Saying Goodbye to my Homestay Family and Drive to Lago Apanas – 20220806

I woke up around 7 or 8 and went to hangout with the homestay family. They made me a huge breakfast and then the older son walked down with me towards some waterfalls.

They ended up being unbelievably cool. Perfectly carved in the rock is a deep swimming pool. The water was perfectly refreshing. I splashed around a bit on my own and Carlos told me he couldn’t swim. We headed back up and their daughter dropped off their grandson, Cristobal.

He was a cool little dude who at first was terrified of me. He took his little crocs off and when I started throwing them at him he loved it. He threw them back at me as hard as he could. I pretended to be hurt each time and he thought it was hilarious.

Man, they live in a small spot. Some people walked by every few minutes and all stared, a few said hi to me. I feel myself day by day becoming more receptive and understanding the people in these villages more.

I used to assume they all hated me due to the angry stares but I know that’s not even close to the case. None of them even voice jealousy. They all tell me how cool my trip is and share in my excitement instead of being jealous. I can’t say the same for even a lot of people that I had considered friends. I feel jealousy crack a lot of relationships even though I am certain the majority of the people jealous of the way I travel would hate traveling the way I do.

I threw a couple more shoes at little Cristobal, packed up my things, and headed towards the lake that was kind of on the way to Matagalpa that I had found in iOverlander. The ride was amazing. The road was pretty much all dirt but nice and flat most of the way. I had an amazing ride and after an hour and a half I was at the place. It’s called “Centro Acuatico El Chilamate.” It cost 450($13) for a cabin so I coughed up the money as I saw an enormous storm approaching.

As is so often the case, as soon as I threw my stuff in the room the storm slammed down. An hour later it was still raining and I dropped my idea of going kayaking, maybe in the morning if it is dryer.