Somos Nica!

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Nicaragua was a country that I knew very little about before embarking upon this trip. It probably gets overlooked because it doesn't have a famous canal, a reputation for eco-tourism and hasn't had a civil war for a while, well relatively speaking (read Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras). It turns out it's a beautiful country, with the cliched friendly people, but it's not without it's problems, namely poverty (I'd read a statistic that Nica is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Bolivia). The guidebooks make a big deal about the town of Granada on the banks of Lago Nicaragua. Now, it's a quaint place with some rather neat, picturesque colonial buildings, I don't think it really warrants it's reputation of a "lovely little colonial town" or the next Antigua (not that I've been to Antigua yet). We found enough to do to keep us busy for a day...primarily looking around the shops and eating food (the plaza has some lovely comida tipico places). The boat trip around the Isletas is probably worth the $20 per couple. The islands were formed from an eruption by the nearby Volcan Mombacho in distant past, sometime before the world was created by promoters of Young Earth ideas. Some of the islands are owned by the rich (and not so famous) and monkies...yeah, you read that right, frickin monkeys own an frickin island, possibly. Sadly, it's just named Monkey Island, which really shows a lack of creativity on behalf of our samien cousins (sorry Evolultion deniers), but is very descriptive of the place as only 6 monkies live there (I did wonder about the state of the gene pool there, probably looks similar to the Royal Family's). The islands have a bizarre fort that was built to keep the British away from the lake, but I'd question the ability of the British Army if they couldn't get past one single fort on a tiny island. There's also some terrapins and huge birds of prey in living amongst the islands...it's like the Really Wild Show on CBBC back in the 1990's!



Aside from then getting a bit drunken with the Essex folk from our boat, failing to locate the chocolate factory (Eleanor was gutted) and generally getting a bit depressed b the so-called Tourist Zone (a sad collection of 1980's Butlin's style buildings, play parks and millions of biting insects on the shore of the lake), we decided there wasn't enough here and backtracked south to the Island of Ometepe. Getting off the bus in Rivas was a pretty disgusting experience. Before I'd even exited the bus there was a guy trying to pull Eleanor and another traveller towards his taxi. I then had another man hitting me on the chest and trying to yank my arm towards his taxi before I'd even got my bag. I managed to keep my cool, despite the guy constantly trying to pull me and really invading my personal space (he'd clearly not cleaned his teeth that morning). After giving him a bit of a shove he toned it down a bit and tried to be more friendly, but I'd hate to think what it would have been like had I been a solo female traveller! The taxi driver also tried to stick us big style, 5 Gringos, 5 travel packs, one normal saloon car, plus a driver, and 5 dollars each for the privilege...I'll let you imagine what my two word response was! But luckily we arrived at the port without too much in the way of trouble, no one got a punch in the face, and the taxi was only $5 in total (different guy). The ferries to Ometepe are old but functional and it's a short crossing. Ellie had done her research about where to stay in Moyogolpa, the place didn't take reservations and so we embarked upon a dash up the high street as soon as the boat docked. The Corner House was pretty awesome so worth the run in flip flops, a backpack and two lacrosse sticks (still carrying those). They did wonderful smoothies (ginger and pineapple was the winner for me, ginger and maracuya for Ellie), Eggs Benedict with roast tomatoes and basil (to die for) and steak sandwiches which just melt in the mouth...okay it's not traditional Nica food, but it's so good it doesn't matter (the coffee was ace too).



Okay, so Ometepe isn't just an island (well it is, but it's a really cool one), it's two volcanoes joined by a wee isthmus, and at least one of the volcanoes is still active. The view from the boat is pretty spectacular to say the least. The lake itself is a pretty strange entity. It used to be part of the Pacific Ocean, and then there was a huge volcanic eruption (or, more likely, many) and the lake was cut off from the sea...remember that this all happened before time really began so I could just be lying to you! But because the lake was cut off and gradually became less salty, the life in the lake had to adapt and evolve and apparently there are freshwater sword fish, which is just one of the most amazing things I've heard. Ever.



We climbed one of the volcanoes to get the view, but the haul to the top to see that craterlake didn't appeal, and plus we'd seen a similar lake in the crater of an active volcano in Costa Rica (on our only day there...it's very expensive). The view was spectacular, and we'd managed to grab some lunch and coffee at the finca at the base of the volcano. Only problem was once we'd got back down, we found the bus back wasn't going anymore, we found this out about an hour after it should have left! That sucked and we had to pay $25 for a taxi back, all of about 10km, but that's the price you pay when there are 4 taxi's on the island! Luckily we managed to get dinner at a BBQ house. It was literally a house, with the grill in the lady's front room! The chicken and steak were fantastic though, plus there was a very generous helping of home made potatoe wedges and coleslaw...heaven on a plate. Then we proceeded to imbibe Flores de Cana Ron (which is very tasty) and the best beer we've had all trip which is Tona, the national beer of Nica! I think our experience of Ometepe was probably oone of the nicest so far, and had we not been on a tight schedule we'd have stayed for a lot longer!



We'd agreed to go canyoning with Ed, Vicki and Jade (Jo wasn't particularly keen on the idea of water after the San Blas Islands near miss). In Somoto. At the opposite end of Nicaragua! This meant travelling all day on the pimped out chicken buses, via Managua. This was my idea of hell. The chicken buses are a decent way to meet the locals if they aren't engrossed in the beats pumping through the megawatt systems or the violent movies on show, but they have no leg room. Well no leg room for someone of my size, and being crammed in to a matchbox-like spae for 8 hours isn't the most enticing of propositions! We had a panic in Mangua when Ellie's bag went missing, turned out that an over eager taxi driver had taken it in the hope of securing a fair! Suffice to say he got short shirft from Ellie! Then we had the obligatory con-the-gringo-price-war with the driver, the price went from $10 each to $4 each for the trip which was 3km or someting daft (a bizarrre scheme operates in Central America whereby you pay by the passenger AND the distance, which is just greedy I think). We made it just in time for the bus to Somoto, only for Eleanor to decide to go to the toilet! That meant I was trying to stall the bus, which was intent on leaving with our bags regardless of whether she was on it. She left it until the very last second to reappear and we dived on the bus as it tore out of the terminal! The great thing about the buses, apart from the pimp nature of them, is that you can see the country go by, and when you're on a tight schedule like us it's lovely to see the countryside roll by and watch it change by the hour. Nica is mostly hilly as far as I could determine, but our journey barely strayed from the Pan American Highway so it's likely to be different elsewhere.



Somoto is a nothing town. There's really no reason to come here unless it's to leave again, ASAP, to do one of the activities near by. The canyon is why we're here! It's 35M years old if I recall correctly, and it's easy to hire a guide to circumnavigate it. In the wet season it's dangerous but we arrived in the middle of the dry season, which was ideal really. All kitted out with our trendy life jackets and Ed's waterproof camera we headed off into the unknown! Well not really, it is a canyon after all and so consisted of steep cliffs, and a river...not too far from the Road Runner/Wile E. Cayote idea, except nobody had ACME brand dynamite and we're real, not cartoons. It was great fun, swimming, splashing and walking down the canyon, and it was capped by the 15m jump spot (well it went to 20m but only Vicki was brave enough to do that). It was pretty exhilarating jumping from the cliff, especially as it sloped outwards to a marginal extent, which kind of put the frighteners on me a little bit, but the free fall sensation was totally worth the prior nerves! This is one of the less tourist orientated places in Nicaragua, but it's finding it's feet and if they can make the area more attractive for outdoor sports/adrenaline seekers then they could be on to a winner. As it was, we had about 6 days to get across Honduras and to Guatemala, and so we said ciao to Ed and Vicki once again and headed for the Honduran border.

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Photos

Isla de Ometepe
Both Volcanoes.

Urraca
The official bird of the island.

Volcan Concepcion
Viewed from the mirador on Maderas

Isla de Mono
Monkey Island near Granada

Huge Clazone
Our other dish was squid served with mashed potatoes with that raspberry sauce you used to get on your ice cream as kids! Delicious if a bit odd...

15m jump
Somoto Canyon

Crater Lake...Costa Rica
The top of the Poas Volcano.

Comments

[mlmcadams]

so appreciative that you share.
I hope to keep these links. Maybe one day I will visit the places you have been to, link again and use the posts and tips. I enjoy the write-ups more than I can express. Smiling from ear to ear. Keep safe and keep traveling. =) maria ❦ The journey never ends. Only travelers do. And even they can prolong themselves in memories, in remembrances and in narratives. When the traveler sat on the beach and said: “There is nothing left to see,” he knew it wasn’t that way. It’s necessary to see what you haven’t seen, to see again what you have already seen, to see in the Spring what you have seen in the Summer, to see during the day what you have seen at night, to be in the sun where it first rained, to see green crops, fresh fruit, a rock that has been moved, a shadow that wasn’t there before. One has to retrace steps already taken, to take them again and blaze new paths beside the old one. The end of a journey is only the beginning of another. One must start the journey again. Always. The traveler will be right back.” – Jose Saramago, a favorite Portuguese author

[Renee]

A funny, interesting and informative read! I'll now be stalking the rest of your blog posts ;) Thanks!