Nicaragua

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At the Tica Bus Office we looked at the map of possible destinations in Nicaragua, and chose Leon, as it was the most northern city. Not our original starting point, but travelling never sticks to the plan.

Leon has an interesting history, as it was the old capital when the Spanish settled in Nicaragua, back then and even now there is a rivalry between Leon and Granada. Granada has always been the wealthier of the two, and looking at its architecture in comparison, must have been very grand in it’s day. Granada thought because of this it deserved to be the capital. Eventually because there was so much fighting between the two cities they moved the capital to Managua.

We spent our first day looking around the city, there are many churches and cathedrals to look at, including the largest one in Central America. We also visited an art gallery and spent a lot of time in café’s or Central Park people watching. One day in the city was enough for us, so the next day we decided to go to the beach, which is an hour bus ride out of town. Las Penitas is a black sand beach on the Pacific Ocean, it stretches for miles, the sand is hot, the water warm, the beer in the bar overlooking it all ice cold. What more could you want? We spent a very lazy day there swimming, reading books and lounging around.

While wandering around the city we found a company called Quetzal Trekkers. They offer guided hikes, to the many volcanoes surrounding Leon. They charge for the hike, but everything is included, you can even borrow sleeping bags and backpacks if you need to. The guides are actually volunteers and all the proceeds go to helping street kids. They set up schools, and teaching programs and support for children on the street or in rural communities. We thought this was a great idea, and they offered good treks too, so we signed up for Volcan Telica.

The trek to Volcan Telica was 2 days, one to get up to the crater where we camp for the night and then half a day to go down and walk to a village for lunch before catching the bus back to Leon. We arrived at the Quetzal Trekkers office early in the morning to pack bags and have some breakfast. We then boarded a bus and headed towards the trailhead. The walk up wasn’t too bad, it was mostly flat or with a slight incline. That is until the last two hours, which was a gruelling steep path, which turned into almost a climb when we neared the top. We arrived at the crater at about three in the afternoon, and although everyone was exhausted everyone agreed it hadn’t been too hard. Before going to our campsite we all walked up to the crater, lay down on the edge and peered over, into the volcano. Sounds exciting but there was so much smoke (Telica is still active) that we couldn’t see anything, the smoke is also a toxic smelling sulphuric gas which gets right into your lungs and makes it hard to breathe for as long as you are around it. I couldn’t take much, and moved away quickly. The view from the top was amazing, Telica is actually part of a chain of mountains and volcanoes and we could see five more volcanoes from its crater, which our guide pointed out and named.
We camped in a flat valley down from the crater, it was a grassy oasis surrounded by volcanic rock, and there were even cows grazing. We pitched tents and made a fire. At sunset we went back up to the crater to watch the sunset and peek over the edge again, this time some people saw the small red spot inside, which was the lava. We ate dinner and sat around the campfire talking, but then it started to rain, hard. We all ran for the cover of our tents and went to sleep.

The next morning was a very early start as our guide had offered to wake us up to see the sunrise. We had all agreed eagerly, but did not feel so keen at five something in the morning. We got up anyway, and scrambled up a hill to watch the sunrise over the mountains. It was worth it, and a fantastic way to start the day. We wandered over to the crater again for one last look, this time I stayed at a distance, as I was sick of chocking on the fumes. We went back to campsite, had breakfast and packed everything up, then set off back to Leon.
We went a different way down, along the side of the volcano and through a valley to a village for lunch. It was supposed to be an easy day, over by midday, but we ended up losing the trail and taking an hour detour, up and down hills. We arrived in the end though, and were all very relieved to sit down and drink and eat. We took the bus back, and spent one last night in Leon before moving on.

We decided to go north of Leon to Matagalpa, which is a farming town, known for it’s coffee farms. There are a few different farms, which offer accommodation, or otherwise it is possible to go there for a day. You can do a tour of the farm, and there are also trails to walk. At first we thought we would stay at a farm, but when we checked their websites realized it was too expensive. We decided to just visit for the day. I should also mention the road from Leon to Matagalpa is possibly the worst in Nicaragua! What looked like a short trip on the map turned into an entire day of bus rides, being violently shook and bounced all the way.

The town of Matagalpa is nothing special, small and functional, with a definite shortage of restaurants and tourist attractions. We had been talking earlier about the fact that we weren’t meeting many locals, only other backpackers. So when it came to looking for a restaurant for dinner Ken decided to ask two local guys around our age where was good, then asked them if they wanted to come, then asked if they wanted to go out for a drink later. They were slightly bewildered but keen. I was secretly cursing Ken because I didn’t think I could possibly talk to someone in Spanish for an entire night, and they spoke no English. It turned out to be a great night, we managed to pull Spanish out of the back of our brains and have a reasonable conversation, and most importantly when the feeling is right, and everyone is having fun, understanding someone becomes unimportant. They took us to a great Italian restaurant and then afterwards we went to a cheesy bar/restaurant, called something fittingly cheesy like Disco Chicken. It was a good night and when we were getting ready to leave our new friends invited us for lunch at their house the next day. We reluctantly agreed, having planned to go to the coffee farm.

Sunday turned out to be a grey day all round. Everything was closed and it rained all day, and to top it off our friends never showed for lunch. We spent the day in our hotel room, eating bread and cheese and drinking Flor de Cana (Nicaragua’s rum) and watching BBC. We could have gone to the coffee farm the next day, but we were both eager to leave.

We took a bus from Matagalpa to Granada, which was a much smoother ride. Granada is a beautiful city, and there is still a lot of wealth there. Central park is large and surrounded by impressive churches and town houses, from there Calle La Calzada runs all the way to the foreshore of Lake Nicaragua. It is lined with nice café’s and restaurants, and would rival a similar scene in Europe. Yes, it is very touristy, but at least there is a lot to look at. Our first afternoon was spent on this street drinking beers and catching up with a guy we’d met in Honduras.

Our second day, we devoted to exploring the city. We first went to photograph Park Central and the impressive Cathedral, painted yellow with a high bell tower and stain-glass windows. We looked inside then moved on to another church a few blocks down. This one was also beautiful, but in a crumbling way. While there we met one of the alter boys who works at the church, maintaining it, and taking care of visitors. He spoke very good English, and offered to take us back to the cathedral so we could climb the bell tower and take photos from the best view in Granada. Maybe he offers this to everyone, but we felt very lucky, and it really was an amazing view. We wandered around the city for most of the day, exploring. The afternoon was spent at a cool Asian themed café, which had a 2 for 1, special on glasses of vino.

The next day we did an overnight trip to Laguna de Apoyo. Apoyo is actually a crater lake, in what was once a volcano. There was a cool hostel to stay at, a floating pontoon to swim too, inner tubes for floating and kayaks for exploring. We first lolled in the water in inner tubes drinking beers and chatting on the pontoon. After lunch we decided to go for a kayak. It was a bit hard going as we headed against the wind to start with but once I found a good rhythm it was fun. We didn’t realize but the idea is to bring food with you, as there’s nothing out there, but the hostel has a good kitchen you can use. The hostel has a few random items for sale, like spaghetti and tinned corn, and luckily some people we met were cooking and offered to share, we just had to buy some extra pasta. They also sold bottles of red wine, so a good night was had.

The next afternoon a group of six of us, who had been staying at Apoyo caught the ferry to the island of Ometepe. The island is in the middle of Lake Nicaragua and is an amazing natural wonder. It is two Volcanoes joined by a land bridge in the middle. The two Volcanoes are called Conception and Maderas, and both are climbable. As we arrived late, we decided to stay in Altagracia for the night. Altagracia is the second largest town on the island, this means it actually has a main street. We found a place for dinner and even a bar for a few drinks.

The next day we took a bus to Chaco Verde. When deciding where to go I had nominated Merida, which was recommended to us, and also is a starting point for climbing Madera volcano. One of the guys argued that it sounded quiet there and wanted to go somewhere more lively, Chaco Verde was decided on for this and it’s reserve with hiking trails. I don’t think lively exists on Ometepe, and definitely not in Chaco Verde. We found a nice place to stay on the water, but mostly it was deserted. The trails were great though, lots of wildlife, cormorants everywhere and lots of howler monkeys. We spent a few hours wandering along them, the only downside was the biting ants we discovered when they took a fancy to our feet.

We had a nice day, but everyone decided to head to Merida the next day. Merida is no more lively, but the hostel we stayed at does attract a lot of people, and as there is nothing much to do, everyone soon becomes friends. The first afternoon we decided to walk to San Ramon waterfall. The first part was easy enough, all up hill but not too bad, but the second part was much harder as there has been a landslide, and there is no trail anymore. It was alot of scrambling over rocks, upwards the whole way. Finally we got there and it was very impressive. A large waterfall, but with not much of a pool to swim in, as all the water fell down into a creek. I wimped out on going in the water because it was freezing cold. The way home was easier of course, but we had stoped too long for a drink at the bottom, and the last half hour we walked home in the dark. We arrived back just in time to take a shower and head for the seven o’clock buffet dinner. After dinner was the first time I was sick…

The next day we climbed Volcano Maderas, which is the smaller of the two on the island, but still an eight hour round trip. The climb was pretty hard, very steep, but the hardest part was that it was very muddy. I started to feel sick so took a slow pace, while the others charged ahead. Nearer the top was climbing, grabbing onto the many branches and roots for support. At some point it becomes a cloud forest, this makes it so damp that there is moss growing on everything, and combined with the gnarled tree branches bending and curving all over, there is a mystical feel to it.

From the top of the Volcano you can look down to the Crater Lake below, and all the way to the water surrounding the island. We were very lucky because the view was only clear for five minutes before the clouds covered everything. It is possible to walk down to the Crater Lake, but it adds another three hours to the trip, no one was keen. We ate lunch up there quickly because it was getting cold, and headed back down again. The way down was much worse than going up, the mud was so slippery it was more of a slide down, with many falls. The next day I found it was my arms, which hurt the most, from grabbing on to tree’s to stop myself from falling. It was also on the way down that I began to feel sicker and sicker. When we were almost at the end my body finally gave up and I was sick, when we got back to the hostel I went straight to bed.

We had decided to take the ferry from Altagracia all the way to San Carlos, which is a ten-hour trip overnight! From there we would spend a day going up the Rio San Juan to El Castillo, an old fort town. We would spend one night there then backtrack to San Carlos where we could take a boat down the Rio Frio and cross into Costa Rica.

The ferry was leaving the next day, but I was far too sick to go anywhere. There are only two ferries a week, and the next one was in three days. I spent those three days in bed, by day two Ken made the trip into town to get some anti-biotic’s and from then on I started to recover, and just in time to catch the ferry. The only good thing about having to extend our stay was that we met a group of three who wanted to do the same trip as us, it was alot more enjoyable with company.

We boarded the ferry at seven o’clock at night, we had all bought first class tickets, which just means a separate area upstairs with air-conditioning. It turned out to be a very smart idea, because everyone had a whole bench to themselves to lie out on and get some sleep. We arrived in San Carlos at 5 am, a little tired but looking forward to the next part of our journey. Unfortunately when we went to buy our tickets we found out the first boat wasn’t until 8. We spent the next three hours sitting on a dirty curb of San Carlos, with the smell of sewerage wafting in our direction. Finally it was time to board the boat. The Rio San Juan was beautiful, dark green water surrounded by jungle, the wildlife is supposed to be great but we didn’t see much. It was more interesting watching the locals getting on and off, seeing the remote farms that people live on. There’s no way to get to them besides by boat. The trip to El Castillo took three hours, and we were relived when the fort finally came into view. The Spanish built the strategic fort in El Castillo on top of the hill, to stop pirates from attacking. Where the fort is built the river turns into a series of bends and the calm water turns into rapids. Any boat going through this section would have to slow down, allowing the Spanish to see them and attack.

The town of El Castillo itself is small and quaint, only one street wide, which runs along the riverside. Most of the restaurants and hostels overlook the water and there was a surprisingly large amount of fishing and sight seeing tours on offer. We stayed in a hostel down the far end of town, the restaurant area was in the water, and looking over the balcony we noticed lots of little turtles. We fed them some of our lunch, and more and more came till there was about thirty of them! We spent only one night there, long enough to look around the fort, the best thing about it being the view from the top.

The next day was another long day of travel, we took the earliest boat from El Castillo to San Carlos, and then changed boats for the boarder crossing into Costa Rica. The boat ride down the Rio Frio was much shorter, only an hour and it was more spectacular as well. The river was narrower, so it was easier to see the wildlife. When we arrived, we were in Los Chiles, Costa Rica.

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Photos

Volcan Telica
The crater at sunset

Volcan Telica
The crater at sunrise is even more spectacular

Granada
The Cathedral

Granada
Inside the bell tower

Granada
View from the top of the bell tower

Ometepe
The view of the Crater Lake from the top of Volcan Maderas

El Castillo
View as we pulled into town

El Castillo
The view from the top, as the Spanish would have seen it