Leon 2.0

In the bus from Granada to Managua and onto Leon I met Chuck. He sat down next to me and we talked all the way to Leon. He was planning on heading onward to Las Penitas but as he had to change to another bus terminal to get there he walked with me to "El Albergue". I was quite nervous as I had only talked to the owner by mail and I had only seen pictures of the hostel. But I had this idea in my head of working in this nice hostel. Being a sweet host who actually shows around the guest answering their questions before they even ask. Spending a lot of time socializing with other travelers. Improving my spanish as the rest of the staff was all locals.
Also I was looking forward to unpack for a while and get settled. Having a favorite Cafe and maybe finding a regular yoga class.
When I walked through the door I could already feel that the pictures had painted this place in a better light than in real life. The owner was super friendly (maybe a bit cheesy) and told me I could chill for the day he would explain the work to me later. When he showed me to the dorm room I was a little confused by a bed standing randomly in the center of the room. It kind of blocked the way to get to the other beds. So I asked where this bed was supposed to go. When his answer was that this is where the bed belongs it dawned on me that we might have different ideas about how the perfect hostel has to look.
It didn't get better when he showed me further around. I can't say it was dirty but it was also not really clean. And there was just a lot of stuff hanging and standing around everywhere. I didn't feel like unpacking so I just went to the garden and talked to a few guests.
Later the owner walked around the hostel with me again as he got really excited about me being an interior architect and he wanted some ideas for changes in the hostel. As there were still 2 other volunteers working this week he thought I could just do the designs in my first week and start working at the reception the week after.
I didn't really know what to think about the place, the owner and my work here so I took a walk around town hanging out for a while in the square in front of the cathedral. I figured it's probably best to just give it some time...
The next morning one guy working at the hostel was supposed to show me what work needs to be done during the day shift (one person was working 8am to 3pm and another 3pm to 10pm). When I got to the kitchen at 7:45 he had already started to prepare the doe for the pancakes. I asked him about the ingredients but he only said "I do this every morning". He didn't really talk to me so I figured I just gonna watch him. After he had finished all the work in the kitchen and was hanging out at the reception I decided to just start with a design for a new tour desk next to the reception the owner had asked for. All I had was a piece of paper, a ruler and a pencil. I started with a floor plan and an elevation of the existing reception and the empty space next to it. I took most measurements by counting the floor tiles 😅
When I was finished with the existing I figured I should get it copied before starting to draw in it. So I went to a copy shop around the corner. Next I figured I would need color so I went to a store to buy some colored pencils. It's been a long time since I have made a drawing like this but it was great fun.
When the owner got to the hostel in the afternoon the first thing the guy working at the reception told him was that I hadn't been following him around all day and had even left in between. Luckily the owner knew what I was doing and told the guy not to worry about it. I showed him my drawing and after he had given me some feedback I told him I would do the changes the next morning and left for another walk around town.
I went back to the rooftop bar I had been to before for sunset and thought about my situation over a drink. I could say for sure that I wouldn't recommend the hostel to any of my friends. So could I still work there? I decided to stay the week and go to Las Penitas on the weekend. My plan had always been to spend my offdays at Las Penitas surfing and as the owner of the hostel had a house there I would even have been able to stay there for free. If Las Penitas was great maybe I could find a way to like the hostel and my job there.
After a while 2 guys showed up and asked if they could join my table as there were no other tables left with a good view. 2 friends of them showed up and also joined. I talked a lot with Winnie who had been traveling for over a year and was collecting money for a good cause with her page thetoothfairytravels.com
After a few drinks we went to get dinner at a street food barbecue.
I realized that I wasn't really saving a lot of money as the job only covered for accommodation and pancakes in the morning (just with sugar or jam). And as the kitchen in the hostel wasn't the cleanest I didn't feel like cooking there every night.
I went to bed later and woke up the next morning with the typical rows of bites on my legs and shoulders and little blood stains all over my bedsheets. Bedbugs!
This is when I was finally done with this place. I still finished the changes on my drawings in the morning when Chuck (the guy from the bus from Granada walked in). He was on his way to Estelí and it was good talking to him in this situation. He invited me to join him and some friends for the Somoto Canyon tour a few days later if I decided to leave the place. But I guess I had already made my decision and as soon as the owner showed up I told him really honest that I don't feel like I can sell a place really well which I wouldn't recommend to my friends. He was quite understanding but actually asked me to go for a beer that night. First I thought he just wanted to have a beer because I still helped him with the designs but when he got really pushy about it and said "He would really like to get to know me better without the context of the hostel!" I realized he was seriously hitting in me 😅 so I guess this was another fact that proofed my decision to leave right. I gave all my clothes to the laundry in case the bed bugs also made it into my backpack and left for good to spend the night at another hostel. The next morning I left early to catch the bus to Las Penitas.Read more