Happy birthday to me - 31 if you're wondering, eeek! Started my birthday morning in Popoyo then we once again strapped our boards to the roof of a taxi and headed for Jinotepe, finishing the day kicking back smoking the cigars we'd made last week! Kyla had been here for a few months running a volunteering centre, basically managing a hostel and organising various projects for Canadian volunteers. It was a great opportunity to see something off the tourist trail with the added bonus of a homemade birthday cake! Thanks Kyla!
Pretty interesting to see how local Nicaraguans lived and this was one of those places where you walk down the streets and people stop/stare/point because you have white skin and blonde hair. By now our Spanish skills were paying off and we were fairly comfortable with chatting to random people, shopowners, etc which really made the experience that much more fulfilling.
I can't remember the exact dates but it was still Easter week somehow because there was partying going on and it was apparently a lot buiser in town than usual. Jack and I had the one and only dodgy experience of the trip when we went out at about 8pm to find something to eat and run into some drunk cops. They stopped us and asked us a few questions then started calling us various derogatory names in Spanish (the younger cops giggling nervously). We pretended not to understand and there wasn't quite the feel of imminent violence in the air, mostly just drunk dickheadery. That said I didn't fancy the idea of a beating with their batons nor being arrested (we didn't have any ID at the time) and chucked into some shitty cell. If that's the worst experience of the trip then things aren't too bad but I was a bit shaken afterwards and disappointed that not every Nico is as friendly as the ones we'd met prior.
Apart from that we enjoyed our stay in Jinotepe! Well, maybe not so much the sound of rampant cat sex every night (de-sexing is obviously unheard of here), the yowling from every rooftop lasted all night! Anyway after a few days we packed our gear once again and said thanks and goodbye to Kyla before jumping on the 2 day bus to Mexico...
