Merp

Stuff Added!

So, things have indeed changed significantly. After leaving Granada and the comforts of hostel life behind, I am biking again, but this time solo. Right now, Im in the town of Leon in Nicaragua (still), and after leaving here I will be heading north, passing though a chain of volcanoes, to eventually end up in San Rafael del Norte.
I dont have time to add connotations for each photo right now, but.. they´re more or less in chronological order, and Ill hopefully be adding descriptions to them later.

PEace

So, this is the Costa Rican side of the Panamanian Border. This sight made me pretty frickin happy.. was a good time crossing the huge rickty bridge across the river that forms the border here. Kinda scary actually.. because I had a very heavily-laden bike at the time.This is my sister´s tent, looking out towards the beach on the Carribean Coast of Costa Rica, 5km south of Puerto Limon, at Eddie´s house. Harry´s schwanky tent is to the left, with his tarp.This is a grandson of Eddie, nicknamed Chokie, looking back from the same spot towards Eddie´s house, the small shack where a fair portion of his immidiate family lives.A shot on the beach, trying to show how crazily jungly the area was. Many animals were seen and caught, including boa constrictors, posion arrow frogs, scorpions, large toads, large crabs, and... other things.

Below: Random pitstop, first day of group mob-style biking.This is a shot of part of the family who took us in that first night. With Natalie, and the spot where we camped, in the background.Random swerving on a pretty road. A very, very pretty road..Natalie busting up a bad ass salad with my machete while we waited for Harrison to fix his bike again. This time it was legit, you can see his bare rim to the right of the pic, he busted up his tube pretty good. Good enough that we couldnt patch it, and he had to use a pocket knife to widen the valve hole in his rim to change from using a Presta tube to a Schreader tube. For those of you who dont know nuttin, we had to cut away part of his rim to fit the Schreader valve, because its wider.Dangerous pocket snake (large, smilerly werm.)Monkeys who maimed and robbed us on our way out of camp in La Fortuna.Another attempt at catching the "very pretty road" that we road around Lagoon de Fortuna in Costa Rica.AFTER I LEFT GRANADA.. solo riding again. This was a shot from a large hill I climbed, after I reached the town of Masaya, some 18 kilometres away. As I entred the town, I got buzzed by some spandexed-up road biker Nigaraguans, who smiled and waved. I of course gunned it and caught up, being pretty speedy on a relativly gnarly bike. We road through Masaya together, I asked them about a potential place to camp (wanting a different experience than the previous one I had there). I followed them to the base of a large, off-the-beaten-track hill outside of town, they told me it was an easy climb. It was frickin steep.
They told me I might be able to camp on the grounds of the park we had entered, and asked for me about it once we reached the top. Turned out I couldnt, because it was dangerous, so they lead me back down, and eventually to a Nicaraguan Boy Scouts Camp (I didnt know they frickin exsisted..) where I awesomely (but reluctantly by the owner) was able to use a big room for my self complete with a very comfy cot, and a toilet and shower, all to my self.Next day.
From my journal:
Left Managua, after fixing some more spokes with a not-so-good bike mechanic. After a short time of riding, made the turn (or lack of a turn) that determined that I was indeed not going to ride north to San Rafael del Norte, immidiately as I had origionally thought, but west, up the coast of Lago de Managua towards Leon.
I found myself wanting to cover a lot of ground that day. I felt that I wanted to arrive in Leon in one day (120km), even though I knew that it was better if I slept a ways outside of the City. I found myself starting to push myself, as I road hour after hour in the hot sun. I found myself starting to feel pretty shitty, as I started to exaust myself slowly, the sun starting to get to me. Because I was feeling shitty, I started to need to slow down. And because I was starting to slow down, I got pissed off, speeded up, and felt worse.
I found myself partially conciously wanting to arrive in Leon so I could sleep in a hostel, even though I conciously knew that once I arrived there I knew I would not want to pay, and search out somewhere (possibly desperately) to sleep for free. I found myself repulsing the idea of camping in an unknown place and location, in comparison to the comfort of an assured shower and a bed in a hostel.

Basically, it was a hard task, getting myself to accept the necessities of travelling on bicycle.
The above shot is of a spot where I took a dip, to stop and think, in Lago de Managua. Behind my bike (with Natalies fancy saddle bags) are the peaks of Volcan Mombotombo in the distance, and the island of Mombotombito in the lake.
The below shot is from the door of the gate of the amazingly large family I stayed with that night, looking out into their town.

And thats me, in my tent, alone. Perhaps too alone.