a tuktuk to pur hotel instead of waiting for the bus. The views on the way were glorious, so much greenery and volcanoes peeked through the trees, touching the sky.
We were dropped at our hostel Bullshark and left to it. We tried to check in, but no one was there. We waited awhile and walked around the whole place, calling out. I asked at the bar next door if they knew where the Bullshark people were or if they had a number. They were unhelpful. Gi found an open room, which looked ready for use, so we settled in there and waited. Gi tried to guess the WiFi password so we could contact the hostel since neither of us had sim cards, and I cute my nails! There was a crazy dog outside who ran at us barking at random points, so we tried to stay inside.
Miraculously, Gi guessed the WiFi password and spoke to someone on the phone who said they’d be back in five minutes. We waited thirty minutes and then an hour and then I decided to ring them back. I used a number saved for them on Google and a different guy picked up. He told me that the hostel was closed and that he was on the mainland, but that his brother would be back in ten minutes. I explained that we had already waited an hour for the brother and that we just wanted our booking cancelled and our money back and for them to know that we were unhappy. I explained in my best Spanish that ‘there is an angry dog here and he’s dangerous and wanted to eat us’! He apologised a few times, and then we left. We walked to a nearby guest house, navigating past three barking dogs, after I rang the guest house to make sure they had space. When we got there, the lady who I spoke to on the phone was not there, only an older man. We selected our room and chilled a bit. Then I went with the owner on her bike to pick up our dinner. We had barbequed meat onto of plantain chips with some pickled spicy salad. Apparently, it’s a traditional Nicaraguan dish. It was tasty either way! After dinner, I read my book in a gorgeous double hammock for a bit before going to sleep.
14/6/23
Today was a biking day. We wanted to see a few different places on the island of Ometepe, and hiring a moped was the best way to do so. After a traditional breakfast, we hired our bike from the owner and set off on our way. It had been more than a year since I drove a bike in November 2021 in Thailand (shoutout to Dal)! Anyway, after navigating it down the steep drive directly onto the main road, off we went. The first stop was Ojos de Agua, a natural spring pool with gorgeous turquoise waters surrounded by trees. We were pretty much the first people to arrive, apart from one family, so we were treated like royalty.
We chilled, swam, drank iced coffee, and enjoyed the peace before the tour groups started to arrive. I found my 3rd Welshie of my whole six month trip at this lake (from up the Rhondda), and we chatted a bit before I did the rope swing, and then Gi and I left.
Leaving was the problem. We headed out back onto the road, up a hill and down a hill, and passed the turn for El Pital hostel before hitting some roadworks. The road was closed, but of course, there was a way round, a small path cut out of the undergrowth. I navigated through and back to the new road and just had to get back onto the old road from the new road via some thick sand. There was only one way, so I kept going and quickly lost balance of the bike. I tried to drive straight with the gas on, to regain balance because in my head (and since I’m a wimp), I know from experience that often I make things harder for myself by going to slowly – ie. walking down hills! In this instance, my theory was, of course, wildly wrong! We lost even more balance and careered towards a wall/pile of bricks and fell in the gravel. Oh, what a joy. After we were assisted (manhandled) off the floor (middle of the road), we assessed our injuries and the condition of the bike. Thankfully, the bike was working and had only significant scratches to the whole of its right side. Gi had a lot of wounds to nearly all limbs, but they were fairly superficial, which was good, I suppose.
After checking the bike and Gi (I had gone into nurse mode), I realised that along with my right sided elbow, abdo, and shin wounds, I had also lost the majority of my two front teeth. At this point, I realised I was in shock and sat at the side of the road, drank some water, put my head between my legs, told Gi to also drink and tried to press my big elbow and shin wounds together to stops the flies getting in them. Big thanks to Gi, who leapt into action, found our guest house’s phone number, and asked a guy to ring the owner to come and get us. While I was fairly distraught about my two front teeth, I was also very relieved that Gi was not badly injured, especially since I had been driving! Ai ai ai!
Our backup arrived on another motorbike, meaning we would have to go back through the roadworks again on two bikes. Gi went with the owner, and I went on the back of her father’s bike. After a while, he took his hand off the accelerator and started flexing it. I was worried he had arthritis or maybe just bad cramp. We drove a fair while after this and headed to local hospital, although it seemed more like a walk-in centre. No observations were done, but we did get all our wounds cleaned up, and lucky me got my lip stitched up too! The doctor wasn’t sure where to stitch after the first stitch, because there was a random flap of healthy skin in the middle, so I had a look and suggested and he thought it was worth a try! Basically, if I have a bad scar now, it’s my own fault!! Gi went home after her wounds were cleaned up, and I headed with the boss lady to the dentist. I desperately needed something doing with my teeth!
I was waved into the clinic room where I explained what had happened. The dentist examined my teeth and explained my options. I chose to have everything done, both the removal of the nerves in my broken teeth and the more aesthetic (and more important to me) part of having my teeth recreated. There’s a special word for having your tooth’s nerves removed in Spanish, and when I translated it to English, I still didn’t have a clue! We went to get money from the guest house and then I was dropped off at the dentist.
I decided that it was possible I was living many peoples’ nightmares since most people are scared of the dentists in their own country and language, never mind in foreign one! Basically, I had a man holding a tiny circular saw in my mouth, giving me commands in Spanish. Boy, I wish I’d made more of an effort with duolingo!! I had many x-rays in the process to ensure all of the nerves were removed and the spaces fully filled. Some of these x-rays were done woth the help of the assistant, but other times the dentist had to juggle many things as the assistant was busy putting their pet budgie to bed!
Once the dentist was happy with the xrays and the nerves were out, many wires were pushed into the holes and then melted into the roots of my broken teeth with a hot metal rod. When they were finished, they didn’t look bad, but they were pretty long and also quite wide at the back. Out came some instrument to shave of the backs and make me slightly less long toothed. I was probably done around 9pm when I popped to the loo, only to hear a plop on the floor next to me. I looked up to see a green macaw (big ol’ parrot) sitting on the shower rail wondering what on earth I was doing in there! I weed quickly and got out! No more drama. Please!
Our guest house owner picked me up, and Gi and dinner were waiting for me at home. What a day. Sleeping was difficult because we both had so many areas to try to keep pain free and not get them stuck to the sheets! All in all, Ometepe had not been kind, it had broken us!
15/6/23
Today was leaving day, and we were excited! We were leaving the closed down hostels, crappy sand roads, and ‘the accident’ behind us. After a traditional breakfast of scrambled eggs with plantains, cream cheese, and chunks of cheese much like halloumi, we caught the local bus to the port before catching the ferry to San Jorge. Here, we caved and got a taxi to Granada because we were wounded soldiers, and for £12.50 each, it was worth it for the hour and a half driver with AC and in relative comfort!! Great life decision!!! Our driver carefully assisted us both to take off our big rucksacks without knocking any of our wounds!
In Granada, Gi had treated us to a bougieeee hotel, and we checked in to a fancy place with a dual spiral staircase with oozing wounds (it was the antibacterial cream but it looked very dramatic)! We went straight out to get pharmacy supplies as we needed plasters. The hospital had put HORRIBLE gauze on our wounds, gauze with such big holes in it that it would embed in your wound, and the skin would try to granulate over the top of it. I was not a fan. We bought saline and gauze for cleaning and I already had some surgical tape, but when I asked what dressings they had, they looked confused. When I asked for waterproof plasters, they also looked confused. Eventually, they shower me some fabric finger plasters. That was all they had. After visiting another pharmacy where we were received just the same, I had the horrid realisation that gauze with massive holes was the extent of dressings here. Healthcare was different here, with less access to resources such as fancy dressings. I was being a privileged princess expecting some form of dressing that would benefit the wound as supposed to make it worse!
We went home and made do with what we had. Thankfully, Gi also had antibacterial cream so we made do. We left as many wounds open to granulated as we could and then sat in the hotel with lunch (Gi) and coffee and cake for me (why not) while watching a photoshoot/commercial being filmed about the hotel.
In the evening, I had a pot noodle that I’d been carrying around since Managua, we ordered chamomile tea to the room, and we watched Despicable Me 3 in Spanish on the telly without subtitles. I managed to understand some of the language along with the acting/dancing etc.
wanderingwelshie2 travels 