Notes from a hammock

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So I finally went to Nicaragua and spent just over a week visiting Rakel who is doing her field work for the MA in Leon. The trip was prolonged a bit beacuse of the inconvenience of travelling long distances on a bus (particularly a Nicaraguan bus) when one is on antibiotics and generally feeling like crap. The antibiotics and the heat did not ruin a very nice trip however. After a few days in Leon, a charming university town close to the coast in the northern half of Nicaragua we went on to Granada, liberal Leons conservative rival further south. Did some sightseeing in the small and sleepy towns in the hills and took a boat trip on the shallow waters of the Lago de Nicaragua to see some of the human and animal life on its 360 small islands, las isletas.

Partly because of the heat and the antibiotics (and partly because of the atmosphere and the hammocks) we spent quite a lot of time at the hostel. The place that houses the Bearded Monkey is one of those typical colonial structures with rooms arranged around an internal patio, trees and flowers and sometimes birds or a cat (the hostel is home to one of the fattest and most relaxed cats I have ever seen), surrounded by hammocks to lounge in with a book and a lemonade through the warmest hours of the day. I completely fell in love with their hammocks, and seeing as it had been my plan since before I came to Latin America to buy one this time, I decided to do so while I was there (Nicaragua is also known to be cheaper than Costa Rica, a good excuse to do soem shopping). At the market in Masaya I finally found a hammock that I am hoping I somehow will find a place to put up sometime i the future. It won't be the same without the courtyard and the heat, but hopefully I can find some use for it. I have considered whether it would be possible to replace my bed with the hammock, but I am not so sure my back would be to happy with that as a long-term soution. Could be good for a guest bed though... I am still considering whether I also have to buy a hanging chair (don't know what else to call it), which is not quite as comfortable as the hammock, but has the advantage of taking up less space, as well as needing only one hook in the ceiling in stead of two in the walls. But then there is the issue of how much I can manage to bring with me on the plane home or how much it would cost to send something in the mail, and wether it is actually practically possible to bring something like a hanging chair. Oh, the lifealtering decisions one has to make...