Moto!

Written 5/30

We are still on this beautiful island but will be heading to San Juan del Sur tomorrow. We have enjoyed it so much. This is by far the best place in Nicaragua. The wildlife is incredible and the volcanos and water and temperatures are perfect.
Yesterday we had planned to move hotels to get a chance to see the rest of the island. When I awoke yesterday morning, though, something clicked in my head...$25 motorcycle rentals. I mentioned it to Rob and his eyes lit up. He immediately let us a few doors down to inquire about it. The guy there confirmed that his friend would rent us a bike for $25 for the whole day. Dont worry, mom, we insisted on a second helmet and both wore them the entire time. We had a list of places we would try to see starting with a waterfall and moving onto petroglyphs and then more beaches if possible. We headed down the road and quickly realized how terrible the roads here are. They are incredibly rocky and I was quickly bouncing around on the the back of the bike struggling to keep my butt on the seat and feet on the peddles. I kept reminding myself that little kids ride on these things here. We headed around the island toward San Ramon and the waterfall. We stopped a few times on the way to enjoy the scenery with the water on one side and the volcano rising up on the other side. We found the sign for the waterfall whose path starts at a hotel. They told us that we could drive 2km of the 3km trail and we headed up...and I mean up. We were so grateful for the bike since it was getting pretty hot outside...ok...I wasnt 100% grateful for the bike and did get off and walk on a few of the steep hills because I felt like I was going to fall of the back of the bike, but it sure did save us a lot of time on the hike. The last kilometer was more uphill walking and we finally made it to the falls that had seemed so far away when we caught a glimpse at the beginning of the hike. It was a bit dissappointing. We had hoped for a beautiful pool at the foot of the falls that we could immediately jump into to stop our sweating but no such luck. We enjoyed being at the top and did use some of the fresh cold water to cool off a bit but no swimming. I could tell that Rob was feeling antsy to get back on the bike and there wasnt even a fallen log to sit on so we headed back down to find some petroglyphs.
The ride was really cool. There are so few vehicles on the island. We passed people walking, riding bikes and a few other motorcycles. We had to ride through huge muddy puddles and herds of cows. Rob expertly avoided the pigs and cows and horses and people and we finally found the road to the petroglyphs. The glyphs are along a little road up to a hotel/restaurant and at the top we happily went into the restaurant for a late lunch. The view from the place was perfect...but sadly our burgers were not. The emaciated dogs got most of it so it wasnt a complete loss. Eventually we headed back towards the beach that our hotel was on and hopped off the road and onto the sandy beach. It was at this point that I told Rob that he could just drop me off and I would happily go for a swim and let him enjoy the rest of the time at full speed without me. I was tired from holding on to keep myself from flying off the back and the water was looking very inviting.
I know that Rob enjoyed the rest of his ride because he returned with a huge grin on his face. He swears that the day was right up there with the Roatan fishing trips.