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Published: April 1st 2011
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Nicaragua was by far one of the best countries I visited on this trip. I met lovely people, drank too much, saw breath taking scenery, did some crazy activities and ate wonderful food. All this and I was only there for seven days. I was running out of time as I was meeting my parents in San Jose, Costa Rica on a certain date.
I headed for Leon from San Salvador, which meant getting up really early to get a bus to Managua. I did not have any intention of going to Managua, and asked to get off the bus early, at a junction, where I could get a bus to Leon. Luckily, I met Jono on the bus, who woke up, attempted to speak to me in Spanish, offered me peanut butter and bread and then spent the day laughing at the awful films on the bus with me and generally slagging me off... managing to call me a dog, and posh, in the same day that he met me. Needless to say we got on very well. 😊
On arriving in Leon I headed to Bigfoot hostel, a really nice place, quite big, vegetarian restaurant, and so
on... I went out to eat with some people form my dorm. We went for street food! Which I generally try to avoid! But it was AMAZING AND CHEAP. There were a few little stalls near the big church (yeah, there are several big churches so maybe this does not help so much) all with loads of different meats and of course, rice and beans, and tortillas! Yummy.
After filling my stomach I headed back to the hostel to find Jono and wandered across the road to Via Via cafe where a salsa night was in full swing. Excellent. Many a beer later and the place was closing so we followed the masses to the cleverly names Cama- Leon (with pictures of chameleons on the walls outside). For anyone reading this from Preston... I felt like I was back in Moods, back in the day of underage nights out... A very strange, but fun, experience.
The next morning, feeling a little worse for wear I went for breakfast with Jono and Zara before having a look round the town and going to the freakiest museum ever!! Aparently a torture museum, the ex-prison had one room dedicated to torture
in the civil war and a tank outside, all the other rooms were filled with the scariest mannequins I have ever seen in my life... Due to this Zara and I proceded to recommend that everyone went there to see how 'interesting' it was. Hehe.
This day, I also had a very sad experience. When walking around the town, a young girl, around 17 yeas old, started talking to me, and eventually asked me if I could help her. She needed milk for her prematurely born baby, but had no money to buy it. I was suspicious, although she was asking for milk, not money, I though 'what's the worst that could happen'. I asked where the baby was and she took me to a small house, basically just a room, where an even younger girl was feeding a baby. Feeding a baby with a brown liquid from a baby's bottle. I asked what the liquid was and she, completely normally, replied that it was coffee. This baby was 2 months old, and was drinking coffee. I went straight to the pharmacy and bought enough milk for 2 months.
Volcano boarding was on the agenda for the next
day, which basically means tobogganing down a volcano... Nice and safe! This resulted in many injuries. But was definitely worth it! To start with, we had to climb to the top of the volcano with our volcano boards (aka planks of wood). Try doing this during stong winds when you weight not so much... the board becomes a sail. I was nearly blown off the side of the volcano many times. Then you get to the top, have a look around, take photos, blah blah blah. A quick lesson on how to steer and control speed is given (I swear both are impossible!) before the first two crazies race down the side. Ladies first, of course, Zara and I decided to decend. It was painful. The first time, I flew off the board, rolled over a few times, lots my shoe, then found it, put it back on, got back on the board, continued... fine. The second time, I went flying after hitting a rock, landed, winded myself and managed to move just in time for the board not to hit me in the back of the head. Fun!!! When everyone gets to the bottom, they are given a can
of beer to congratulate themselves before returning to the hostel for free mojitos!
To relax after volcano boarding we went to the beach at Las Penitas. This was my last day in Leon.
Next stop was Granada, just for one night. The journey there was a bit crazy. There was a giant 'queue' for mini buses to Managua where other buses, with no space for luggage, took people on to Granada. On the second bus I bumped into a guy who was working in La Iguana Perdida on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala when I was there. He was covered in glitter. I wandered around Granada. It is a beautiful city, but by this time I had seen all the churches my brain could cope with. The day after I went to Ometepe.
To get to Ometepe I got a bus to Rivas and then a taxi to the port. The taxi drivers got on the bus trying to rip everyone off. By this time I was fed up of this, so argued with them and eventually paid next to nothing. I got the taxi with two other Brits, Jon and Jessica. We went to the same hostel on
the island and hung out for the few days that I was there. The island is basically two volcanos joined by a short strip of land. It is quite a small place, but the roads are very poor so it takes ages to get around. The first day we just chilled out. The second day we went adventuring.
We decided to trek up the non-active volcano. Which took a long time! The first part was hard work, just walking up hill in the heat, the second part was where it got fun. Scrambling up rocks, climbing trees, getting really muddy - it was great! The way down however, was very difficult. So we decided to have a contest. The person who slipped the most bought ice creams later. That person ended up being me, as I was wearing totally unsuitable footwear... Oops.
With one day left in Nicaragua I went to San Juan del Sur for the evening.
The next day I headed for the border at Penas Blancas, which has to be the most ridiculous border crossing in the world. I got a bus into the bus station only to be acostered by hundreds of men
trying to sell me the immigration forms for the border. I, of course, told them where they could shove their forms as they are free at immigration. The next problem was finding the border... which is not sign posted. I asked a policeman who showed me the way. On the walk there I was verbally harassed by even more men. They were everywhere, in packs, like wolves. Yuck. I finally made it to the imigration office got all my stamps and paid the exit fee before trying to find the Costa Rican side of immigration, which was a ten minute walk away hidden by thousands of lorries parked ready to be inspected by customs, and even more men...
To be continued... (see Costa Rica blog)
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