Blogs from Laguna de Apoyo, Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Hi. this is mark. I hope this message finds you all in good spirits. Today, during spanish class, our teacher told us that in the north of nicaragua there are around 7 people that change into monkeys at night in order to steal things and rape women. She was totally serious. Yesterday, we saw some monkeys in the forest near the school when we were walking with her and she told us she was scared of them. Today she concluded her story with, " y esta es la razon no me gustan los monos". Because I only can pick up about 85% of what she is saying, it was a really weird. I had to ask a few times what she was saying. She said that these hombres invoke the devil and ask him to ... read more

We started our Nicaraguan adventure in San Juan del Sur in the south west. From the Costa Rican border we jumped on an over crowded ´chicken´ bus. These are actually old yellow American school buses just like in the Simpsons, and they provide a rattly, dusty, cramped, bone-crunching, cheap and interesting way of getting around. Nicaragua is an incredibly poor country (the second poorest in the northern hemisphere after Haiti) and has had a very turbulent recent history. It also has an incredibly young population which I think brings its own problems as there is increasing violence and gang troubles - we were lucky and never saw anything but we have since met other travelers that are scared to go to Nica which certainly makes me fell like a brave and intrepid traveler! Anyway, San ... read more

Arrived in Granada, Nicaragua for the wedding after a long, but surprisingly comfortable bus trip over 2 days. I met a nice traveler from New York at the Guatemala City TICA bus station and adopted him as my travel buddy and Valentines Day dinner date for our overnight stay in San Salvador. Granada is as hot as I expected- with the low temp here being the same as the high temp in Guatemala (96F high and 72F lows in Nicaragua)! As I stumbled around the main square searching for a place to eat, I really wished I had left some of those books and long sleeve clothes back in Antigua! My pack was heavy. I was searching for Villa Nadia "across from the church", but unfortunately for me, I had neglected to write down which church ... read more

One of the local attractions close to Granada was Laguna de Apoyo, which is an extinct volcano crater which has filled with water over the years. This place was beautiful and we stayed at craters edge Hostel (www.craters-edge.com) check the website out. It was such a carm and relaxing place and right on the waters edge so you could swim, kayak, sun bath on the floating dock or just sit back and relax in the hammocks or swinging chairs. We spent hours just lounging around and chilling out. In the evening we would spend our time chatting to other travellers or reading in the hammocks with the breeze from the lake swinging you back and forth. The best thing about the night was the food. We would all sit down around a large table and eat ... read more

Even when traveling I can´t stop thinking about transportation modes. The highways to Managua are in surprisingly good condition, it´s as if they were just paved last year. Even though they are plenty of cars and trucks speeding through, they have a lot of competition for lane space. In addition to the cars there are chicken buses, pedestrians of all ages, taxis mostly without license plates, bicyclists (with your wife sharing the seat and child side-saddle over the top tube), people on horses, oxen or horses pulling carts, packs of stray dogs, and pick-up trucks filled with their beds crowded with people, and everyone carrying things so big that it would be a challenge to fit into a mini-van. Roads connecting smaller towns are just as crowded, but haven´t been repaved in decades. Pots holes take ... read more