Blogs from Leon, Northern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 10

We did, in fact, see Honduras. From Perquín there was an atmospheric drive through the mountains on a rickety bus – quiet, haphazard villages emerged out of a thick mist, hard working women and rugged blokes with hand tooled and decorated leather machete scabbards watched as we rolled past. The mist was so thick at times it flowed in through the cracks in the windows like smoke. Albeit chilly damp smoke. The border crossing was painless – only a short wait while we waited for the driver to try his luck with a local girl who seemed to be just hanging around. We changed buses in the Honduran town of Copan with enough time to have a decent and cheap lunch. It seemed a little too difficult to go straight through to Nicaragua from there, so ... read more

“No entiendo,” I smiled apologetically at the unshaven, be-vested skinny man in front of me. He looked at me blankly. “Momentito…” I had had an idea. I pulled out my Mexican Spanish phrasebook (originally acquired for a swine-’flu-kyboshed trip to that part of Central America two years’ earlier) and turned the pages looking for the “Accommodation” section. “Umm… ¿Puedo verla?” I looked up hopefully. “Si, si,” he replied (somewhat to my astonishment – he’d understood me!) and led me down the path. I peered into the room he pointed out, and finally understood what he’d been trying to tell me at the outset. Yes, they did have a room, but it hadn’t been cleaned yet. Then, rightly doubting my understanding of Spanish numbers, he pointed to a handwritten notice on the back of the door: this ... read more

In the morning we woke up at 5.30am and had to go and knock on the señoras door to let us out of the building... the door was padlocked! We took a cab to the bus station and caught the first bus to León. León is a very pretty town. We arrived at around 8.20am and nowhere was open, but a few hostels with restaurants. We hadnt eaten yet so had breakfast at Via Via, a belgian owns it so the food was excellent! They had dorms and rooms, but we had to wait until 10am so they would know what was available, same with a hostel called Bigfoot across the road. Unfortuantely their rooms were $17US each and we thought that was way too expensive so we settled with a small hotel called Casa Vieja ... read more

Hi everyone! I wanted to get to Leon at some point while I was in Nicaragua. I think it is my favorite city of all in Nicaragua and Ometepe Island is my favorite place. I am staying for two nights at the Tortuga Booluda in Leon. This is the hostel that Rich and I stayed in June when we were in our last days in Nicaragua. The place is quiet and nice and have a nice kitchen to use and provide batter for pancakes in the morning. I think that they have cold water showers, but that is an improvement from the bucket showers I was taking in the windy mountains. I have had tick bites and goose bumps that are almost as big! A much loved elderly woman died yesterday afternoon. She is of some ... read more

Not that we knew it at the time but we were to pay a much higher price than just fatigue and tiredness from our September 10th, 2010, 13km walk at Rincon de la Vieja National Park in Costa Rica, but that is getting ahead of myself and we will come to that. Nicaragua So as I said last time having successfully navigated the shambles of a boarder crossing at Peñas Blancas on Saturday September 11th, we moved on to the beach town San Juan Del Sur. San Juan Del Sur San Juan Del Sur (SJDS) is only 30-40 minutes from the border crossing but it still required us to get a bus and a taxi, if you could call either that. The buses in Central America crack me up, for the most part they are old ... read more