Nicaragua 08

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Volcanos, roosters, surf and sting rays

Why nicaragua? here's the rational answer: it's been a tip among surfers for the last years, so there are waves and I could try surfing again, there are volcanos and els loves volcanos, locals are supposed to be friendly, it's a bit like costa rica, but way cheaper, and most importanly I haven't heard of many people, or any friends that have been there, so probably the best time to go before mass tourism kicks in. However the real reason for going there is sacred reich, a thrash band I grew up to in the eighties. somehow their EP surf nicaragua got stuck in my mind. so years later with the comeback of retro thrash, the song poped up in my mind again, was looking for new travel locations, nicaragua, hmmm..never heard any thing about it before, except from the war stories. did my research and found out that this country would have quite a lot to offer and isn't so far away from cuba. So let's do it and so we did:
We fly from havana to managua via panama. We want to go straight to granada and leave managua behind, as there is not much to see there and you hear and read stories that this city is not one of the safest on earth. We take a taxi to get to the bus station to take a bus from there to granada (1-2hrs distance). The taxi driver tells us that no public transport is going in the whole country because of a strike due to increased gas prices. Having been scamed by some many taxi drivers in so many different countries, of course we don't believe him and tell him to bring us to the bus station. This time however the taxi driver tells the truth: nothing is going, buses are lined up standing in the middle of the high way, we look at the news papers and get another confirmation of his story. We take the taxi to granada. Instead of 5 euros for the ride we pay 80 euros. If this strike won't be over soon this trip will increase our budget estimations by far.
Granada nice small colonial town, colorful houses, we do a canopy tour, sliding from tree to tree on a rope 20-30 meters above the ground, isn't that scary, climbing up the tree and standing on a pretty small platform 30 meters above the ground is, especially when you are afraid of heights. 300 small 'islands' are situated close to the beach, rich locals have their holiday houses there, we take a boat ride and visit a local school and some families living on some of the poorer islands, we take a swim in the warm water....nice. Strike is not over yet, but luckily we can go to our next destination by boat.
Isla de Ometepe an island with a volcano situated in lago de nicaragua, a lake with the only sweet water sharks. lake looks like the sea but without the salt water. horses, cows and cowboys on horses pass by, not many people on the beach, locals washing their clothes in the lake, very relaxed place. we stay at playa santo domingo. close by on 5min biking distance, there is a 1.5km natural swimming pool, or better whole, the water is clear and very refreshing, all natural, surrounded by giant trees in the middle of nature, outside a couple of locals and tourists relax with some cool beers. We climb volcano maderas: a 4hrs climb, pretty steep, second half due to humidity ground gets very wet, muddy and slippery, especially when you are not wearing hiking shoes but slip on vans. a tour guide who is walking up like speedy gonzales without taking much care that we, or especially I, have a little less stamina, doesn't make it any better. the volcano is green, so its like walking in the jungle, just having to go uphill. half the way there is a view point, but actuall not so much view as up there it is pretty foggy, I had enough but force myself to continue 2 hours, I m not in the best shape I have to realize. literally climbing the last bit, we finally arrive at the summit pretty muddy and exhausted, instead of having a nice view as reward, up there all you see is grey clouds, no view at all, nada, I m pretty disappointed, Els is satisfied, she simply likes volcanos. climbing down goes faster but is even more slippery and therefore dangerous with the shoes I wear.
San Juan Del Sur: Strike not over yet, just got worse. Now it's even hard to get a taxi, as some locals do not appreciate other taxis or locals to transport tourists anywhere. Apparently they organize road blocks, throwing stones and worse at people who do transport others. We take a boat to cut our way short, but need a vehicle for the last bit. We manage to find some locals to bring us to San Juan, the main surf spot. We need tp duck down several times, so other locals wouldn't see that these guys we just met drive us around. Before arriving we got into a road block and the crowd sees us. They stop the car, pumbing on it try to open our doors, take the driver out, my spanish is not good enough to understand what they are saying, but apparently it is quite clear. they want us out of the car, standing infront of the care, next to it and behind us, there is no way of going any further, we unlock the doors get out, take our bags, they let us leave, but stay with the driver behind. as we haven't had paid yet, the other guy accompaning us in the car walks us to San Juan, the bags are heavy and I also carry my guitar, but we are kind of lucky, as we were almost there anyways, 10 minutes walk and we have done it again.
we check in and check out the beach. We learn that the surf is happening at playa madera, a 40min ride from San Juan, only problem no cars are going there, therefore also no surf lessons, as all the shops are situated in san juan, but cannot transport toursits to the beach to surf. only way to go there is by boat, only leaving at certain times allowing us only to stay a couple of hours there. Madera is pretty relaxed as apart from a wooden surf shag and two small places to stay there is not much happening there. just a few people and surf dudes staying there. we decide to return the next day to spend the night there, having the beach compeltely to ourselves. At night you would only see a hand full people at max in a small beach bar, really relaxed and open atmosphere, we get to know a canadian dude and enjoy his company for the rest of the night. of course we tried to surf, but get both stung by a sting ray, which happens on a regular basis there. luckily no need to panic anymore when it happened to me, as I ve seen this happening already 3 times before: get out of the water, aks for a bucket with boiling hot water, till the water boils light a candle and have the hot wax drop on the place you got stung. Then sit down and put your foot into the hot water and keep it there for 30-45minutes, drinking alcohol helps also to ease the pain, which was gone after 1 hour in my case. we went back to the place where the boat would leave, but this day the boat left 1 hour earlier, big surprise for us, as we wanted to leave the next early morning and with no taxis and transport going back, this could get pretty complicated. we go back to the surf shag and luckily find some friendly german people that take us back to san juan with their pick up truck for free. they even want to go to grandado, which is half way to leon, our next stop, the next morning and offer us a free ride.
it turns out to be that these guys were jehovas witnesses. however they seemed very nice and didn't try to confess us of anything, we didn't even talk about religion. they were just nice and helpful. we need to leave at 5:30 already in the morning, as they are also afraid of road blocks and drunken locals trying to stop them. as they usually start drinking only after 10:00, we leave early and arrive in granada safe. sitting at the back of the pick up truck was way more comfortable than I expected it to be. In Granada we need to arrange another ride: same story here, pretty difficult to arrange or pretty expensive, or actually both, we succees again for another 80 euros, again we arrive safe.
Leon student town, artisitic place with lots of bands playing in cafes, wall paintings referring to recent political situation in the country, ..overall another nice colonical town, feels pretty safe as well. we take a tour to sierra negra, the black volcano where we climb up to descend on a wooden board: volcano boarding. I discover a gym, have to go there to check it out, feels like in pumping iron, the body building docu from the early eighties that made schwarzengger famous, everything looked like from the beginning area of body building with equipment from the seventies and early eighties. I pump a bit and as only foreigner there, some people look at me with surprise. I ask one of the strongest local guys to be on a foto with me, without asking for posing instructions, he takes off his shirt and takes his favorite pose (I guess). We also get to see a rooster fight, a pretty popular leisure activity with some serious betting going on. we skip the betting and enjoy cheap local rum instead.
On our very last day when leaving managua early in the morning to get to the airport, we hear htat the strike is over now. Great timing! what ever, we had a great time and great stories to tell.

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