We got up early that Tuesday morning to catch a 6 a.m. bus from Somoto to the border in Honduras. Our goal was to make it to Copan in Honduras at around 6 p.m. that night. Our travel plans were SUPER aggressive and pretty unrealistic, but we had been lucky so far. Maybe our luck would continue.
The first leg of our trip was from Somoto to the border of Honduras, only 20 kilometers away. No way that would take more than 30 minutes, right? Wrong! Our bus driver left 15 minutes late and then decided to pick up every single person on the side of the road, which added another 30 minutes to our ride. Ugh. We needed to get to Tegucigalpa by 1 p.m. at the latest in order to catch the last bus to Copan that left at 2 p.m.
It was already after 8 a.m. when we crossed the border in to Honduras. Now we needed to catch a shuttle from the border to our next destination: San Marcos, Honduras, where we had to then catch a bus to Tegucigalpa and then onward to Copan.
We saw the shuttle we needed to take parked about 100 yards from where we crossed the border. The driver was enjoying a leisurely breakfast on the hood of the van while about 20 people were waiting for him. I have really tried to be more patient on this trip, but this was about to make my head explode!!!
Finally, after about 20 minutes, Our hombre hambre finished his breakfast and decided to pick up our group. BUT after he shoved us all in, he decided the shuttle wasn´t full enough, so he waited until a couple more people ... and then a couple more people showed up before we could leave!
So, after the driver shoved half the population on Honduras on to the shuttle, we were off on our hour trip to San Marcos. We still hoped we could make it to Copan by 6 p.m.
We made it to the cute little town of San Marcos at around 9:30 a.m. We hopped off and immediately headed to the bus station to catch the next bus to Tegucigalpa. The next one left at 10 a.m., which would get us to Tegucigalpa at around 2 p.m. Our dream of getting to Copan at 6 p.m. that day was crushed. :(
We came to terms with staying in Tegucigalpa for a night. We would just catch the first bus out of the city the next morning and get to Copan before lunch. ¡Nunca problema!
The bus ride to Tegucigalpa was long and stressful, but we were at least on a big bus with A.C. Lots of questions raced through our heads... What if there was no bus to Copan for the rest of the week? What if we had to stay in Teguc for all of Semana Santa??
We had heard that Tegucigalpa was crappy place, but it was more than crappy. Smog ominously settled over the haphazardly built city as we drove down through the surrounding mountains. Traffic at mid-day was like L.A. but scarier Our bus pulled into what looked like a street but there were so many buses, cars and vendors scattered every which way, who knew if it was a street of parking lot.
We grabbed our bags, hopped off the bus, and looked for the oldest cabby we could find.
We found an elderly gentleman with a limp and barely any teeth to take us to the big bus station. We asked about buses to Copan and he just kept asking if we had a reservation. Uh oh.
So we get to the bus station and there was no line. Yes! We headed to the counter and asked for two tickets to Copan early the next morning. The kid selling tickets tells us there is no bus. Okay, no bus in the morning we think. We ask him if there is one in the afternoon. Nope. Okay. Panic is setting in. When is there a bus, we ask him?? There is NO bus to Copan for the rest of the week! Crap. It was happening!
We scrambled to come up with plan B. We decided to buy tickets to San Pedro, Honduras, and once in San Pedro, we would try and buy tickets to Copan. There was no guarantee that tickets to Copan would even be available, but we had to try. Oh, by the way, San Pedro has the title of being the HIV/AIDS capital of Central America, and has one of the highest crime rates and gang problems of any city in Central America. Sounds like a swell place to spend a few nights, no?
We bought our over-priced first-class tickets to San Pedro and walked out of the bus station, heads down, and nerves shot, into the terrifying streets of Tegucigalpa.
I love cities. Really. I want to give every place I go a chance before I judge it, but the area we were in in Teguc was terrifying, dirty, and ugly. Even in broad daylight I felt vulnerable walking around. People starred at us. We stuck out like terrified white sore thumbs with giant backpacks.
We scurried about looking for a decent place to stay, and settled on a hotel based on the recommendation of a local coconut vendor. The place wasn´t bad, if you could get past the bars on the window and bullet proof glass surrounding the convience store next door.
We hunkered down in our room after making a run for a diner two doors down the road for dinner. It was only 7 p.m. but we just wanted to go to bed, wake up and get our stressful journey over with.
We made our way out of our hotel room at 7 a.m. to head to the station for our 8 a.m. bus, when we opened the hotel door, we were greeted by hundreds of people waiting for buses that were crammed onto the street in front of our hotel. People were yelling, cars were honking, it was getting ugly. So much for it being Holy Week! We put our heads down and plowed through the crowds.
We had no problems getting our expensive bus to Copan. I guess sometimes it does pay to buy the more expensive bus ticket.
We tried to enjoy our 4-hour luxury ride in our bus with AC, movies and snacks along the way, but we were troubled by our unknown traveling future.
As we headed into San Pedro we became more anxious. Time to put on our game face.
The San Pedro bus station was HUGE and intimidating. Hundreds of people were waiting in large masses that were apparently lines to buy tickets. Everyone was shouting and trying to shove closer to the ticket window. We were the only gringos in sight, too. This was not looking good.
We finally found a ticket window selling tickets to Copan, and thankfully, there were NO people! We bought two tickets to Copan before the woman behind the counter changed her mind and told us she was sorry but buses to Copan were all sold out.
We grabbed our tickets and held on to them like Charlie held on to his Golden ticket. We had two hours to wait, which gave us a small taste of Sand Pedro. Glad we were leaving!
We posted up by the area where our bus would be arriving about 30 minutes before our departure. We met a couple of terrified young guys who were traveling to Copan as well. They were very thankful to find some other backpackers! We stuck together and waited to see what kind of bus we´d be riding in. We prayed for a tourist bus but knew better. A chicken bus rounded the corner toward the station and everyone around us surged toward the waiting area. Chris and I were not messing around. We were getting a seat, damnit. I didn´t care who I had to push out of the way!
We had strategically placed ourselves at the front of the group and the minute the bus doors opened, I pushed my way through. I sadly had to push and old woman holding a kid out of the way, someone elbowed me in the ribs, but still we pushed. Everyone was laughing, which made the whole scene comical rather than troubling, fortunately. As I finally made my way up the bus steps, the girl in front of me fell and couldn´t get up. I grabbed her and picked her up and pushed. She scrambled up, and grabbed the nearest seat. Chris was way behind me, but I pushed my way through, grabbed a seat, and through my bag down to save a spot for Chris. Yes! I did it. We didn´t get screwed out of a seat like usual.
After all the pushing was through, and everyone had made it on the bus, we looked around and ... everyone had a seat. Everyone. Why the hell were we pushing?! Hilarious.
So we had made it over several hurdles and were on our way to Copan. FINALLY. We didn´t care that we were on a crowded sweaty school bus, at least we were on our way.
Spirits were high and the scenery was beautiful as we made our way into North Central Honduras. Chris and I had almost forgotten that we had NO place to stay when we actually got to Copan. Shit. We grabbed our guide book and picked out a few promising places to stay. One of them had to have availability even during Semana Santa.
About an hour away from Copan the sky turned black and clouds started to churn. A light rain started to fall. After about 30 minutes the light drizzle turned into a down pour. As we pulled up to the bus stop in Copan, it was a full-on torrential down pour.
It was pouring down rain, we were in a strange town at night, and we had no place to stay. Perfect!
We grabbed bags and started to run toward the center of town where all the hotels were located. As we approached the town center, our stomachs. dropped. People were pouring out of hotel doors. Everyone was trying to get a room. Now things were really bad. Were we going to have to spend the night in a park??? As we were running around frantically, a small man in a poncho approached us and told us to follow him. The poor guy had barely any teeth and managed to emit and odor even during a rain storm, but still, we followed him. What other choice did we have?
I was a little freaked out when he took us down a dark cobblestone road, but as continued we headed toward a building with large wooden arched gates as an entry way. We ran through the entry way, and were greeted by a row of perfectly nice little hotel rooms. Two other girls were trying to bargain for a room. The owner new he had the advantage. They sadly couldn´t afford the room, but Chris and I didn´t care what he was going to charge, we were gonna pay!
The owner asked for $35 but bargained him down to $28 a night. We grabbed the key, through down our bags, and fell onto our bed. YES. We made it!!!
We were starving and the owner recommended a good restaurant down the road. We happily ran out to grab money and some food. As we walked down the road, suddenly everything went dark. A power outage... very typical, but not ideal at this time. We had $2 to our name and needed cash badly. Of course now none of the ATMs would be working without electricity. I wanted to sit and cry.
We continued to scurry about trying to figure out what to do, when finally the lights came back on. We grabbed cash from an ATM and headed out quickly to grab some grub. By the time we made it to the restaurant, the electricity had gone out again, but no worries. We enjoyed a nice candlelit dinner that first night in Copan. Our traveling adventures to Copan had wiped us out, so we headed back early to our hotel for a hot shower, clean bed, and cable t.v.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Somoto Canyon
Once again, we are slacking on updating our blog. But one day we´ll get completely caught up... hopefully before we make it back to S.D.!
Sooo... where was I in my last post? Hmmmm... Oh, yes, Our crazy night in Esteli and on to Somoto...
From Esteli we were heading to the farther north-west part of Nicaragua to a tiny town called Somoto, which is famed for the large canyon outside the town. Apparently the canyon wasn´t discovered by outsiders until 2004. Crazy! Now it´s a big attraction for visitors. People generally day trip from Esteli to take a 3 or 4 hour trek, swim, cliff jump, and take a lancha tour of the canyon. We opted to spend a few nights in the town, to get a better feel for the area.
We caught a midmorning bus from Esteli and made it to Somoto before 3 p.m. We were totally spent after our late night and just wanted to find a nice place to lie our heads. We found a cute and rustic family run hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and then hunkered down for some dubbed tv and a early night sleep. We had set up a canyon tour for the following morning and wanted to be well rested.
We were picked up at our hotel the next morning at the very reasonable hour of 8:30. We were met by our guide Francisco.
The twenty-minute ride to the canyon was beautiful. I was still shocked that the place had not been discovered by people outside the area until 2004 -- it was huge!
We started our hike from Fransico´s house, which bordered the canyon park. The hike was way easier than we had imagined. Within 30 minutes we were at the river´s edge where we put our backpacks in a waterproof case that guides carried, and then hopped in the water and switched back and forth from swimming and scurrying across big boulders in shallow areas.
The canyon was spectacular. The water was a dark jade color, and the entire area was amazingly clean. We didn´t see too much wildlife, except for a few fish and an awesome, giant jumping spider that didn´t bite, of course, but our guides did talk about some mystery bird that, legend says, steals women and children and brings them to it´s nest... that´s what we understood based on our limited Spanish at least!
Anyhow, we had a blast traveling through the winding canyon walls, jumping in pools and taking in the spectacular scenery above. We had the opportunity to cliff jump in one area. I opted for the wussy jump of 2 meters. Chris, of course, went for the 6 or 7 meter jump. The guides were very very impressed!
After a couple hours of canyoning we were kind of cold and waterlogged, and low and behold waiting for us was a lancha! We gladly hopped in the little boat, which took us farther down the river to a nice little picnic spot on the river´s edge.
From there, we had to hooof it back to Francisco´s house. This hike was a bit more difficult than the hike in, but we did get to see some beautiful ranch land... we made it back to Francisco´s house after an hour hike in the sun. We were ready for a shower, a cold beverage and maybe a nap!
We had to wait about an hour for a cab, which made us even hotter and more tired. A shower sounded amazing! Unfortunately when we got to our hotel, no hay agua! What are you going to do though? We´ve learned that elecricity and running water are a priviledge and not something to count on a daily basis.
We forewent our showers and headed into to town to find a bakery that made a treat for which Somoto is renowned worldwide: rosquillos, small cracker/cookies made with a local cheese and sometimes with dried fruit on top.
We meandered through the cobble stones streets and were greeted with a friendly buenas from elderly couples sitting on stoops, and cowboys in ten gallon hats and boots parked their caballos alongside tuktuks. We liked Somoto.
We found the little bakery on the outskirts of town. It was a mini factory where two girls were filtering the finished cookies along some kind of mesh screen... no clue what this did... the girls offered us two samples, one of the cheese only crackers and one with a dried fruit on top. The first was a small hard donut shaped cracker tasted like a stale gold fish cracker. Bleh. The second, was a thinner cracker with a small piece of tamarin (?) fruit on top. At first we weren´t sold on it, but after a couple more tries, we were hooked. We bought a bag of twenty that would last less than a day. hehe.
After our little excursion through town, we were finally able to shower up and take a quick rest. After cleaning up, we took one more stroll through town. We visited a beautiful, beautiful park in the center of town. It could have been in a big city in the U.S... a cobble stone path led visitors through perfectly manicured gardens surrounded by raught iron fences, all which centered around a beautiful bubbling fountain. Again, we liked Somoto!
Directly outside of the park was a giant stone church, and when we left the park gate, directly above the church was a magnificent, orange full moon. Wow. I wish I could´ve have taken a picture!
We topped off our last evening with dinner across the street from our hotel... decent food with flavor, which was cool. We once again headed to bed early in preperation for an early and LONG day of travel... if only we had known how long it would really be!
Sooo... where was I in my last post? Hmmmm... Oh, yes, Our crazy night in Esteli and on to Somoto...
From Esteli we were heading to the farther north-west part of Nicaragua to a tiny town called Somoto, which is famed for the large canyon outside the town. Apparently the canyon wasn´t discovered by outsiders until 2004. Crazy! Now it´s a big attraction for visitors. People generally day trip from Esteli to take a 3 or 4 hour trek, swim, cliff jump, and take a lancha tour of the canyon. We opted to spend a few nights in the town, to get a better feel for the area.
We caught a midmorning bus from Esteli and made it to Somoto before 3 p.m. We were totally spent after our late night and just wanted to find a nice place to lie our heads. We found a cute and rustic family run hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and then hunkered down for some dubbed tv and a early night sleep. We had set up a canyon tour for the following morning and wanted to be well rested.
We were picked up at our hotel the next morning at the very reasonable hour of 8:30. We were met by our guide Francisco.
The twenty-minute ride to the canyon was beautiful. I was still shocked that the place had not been discovered by people outside the area until 2004 -- it was huge!
We started our hike from Fransico´s house, which bordered the canyon park. The hike was way easier than we had imagined. Within 30 minutes we were at the river´s edge where we put our backpacks in a waterproof case that guides carried, and then hopped in the water and switched back and forth from swimming and scurrying across big boulders in shallow areas.
The canyon was spectacular. The water was a dark jade color, and the entire area was amazingly clean. We didn´t see too much wildlife, except for a few fish and an awesome, giant jumping spider that didn´t bite, of course, but our guides did talk about some mystery bird that, legend says, steals women and children and brings them to it´s nest... that´s what we understood based on our limited Spanish at least!
Anyhow, we had a blast traveling through the winding canyon walls, jumping in pools and taking in the spectacular scenery above. We had the opportunity to cliff jump in one area. I opted for the wussy jump of 2 meters. Chris, of course, went for the 6 or 7 meter jump. The guides were very very impressed!
After a couple hours of canyoning we were kind of cold and waterlogged, and low and behold waiting for us was a lancha! We gladly hopped in the little boat, which took us farther down the river to a nice little picnic spot on the river´s edge.
From there, we had to hooof it back to Francisco´s house. This hike was a bit more difficult than the hike in, but we did get to see some beautiful ranch land... we made it back to Francisco´s house after an hour hike in the sun. We were ready for a shower, a cold beverage and maybe a nap!
We had to wait about an hour for a cab, which made us even hotter and more tired. A shower sounded amazing! Unfortunately when we got to our hotel, no hay agua! What are you going to do though? We´ve learned that elecricity and running water are a priviledge and not something to count on a daily basis.
We forewent our showers and headed into to town to find a bakery that made a treat for which Somoto is renowned worldwide: rosquillos, small cracker/cookies made with a local cheese and sometimes with dried fruit on top.
We meandered through the cobble stones streets and were greeted with a friendly buenas from elderly couples sitting on stoops, and cowboys in ten gallon hats and boots parked their caballos alongside tuktuks. We liked Somoto.
We found the little bakery on the outskirts of town. It was a mini factory where two girls were filtering the finished cookies along some kind of mesh screen... no clue what this did... the girls offered us two samples, one of the cheese only crackers and one with a dried fruit on top. The first was a small hard donut shaped cracker tasted like a stale gold fish cracker. Bleh. The second, was a thinner cracker with a small piece of tamarin (?) fruit on top. At first we weren´t sold on it, but after a couple more tries, we were hooked. We bought a bag of twenty that would last less than a day. hehe.
After our little excursion through town, we were finally able to shower up and take a quick rest. After cleaning up, we took one more stroll through town. We visited a beautiful, beautiful park in the center of town. It could have been in a big city in the U.S... a cobble stone path led visitors through perfectly manicured gardens surrounded by raught iron fences, all which centered around a beautiful bubbling fountain. Again, we liked Somoto!
Directly outside of the park was a giant stone church, and when we left the park gate, directly above the church was a magnificent, orange full moon. Wow. I wish I could´ve have taken a picture!
We topped off our last evening with dinner across the street from our hotel... decent food with flavor, which was cool. We once again headed to bed early in preperation for an early and LONG day of travel... if only we had known how long it would really be!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Time Flies
Really time does fly when you´re having fun. We can´t believe our trip is more than half over! Also can´t believe how long it has been since we´ve posted an update on our blog. Unfortunately, the farther north we get, the more difficult it has become to access a computer with internet (most places have wifi, but typing lots of stuff on our iphone stinks). Soo... where to begin. Chris left off on our adventures at Rancho Tranquilo on the black sand beaches of Jiliquilo in Northern Nic... which was amazing and relaxing, but also hot. very hot. We were ready to get to the highlands.
We checked out of Tina´s place on Wednesday April 13 and hopped on a bus headed to Chinendega and then onwar to the town of Matalgalpa located in Nicaragua coffee country. We were excited to get out of the heat and ready to hike in the cool highlands in the area.
As usual, our trip took longer than expected. We had to spend about four hours in Chinendega which seems like an eternity in an town thats main attraction is a couple of delapitated churches, a Pizza parlor and a gigantic hot market place that sells knock-off name-brand clothing.
After our long stop over, we finally got on our bus to Matagalpa. The ride was beautiful.... rolling green hills and lush farm land with more white herons and egrets flying around than we had ever seen. Unfortunately, we didn´t arrive in Matalgalpa until around 8;30 at night, which is never fun when you´re in a city with no place to stay. Luckily the bus station was close to the center of town and we were able to find a clean, safe hotel in a nice area for $15. Good deal! We grabbed a bite to eat, and had ourselves a first taste of Flor de Cana rum. Now, we are not rum drinkers, but WOW. Amazing. After our rum night cap, we hit the hay to get ready for our big day of hiking.
We woke up early the next morning and were welcomed by cool mountain air, a bustling and colorful town square, and delicious strong, local coffee. Mmmm... we liked Matagalpa.
We decided to take a chicken bus up the road into the mountains to a German owned coffee plantation, Selva Negra, that had been in the area since 1880... the bus ride was easy and cheap... and entrance to the park was two dollars a piece. We had looked into the same hike that was done with a tour group and they wanted to charge $47!! HA! We paid a total of $4!
The place was surreal. We felt like we had been transported to Europe or a little village in the Rocky Mountains... definitely did not feel like Nicaragua... until we saw the spider monkeys!
We hiked for about two hours and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at a view point that overlooked the city. When we hiked down we treated ourselves to a like side Tona at the quaint Europe lodge. Perfect day. That night we enjoyed a little too much Flor de Cana and felt that we needed to do another hike to make ourselves feel better. The hiking trail we wanted to go on was apparently not very scenic during the dry season, so we did Selva Negra round two. Just as good as the first time. We made our way down on another local bus and when we got back to town we decided to stroll around, take pictures off life going on as usual in Maltagalpa. It was a really lovely town, and people were always friendly.... funny people in the area were very big on fashion and makeup. Girls always wore make up and everyone wore knock-off brand name clothes like Tommy Hillfiger, Hollister and Abercrombie. Kinda made us feel under-dressed in our grubby backpacker clothes!
We made it an early night our last night in Matagalpa. We were leaving for Esteli early in the morning, and though it was to be an easy trip, things sometimes do not go as planned on travel days.
We got to the bus station right on time at ten to catch our bus on Saturday April 16. It was an easy ride, thankfully. We arrived to dusty, flat hot Esteli right on time at a little afternoon. We walked the mile into town rather than catch a cab, which was pretty unpleasant, but manageable, plus we saved, like TWO bucks. hehe.
We made it to the center of town and found a nice little hotel where we found a room with a private bath for $20. Great deal!
We were not too impressed with Esteli. It was hot. It was dirty and big and did not feel that special, but I guess it is not really fair to judge a place based on one days, so maybe we were missing something. However the entire reason we were in Esteli was to meet up with our awesome Norwegian buddies, Hege and Bjornar. We had not seen them since Costa Rica so we were excited to see what they had been up to in the past couple months.
We met up with them at a local Cuban restaurant that night. We also met their friend Ilva who was a Norwegian preschool teacher who participating in an exchange program that Norway has with Nicaragua. Neat!
We drank beers, ate delicious Cuban food and laughed our faces off. After dinner, our Norse friends invited us over to another Norwegian couple´s house. Andre and Miriam were part of the exchange program as well. We made our way through the dark and a little bit frightening streets of Esteli to the couples welcoming home. The house had an amazing little courtyard and the couple had little candles, were playing music and had a bunch of bottles of wine cracked. The Norwegians know how to have a good time!
We drank good wine, the guys smoked a ridiculous amount of cigars, and most importantly, we learned about the PARTY Swed! Hilarious. I will post pictures soon of Chris wearing the party Swed wig.
We really have not stayed out late EVER on this trip, so when we looked at our watches and saw it was past midnight, Chris and I panicked! We didn´t know how we were getting back to the hotel... well, our awesome Norwegian hosts said they´d gladly call a cab, however... some mentioned Cigar Zone, apparently the hottest red-rope club in all of Nicaragua. Well, for some reason, everyone decided it was a great idea to pile in a cab and head to the club. I was wearing hiking pants, a tee shirt and flip flops, not exactly red rope attire, but we said what the hell, let´s go.
Sooo... we take a 30 minute cab ride to Cigar Zone and it´s decided we have to go VIP style. Chris and I realize we have a total of 20 dollars and it cost 10 dollars each just to get in! Everyone pitched in for us and said we could pay them back. Let me tell you, they do VIP right in Esteli. We had a big bottle of rum, some sode and limes, our own private area with a view of the dance floor, and the guys could smoke cigars to their hearts content.
It only took a little ron for us to get out on the dance floor and make asses of ourselves.. funny enough no one gave us a second look even though they were dressed to the nines, like anyone else at a red rope club.
We managed to stay out until 4 a.m., which is completely out of character for us, but it was worth every second. We loved hanging out with our Norwegian friends and will never forget our time at a red-rope club in Nicaragua... hell, it might be the last red-rope fancy club I ever visit!
OK... so obviously we felt pretty crappy on Sunday morning. Magically we managed to wake up at 9 a.m. and have some coffee and pack up. We headed over to Ilva´s house to say good bye to Hege, Bjornar and to rehash the events of the previous night.... fun was had by all was the general consensus!
Chris and I regrouped, and head to the bus station to catch a bus to Somoto on the northern border of Nicaragua and Honduras. We planned on spending a couple days in Somoto. Our main goal was to visit the canyon, which was supposed to be spectacular. Shockingly it was discovered by scientists until 1994, which seems weird because it is a HUGE canyon!
I will leave you there for now. Other people are waiting for the computer at the hostel. We will up date on our adventures at Somoto, Copan Ruinas, and Flores. Right now, we are preparing for a big hike into the jungle to see some hidden ruins. Amazing!!!
We checked out of Tina´s place on Wednesday April 13 and hopped on a bus headed to Chinendega and then onwar to the town of Matalgalpa located in Nicaragua coffee country. We were excited to get out of the heat and ready to hike in the cool highlands in the area.
As usual, our trip took longer than expected. We had to spend about four hours in Chinendega which seems like an eternity in an town thats main attraction is a couple of delapitated churches, a Pizza parlor and a gigantic hot market place that sells knock-off name-brand clothing.
After our long stop over, we finally got on our bus to Matagalpa. The ride was beautiful.... rolling green hills and lush farm land with more white herons and egrets flying around than we had ever seen. Unfortunately, we didn´t arrive in Matalgalpa until around 8;30 at night, which is never fun when you´re in a city with no place to stay. Luckily the bus station was close to the center of town and we were able to find a clean, safe hotel in a nice area for $15. Good deal! We grabbed a bite to eat, and had ourselves a first taste of Flor de Cana rum. Now, we are not rum drinkers, but WOW. Amazing. After our rum night cap, we hit the hay to get ready for our big day of hiking.
We woke up early the next morning and were welcomed by cool mountain air, a bustling and colorful town square, and delicious strong, local coffee. Mmmm... we liked Matagalpa.
We decided to take a chicken bus up the road into the mountains to a German owned coffee plantation, Selva Negra, that had been in the area since 1880... the bus ride was easy and cheap... and entrance to the park was two dollars a piece. We had looked into the same hike that was done with a tour group and they wanted to charge $47!! HA! We paid a total of $4!
The place was surreal. We felt like we had been transported to Europe or a little village in the Rocky Mountains... definitely did not feel like Nicaragua... until we saw the spider monkeys!
We hiked for about two hours and enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at a view point that overlooked the city. When we hiked down we treated ourselves to a like side Tona at the quaint Europe lodge. Perfect day. That night we enjoyed a little too much Flor de Cana and felt that we needed to do another hike to make ourselves feel better. The hiking trail we wanted to go on was apparently not very scenic during the dry season, so we did Selva Negra round two. Just as good as the first time. We made our way down on another local bus and when we got back to town we decided to stroll around, take pictures off life going on as usual in Maltagalpa. It was a really lovely town, and people were always friendly.... funny people in the area were very big on fashion and makeup. Girls always wore make up and everyone wore knock-off brand name clothes like Tommy Hillfiger, Hollister and Abercrombie. Kinda made us feel under-dressed in our grubby backpacker clothes!
We made it an early night our last night in Matagalpa. We were leaving for Esteli early in the morning, and though it was to be an easy trip, things sometimes do not go as planned on travel days.
We got to the bus station right on time at ten to catch our bus on Saturday April 16. It was an easy ride, thankfully. We arrived to dusty, flat hot Esteli right on time at a little afternoon. We walked the mile into town rather than catch a cab, which was pretty unpleasant, but manageable, plus we saved, like TWO bucks. hehe.
We made it to the center of town and found a nice little hotel where we found a room with a private bath for $20. Great deal!
We were not too impressed with Esteli. It was hot. It was dirty and big and did not feel that special, but I guess it is not really fair to judge a place based on one days, so maybe we were missing something. However the entire reason we were in Esteli was to meet up with our awesome Norwegian buddies, Hege and Bjornar. We had not seen them since Costa Rica so we were excited to see what they had been up to in the past couple months.
We met up with them at a local Cuban restaurant that night. We also met their friend Ilva who was a Norwegian preschool teacher who participating in an exchange program that Norway has with Nicaragua. Neat!
We drank beers, ate delicious Cuban food and laughed our faces off. After dinner, our Norse friends invited us over to another Norwegian couple´s house. Andre and Miriam were part of the exchange program as well. We made our way through the dark and a little bit frightening streets of Esteli to the couples welcoming home. The house had an amazing little courtyard and the couple had little candles, were playing music and had a bunch of bottles of wine cracked. The Norwegians know how to have a good time!
We drank good wine, the guys smoked a ridiculous amount of cigars, and most importantly, we learned about the PARTY Swed! Hilarious. I will post pictures soon of Chris wearing the party Swed wig.
We really have not stayed out late EVER on this trip, so when we looked at our watches and saw it was past midnight, Chris and I panicked! We didn´t know how we were getting back to the hotel... well, our awesome Norwegian hosts said they´d gladly call a cab, however... some mentioned Cigar Zone, apparently the hottest red-rope club in all of Nicaragua. Well, for some reason, everyone decided it was a great idea to pile in a cab and head to the club. I was wearing hiking pants, a tee shirt and flip flops, not exactly red rope attire, but we said what the hell, let´s go.
Sooo... we take a 30 minute cab ride to Cigar Zone and it´s decided we have to go VIP style. Chris and I realize we have a total of 20 dollars and it cost 10 dollars each just to get in! Everyone pitched in for us and said we could pay them back. Let me tell you, they do VIP right in Esteli. We had a big bottle of rum, some sode and limes, our own private area with a view of the dance floor, and the guys could smoke cigars to their hearts content.
It only took a little ron for us to get out on the dance floor and make asses of ourselves.. funny enough no one gave us a second look even though they were dressed to the nines, like anyone else at a red rope club.
We managed to stay out until 4 a.m., which is completely out of character for us, but it was worth every second. We loved hanging out with our Norwegian friends and will never forget our time at a red-rope club in Nicaragua... hell, it might be the last red-rope fancy club I ever visit!
OK... so obviously we felt pretty crappy on Sunday morning. Magically we managed to wake up at 9 a.m. and have some coffee and pack up. We headed over to Ilva´s house to say good bye to Hege, Bjornar and to rehash the events of the previous night.... fun was had by all was the general consensus!
Chris and I regrouped, and head to the bus station to catch a bus to Somoto on the northern border of Nicaragua and Honduras. We planned on spending a couple days in Somoto. Our main goal was to visit the canyon, which was supposed to be spectacular. Shockingly it was discovered by scientists until 1994, which seems weird because it is a HUGE canyon!
I will leave you there for now. Other people are waiting for the computer at the hostel. We will up date on our adventures at Somoto, Copan Ruinas, and Flores. Right now, we are preparing for a big hike into the jungle to see some hidden ruins. Amazing!!!
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Day 60 & Beyond!
Hey Kids,
Holy jamoly! It's been like three weeks since our last post. I can only assume Japan's cities are clean an devoid of nuclear fallout, a sensible transfer of power has been agreed upon in Libya and the Braves are in first place heading for another title!!! Right, am I right? So, I'm wrong but our travels are still so right! Can anyone guess where lovely Joy is at this moment? Give up? Taking a much needed siesta after hiking through Honduran canyons and waterfalls all day, that's where! Haha.
If you've not followed the posts on facebook, we reached the northern border of Honduras where it joins Guatemala just before the holiest of Central American holidays, Semana Santa or Easter Week. We have posted up in a town called Copan Ruinas, and, as u may suspect, they are most famous for their incredible, Mayan Ruins. However, if u ask my lady, she will tell you that their street food is TOPS. To this point, even the street food in Americana Centro has been...uh...bland. In Copan the pork street tacos are stupendous, the homade ice cream is awesome, the pupusas (more El Salvadorian than Honduran but who cares) fantastic and the cinnamon, sugar drinks (ponche) are strait addictive. Plus, Joy found the best salsa ever, and even I agreed we should purchase our own jar. You know, for the bland times.
However, how did we get here? Where have we been since April 7th? The short answers are the beach, the mountains and two HUGE major cities with a couple small ones in between. We left Leon wanting to explore the north western beaches of Nicaragua before the holy week. During 4/17 thru 4/24 there we gonna be 3 million Nicas at the beaches celebrating Christ's resurrection and cold Tona! We hoped for a more tranquil setting and were not disappointed. The first beach we hit was Las Penitas, 40 clicks west of Leon. Wow! We've never been on a more deserted stretch of beach. 22km to the north and south and it was us, the local fisherman, a couple surfers, millions of shells and hundreds of bird species. For three and a half days we played in the surf (hours a day, we were like kids on summer vacation again) and explored a 20 km. barrier island with estuaries, mangroves, crocodiles and, during certain times of year, nesting sea turtles. Didn't spot Amy sea turtles, wrong time of year, but the birds and crocs were amazing. Joy, our guide and I took a boat 2km up the estuary and another 2km back and it was like being back in prehistoric times. No people, hot, humid, giant herons and crocs. So cool. Our guides little boat ran out of gas about ten minutes from shore, so we had to paddle back. It was hilarious. I wanted a discount, joy told me to shove it, and we were back to playing in the ocean in no time. Side note - super proud of my wife! Normally a bit shy in the water after nearly breaking her sternum body surfing in Coronado, CA, was swimming champ in waves twice as big in Las Penitas. Good job, honey!
Not finished with remote beach exportation, we jumped a couple buses north to another beach just below the El Salvadorian border called Zorros Beach. We heard rumor of a hostel in this area with beach front
cabins, vegetarian food, cold beer and an owner from San Francisco. A five hour bus ride and two cold cobs of corn served via bus window, and we were beach front at Rancho Tranqilo, Zorros Beach, Nicaragua.
A nice young man with shiny bits of glitter all over his face, body and feet checked us in. Julian, glitter man, said he'd been fillin in as owner and hotelier while the actual owner, Tina, was recovering from back surgery in Leon. Apparently, she was stringing more Xmas lights around the bar and took a tumble. Yikes! She cracked her back and her ribs and after meeting her (she returned that day and Julian took of after 1.5 months at the helm) I understood why this fall injured her so badly. She's a tiny person. And what she lacks in size makes up for in Tona and cigarette consumption. For normal people, Tina was probably terrifying, for us she was interesting in a here's-what-an-ex-hippie- computer-programmer-can-do-with-a- little-bit-of-dough-in-Nicaragua kind if way. It was impressive. She didn't rise before 11 am, subsided on smokes and Tona, but kept her place spick and span and the food tasty. We stayed 3.5 days and then headed for the mountains, but we could have stayed longer. The place was special. Not sure why but it had something to do with another miles-long deserted beach, great waves (we both tried surfing with success) and the cheap rum. Flor De Cana is made about 70 km south. Great beach times.
My hands are asleep as I'm typing on the iPhone, and we are headed to Easter mass. Thus, I leave you! We will share our times in the mountains and across the two major cities of Honduras next time. We promise the next lost in less than 3 weeks, unless Internet is spotty in Guatemala. Haha. We head to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, en la mañana!
Miss y'all!
Ciao!
CP JP
Holy jamoly! It's been like three weeks since our last post. I can only assume Japan's cities are clean an devoid of nuclear fallout, a sensible transfer of power has been agreed upon in Libya and the Braves are in first place heading for another title!!! Right, am I right? So, I'm wrong but our travels are still so right! Can anyone guess where lovely Joy is at this moment? Give up? Taking a much needed siesta after hiking through Honduran canyons and waterfalls all day, that's where! Haha.
If you've not followed the posts on facebook, we reached the northern border of Honduras where it joins Guatemala just before the holiest of Central American holidays, Semana Santa or Easter Week. We have posted up in a town called Copan Ruinas, and, as u may suspect, they are most famous for their incredible, Mayan Ruins. However, if u ask my lady, she will tell you that their street food is TOPS. To this point, even the street food in Americana Centro has been...uh...bland. In Copan the pork street tacos are stupendous, the homade ice cream is awesome, the pupusas (more El Salvadorian than Honduran but who cares) fantastic and the cinnamon, sugar drinks (ponche) are strait addictive. Plus, Joy found the best salsa ever, and even I agreed we should purchase our own jar. You know, for the bland times.
However, how did we get here? Where have we been since April 7th? The short answers are the beach, the mountains and two HUGE major cities with a couple small ones in between. We left Leon wanting to explore the north western beaches of Nicaragua before the holy week. During 4/17 thru 4/24 there we gonna be 3 million Nicas at the beaches celebrating Christ's resurrection and cold Tona! We hoped for a more tranquil setting and were not disappointed. The first beach we hit was Las Penitas, 40 clicks west of Leon. Wow! We've never been on a more deserted stretch of beach. 22km to the north and south and it was us, the local fisherman, a couple surfers, millions of shells and hundreds of bird species. For three and a half days we played in the surf (hours a day, we were like kids on summer vacation again) and explored a 20 km. barrier island with estuaries, mangroves, crocodiles and, during certain times of year, nesting sea turtles. Didn't spot Amy sea turtles, wrong time of year, but the birds and crocs were amazing. Joy, our guide and I took a boat 2km up the estuary and another 2km back and it was like being back in prehistoric times. No people, hot, humid, giant herons and crocs. So cool. Our guides little boat ran out of gas about ten minutes from shore, so we had to paddle back. It was hilarious. I wanted a discount, joy told me to shove it, and we were back to playing in the ocean in no time. Side note - super proud of my wife! Normally a bit shy in the water after nearly breaking her sternum body surfing in Coronado, CA, was swimming champ in waves twice as big in Las Penitas. Good job, honey!
Not finished with remote beach exportation, we jumped a couple buses north to another beach just below the El Salvadorian border called Zorros Beach. We heard rumor of a hostel in this area with beach front
cabins, vegetarian food, cold beer and an owner from San Francisco. A five hour bus ride and two cold cobs of corn served via bus window, and we were beach front at Rancho Tranqilo, Zorros Beach, Nicaragua.
A nice young man with shiny bits of glitter all over his face, body and feet checked us in. Julian, glitter man, said he'd been fillin in as owner and hotelier while the actual owner, Tina, was recovering from back surgery in Leon. Apparently, she was stringing more Xmas lights around the bar and took a tumble. Yikes! She cracked her back and her ribs and after meeting her (she returned that day and Julian took of after 1.5 months at the helm) I understood why this fall injured her so badly. She's a tiny person. And what she lacks in size makes up for in Tona and cigarette consumption. For normal people, Tina was probably terrifying, for us she was interesting in a here's-what-an-ex-hippie- computer-programmer-can-do-with-a- little-bit-of-dough-in-Nicaragua kind if way. It was impressive. She didn't rise before 11 am, subsided on smokes and Tona, but kept her place spick and span and the food tasty. We stayed 3.5 days and then headed for the mountains, but we could have stayed longer. The place was special. Not sure why but it had something to do with another miles-long deserted beach, great waves (we both tried surfing with success) and the cheap rum. Flor De Cana is made about 70 km south. Great beach times.
My hands are asleep as I'm typing on the iPhone, and we are headed to Easter mass. Thus, I leave you! We will share our times in the mountains and across the two major cities of Honduras next time. We promise the next lost in less than 3 weeks, unless Internet is spotty in Guatemala. Haha. We head to Rio Dulce, Guatemala, en la mañana!
Miss y'all!
Ciao!
CP JP
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Leon
We are getting ready right now to leave Leon where we have spent the last couple days. After spending six days in Granada, I was not too excited about spending more time in a city, but we really enjoyed our time here.
We arrived to the dusty hot bus lot in the Leon Wednesday afternoon. We decided to walk the mile and a half to the hostel. The area surrounding the bus stop was hot hot hot, dusty, reeked of rotten fruit and garbage and had about as much charm as a dentist office. Fortunately as we neared the city center beautiful historic churches and colonial buildings started to appear...
We managed to find a nice, clean, quiet hostel with a POOL that was only 20 bucks. Serious score.
We spent our first afternoon walking around to get our bearings on the city... much bigger than Granada -- almost twice as big, in fact. The city is pretty dingy, lots of garbage and the old buildings could use a serious scrub down, but interestingly, hardly any street dogs. Oh, and they seem to favor pizza rather than hot dogs in Leon.
Despite being rough around the edges, the city is very charming, filled with cultural, and a ton of students.
After eating pizza for dinner... pineapple and ham... pretty good actually, we headed back to our hostel to make a plan for the next day. We could head to a nearby volcano to sandboard... just like it sounds, snowboarding except on sand... or we could stay in town and check out museums and churches. We opted for the latter. A few years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to do something like sand boarding, but to us it just sounded like a hot, expensive, and potentially dangerous endeavor. Why not hit some nice museums for a couple bucks.
Yesterday morning we visited the Centro de Arte, which houses an impressive collection of art including Pre-Columbian pottery, European classic pieces dating back to the 15th century, a selection of Picassos, and a large variety of contemporary Latin American art work, all surrounded by lush gardens ands flowing fountains. The museum was impressive by any standards, and for a dollar, an absolute steal.
In the afternoon, after retreating to our pool for a few hours, we decided to hit a couple more musuems.
First we visited the Ruben Dario museum. I might embarrass Chris and myself, but neither of us know much about Reuben Dario... I think we probably should. From our guide book we learned he is a revolutionary poet who is an important figure in Nicaraguan history.
The museum is housed in Dario"s former home. It"s laid out quite nicely and is well maintained, but because the exhibits are in Spanish, we had a difficult time understanding what each exhibit meant. We did understand that he is one of the most beloved heroes in Nicaragua. I honestly have never heard of a hero poet, so go Nicaragua.
The museum was free, which was nice. Chris and I are planning on reading up on Mr. Dario more. I would love to read some of his revolutionary poetry... almost forgot... his writing style changed the way people in Nicaragua speak and write... very interesting.
After the Dario museum we visited a museum dedicated to the heroes who fought for the Sandinistas during the civil war dating from the early 1900s up until the mid 1980s. Our tour guide Benito, spoke only Spanish, which was really hard at first, but surprisingly Chris and I caught on. The history of the Sandinistas is complicated, bloody, sad, and very interesting. The exhibits themselves featured graphic photos of FSLN soldiers who were killed in the war. Most of them were just kids. Most of the pictures in the museum were taken in Leon, and were easily recognizable to us. Crazy that 30 years ago the bustling city was a bloody war zone.
At the end of our tour our guide showed us a small laminated wanted poster. It was in Spanish, but we could understand that the kid in the picture was a FSLN soldier wanted by Somoza, the opposition leader. The person in the picture was a young kid in military fatigues. It was our guide, Benito. He explained to us how he was tortured... electrecuted, teeth pulled out... so horrible but he managed to survive and escape.
We surprisingly were allowed to take pictures in the musuem. I have a couple pics of homemade weapons created by Sandinista soldiers, and a few shots of a mural of FSLN heroes. They also have a whole wall dedicated to Che... Che is big here. OH, it is also election time in Nicaragua and every day there has been a huge FSLN political rally in the plaza. Really interesting. I cannot wait to read more about Nicaraguan history.
We capped off last night with a Toña on a roof top bar where we watched the sunset and then we headed back to the hostel for one last dip in the pool.
What a perfect day filled with learning and relaxing.
Today we are off to Las Peñitas beach, just north and west of Leon. We will spend a couple days there and then we are heading further north to an area called Los Zorros beach. So excited. Life could not be better.
We arrived to the dusty hot bus lot in the Leon Wednesday afternoon. We decided to walk the mile and a half to the hostel. The area surrounding the bus stop was hot hot hot, dusty, reeked of rotten fruit and garbage and had about as much charm as a dentist office. Fortunately as we neared the city center beautiful historic churches and colonial buildings started to appear...
We managed to find a nice, clean, quiet hostel with a POOL that was only 20 bucks. Serious score.
We spent our first afternoon walking around to get our bearings on the city... much bigger than Granada -- almost twice as big, in fact. The city is pretty dingy, lots of garbage and the old buildings could use a serious scrub down, but interestingly, hardly any street dogs. Oh, and they seem to favor pizza rather than hot dogs in Leon.
Despite being rough around the edges, the city is very charming, filled with cultural, and a ton of students.
After eating pizza for dinner... pineapple and ham... pretty good actually, we headed back to our hostel to make a plan for the next day. We could head to a nearby volcano to sandboard... just like it sounds, snowboarding except on sand... or we could stay in town and check out museums and churches. We opted for the latter. A few years ago I would have jumped at the opportunity to do something like sand boarding, but to us it just sounded like a hot, expensive, and potentially dangerous endeavor. Why not hit some nice museums for a couple bucks.
Yesterday morning we visited the Centro de Arte, which houses an impressive collection of art including Pre-Columbian pottery, European classic pieces dating back to the 15th century, a selection of Picassos, and a large variety of contemporary Latin American art work, all surrounded by lush gardens ands flowing fountains. The museum was impressive by any standards, and for a dollar, an absolute steal.
In the afternoon, after retreating to our pool for a few hours, we decided to hit a couple more musuems.
First we visited the Ruben Dario museum. I might embarrass Chris and myself, but neither of us know much about Reuben Dario... I think we probably should. From our guide book we learned he is a revolutionary poet who is an important figure in Nicaraguan history.
The museum is housed in Dario"s former home. It"s laid out quite nicely and is well maintained, but because the exhibits are in Spanish, we had a difficult time understanding what each exhibit meant. We did understand that he is one of the most beloved heroes in Nicaragua. I honestly have never heard of a hero poet, so go Nicaragua.
The museum was free, which was nice. Chris and I are planning on reading up on Mr. Dario more. I would love to read some of his revolutionary poetry... almost forgot... his writing style changed the way people in Nicaragua speak and write... very interesting.
After the Dario museum we visited a museum dedicated to the heroes who fought for the Sandinistas during the civil war dating from the early 1900s up until the mid 1980s. Our tour guide Benito, spoke only Spanish, which was really hard at first, but surprisingly Chris and I caught on. The history of the Sandinistas is complicated, bloody, sad, and very interesting. The exhibits themselves featured graphic photos of FSLN soldiers who were killed in the war. Most of them were just kids. Most of the pictures in the museum were taken in Leon, and were easily recognizable to us. Crazy that 30 years ago the bustling city was a bloody war zone.
At the end of our tour our guide showed us a small laminated wanted poster. It was in Spanish, but we could understand that the kid in the picture was a FSLN soldier wanted by Somoza, the opposition leader. The person in the picture was a young kid in military fatigues. It was our guide, Benito. He explained to us how he was tortured... electrecuted, teeth pulled out... so horrible but he managed to survive and escape.
We surprisingly were allowed to take pictures in the musuem. I have a couple pics of homemade weapons created by Sandinista soldiers, and a few shots of a mural of FSLN heroes. They also have a whole wall dedicated to Che... Che is big here. OH, it is also election time in Nicaragua and every day there has been a huge FSLN political rally in the plaza. Really interesting. I cannot wait to read more about Nicaraguan history.
We capped off last night with a Toña on a roof top bar where we watched the sunset and then we headed back to the hostel for one last dip in the pool.
What a perfect day filled with learning and relaxing.
Today we are off to Las Peñitas beach, just north and west of Leon. We will spend a couple days there and then we are heading further north to an area called Los Zorros beach. So excited. Life could not be better.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Mando & Eric, We Miss You
Hola Kids,
It´s 8:35, do you know where your Joysie is? That´s right, in the dang pool. We´ve been hangin´¨Granada-style¨ for the past several days and that means pool time. This city is hot, boyz and girlz. You need a pool and the Hostel Oasis provides. Thus, you are stuck with me for this week´s post.
Notice the title of said blog. We miss our buddies. Eric & Mando rock to travel with in domestic or foreign countries. (Even though bro is afraid of getting scammed by the locals at every turn...haha). They are some of the only people we know who can survive 15-plus-hour travel days via plane, taxi, boat, bus, etc., stifling heat, no-water-waterfall hikes, steep volcanoe hikes, more taxi rides, more heat and the general alertness that comes with international travel. All four of us do it with mostly a smile, and we had a blast.
I wanted to fake-scam Eric right as he left baggage claim, but the bastard was onto me. Joy and I were spotted immediately as those dudes exited the termial at Managua International. We were staying about 50km south of Managua on Isla Ometepe, a two-voclanoe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (i believe the largest lake in Central America), and the hotelier, Ryan Cassidy, from Finca Mystica our Isla Ometepe hotel, set us up with a taxi ride to the boat launch. A taxi is a great way to welcome your incoming family members to Nicaragua, as you skip hours long bus rides & scorching midday heat. Plus, Mandy was psyched to sit shotgun and impress Martin, our cab driver, with her fluent Spanish. Joy and I were excited to travel with a Spanish speaker again, and Eric was in a general state of shock feeling certain Martin was taking us to some remote alley in Managua where he and his epidermis would meet the business end of Martin´s shank. We were only too glad to disappoint me brother, as we arrived to the boat launch in San Jorge. A quick 45 minute boat ride later, and we were aboard another taxi to Finca Mystica at the base of Maderas on Isla Ometepe.
The proprietors of Finca Mystica, Ryan & Angie, lived a better part of their most recent lives in Steamboat Springs, CO, and have only recently opened their 4-cabin hotel January 2011. We felt fortunate to be some of their first guests, and the experience was amazing. Mandy was in Xanadu. Angie was a vegetarian, so all of her meals included more than one veggie option. AND they were huge on sustainability, environmental conservation and resource conservation...uhhhh...yea...Mandy likes that too. No flushing unless you take a duce, shower at night if at all (there´s a lake down the road, man) and each meal was cooked mostly from food stuffs grown on the property.
In our short 4 nights & 3.5 days at Finca we came to love the Island, Ryan & Angie, the local people and the volcanoes that loomed to the west & north each day. What follows is the account of that stay and our travels to San Juan Del Sur & Granada.
Day 1 - arrival, beers (Tona), star cicle with the brightest sky any of us had seen since traveling to Hawaii in 2005, baby fresh sheets and a good night sleep after a long-ass travel day.
Day 2 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, waterfall hike (it had no water and proved to be the hottest day we spent on the island), jump in lake, all is good, dinner and local fiesta. Ryan and Angie invited us to a local Reggaetone dance at the junior high. This was a fundraiser AND the 5th grade graduation. The entire town of Meredia was to attend, and we had our party hats strapped to the chin. HOWEVER, the fiesta turned bunk as too many hombres and not enough damas showed up, so we spent the evening sharing mass Tona with the locals at some random cantina. 15 giant beers = $12. Eric and I both fought to pay that bad boy...haha.
Day 3 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, KAYAK around the lake to the Rio Istlan and saw mucho birds. I almost had a great picture of the magestic heron until our other boat mates decided to offroad the kayak into the marsh scarring all but the mosquitoes from there to Managua. We enjoyed mass Tona on the beach at Carlitos, more food to die for at Finca Mystica and then to bed for the mornings Volcanoe hike. 7 am bizzles.
Day 4 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee and a 65-year-old guide with a 24-year-old wife striding up the road to lead us happy suckers on a 16km hike up a 4,000 foot volcanoe. We started from 100 feet, so let´s call it a 3,900-foot ascent. After our near heat exhaustion on the 3km waterfall hike, we all thought our hours were numbered. BUT, MAN, we couldn´t have hiked this volcanoe any better. Mando scampered up the slope, Eric waltzed up the ridge, Joy jogged through the jungle and I prowled the pinnacle. Shoot, the only one who didn´t make it was the guide´s much younger, 24-year-old wife. Apparently, asthma does not suit a moutain climber. Seriously, she was an asthmatic and she hoped to join her 65-year-old, chian smoking, immortal up this and the other volcanoe 4-5 times per week. I think not. By the way...we drank mass Tona upon strolling back to camp AND Eric & I had enough left in the tank to do some Ometepe-style laundry in the lake before dinner. We´re talking rocks, soap and lake water just as the local do.
Day 5 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, pay the tab and bid bien viaje to Ryan and Angie. Couldn´t have had a better time for our first several days together, and we decided not only would we do Granada BUT we would mix in a bit of beach time in San Juan del sur. A short boat ride, complete with a Spanish-viewing of the American movie classic Sparticus, and we were cruising at 60km per hour in a taxi to San Juan Del Sur. We decided posted up and bedded down in the Gran Oceano. After suffering a brief panic attack, numerous shakes, cold sweats and siezures over the cost ($45 per night per couple), I relaxed and was able to enjoy the AC, pool and sweet hot shower. Shit, the water was too hot. I had to ask that it be turned down. WOW! We looked into a sunset cruise for the next day, bought some Tona and relaxed by the pool until heading out to dinner & ice cream. It was to bed fairly early, as we anticipated a long day of beach sitting, relaxing, sunset cruising and, of course, Tona drinking.
Day 6 - breakfast, not as many veggie options, no french press coffee, BUT FREE and included in the room cost. Our original sunset cruise was auctioned off to some private party for, no doubt, more than our $10 per person price, and we were forced to look for other boatmen. No shortage, and we found a couple ready to take us ´criusing´ at 2 pm. We´d be back by 7 pm, and they boasted snorkling, something our other cruise company did not offer. We felt good and went down to the beach to drink Tona. Our boat left at 2 pm on the button thus beginning our cruise. Turns out, our cruise, looked much more like 2 local fisherman taking 4 tourists out on the afternoon leg of their normal fishing day. We helped them bait hooks, we helped them reel in tuna & mackrel, we baited more hooks and fished for snappper, the sea was rough, we trolled slowly and we all wondered ´when do we snorkle.´ AND then we got to the snorkle spot. No joke, about 1000 meters off shore, rough seas, couldn´t see a damn thing and our fisherman dude jumped off the boat with a mask and some sort of hook. He said it was for lobster, but Mando, Eric & Joy agreed it was a shark deterant and opted out of the snorkle portion of the trip. I jumped in, followed our armed guide around the boat and, though not speaking much of the other´s language, decided that, without visability, snorkling not much fun. So, we jumped back in the boat, gutted about 20 fish and make tracks back our beach just in time for sunset. Not exactly as advertised, and I don´t think Mandy bargined for fishing & high seas, but an experience nonetheless. Plus, I got to keep a Tuna and had it cooked up for $4 at the restaurant of choice that night. Pretty funny walking around town with a plastic bag of Tuna.
Day 7 - breakfast, no options, leftovers from yesterday, half-cup of coffee, butter, no jam but the pool looked nice. We traveled mightly to Granada this day in a chariot of the gods...just kidding...it was a busted up taxi, BUT only $10 per person for like 40km. WOW! Joy and Mando bargined like crazy for that deal, and Eric & I said ´thank you.´ Arrived to the hostel Oasis in one hour, and were greeted with another pool, our own rooms and our own bathrooms. NICE. Decided we should purchase more Tona, immediately. We hung poolside, grabbed some hotdogs for lunch...yea, HD´s are big down here and plotted dinner as well as our activities for tomorrow. Those activities included pool sitting, walking ´round town, Tona drinking and a kick-butt tour to an active volcanoe, complete with hiking, caves, bats and the promise of LAVA. (side note - we found the Mombacho Cigar Factory this day and decided it might be one of the only places in Central America that my Dad might feel comfortable...they roll their own stogies, serve them poolside with scotch, Mombochitas (skantly dressed ladies) and Playboys for reading...oh yea)
Day 8 - no breakfast, free coffee, smattering of street food around the market, hot walk around town, poolside before Volcanoe tour. The Volcanoe tour was everything the sunset cruise was NOT. We hiked up the live Volcanoe Masaya and could barely get to the top because of the noxious gas spitting from the crater. We hiked the inactive portion to get a better view, watch the sunset and hike down to the caves where a mass exodus of Friut, Nectar and Insect Bats were departing for the night´s hunt. COOL. All this before seeing the eery glow of lava from the Volcanoe´s heart as the night blackened. EVEN COOLER. (side note - you can go to youtube and search Volcanoe Masaya Eruption and watch sick footage of this Volcanoe erupting with tourists videotaping in 2001). Check it out. We enjoyed our last dinner out, a little less Tona, as Mando & Eric had to get up at 4:15 am, and talked into the night about all the great times in Nicaragua AND the fact none of us got scammed for money, passports our lives. Take that US State Department Web site. Our chatting was soon interrupted by some high-school-sponsored spring break, so we turned in at about 11 pm.
Day 9 - Mando & Eric depart. Chris & Joy are sad, so Chris takes Joy to a baseball games where we have Tona, some kind of nacho and pig-foot potato salad, wrapped in a banana leaf. Yippee.
Until next time...Ciao!
CP
It´s 8:35, do you know where your Joysie is? That´s right, in the dang pool. We´ve been hangin´¨Granada-style¨ for the past several days and that means pool time. This city is hot, boyz and girlz. You need a pool and the Hostel Oasis provides. Thus, you are stuck with me for this week´s post.
Notice the title of said blog. We miss our buddies. Eric & Mando rock to travel with in domestic or foreign countries. (Even though bro is afraid of getting scammed by the locals at every turn...haha). They are some of the only people we know who can survive 15-plus-hour travel days via plane, taxi, boat, bus, etc., stifling heat, no-water-waterfall hikes, steep volcanoe hikes, more taxi rides, more heat and the general alertness that comes with international travel. All four of us do it with mostly a smile, and we had a blast.
I wanted to fake-scam Eric right as he left baggage claim, but the bastard was onto me. Joy and I were spotted immediately as those dudes exited the termial at Managua International. We were staying about 50km south of Managua on Isla Ometepe, a two-voclanoe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (i believe the largest lake in Central America), and the hotelier, Ryan Cassidy, from Finca Mystica our Isla Ometepe hotel, set us up with a taxi ride to the boat launch. A taxi is a great way to welcome your incoming family members to Nicaragua, as you skip hours long bus rides & scorching midday heat. Plus, Mandy was psyched to sit shotgun and impress Martin, our cab driver, with her fluent Spanish. Joy and I were excited to travel with a Spanish speaker again, and Eric was in a general state of shock feeling certain Martin was taking us to some remote alley in Managua where he and his epidermis would meet the business end of Martin´s shank. We were only too glad to disappoint me brother, as we arrived to the boat launch in San Jorge. A quick 45 minute boat ride later, and we were aboard another taxi to Finca Mystica at the base of Maderas on Isla Ometepe.
The proprietors of Finca Mystica, Ryan & Angie, lived a better part of their most recent lives in Steamboat Springs, CO, and have only recently opened their 4-cabin hotel January 2011. We felt fortunate to be some of their first guests, and the experience was amazing. Mandy was in Xanadu. Angie was a vegetarian, so all of her meals included more than one veggie option. AND they were huge on sustainability, environmental conservation and resource conservation...uhhhh...yea...Mandy likes that too. No flushing unless you take a duce, shower at night if at all (there´s a lake down the road, man) and each meal was cooked mostly from food stuffs grown on the property.
In our short 4 nights & 3.5 days at Finca we came to love the Island, Ryan & Angie, the local people and the volcanoes that loomed to the west & north each day. What follows is the account of that stay and our travels to San Juan Del Sur & Granada.
Day 1 - arrival, beers (Tona), star cicle with the brightest sky any of us had seen since traveling to Hawaii in 2005, baby fresh sheets and a good night sleep after a long-ass travel day.
Day 2 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, waterfall hike (it had no water and proved to be the hottest day we spent on the island), jump in lake, all is good, dinner and local fiesta. Ryan and Angie invited us to a local Reggaetone dance at the junior high. This was a fundraiser AND the 5th grade graduation. The entire town of Meredia was to attend, and we had our party hats strapped to the chin. HOWEVER, the fiesta turned bunk as too many hombres and not enough damas showed up, so we spent the evening sharing mass Tona with the locals at some random cantina. 15 giant beers = $12. Eric and I both fought to pay that bad boy...haha.
Day 3 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, KAYAK around the lake to the Rio Istlan and saw mucho birds. I almost had a great picture of the magestic heron until our other boat mates decided to offroad the kayak into the marsh scarring all but the mosquitoes from there to Managua. We enjoyed mass Tona on the beach at Carlitos, more food to die for at Finca Mystica and then to bed for the mornings Volcanoe hike. 7 am bizzles.
Day 4 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee and a 65-year-old guide with a 24-year-old wife striding up the road to lead us happy suckers on a 16km hike up a 4,000 foot volcanoe. We started from 100 feet, so let´s call it a 3,900-foot ascent. After our near heat exhaustion on the 3km waterfall hike, we all thought our hours were numbered. BUT, MAN, we couldn´t have hiked this volcanoe any better. Mando scampered up the slope, Eric waltzed up the ridge, Joy jogged through the jungle and I prowled the pinnacle. Shoot, the only one who didn´t make it was the guide´s much younger, 24-year-old wife. Apparently, asthma does not suit a moutain climber. Seriously, she was an asthmatic and she hoped to join her 65-year-old, chian smoking, immortal up this and the other volcanoe 4-5 times per week. I think not. By the way...we drank mass Tona upon strolling back to camp AND Eric & I had enough left in the tank to do some Ometepe-style laundry in the lake before dinner. We´re talking rocks, soap and lake water just as the local do.
Day 5 - breakfast, plenty of veggie options, french press coffee, pay the tab and bid bien viaje to Ryan and Angie. Couldn´t have had a better time for our first several days together, and we decided not only would we do Granada BUT we would mix in a bit of beach time in San Juan del sur. A short boat ride, complete with a Spanish-viewing of the American movie classic Sparticus, and we were cruising at 60km per hour in a taxi to San Juan Del Sur. We decided posted up and bedded down in the Gran Oceano. After suffering a brief panic attack, numerous shakes, cold sweats and siezures over the cost ($45 per night per couple), I relaxed and was able to enjoy the AC, pool and sweet hot shower. Shit, the water was too hot. I had to ask that it be turned down. WOW! We looked into a sunset cruise for the next day, bought some Tona and relaxed by the pool until heading out to dinner & ice cream. It was to bed fairly early, as we anticipated a long day of beach sitting, relaxing, sunset cruising and, of course, Tona drinking.
Day 6 - breakfast, not as many veggie options, no french press coffee, BUT FREE and included in the room cost. Our original sunset cruise was auctioned off to some private party for, no doubt, more than our $10 per person price, and we were forced to look for other boatmen. No shortage, and we found a couple ready to take us ´criusing´ at 2 pm. We´d be back by 7 pm, and they boasted snorkling, something our other cruise company did not offer. We felt good and went down to the beach to drink Tona. Our boat left at 2 pm on the button thus beginning our cruise. Turns out, our cruise, looked much more like 2 local fisherman taking 4 tourists out on the afternoon leg of their normal fishing day. We helped them bait hooks, we helped them reel in tuna & mackrel, we baited more hooks and fished for snappper, the sea was rough, we trolled slowly and we all wondered ´when do we snorkle.´ AND then we got to the snorkle spot. No joke, about 1000 meters off shore, rough seas, couldn´t see a damn thing and our fisherman dude jumped off the boat with a mask and some sort of hook. He said it was for lobster, but Mando, Eric & Joy agreed it was a shark deterant and opted out of the snorkle portion of the trip. I jumped in, followed our armed guide around the boat and, though not speaking much of the other´s language, decided that, without visability, snorkling not much fun. So, we jumped back in the boat, gutted about 20 fish and make tracks back our beach just in time for sunset. Not exactly as advertised, and I don´t think Mandy bargined for fishing & high seas, but an experience nonetheless. Plus, I got to keep a Tuna and had it cooked up for $4 at the restaurant of choice that night. Pretty funny walking around town with a plastic bag of Tuna.
Day 7 - breakfast, no options, leftovers from yesterday, half-cup of coffee, butter, no jam but the pool looked nice. We traveled mightly to Granada this day in a chariot of the gods...just kidding...it was a busted up taxi, BUT only $10 per person for like 40km. WOW! Joy and Mando bargined like crazy for that deal, and Eric & I said ´thank you.´ Arrived to the hostel Oasis in one hour, and were greeted with another pool, our own rooms and our own bathrooms. NICE. Decided we should purchase more Tona, immediately. We hung poolside, grabbed some hotdogs for lunch...yea, HD´s are big down here and plotted dinner as well as our activities for tomorrow. Those activities included pool sitting, walking ´round town, Tona drinking and a kick-butt tour to an active volcanoe, complete with hiking, caves, bats and the promise of LAVA. (side note - we found the Mombacho Cigar Factory this day and decided it might be one of the only places in Central America that my Dad might feel comfortable...they roll their own stogies, serve them poolside with scotch, Mombochitas (skantly dressed ladies) and Playboys for reading...oh yea)
Day 8 - no breakfast, free coffee, smattering of street food around the market, hot walk around town, poolside before Volcanoe tour. The Volcanoe tour was everything the sunset cruise was NOT. We hiked up the live Volcanoe Masaya and could barely get to the top because of the noxious gas spitting from the crater. We hiked the inactive portion to get a better view, watch the sunset and hike down to the caves where a mass exodus of Friut, Nectar and Insect Bats were departing for the night´s hunt. COOL. All this before seeing the eery glow of lava from the Volcanoe´s heart as the night blackened. EVEN COOLER. (side note - you can go to youtube and search Volcanoe Masaya Eruption and watch sick footage of this Volcanoe erupting with tourists videotaping in 2001). Check it out. We enjoyed our last dinner out, a little less Tona, as Mando & Eric had to get up at 4:15 am, and talked into the night about all the great times in Nicaragua AND the fact none of us got scammed for money, passports our lives. Take that US State Department Web site. Our chatting was soon interrupted by some high-school-sponsored spring break, so we turned in at about 11 pm.
Day 9 - Mando & Eric depart. Chris & Joy are sad, so Chris takes Joy to a baseball games where we have Tona, some kind of nacho and pig-foot potato salad, wrapped in a banana leaf. Yippee.
Until next time...Ciao!
CP
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