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Published: June 22nd 2005
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Volcan De Masaya
This is a picture of the Volcano I finally visited in Nicaragua.
It is great. Isn't it?
No? Whatever. I´m now in a place called Granada in Nicaragua - yes I´ve pretty much steamed on through a few countries without pausing for breath... and by god the heat and humidity here is killing me slowly - totally different to Guatemala. I took a long distance bus and passed through El Salvador and Honduras to get here. I spent a night in the capital of El Salvador called San Salvador and was glad it was only one night. What a heavy going city, lots of traffic, people, smog and battered taxis pulsing through the mean streets at all hours. I stayed in a hotel called The Imperial Hotel whose electric only came on after 8pm & the same with the restaurant next door. The night before I left for Nicaragua I watched the film ´Salvador´ about the death squads, military rule, peasent revoluntionaries and (negative) American intervention that happened in that country at the end of the seventies (I think)... It was a pretty gritty film but worth watching for a little history on the country.
The border crossings were your usual pain in the ass, paperwork, queues and the general humid bullshit of crossing one country into another, but I got there in the end! Although I did spend a night in Managua the capital of Nicaragua, I stayed in the area where all the hostels are and where all the other backpackers were meant to be... but I am sure it was only me there and the place was like a residential area which looked like the Nicaraguan version of the neighbourhood in that crappy Australian soap ´Neighbours´! I found an Irish bar a few blocks away and got talking, and inevitably drinking, with two Nicaraguans from the Corn Island area of the country, who said that Managua also pissed them off because there was no ocean breeze and it is so humid all the time and nothing to do except listening to Enrique Iglesias on over-expensive jukeboxes. They even paid for all my drinks at the end of the night - no matter how much I protested - they wouldn´t take my offer of money. ´Unbelievable´ - as a mate of mine in Swansea would say! Just goes to show the old adage is true - the less you have got the more you will give. I couldn´t imagine in a million years another rich Western backpacker doing the same thing. Or am I just being cynical?
I went looking yesterday for another spanish school because I´d like to do another week of study to bolster my already crap knowledge of it. When I finally tracked one down the teacher could only offer me a shaky 2 hours a day which is not much use really - so I passed that one up. Then again, I don´t think I could do 5 hours a day here because of the weather - you just cannot concentrate when dripping in a constant sweat. Anyhow, I finally climbed a volcano yesterday, in taxi!! It was the local Volcan de Masaya which is still active and spewing out dangerous gases which really do stick in the throat and make your eyes water when you get near, but I am not going to bore you with all the dreary details and all that jazz...
And today I visited a laguna called the Laguna de Apoyo (the monkey hut - an offshoot of the bearded monkey where I am staying) which was OK, I got sunburned badly and kayaked inefficiently. That was about it. I cannot recommend it overtly because it is quite boring... In fact, a crashing bore.
Also, of interest, I finally ran ino another Welsh person last night in this hostel. A young guy from Cardiff who had been volunteering for a few months in Costa Rica. And I am the first one of the species that he has seen in Central America also!! We talked rugby, football, muggings and travel... you know, the usual stuff. I am in a ridiculously popular hostel called The Bearded Monkey... It has everything a backpacker could dream of like free internet, mixed dorms, restaurant, beer, bar, hammocks, two cats and a sexy Latin American chica on the front desk... But you know it is a bit TOO industrial, TOO obvious and TOO McDonalds-esque for my liking. So like a Jack would normally do, I am going to hit the road soon. Probably Costa Rica. I am fully aware I seem to be rushing through Central America but sub-consciously I want to get to South America ASAP because it is drawing me, mystically. And because it is a bit colder.
I will keep you posted my lovelies.
Jamie,
Nicaragua.
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