Not so Sexy Sex Hotels

I woke up early in Esteli intending to make some time before the day warmed up but as i was packing i realized that my camera was missing . . . oh shit! I immediately realized that I had left my bag on a chair at hotel the previous night. I had started chatting with the hotel owner who then gave me a tour, consequently forgetting that I had walked in with a bag. I immediately went to the hotel but the senora was not in until ten so i had to wait . . . nerve wracking but gave me a chance to read the particulars of my travel insurance policy. Luckily the camera was still there. I have renewed my faith in humanities inherent honesty. I got out of Esteli at a more typical 11:30 am start. I was under a some pressure to make it to Grenada, Nicaragua by late morning to catch a ferry to Isla Ometep. I stomped out a scenic 135km that afternoon sweating buckets and drinking gallons to finish up at nightfall outside of Managua.
Typically, if I want to make time hotels are more convenient than camping - combined with the strong desire to shower and being in an urban area i started to look around Tipitapa for a hotel in the dark. Figures the one place in Nicaragua without a hotel selection is Tipitapa. There was one "ecolodge" that did not seem very "eco" but they charged $4o US for a eco room for the night . . . not. I asked around and was told that there was no other hotels but there was a motel. Motels or Auto Hotels are places to meet your mistress or girl friend or prostitute to have sex hence they carry a stigma. However, they are typically clean, secure, have a modest porn selection, and are affordable. I just had to convince the guy with the pistol grip shotgun, who looked Ned Gerblansky from South Park, that I really just wanted the room to sleep in for the night. Though he could get me anything , I mean anything I wanted. Eventually, we both found each other pretty amusing. I walked out to buy a couple beers and water but was sent back to my room to wait by "the box" in the wall for my bevys to appear. The idea is to keep guests as anonymous as possible to avoid spying eyes. "Ned" appeared with a few cold ones and we were in business. I did not feel like eating anymore chicken so I decided to cook in my room after setting up a respectable little kitchen sitting on my bed. After a satisfying, if not gourmet meal, of orzo, I read a couple hundred more pages of Shogun and crashed. Overall, an acceptable night, minus the biblically proportioned swarm of flying ants in the room. I woke before 6am drank some cold instant coffee and was out the door by 6:30am sweating buckets with everyone else on the road. I arrived in Grenada by 9am to sit in the plaza and have a coke and will be catching a ferry for Isla Ometep this afternoon with at least 3 other cyclists.