Nicaragua - land of volcanoes and rum!

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We we very glad to finally arrive in Nicaragua after 2 long days of travel. As we crossed the border I immediately noticed the condition of the roads improved markedly from those in Honduras. Interestingly, Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, with 50% of the population living below the poverty line. The country has a history of dictatorships and civil war and has only been promoting tourism since the 1990's.

We arrived in Granada after lunch, and went on a quick walking tour of the city to orient ourselves. It has an old colonial town, with gorgeous multi- coloured buildings - similar to Antigua in Guatemala. It also has lots of horse drawn carriages that you can take a ride on around the town. There is a main street lined with restaurants and thankfully our hotel was at one end of this, which made is really centrally located.

I took advantage of a blind massage as soon as possible - sitting in a bus for 2 days wasn't great for my back and I needed some relief! I also liked this idea as it is sustainable tourism - giving somthing directly back to the community. Juan Carlos did an excellent job of massaging my sore back, shoulders and legs. In fact, I don't think I've had a male masseuse before so it was nice to have a harder massage than I'm used to!

We all bought some Flora di Cana rum and settled in for some pre dinner drinks at the hotel which has become a bit of a tradition on the trip.

Dinner was at a great restaurant on the main drag and a couple of the boys had a bet that they would get asked more than 23 times for something from one of the locals and have to say 'no gracias' 23 times or more. After being here for a few weeks and being constantly harrassed you get pretty used to it! Sitting in a restaurant in the main touristy part of town made us big targets and the goal was reached well before dinner hit the table! I had a gorgeous steak with chimichurri sauce - it is a herby, garlic sauce and delicious. Especially washed down with more rum!

After dinner we headed to a local salsa bar which proved to be lots of fun. Hardly any gringos and great music with a live band! We had fun dancing, drinking and doing B52 shots which were kindly bought for us by a felloew traveller on tour.

The next day we headed to Lake Apoyo for some much needed R&R. Lake Apoyo was a volcanop crater and now a gorgeous freshwater lake and up to 100m deep in parts. We went to the Monkey Hut hostel where you could pay a small fee and gain entrance and use of their facilities which included 2 pontoons and some floaty rings, and best of all - hammocks! We passed a great day just swimming, chilling and reading.

Dinner was a relaxed affairand we decided to head out to a typical Nicaraguan restaurant for dinner. I tried vignaron which consisted of pork chicharons with yucca and salad on a banana leaf. I had wanted to try chicharrons since Mexico - they are crispy fried pork with the skin on. Well - once was enough! They were so hard they nearly broke my teeth and didn't really taste of anything. Yucca is kinda like potato but not as good - it is a root vegetable and stringy like parsnip. Glad we tried the local food but I am happy to stick to chicken & rice from now on. The chicken in central America is really good!

The next day Benji and I did a kayaking tour of Las Isletas, a group of 365 islands on Lak Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the biggest lake in central America and the second biggest in Latin America. Las Isletas is along one side and underneath a big volcano. They say that the volcano erupted and created the 365 islands. They are now home to 4000 inhabitants and it was gorgeous kayaking through them.

There are many boat tours on the lake but we were able to go where the boats couldn't, and this meant it was really peaceful and quiet just paddling throughthe backwaters. Our guide was really knowledgeable and the fact that there were only 2 of us on the tour meant we could ask all the questions we liked! We saw many herons, kingfishers and other birds, and saw some gorgeous trees also. We also saw the locals doing theirt washing and fishing, which is their main income.

After a couple of hours we headed back to our starting spot. Our guide told us at this point that there are bull sharks in the Lake! This seems implausible as the lake is fresh water, however they have come up from the Atlantic. The previous president allowed sales of the fins of the sharks to large Chinese companies which has meant the numbers have dwindled significantly, although the locals still believe there are sharks in there - they have just grown too big to be caught!

Later in the evening we joined the rest of the group to head up to Masaya Volcano for an evening tour. It is made up of a series of craters which are active, dead and dormant. It is called the most dangerous volcano in Nicaragua as it is close to Masaya and the capital of Managua. We first saw the crater in daylight and it was letting off a lot of steam. We had to wear gask masks as the gases are very toxic. We had hoped to see lava but Gabi toldus they haven't seen it for at least a year.

Once upon a time locals would throw in young virgins as a sacrifice to the volcano so they they could feed the devil and hope it wouldn't erupt again. When the spanish arrived they erected a huge cross up the top of the crater in the hope it would have the same affect.

We then went for a walk up to the tallest peak on the crater system to the tip of the dormant volcano. By this time it was getting quite dark and we could see the twinkly lights of the cities below. We then went for a walk in the jungle surrounding the craters, visited a bat cave , another really interesting cave which had stalictites and in which they would perform more sacrificies (and hide from the authorities during the civil war to avoid conscription), and spotted scorpions, geckoes and a hedgehog up a tree - very cute!

We finished by going back to the mouth of the active crater to see if we could see some lava. We couldn't directly see it, as it is 3000m down, but in the big hole we could see the glow of the lava in the dark which was very cool, and also hear it. It sounded like a big furnace (surprisingly!) and also like the sound of the ocean.

We went back into town for dinner and had jalapeno chicken - my new favourite thing! It's chicken roasted, with a creamy, onion and jalapeno sauce, and served with rice and salad - yummo!

Next stop was Ometepe which was also on Lake Nicaragua but we had to get a ferry there. On Ometepe there are two big volcanoes and the evacuation route is to make it back to the ferry terminal stat and hope the ferry leaves and takes you with it! We were staying in a hotel in between the two which made for some great views, especially of Concepcion (the bigger one) at sunset.

The next day we went to Ojo de Agua. I and Lisa hired bikes for the 25 minute ride and thouroughly enjoyed being out and about. We were staying right on Lake Nicaragua but the area wasn't touristy at all, so we were cycling through farms with all kinds of animals running on the roads (pigs, chickens, goats, herds of cows, horses etc) and enjoyed the scenery which included the 2 volcanoes and also gum trees!

Ojo de Agua is freshwater springs and lots of fun. Think turquoise waters and with sun chairs all around. It was nice to cool off for a few hours and relax, and the added feature of a swing also made for good entertainment! Although on my one and only attempt I let go way too early and fell backwards! Afterwards I had a lovely snooze in a hammock and have decided I will definitely get one, just need to figure out where it will go! We also had cocktails in coconuts which was great - Flora di Cana rum again, mixed with the coconut juice and we got to watch the guy make it from scratch.

Upon returning to the hotel we had blackouts for a few hours (always fun!) and welcomed some of our group back who had climed the 1600m of Concepcion volcano - no mean feat as it takes 8- 10 hours! They all made it up and back ok - unlike a German tourist who had gone missing the previous day. He had set out on his own to hike the volcano and gotten lost. Our group found him on day 2 and gave him some water but the rescue helicopter couldn't find him as he was stuck in a crevice, so the guides had to leave him there again overnight to come back on foot and try again the next day. I hope they found him!

I was sad to leave Nicaragua the next day as I loved it, and I'd like to go back one day. It was gorgeous, cheap and the people were really friendly. However, next stop Costa Rica!

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