What Happens When an American Gets Stuck in Nicaragua

When we arrived in San Juan del Sur, we were immediately greeted by a man speaking English with a North American accent asking if we needed a hostel. His name was Oscar and he had grown up in Chicago but had lived in Central America for several years. We ended up staying at the hostel he recommended and lived at, the Hospadeja Elizabeth, for our entire stay in San Juan. I initially liked Oscar. He was friendly, spoke good English, and had recommended us a good hostel. However, as I got to know him, my opinion quickly changed.

The first night, we asked if he had any dinner recommendations. He recommended a place called Cha Cha Cha's which had beers and appetizers for C$25 (equivalent to $1). He had told us to tell the server at the restaurant that Oscar had recommended it. Since she only spoke Spanish, we ended up not mentioning him as we didn't have the necessary Spanish skills to say that he had recommended it. While we were eating, Oscar arrived at the restaurant and told them that he had sent us. It seemed strange that he cared so much that they knew he had recommended it to us.

Later that evening, we mentioned to Oscar that we were interested in getting our open water certifications. He was all too eager to help and wasted no time going to the dive shop on our behalf. He arranged a meeting between the dive instructor and us and walked us to the dive shop the next morning. This behavior was unexpected, as we were fully capable of finding the dive shop ourselves and had planned to go to that shop anyways.

We later learned that Oscar's "job" is telling people where to go for various activities they are interested in doing. Oddly, he didn't ask us for money and his involvement didn't affect the price we paid at the hostel, restaurant, or dive shop. We eventually learned that he expects these organizations to pay him some sort of commission for his recommendation. He also complained to us that he often gets "ripped off" by people who refuse to pay him his commission. Throughout our time in San Juan, I discovered more about Oscar's story. I don't know for sure why he lives how he does, but it seems like he ran out of money while traveling in Central America and got stuck there. Then, as a broke American stuck in a foreign country, rather than get a legitimate job to afford a ticket back to America, he does minimal work and leeches off the hard work of local Nicaraguans. By the time we left, I had lost all respect for Oscar. He wanted to go to the dive shop with us when we went for our last dive to collect his commission. But what was his commission for? When we arrived in Nicaragua, we had already found the shop online and had planned to get certified. We would have gone there even if we had never met Oscar. All he did was walk us there once, but the dive shop was just around the corner. We would have found it without his involvement! On our last day of diving, we purposely went to the shop without Oscar. I would much rather our hard-working dive instructor, Fidel, get our money than some American leech who got stuck in Nicaragua, probably after making some poor life choices.

The Moose Is Loose!

I have found that I am much more proud to be Canadian when I am not in Canada. For example, normally if I were in Canada and I were to see a bar with hockey paraphernalia on the wall I would think nothing of it and keep walking, but if I were to see the same thing in Nicaragua, I would have to stop. And that is exactly what happened on our first night in San Juan del Sur.

We were walking along the street adjacent to the beach looking for a place to get a beer, and we noticed some hockey jerseys inside one of the restaurants, Dorado's Sports Bar. We stopped to look at the menu, and one of the other customers in the restaurant overheard us talking about the hockey jerseys. He called us in and insisted we have a drink with him. The man, Todd, and his wife, Karen, were from BC and we spent the night drinking with them and chatting.

Todd and Karen told us there was a Canadian pub in town! This pub was called the Loose Moose and served Canadian food - poutine, caesars, and sushi. The next day we visited and had poutine and sushi. It was nice to have some food I did not expect to have in Central America, but it wasn't quite as good as in Canada. They had difficulty getting all the ingredients they needed as certain things, such as real maple syrup, simply aren't available anywhere in Nicaragua so they have to make do with similar ingredients which are available there.

Nicaraguan poutine topped with bacon, sour cream, and green onions at the Loose Moose Canadian Pub

Nicaraguan sushi containing fish, avocado, and pineapple and topped with bacon bits

My reward for 5 spicy Caesar shots in 15 seconds

The Loose Moose also had a drinking challenge that we returned to do the next day. It required you to do 5 spicy caesar shots in 15 seconds, and successful participants would receive a Loose Moose "The Moose is Loose" tank top. I don't normally like caesars, but I did the challenge anyways because I wanted the shirt. Both Hugh and I were successful, although he spilled one shot and had to do a shot of pure hot sauce as a result. We were happy to receive the most Canadian souvenir we could find in Nicaragua!

A Week of Surfing and Diving

Our first stop in Nicaragua was San Juan del Sur. It is a small beach town which is very popular for surfing and was full of other travelers. We were hoping to get our PADI open water diving certifications in San Juan. This course is internationally recognized and is the minimum requirement to go scuba diving with any reputable diving company in the world. The course involves studying some theory, writing several tests, and four dives where we practice some of the skills with an instructor. Since the course takes several days to complete, we were expecting to stay in San Juan del Sur for at least 4 days.

We dove through Neptune Watersports which is run by Fidel Lopez. We met Fidel on Saturday, May 4, 2014 and signed up for the PADI open water course. He explained the course to us and gave us each a textbook. We spent the afternoon studying the first two chapters of this textbook, which we were expecting to be tested on the next morning. Studying while having a drink on the beach was a nice change to studying inside at a university!

Fidel had told us to meet him at the shop early the next morning (Sunday, May 5, 2014). He said he normally opens at 8:30 or 9:00, so we arrived at 8:30. An hour later, Fidel still hadn't arrived so we went down the street and got some smoothies. He wasn't there once we got our smoothies. Or after we wandered on the beach for a while. Or after we went back to our hostel for an hour. By now it was 11:00 so we decided to give up and try to find surfing lessons.

At our hostel, there was a sign advertising surfing lessons including board rental, transportation, and a day of instruction for $50. We asked the owner of our hostel to borrow a phone to call the number on the advertisement, and she told us the instructor was actually staying at our hostel! Five minutes later, we met our instructor, Mickiel, a young guy from n the Philippines who had been surfing his whole life and teaching it for several years. Shortly thereafter we were on our way to the beach! Our ride was a pickup truck. We rode in the back and the surfboards were strapped to the roof.

Mickiel was an excellent instructor. He taught us the basics of what to do and made us practice the technique of getting up from a lying to a standing position on land before we got in the water. Once in the water, he would put our board in the right position to catch a wave and push us to minimize the amount of paddling required. I was able to catch a wave and stand up within the first 5 waves! Eventually, he stopped pushing us as we got more comfortable with knowing when to paddle to get in the right position. By the end of the afternoon, we were mostly able to surf on our own, although it was considerably harder to catch a wave without Mickiel's help.

While surfing, we also made some new friends with some of the other people who were surfing with us. They were Emile, from Finland, and Claudia and Mélissa, from Québec, who we had briefly met on the bus from Costa Rica to Nicaragua. While it was disappointing to be able to dive, the surfing was a lot of fun, and it was nice to meet some other backpackers and share experiences!

There were many hermit crabs on the beach in San Juan del Sur

On Monday morning (May 5, 2014), we went back to the dive shop, hoping to do our first dives. This time the shop was actually open! Unfortunately, only Fidel's wife was at the shop. She told us that he had gone to Managua for the day and told us to come back at 5 to meet with him. Disappointed, we went back to the hostel. Mickiel, Emile, and Mélissa were about to leave for surfing, and we were able to tag along with them, this time only needing to pay for the board rental and transportation. I unfortunately stubbed my toe right when I got to the beach, making it quite painful to surf, so I spent most of the day wandering on the beach and nearby rocks. I saw many fish and several different species of crab!


That evening, we finally got to meet with Fidel. We went to Barrio's Cafe across the street, had some drinks and went over the first two chapters of the PADI textbook with him. After reviewing each chapter, there was a short quiz. The material was much simpler than most things we learn in engineering school. Hugh and I both passed the quizzes with flying colors. Fidel promised us that he would be available to take us diving the next morning and we went home happy to know we would finally be diving!

Rolling backwards into the Pacific!

True to his word, Fidel was at his shop when we arrived the next morning (Tuesday, May 6, 2014). He fitted us for wetsuits, buoyancy control devices, masks, and fins, and had tanks and regulators for our air supplies. We carried the equipment out to a little boat which brought us out of the bay to our diving spot next to a rock face. On the boat, Fidel briefed us on how to put on the equipment and what would happen during the dive. Underwater, you can't communicate verbally, so he also refreshed us on what the various gestures he would use mean. We put on our equipment, hooked up our air supplies and got ready to enter the water. We were told to roll into the water backwards. I was slightly nervous about this type of entry. You can't see the water behind you as you roll in, and you end up upside down in the water, which normally means water up the nose if not wearing a mask. I trusted my instructor tough, and rolled in. It was a very cool experience! I landed completely disoriented, but I was calm and could breathe through my regulator and my mask kept all the water out of my eyes and nose, making virtually any position in the water very comfortable.


Once Hugh, Fidel, and I were all in the water, we gathered around the line for the boat's anchor which we would use as a guide for descending. Hugh was too excited and needed to calm down a bit first, so initially just Fidel and I descended. Initially, I felt fine and was very confident in the scuba equipment. We stopped after descending a few meters and Fidel started signaling some information to me. He clearly wanted me to do something, but I didn't know what. Then I realized that I also couldn't ask him what he wanted to do our tell him I was confused, because we were underwater, and I started to panic a little bit. I didn't know what to do so I swam to the surface. Fidel followed and asked what was wrong when we surfaced. I said I didn't know what he wanted me to do, so he explained with words instead of hand gestures. All he was telling me was how to blow water out of my mask.

By now, Hugh was ready to go and the three of us descended to the bottom. The rest of the dive went smoothly. We spent most of the dive looking at various fish. The ocean has amazing biodiversity, and it is so much easier to see exciting animals underwater than on land! One species of fish, which Fidel called the dogfish, was very curious and would swim right up to us and sometimes even bump into us. Most of the other fish would generally swim away from us, but it was still fairly easy to get close to them. Some interesting animals we saw were pufferfish, eels, clownfish, rays, starfish, and the antennae of a lobster. When we saw a pufferfish, Fidel was able to scare it causing it to inflate to a sphere twice its normal size! On the first dive, I also learned what to do if my regulator comes out of my mouth and how to clear water out of my mask - two very useful skills. We did our second dive that day and it was in the same location as the first, so the experience was very similar.

Wednesday, May 7 was another study day. I had been reading the textbook in my spare time so I was done by 10:00 and spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and planning the next couple of days of our trip. On Thursday (May 8, 2014), Fidel was out of town again, so we had another beach day.

We had our last two dives on Friday (May 9, 2014) and got certified. These dives were at a different location further from the town so we had a slightly longer boat ride. During the first dive, I ran out of air after only 25 minutes. When I ran out, Fidel still had half a tank left (1500 psi) and he didn't even bother changing his tank for the second dive. The visibility was around 12 m, this day, which is typical of the Caribbean and very rare for the Pacific, so we were able to see even more fish. We saw a whole school of yellow butterflyfish who were crowded around a crevice in a rock be chased away by one lone blue fish. The blue fish was protecting its babies which the yellow fish were trying to eat. It was incredible to see just one fish able to fend off close to 50 other fish! I also saw a flutefish which is a long slender fish that is several feet long. During these two dives, we learned a controlled emergency swimming ascent, which can be used to safely surface if you run out of air. After completing these dives we were officially certified and got our log books!

Officially certified as a PADI Open Water scuba diver!

Arrival in Nicaragua!

I was pretty excited to leave Costa Rica and finally get to Nicaragua! I was looking forward to cheaper prices and surfing and diving in San Juan del Sur. We awoke at 5:40 on Friday, May 2, 2014 in La Fortuna and caught a 6:00 bus to El Tanque, the next town over. We had been told that there would be a bus from El Tanque to the border at Peñas Blancas, but nobody seemed to know when the bus would arrive. Some people said 6:30; others said 7:00. We were there at 6:10 which gave us plenty of time to find the bus stop and wait for the bus to arrive at no-one-is-really-quite-sure o'clock. While we were searching for the bus stop, which was of course an unlabeled street corner, we met two Québécoises, Claudia and Mélissa, who were also traveling to San Juan del Sur, so we were able to wait for the bus with them and practice a little bit of French. We eventually caught the bus and had a smooth ride in to Peñas Blancas, where the border is.

The border was very confusing and time consuming. We first had to get a ticket to leave Costa Rica. We went in a little hut and gave a man our passports and the $10 fee for the ticket. He spent five minutes saying things to us in Spanish about $7 and Liberia, another Costa Rican city which we hadn't visited and had no plans of visiting. We were both very confused and worried he was trying to sell us tickets to Liberia which was in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go. We eventually realized that all he was trying to tell us was that we could also get this ticket in Liberia for $7, which was a pretty useless piece of trivia considering it would have cost more than $3 to travel to Liberia for this insignificant discount. After finally understanding what the man was trying to tell us, he told us to leave and said "not yet" when we asked for our passports back. We waited just outside the ticket booth, not sure what was happening and feeling very uneasy about the thought that a man we didn't know had our passports and we didn't know what he was doing with them. A few minutes later, they returned or passports with the border tickets in them, alleviating our worries.

Welcome to Nicaragua!

Outside of the ticket booth, there were no signs or instructions telling is where to go next. We waited for some other backpackers as we'd rather get lost in a group than get lost with just the two of us. Now a group of six, we walked in what we believed to be the direction of Nicaragua and eventually came across a customs building with a long line of people outside. Here, we filled out a form stating where we were going and why and then waited an hour before finally getting approved. Once again, we had a long walk and didn't quite know what we were looking for. This stretch was the region of no-man's-land between the two countries. Once in Nicaragua, we were greeted by a friendly danger sign. I would have much preferred to have seen a "Bienvenidos a Nicaragua" sign! We walked around the dangerous region and eventually found the customs office. Here they made us pay $1 for a form, another $1 for another small piece of paper that mostly just confused me, and then $12 to enter the country. This whole process took another hour and was very poorly organized. Overall we payed $24 and spent close to 3 hours to get across the Costa Rica-Nicaragua border. It would have been nice to have had to pay all the money at once and have had a shorter break.

The best way to get around Nicaragua

There was a very drastic change between the wealth and infrastructure of the two neighboring countries. Nicaragua was significantly poorer. Buildings and roads were not well maintained. Several border guards had tents to work in instead of real buildings. The buses were converted school buses, called chicken buses, instead of old coach buses.


We originally planned to split a cab to San Juan del Sur with four other backpackers we had met on the bus, but all of the cabs only had space for four so Hugh and I said the others could go and we would look for two other people to split a second cab with. Before we could find anyone else headed in the same direction as us, we were approached by a local man. He advised us to take the bus which would only cost $2 instead of at least $10 each for the cab. He even shower us a map to show us where we could transfer and didn't ask for money.

We found the bus and got inside. I paid $1 to board. Hugh only had a $20 bill and they didn't have changed so they just shoved him on before he even had a chance to pay! We got on the bus - an old school bus which has been repainted red and green - and it was packed with people. There didn't appear to be seats available so we stood. Once the ride started, the man who had let us on to the bus came around and got people to move over on their seats to make room. I was sitting next to a local Nicaraguan woman. When I sat down, she tapped me on the shoulder, pointed at me, pointed at herself, and then made a kissing gesture. I was shocked at how forward she was! I hadn't even said "¡Hola!" to her! I was not interested on kissing some creepy Nicaraguan woman I knew nothing about so I shook my head. She persisted. She made the same sequence of gestures probably 10 more times seemingly unaware that I was very uncomfortable with the whole situation. She eventually gave up and decided to "sleep". As she pretended to sleep, she nudged towards me and tried to snuggle up against me. I shuffled over away from her. She followed. I kept moving and she kept following until I had only an inch of seat left. I finally decided that I would rather stand than deal with this woman, so I grabbed my bag and stood up. The local guys in the seats in front of and behind me were laughing hysterically at me but one of them moved over too make from me. Thankfully he didn't ask to kiss me!

The creepy woman was not the only strange event I witnessed on that bus. For the majority of the ride, a well-dressed, extremely loud Nicaraguan man was shooting at the front of the bus. It was as if he were an announcer in some TV commercially. Except this TV commercial was performed live on a bus and lasted 20 minutes. 20 minutes later he pulled out a box of pills and started selling them. To my surprise, almost everybody on the bus bought some of these pills! After the ride, Hugh, who is much better at understanding spoken Spanish than I am, explained to me what the man had been saying. He claimed to have been sent from god with these pills. He claimed these pills could cure anything from high blood pressure to pancreatitis. He even claimed that he had been shot in the knee and was completely healed after the taking the pills! The pills definitely weren't from god though - the box just said "garlic pills".

Taking the Jeep Boat Jeep to La Fortuna

After three nights in Monteverde, we were ready to leave Costa Rica for Nicaragua, which we were told is similar but much cheaper. Our friends, Brian, Vanessa, and Rob from Manitoba were leaving the same day as us (Thursday, May 1, 2014) to go to the Volcan Arenal - a volcano near La Fortuna, Costa Rica. Since this town was on the way to the Nicaraguan border, we decided to go to La Fortuna with them.

A real boat!

We signed up to take the Jeep Boat Jeep which went directly from Monteverde to La Fortuna. It was advertised as a ride in a Jeep to the south shore of Lake Arenal, then a boat ride across the lake, and finally another Jeep ride directly into La Fortuna. When the "Jeep" picked us up at the hostel, we were disappointed to find that it was not a Jeep, but rather a boring tourism van. It brought us to the lake where there was actually a boat!

Laguna de Arenal

We waited about half an hour before they finally let us on the boat. In that time, we saw some young Costa Rican boys who were probably only 8 years old fishing from the side of the lake. They had no rods, bit only spools of fishing line. They were also using pieces of apples as bait, which surprisingly was quite effective as they were able to pull in several large fish in the short time we were watching. Eventually, we were allowed on the boat which brought us across the lake. The scenery was quite beautiful travelling on this narrow lake with mountains on either side.


At the other side, we were again met with a tourism van and not a Jeep. I was glad there had actually been a boat so the company's name was at least one third accurate!

I think he was saying something
about needing to poop. Or maybe
he was laying an egg. I'm not sure

Once we had settled in our hostel in La Fortuna, we signed up for a hike around the Arenal Volcano. Our guide was a very lively Costa Rican man who had a very vast knowledge of the volcano and was all too eager to act out various things he was talking about.


He started the hike by explaining some basic geology about what a volcano is and why they exist and then spent the majority of the hike talking about the various animals and plants which live near the volcano. The volcano was huge, and unfortunately it was overcast, so we were unable to see its peak.

The volcano has been active recently; however, its last eruption being in 2011, so we didn't get to see any hot lava. We were able to climb up a path of solidified lava at the base of the volcano. The path was littered with guavas (although I couldn't find any trees with guavas on them) and pieces of pumice which had been expelled from the volcano. We also saw some bombs and craters. Bombs are large chunks of volcanic rock which can fly quite a distance before landing and destroying things as large as houses of the bomb lands on it. These booms often create large craters in the ground when they land.

The volcanic ecosystem was quite interesting. The volcano expels rocks containing high concentrations of certain minerals, so the land around a volcano is surprisingly nourishing for many flora and fauna. There was a type of plant similar to a Venus fly trap which would close if you touched it. In terms of animals, all I saw were birds, most notably blue jays. Since the ecosystem is still very young, the main vegetation is short trees, bushes and moss. It was quite different from anything I have ever seen in Canada.

The beginning of a new ecosystem!

Arenal Volcano

Climbing the Ficus

We awoke on our second full day in Monteverde (Wednesday, April 30, 2014) without any plans. Our hostel had a list of top things to do in Monteverde. One of the things was "climb the ficus" which had a note saying that it was free. Having spent quite a bit of money zip lining the day before, we decided to climb it, even though we weren't quite sure what a ficus was or where to find said ficus. After consulting with some brochures and maps, we discovered that it was a tree and we thought we knew where it was. After a long uphill hike, the maps led us to a small path leading into a forest.
The path even had a helpful sign!
Our best guess was that this sign had at one point said "FICUS" so we headed into the rainforest. We weren't exactly sure what a ficus tree looked like, but we suspected it would be quite large. After only a few meters, we came across a large tree with complicated looking roots.
This tree was definitely huge but all the branches were quite high and there didn't appear to be any way to climb it. We kept waking. There were several other similar trees on the path. All were very large and definitely not climbable. We soon reached the end of the path, disappointed to have not found the infamous ficus tree we had heard we could climb.

Hugh said that he wasn't leaving without climbing at least one tree, so we headed back to one of the earlier trees and tried to climb it. The bark was quite smooth and there were no branches to hold onto, so climbing was unsuccessful. We tried a different side of the tree and Hugh thought he could climb through a hole in the side of the tree. As much as it seemed like a bad idea to go inside the tree, I helped him through. He fit inside!
As soon as he got inside, he shouted "Holy shit, this is amazing! You have to see this! Come inside!" I was skeptical that the tree could even for one person inside, so I was especially skeptical that it could fit two, but Hugh assured me that there was plenty of space for both of us. I climbed inside and saw the interior of the tree. It was completely hollow!
We managed to climb about 30 meters up the tree on the inside.
Can you find Hugh at the top of the tree?
We descended the first tree and went looking for other ficus trees. Some of them seemed to have other trees growing inside and we couldn't climb them. I found one tree that had two separate trunks that were about 20m apart and grew together into one trunk higher up.
This tree was especially large and it was as easy to climb as a ladder!
I made it very high up this tree in almost no time at all.
We climbed a few more trees and then went back to our hostel. It was nice to have a downhill walk on the return to our hostel!

Zip Lining!

Our first day in Monteverde (Tuesday, April 29, 2014), we decided to go zip lining. We booked with Extremo, who picked us up at the hotel we had stayed at the night before. They picked us up with a large van full of other backpackers. I was sitting next to two other Canadians, Brian and Vanessa, who were also doing the same zip lining course as us. It was nice to finally have some other people to talk to who were a similar demographic and spoke the same language as me!

Ready for some zip lining!

We had signed up for their standard zip lining package without bungee jumping. This package included 13 ordinary zip lines, rappelling, a Tarzan swing, and a Superman zip line. When we arrived, they outfitted us with top and bottom harnesses, helmets, and leather gloves.

A zip line so long you
can't see the other end!

After a short demonstration on safety, we were ready to go. Our gloves had additional thick leather pieces attached to the palms for braking. We were instructed to keep one hand on the cable behind us, and grip the cable tightly to break. The other hand had to stay on the cord attaching our harness to the cable to prevent us from spinning. The first zip line was quite short so that we could learn the technique. It was really easy and a lot of fun already! We quickly moved up to longer zip lines

Tandem zip lining

For some of the longer zip lines, we went in pairs. The back person had to wrap their legs around the front person and was responsible for braking. I was in the front, so all I had to do was enjoy the ride!

A view of the mountains from a
platform high in the trees

The course eventually brought us to a metal platform at the top of a huge tree. It baffles me how they were able to build such a platform, especially in a rainforest on a mountain where it would be impossible to use a crane. There was a howler monkey hanging out in this tree. Unfortunately, the monkey was dark and far away so I could mostly just hear him howling and couldn't see him very well or get a good picture. We rappelled down this tree and then went to the Tarzan swing.

I'm Tarzan!

For the Tarzan swing, we were tied into a rope which was attached to a far away tree branch. The rope was probably 50m long! Once tied in, we had to jump off the platform. After a short free fall, we would swing back and fourth on this branch. Several people decided to skip this swing as they were scared of the free fall; I decided to go even though I was a little scared, because I knew I would regret it the next day if I skipped out. It took a lot longer for one person to swing on the Tarzan swing than to go on the zip lines before it, creating a bottleneck. As a result, I had a twenty minute wait during which I got quite nervous and kept having to talk myself out of backing out. Eventually, it was my turn and there was no turning back. The initial free fall and jolt as the rope went tight were not particularly enjoyable, but the rest of the swing was awesome! While the zip lines were noisy and vibrated as you move, the Tarzan swing was smooth and quiet - a nice change. It was actually quite relaxing and calming and I would say it was the best part of the whole course.

Hugh is Superman!

At the very end of the course was the Superman zip line. Rather than being attached at the front and hanging in a sitting position, we were attached by our feet and back. These attachments allowed us to fly through the rainforest in a lying-on-your-front position à la Superman. Since the position prevented the zip liner from braking, there was a spring at the other end to stop us. This zip line was also the longest zip line, being a full kilometer. At this point of the course, I was ready to be done zip lining, and didn't really like the idea of not being able to brake. They hadn't even explained how the braking system on the other end worked and this uncertainty made me uneasy about doing the Superman. Thankfully, Hugh ended up talking me out of backing out. The ride was pretty good. The view was excellent, and the feeling of the wind through my hair at those speeds was exhilarating. Unfortunately, the harness created a lot of uncomfortable pressure in my chest and the wind made my eyes water, detracting from the overall experience.

Hola!

At the main office for the zip lining company, there was a Scarlet Macaw who was quite friendly and said "¡Hola!". After our zip lining adventure we decided to switch hostels to stay with our new friends Bryan and Vanessa and the other Canadians they were also travelling with.