It was in the middle of September, and
I thought that that would be the best place to take my girlfriend,
Kathya, for our anniversary. I saved up and borrowed a sum of 3,600
cordobas to pay for us both. That isn’t counting the 500 cordobas I
needed to get to her house from my site and back. So overall this
was already going to be a pricey trip.
We took buses north from Carazo to El
Crucero and waited in the windy highlands for about an hour for a bus
to Pochomil. We took it all the way to our stop and switched to Pedi-Cab for another 20 minutes before arriving at the giant Barceló
hotel.
The first thing you notice as you enter
is just how manicured everything is. This might be an effect of
being a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) for almost a year, but it did take me aback. The Barceló is more than a nice hotel in Granada. It really is something totally
different from the whole Nicaraguan experience.
After check-in, Kathya and I headed for
the bungalo that I had reserved. The bed stole the show for me. It
was enormous, about three meters wide and almost as long. Crashing
into its soft white clouds for pillows was a brief euphoric moment.
We helped ourselves to the icy beverages in the minibar before
changing into swimsuits and walking out to the pool.
As far as fun in the sun goes,
Montelimar is pretty normal for a resort. There’s water volleyball
and basketball. Some of the workers teach aerobics or dance classes
by the pool. A few ping pong and billards tables and
even a giant chess board can be found. There was a terrible mini-golf course that
was made of concrete only. Someone forgot that without the grass,
what’s to stop the ball form just rolling around forever.
The food brought things back up.
Although it says on the website that there are 4 restaurants, two
serve mainly snacks like hotdogs or nachos. One is only open to
guests that stay for more than three nights, but the food is supposed
to be divine. But the fourth restaurant is the real meat of Montelimar! FABULOUS!!! Kathya and I
gorged on the huge line of diverse delicacies to the point of pure
gluttony.
Lounging by the pool, sipping rum
drinks and laughing about the past year would have been enough of
anniversary for us, but it didn’t stop there. As the sun went
down, so began the shows. We went to the theater in time for the
crowd warm-up of trivia. We managed to pull off a huge victory with
a prize, a two liter bottle of vodka. Not too shabby!
The night heated up as we watched a
dance performance of “country” music. It was more of a Kumbaya in
cowgirl outfits but whatever. It was still fun, especially after all
those house drinks.
After we had had enough, Kathya and I
caught a ride on the Montelimar express, a tractor-driven train that
makes moving around the resort much easier. We both curled up
together one last time in that heavenly bed and drifted off too
sleep.
