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Published: April 4th 2010
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We Crossed the Nica Border with no problems and started to head towards Isle De Ometepe. We made are way through rivas and stopped for lunch, We bumped into our friend Gary, who we were going to visit on the island, that worked out pretty well. We parked the RV at Hotel California for a few nights ( they had dogs that run the property with a few shotgun guards) and headed towards the ferry.
We made are way down the pier, and there was alot of drunk people getting a early start for Semana Santa. the 1 hour ferry right was very pretty. The locals have been a bit nervous over the volcano for the past few weeks being that it is still active. Before we arrived a couple weeks earlier the volcano was spewing ash and smoke amongst the skies for days. We got to our friends place restaurant (they are currently rebuilding at the moment) and met up with Laura, Gary's other half. They had 2 friends from the UK down as well, we all chatted and got the beers cracking over a great meal of fish, rice and beans.
We drove up the next day
to bask in the mineral soaked waters of ojo de agua. A nice little outside swimming "pool" for the cost of 40 cords a person around 2 bucks. We all relaxed for hours and decided to drive up to one of the volcano's that had a coffee plantation resting on it, and purchase a bag of their beans. we then headed back to the Restaurant and started putting the rums back after a great day.
We headed to San Juan Del Sur for the second time on this trip to see the changes it under goes during Semana Santa, the biggest party of the year for a full week all over central america, Especially Nico. A town that houses on average 15000 people was filled to a capacity of 100,000 on the days that we were there, and everybody said it was a quite year... Drunk nica's passed out on the beach, on the road, all day every day. I am pretty sure that there is a competition on who has the loudest sound system in town because the Drum and Bass did not stop for 3 days straight and was going to continue for 5 more. After a
few crazy days of that we needed some quite and decided to head into the mountains. We dropped out friends off at the pier to go back to Ometepe and said our goodbyes, then headed towards Managua.
We found a great spot in the hills with a wonderful view to pull over for the evening. the air was clean and the wind was cold, from being use to 35 all day this 20 degree weather was a serious treat. even had to take out blankets out which we retired in Arizona (a long time ago). We awoke to a police officer outside our door around 7:00 am. We couldn't really understand him but he either said Someone phoned him because they though we were dangerous or This is a very dangerous area you shouldn't stay here. either way we were heading down the beach to pochomil, 60 km down the mountain to the beach. We thought it would be a good place to surf..... Upon arrival there must of been 100,000 people until we saw the beach. every square inch of that place was taken up by people and their families drinking and smoking, sleeping, swimming and eating. We
decided the best thing for us would be to turn around and head towards Leon and get ready for Honduras. As we were heading town into Managua our exhaust decided to fall off... just wonderful considering it was a Saturday during semana santa , and everybody was at the BEACH! Some nice police officers came over to give us a hand and help us out, they made some phone calls for us but everyone was gone, they said best be getting a hotel and wait till Tuesday. we all agreed. 5 minutes after driving down the road we saw the sign "taller" but all assumed it was closed, Jordan looked over and saw some people in the shop. We turned around drove up and met the mechanic with eagerness and asked " you working today" he replied "yes" showed him out problem and he said bring it in. He just happened to have a mig (welding machine) to weld the piece of exhaust back together. 6 beers and 15 bucks later we were on our way. we drove around for awhile looking at the city, and also looking for the holiday inn, apparently it was the only hotel in managua
with a pool? whatever we checked it out, sure was a nice place but cost 85 a night. so we passed and started to head towards Leon.
Around 15 km out of Managua, the dreaded Stall happened... we all new what that was about, we turned the key and there was the sound from hell... our carburetor. how pleased we were to have the smell of gasoline and black smoke shooting out our exhaust once again. We saw a texaco on the left and decided to pull over and call a mechanic... if the RV would get us there... we were cutoff trying to oull on and simon slammed on the breaks sending Jordan into the table and breaking the table, thus sending the table into allynes hip... such a great way to end the day. We got into the texaco and started chatting to some locals, one went to grab a mechanic. 15 min later the nicas pull up and start working, we told them the problem they agreed. We drove back to his shop which was in a dirt alley and sat there for a few hours. The man fixed us up for 30 bucks... this is starting to get expensive.. and sent us on our way, it was night by now and we didn't know where to stay, we headed to the texaco and asked if we could park. they said no the management will not allow it. we asked if they new were we could pull over, the recommended not the area we were for it was a area known for its heavy gang activity and that it was a dangerous place. we decided to head to the HOLIDAY INN!
We pulled up at the holiday and asked some questions, luckily the people remembered us (Jordan does have the only multi colored beard in nica, so not to hard to remember) we asked how much and suddenly the room jumped from 85 to 125! we talked to them for a wehile and told them out story, they ended up giving us a very excellent room for 65 bucks and 4 free drinks at the bar. Thanks holiday inn.
We are heading to Leon today and will stay here for a few nights and cross the border on tuesday, talk to you guys soon.
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Robyn
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Ah ha ha, Managuans. They love to tell you how dangerous the city is. Every time Scott and I got in a taxi in Managua the driver was always all, "You guys shouldn't be walking out on this street! It's very dangerous!" Though my LP book tells me Managua is statistically the safest Central American capital city, I never felt comfortable there. I really loved Leon. I hope you guys had a good time there. Ometepe, too. I had some shockingly good food there (locally grown bananas, mmmm).