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Published: April 29th 2007
On the 23rd April we caught a bus from Liberia in Costa Rica to Rivas in Nicaragua. The border crossing went remarkably smoothly and only took us just over an hour. By the time we got dropped off in Rivas, Kez was bursting and there was no restaurant in sight so she just asked a random lady sitting on her porch if she could use her toilet and the old dear was so sweet about it. Imagine doing that in Vienna!
From Rivas we caught a collectivo (basically a taxi that takes as many people as it can) to the beach resort of San Juan del Sur. It is a really cute little town with lots of little shack bars along the beach, perfect for sundowners. It’s also the gateway to some incredible beaches just north and south of the town. We caught the truck transfer from our hostel to the beaches just north, including Playa Madera and Playa Madujal. We spent the morning at Madujal which is this totally secluded beach in a little bay with perfect waves for swimming. There is really nothing there other than a few trees for some shade. We then walked about 20
minutes to Madera, a famous Nicaraguan surfing beach. We ate the most delicious fresh ceviche at the little beach bar there. Ceviche is basically raw fresh fish that is left to marinade overnight in loads of lime juice, chillies, coriander and onions. The lime juice “cooks” the fish and then it’s served with crackers/ nachos. So yummy!! We were feeling too chilled out to try surfing after lunch so we just soaked up the sun and let the pros do there thing in the water.
As soon as we got home we hit Bar Republika who had a happy hour special of Flor de Caña Rum (REALLY amazing local brand - the best rum we’ve ever tasted, so far) for 5 cordobas (15p) a double shot, including a mixer of your choice. That works out to be about 7p (less than 1 Rand) a shot and the shots were always poured with a very lenient hand! (This place would be Christian’s idea of heaven) Nick enjoyed his with Coke as a Nica Libra or with orange juice while Kez drank hers straight up, on ice with a piece of lime. We had a break somewhere along the way to
get an unbelievably good homemade burger from Big Wave Daves down the road and then went back for a couple more and a hubbly bubbly of apple tobacco. (Don’t worry parents, just a once off, we haven’t taken up smoking!)
Wednesday we headed to the island of Ometepe, it has 2 volcanoes and supposedly amazing beaches. We stayed at a lovely place on Chaco Verde beach where we had our own very plush cabin for $12 a night in total (they messed up our booking and didn’t have any of the cheaper rooms available so they gave us a posh one for the same price). We were very disappointed with the beach and it’s apparently one of the best on the island. Maybe it’s because it’s the end of the dry season but the water was so muddy and you had to walk out so far on the rocky floor to get to water deeper than your knees. And Kez got attacked by two huge geese who stalked her out in the water and flapped and tried to bite her all over. She bravely batted the and tried to get away while Nick just stood by cos he didn’t
have contacts in and couldn’t see a thing!
We were planning to walk up a volcano but one is currently too active and you can’t walk up it and we met some people who had walked the other one who just really did not enjoy their day. It’s quite a tough 8 hour walk, it is really hot and at the top there is no view and you can’t swim in the lake at the top, although of course the guide tells you that you can. After chatting to about 10 people who all said they would not recommend it, we decided to skip it and leave the island early the next morning. All in all not too successful a trip. If we had more time and could have gone to the other side of the island maybe it would have been way better!
So instead we woke up at 6 and went for an early morning walk in the small national park just near our cabin. A random dog decided to accompany us and we were quite happy about it when we came across a whole troop of howler monkeys playing in the trees and blocking our
path. There were about 15 or 20 of them, some with the sweetest little babies. We watched them for about 20 minutes from about 5m away, but as soon as we tried to walk closer to get past them, the 4 big daddies would puff up and start walking menacingly towards us. Luckily the dog seemed to know how to handle the situation and barked at them for a few seconds and they all scampered back into the trees and we could walk past! We also saw lots of birds including the beautiful Uacca bird with a very long tail and a lovely crest. At 9am we were on the ferry back to Rivas and from there we caught a bus to Granada.
Our hostel Oasis in Granada was gorgeous and had a lovely swimming pool which we gladly jumped into as soon as we arrived, it is really hot at the moment! In the afternoon we explored town and got delicious fresh juices from the stands in the square. We also visited the museum with Pre-Colombian statues. In the evening we had a lovely dinner at El Club, very simple food but so fresh and delicious and then
went to funky café el nuit for a drink and to watch the live band for a bit.
In the morning we had the most mammoth of breakfasts including eggs, bacon, potatoes, toast and pancakes. Normally we just have fruit or something small from the bakery or the local gallo pinto (essentially rice and beans) so it was really quite a treat and so delicious! We then had a $5 massage from this local group of blind people who have recently started up their little business with the support of a lady from the US. Brilliant idea really because you kind of feel good about supporting the blind at the same time as indulging yourself. But in practice they were not the best masseuses ever, still for $5 we didn’t complain and after a few months they will probably be really good.
In the afternoon we caught a minibus to Leon via Managua (the capital of Nicaragua). We stayed at another wonderful hostel called Bigfoot, also with a swimming pool. We had our own braai/bbq in the evening but unfortunately Nicaraguan beef is not known to be very good and we can confirm that it really isn’t. We
had a 750ml bottle of Flor de Caña rum with us and tucked in while we waited for the huge fire to calm down (one of the staff builds it and he went wild). It took about an hour and a half and by the time we had finished eating we all of a sudden had no rum left. Nick drinking his Nica Libras and Kez drinking her straight-ups with lime and we somehow, on a quiet night, managed to finish the bottle! So we decided we might as well head out to the bar across the road that had a very cool live band. And there we could buy a shot of rum or a small bottle. Surprisingly we can’t remember the prices but for sure it worked out way cheaper to buy the bottle, so we did. It was also the day that our digital camera came out of its coma and although none of the settings work, it does now take basic photos. YAY!!!
Next morning we were not feeling our strongest but we felt remarkably good considering how much we had drunk the night before. This Flor de Caña really is good stuff. We watched
some of the World Cup Cricket match and a Man U footy game while having lunch at the Shark Pit and then it was time for the highlight of our stay in Leon - Volcano Boarding! Basically this Aussie guy has pioneered the sport and while he goes down on a home-made snowboard, we had more of a home-made piece of wood to sit on like a toboggan. We had to carry our boards to the top of Volcano Cerro Negro, at the top you can see bits of smoke escaping and if you dig down a few centimeters the sand is so hot you burn. Nick also did the run down into the crater, looked like great fun but Kez wasn’t too keen on the tough scramble out the other side. We then had a quick lesson and a short trial run and we were on our way!! We whizzed down the slope, Nick reached almost 60km/hr and Kez cruised down at around 40km/h. So much fun, we wished we could do it again!! The mountain bike speed record is from cerro negro, check out
to see the slope we boarded down. It sure cured out hangovers!
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hannah
non-member comment
oi nick
you look really skinny. eat some food!