Central America - Week 1

---

Wow, time is flying by already so i guess i had better make an update on how we are doing. We landed in the capital of Nicaragua (Managua) last Monday and haven't stopped since. We stayed only one night in Managua as it is pretty rough and not the best place in the world, its one of those places you dont even go out at night and the visit is purely for the purpose of connecting further transportation and going someplace else but boy is it hot here, we have gone from almost -30 to +30 in one day...
As for us, the next destination was a place called Leon, just north of Managua, and why were we heading to Leon - to board down the side of an active Volcano, yep a 2 hour hike up a volcano and then less than 60 seconds down on your arse with nothing between you and the rocks apart from a plank of wood with a bit of string to hang on to. Sounds silly, is silly, but good fun, you can check out the video here http://www.bigfootnicaragua.com/videos/video.html. when you are at the top of the volcano you pair up and race each other just to make you go a bit faster as if gravity wasn't helping enough... Well to say I won would be telling the truth but only because my competitor bailed as he was not exactly in control as he was going so fast so i kept my cool and only when i was at the bottom did I decide to be ejected from my plank of wood... all in all a few scars but all in a days fun... At night we went to a bar and i manged to hold my own on the pool table for quite a while with some locals who took us under their wing, that was until the crazy Nico rules messed with my brain after a few beers. Basically the pool rules are the same apart from the number 1 ball has to be sunk first, but the one rule that i always forgot was that the number 7 and 15 balls had to be potted in the opposite middle pockets depending if you were spots ot stripes, after that it was back to normal but after a while i forgot and potted balls left right and center making the locals have a good chuckle, also you when you foul on purpose you can select one of your oponents balls to take off the table depending on your tactics - like i said way to complicated after a few beers...
After we had enough of Leon we jumped on another micro bus to which their are no schedules but the bus will only leave when it is full up so we waited until for about half an hour in the soaring heat until it filled up before we moved out and headed back to Managua so we could change once again but this time to go to Granada, an old colonial town with beutiful buildings and right on Lake Nicaragua. Granada has some beautiful buildings which are unfortunately being bought by foreigners and thus forcing the locals out which is pretty unfair. Granada is also the most touristy place we have been so far with lots of restaurants and bars and kids selling decorative pots as well as knock off sunglasses. We stayed here for a couple of nights and just relaxed, we met some people from the Leon volcano boarding and swapped travel stories on where to go next and where not to go before heading off to our next destination.
Which is a volcanic island called Ometepe which was formed by two volcanoe's erupting many moons ago - to which i had no desire to climb or board down as my scars from the previous volcano were still healing. Our first night was spent on the south of the island where we sat in hamack's and swam in the beautiful warm waters followed by a wonderful sunset, i even managed to watch some football and see Hull beat Man city. Unfortunately the next day was a sunday and no buses run so we had to pay a lot to get to the north side of the island where we once again sat in hamacks and swam in the beautiful warm fresh water and sandy beaches... i know what your thinking, boy it's a hard life.
The next morning we rose early and caught the ferry back to the main land where you are harrassed by local taxi drivers wanting your gringo dollars and eventually haggled a ride to San Juan Del Sur. This is Nicaragua's biggest main beach and surfing town and is now the most toursity place we have been in Nicaragua but i have to say i wasn´t too impressed with the waves and most of the beginners were struggling with the small breaks and were taking a lot of hits for little reward.
And that folks is about the most i can remember for week 1 but i will write again soon with an update for week 2 to follow...

---