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Published: June 16th 2010
Mushrooms
In the jungleFrom San Fransisco Libre we managed to bypass changing buses in Managua - the capital of Nicaragua, and a terrifying and traumatic place to change buses! However this did involve us having to board an already over-full chicken bus to Matagalpa, our next destination. This was twice as busy as any of the Guatemalan buses that we had previously claimed to be the busiest buses in the world and entered the Guiness Book of Records for the most people you can fit on a bus..... but it was fun! (...once i'd got a foothold and a handhold and felt confident about hanging onto the outside of the bus and not falling away and onto the tarmac to meet my maker... - Ben) We started off with both of us hanging out the front door (after the bus started to drive away with our stuff on top, and us waiting patiently, foolishly, and in vain for some space to be made for us to at least enter the bus by an inch or so. "Sus mochilas son arriba!!!" some guy was screaming at the driver, so he slowed down sufficiently for us to jump on to the first step and cram everyone
Butterfly
In the jungle else in that little bit more). Unfortunately another guy was hanging out the door even more and spent the first 15 mins of the journey making uncomfortable grunting noises while us and the sheer weight of humanity inside threatened to weaken his tentative hand-hold and send him hurtling onto the road (he actually got off 10 minutes down the road - we had 3 hours to travel... Later on in the same journey Ben had a funny turn and went as white as a sheet (his lips even went a bit blue), probably from the heat and lack of breakfast, but luckily it passed pretty quickly (and luckily by this time we were crammed into the back). Oh you gotta love these buses...
In Matagalpa we found a nice cheap hotel with a great view of the city and surrounding mountains (and cable tv...) and spent the rest of the day chilling and exploring the city. The next day we caught a bus for a very slow 12 kms to a nearby coffee farm and estate called Selva Negra (Black Forest), which was owned by a family of 3rd generation Germans who were invited over by the Honduran Government
Ben
In the jungle! Worn out. early last century to, er, farm coffee. The farm was in a beautiful setting, surrounded by jungle, and we did a hike around the property on some trails that hadn't seen other hikers for a while judging by the encroaching rainforest! But after nearly getting lost and getting rather concerned about the weather taking a turn for the worse, we made it back to the farm in one piece. There we had a piece of cake and a coffee (unfortunately wasted on me as I can't stand the stuff, so I had a maracuya (passionfruit) juice, something that is indescribably delicious and one thing I will really miss about Central America - along with Jamaica (hibiscus flower) juices - yum!!) in the German style cafe/restaurant. The cafe looked over a lake which had real life moorhens, coots and geese, not very exciting for you guys but not something you see a lot in the tropics! Together with the coolness it did really feel like we could have been in Europe... it was actually rather chilly! It was Mothers Day in Nicaragua, so the place was packed out with upper class Nicaraguan families and was very busy. But it was certainly
interesting to see how the other half live - we couldn't afford to have more than a piece of cake!
After Matagalpa we bussed to Esteli, another mountain town that we had briefly visited a few days earlier on our Somoto Canyon adventure. We found a very cheap place to stay, (what happens when you step kind of off the gringo trail), that had a massive moth on the wall. It was pretty rad. What wasn't rad was that every attraction that we had intended to visit in Esteli was closed, so we spent the day wandering around aimlessly. However the next day we walked to a nearby waterfall, which was a beautiful trek through the countryside, in the SUNSHINE. Yes you read that correctly, the sun had finally come out for the first time in about a week. Now that won't seem much to you poor souls back home... but we don't come all this way for it to be CLOUDY (and don't forget the persistant torrential rain...)!! The waterfall was very nice and waterfally but with the amount of rain that we had had recently, we decided against swimming, as the "nice and fresh" swimming hole was
looking a bit, well, turbulent (and brown)! But it certainly made for a spectacular waterfall.
The next day we headed south again for Leon, our 4th visit to the city. Our main reason this time was the confirmation that our passports had finally been processed and delivered and were waiting for us at a hostel we had them sent to! This was quite exciting for us. After finding somewhere to stay and picking the passports up (Sarah's came with a very stern letter telling her that she was only allowed a passport valid for 1 year, and that if she lost
another passport, then the FCO may not be able to help her again!) we went and had some pizza and went again to the cinema, this time watching Prince of Persia (is it out yet in the UK?). It was really silly, but great. However I don't understand why they all had English accents when they are supposed to be Persians...
We were going to leave Nicaragua the next day and find a place where the sun still shined, but at the last minute decided to put this off for a day and visit the local beach,
Las Penitas. We took the bus there, sweat pouring off of us as we sat in the big moving metal oven, and were grateful when we saw the big waves of the Pacific ocean and the dark volcanic sands. However, within about 10 minutes of arriving some huge storm clouds gathered overhead and proceeded to dump an immense amount of rain on us for the next hour. We sat and had a beer/iced tea and considered leaving, but just as it came time for the next bus, the clouds parted and the sun appeared! The rest of the day was beautiful (and very hot). We spent the day lying on the beach and swimming in the shallows (the currents were very strong and the water very murky from the rain) and cooking our bodies sufficiently.
The next day we 'treated' ourselves and bought a direct bus ticket all the way from Leon in Nicaragua to San Pedro Sula in Honduras. This meant a big comfy and air-conditioned bus with allocated seats (!), no changes, and an ayudante (helper) to deal with the passports at the border. It was 12 hours but compared to other journeys it was pure luxury!
Arriving in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second biggest city, we took a taxi with some Canadian girls to the city's one hostel where we enjoyed air-conditioning and cable TV again! We also discovered the Honduran national snack/light meal staple, the Baleada. This is a thick wheat tortilla that is grilled, folded and stuffed with re-fried beans, cream, cheese, and anything else you may fancy. They are delicious, especially when straight off of the grill. We enjoyed these for dinner and then for breakfast the next morning before heading off to the bus station (getting ripped off in a taxi first - 'oh you want to go to
that bus station? I thought you wanted to go to the other,
nearer one when i quoted $x... oh dear, no this one is much further away and will cost much more...') to catch a bus to La Ceiba, Honduras' third biggest city that sits on the north coast on the Carribean sea.
On this bus - as on pretty much every other public bus - as well as people boarding to sell things (food, drinks, medications, toothbrushes...) some people will come on to ask for money. Sometimes they have a
letter or small cards explaining why they should be given donations, and sometimes they just stick their hand in your face. On this bus briefly entered the most polite and friendly begging person so far, who after showing us his leg without a calf muscle and sticking out his hand (and after I politely refused), gave me a nice pat on the shoulder, wished me a good day, smiled and left. Once there was a lady who looked like she may have just had an eye removed. When she came up to us and stuck out her hand, and I again politely saying no (it is terrible but when you are asked for money ever day you have to develop thick skin), she stayed resolute, continued looking me in the eye and smiling sadly. This continued for a good minute or two and in the end she cracked me and I gave her some money and she left! One other story on this tack; sitting waiting at a bus station one day a big heavy-set man who may have had some sort of mental difficulty came up to me, but his face in my face, nose to nose, looked me
in the eye and groaned loudly and repeatedly, while holding his cupped hand out to me. This was a bit akward, but after what seemed like a long time of averting my eyes and ignoring the chap, he gave up and walked off, looking decidely less handicapped as he did so.
Anyway. we'll leave our Honduran exploits until next time. For anyone who doesn't know, we will be back very soon (28th June), after visiting Belize, Mexico's Yucatan (and for a few hours between flights, Mexico City), and New York City.
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