We got off the boat safely on Thursday morning, to the relief of some of us. Although now that we had finally gotten used to the waves, we were stumbling around on land with our sea-legs. We made our way to the Honduran border where the boys started up a soccer game with all the guys trying to exchange our money (they hang around each border and offer you terrible rates). Meanwhile, we chatted with the guards and their friend, who was heading home to La Ceiba. We wanted to go to San Pedro Sula, which is on the way, so he offered to give us a ride for about $10. He was really friendly and even bought us pizza on the way down, and hailed and paid for a taxi to take us the last bit. This is only our first example of what we came to know as ¨Honduran Hospitality.¨ We headed to the Tica Bus station to buy tickets for Nicaragua, and found out we couldn’t get seats until Monday. Unfazed, we found a hotel in town and headed out the next morning to the beach town, Tela. This is about where we found out how Central America spends its Semana Santa (Holy week, leading up to Easter). They ALL go to the beach. After a few tries, we finally found a hotel with a vacancy that was only about $50… still on the pricey side for Honduras. They were quick to inform us that the exact same room would be over $100 the second night if we wanted to stay. We checked out tons of hotels for Saturday night, and ours really did turn out to be the cheapest of the available rooms in town. We had a great day at a nearby beach and headed out Sunday afternoon.
We caught the Tika Bus from San Pedro Sula to Managua on Monday at 5AM. The bus ride was uneventful, except the air-conditioning died halfway through, and we had all prepared for the cold with long pants and sweaters. We arrived in the evening, had some street food and headed to bed. There isn’t much to see in Managua, since earthquakes destroyed the center and no one has rebuilt it. It’s really just a ring of districts with no real sense of a city. We headed to Grenada the following day where we hung out at the beautiful Laguna Apoyo, a crater lake surrounded by volcanoes. We decided to head north for the rest of the holidays. We arrived in Leon and struggled a bit to find a room again, but eventually booked at a restaurant/hotel owned by a Canadian guy who was really helpful and an amazing chef. We tried to rent bikes or scooters to go to the beach but it was Good Friday and everywhere was either closed or totally booked. We checked out the town and had another great dinner. The following morning we really did go to the beach where there were nice big waves and families getting drunk in the sun (apparently Easter Saturday is the big party day here). That afternoon we had a volcano-boarding tour on Cerro Negro. Nicaragua’s newest volcano, it suddenly appeared in 1850 as a black hill (hence the name) that no one even knew was a volcano until it erupted. It has been on a seven year eruption cycle with the last time in 1999, so we were a little nervous. Parents, this is why we tell you these things after we do them.
In less than an hour we hiked to the top of the hill, traversing over ash, gravel, and big rocks. The wind at the top was incredible as we checked out the smoking crater and staggered to the starting point. We were each given a safety suit (extra large coveralls), goggles, and a one person board, kind of like a toboggan. Our guide Kim showed us how to use our brakes (putting our feet down) and we were ready to go. The 40 degree slope drops 400 meters before flattening out at the bottom. One or two at a time we flew down the ash/gravel side of the volcano as the sun set over the string of neighboring volcanoes to the west. Not one of the four of us made it down without at least a little tumble and we left with some road rash and rocks in our hair, but we’d all do it again if we could. We had a nice dinner with some people from the tour and headed out the next day. Two buses and two taxis later, we were at the Costa Rican border. This of course was Easter Sunday, and there was a line of probably 500 people waiting for buses to San Jose. Luckily we avoided it and got the first bus to Liberia, a nice town in the north. Rather than spend another day traveling, we decided to do the last four-hours of our journey by taxi, and arrived in Santa Theresa by 11. Although we’re not pleased to return to Costa Rican prices, it does feel a little bit like coming home, and by the end of our trip we’ll have come full circle.
Nicaragua's Flag
Map of Nicaragua