Nicaragua

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Surf and turtles - San Juan Del Sur

I didn't get to see to much of San Juan as I was still sick. At least we had a nice hostel with a roof top area full of hammocks and a very impressive coastal view with nice sunsets. The town also features a Rio de Janeiro style jesus statue high on a cliff looking back to Costa Rica and the southern coast of nicaragua. Very scenic.
The place to be if you have fever, aching eyes, pain in the knee joints and are tired all the time. Pretty much the symptoms of Zika or Dengue fever. Unfortunately by the time I dragged myself to the doctor it was Saturday which meant that all the laboratories doing tests were closed and I had to wait another two days. On Monday after a drive to the next big town, a visit to the red cross laboratory and a visit to the doctor it turned out that I had a kidney infection. A dose of antibiotics took care of that and I finally could join Kellie and Dillon at the beach.
The beach in the town of San Juan is long and scenic although with brown sand and not great for swimming. Everyone takes daily shuttle buses to better beaches up and down from San Juan. They are mostly known for their surf but we also had fun in the waves with Dillon honing his body board and wave jumping skills.
We were in town for 8 days in total, Kellie and Dillon thoroughly enjoyed daily life in this town (grocery shopping in a small market place, cooking, the quaint church yard playground and gelateria).

The other attraction less than 20km south is a beach which turtles use to nest. We were lucky to be there in nesting season and during one of the few days per month where thousands of turtles come to the beach to lay eggs. It was a long and bumpy ride on the back of a 4wd sitting on wooden benches to the beach at 7pm in the evening but it was well worth it. The turtles don't seem to be bothered by the humans walking around as their instinct to lay eggs is stronger. They dig a hole of about 20 by 30 centimetres deep (as long as their rear fins can reach) and then lay 70-90 eggs into it. Once they are done (approx 45 mins) they cover the nest, then it is then back to the water and good luck to the offspring. The heat from the sun and the sand do the rest. The young ones hatch a couple of weeks later and climb on top of each other to get out of the nest. We were fortunate enough to see a couple of newbies (size of a 50c piece) on their way to the water. Unsurprisingly the survival rate is quite small and many of them don't even hatch as they are dug out by other turtles digging their nests. Others get eaten on the way to the water and many others end up as fish food. They swim out to sea as a loner for life and return every year to the same beach to nest until they die at the route old age of 70+ years.
The visit certainty has been the wildlife experience of the trip so far.

Granada

Granada is one of those nice Spanish colonial towns with loads of churches and a main central placa. Nice to have a walk through, admire the architecture and wonder why on earth pokie machines made it to here. I thought pokie machines are an Australian phenomenon but they exist in Nicaragua as well and seems to attract a similar crowd. Very sad to see.
We did a one hour horse and cart ride around the main sights of the town and swam in the hotel plunge pool. That was the highlights of the town done. It's just one of these places.
As culinary highlight we went to a eco friendly café run by deaf people. There we learned some basic sign language, tried it and one we failed we resorted to simply pointing at the oversized picture menu to our waiter. We also made our own smoothies by paddling hard on a bicycle which had been converted and a blender strapped to the front.
Lake Nicaragua which is massive is just outside of town. We did a very nice sunset boat tour through what seems to be hundreds of small islands (owned by some traditional owners as well as more and more wealthy new occupants building more modern and larger abodes). Plenty of bird life and very scenic views of the volcano framed lake.

The highlight of Granada was the Mayasa volcano. We did the night tour which consist of being driven right up to the crater. Literally right up. We didn't have to walk 5 metres before we could look right down into the crater. The crater is about 50 m wide and deep. At the bottom is what we came for. Magma! The real stuff. Hot, glowing red and bubbling. Pretty awesome to see what is deep inside our earth. Certainly unforgettable and a great photo momento.

Lago de Apoyo

Lago de Apoyo is an extinct volcano with a 300 metre wide crater that filled up with water. It's surrounded by forests and next to no buildings. Just the place to relax. It is just stunning, the water is warm and slightly salty as it flows from underwater volcanic vents.
We spent 4 nights here and didn't do more than getting up, having breakfast, lounging around, having lunch, a swim to the pontoon that was moored a short distance away, talking to people, having dinner and then ... repeat. It's just one of those places.
While we started there it was also time for Halloween. Dillon turned into red Angry Bird and tricked the other guests with his water pistol.
We also listened to the Melbourne cup horse race with fellow other Aussies and some non Australians which were initiated to this Australian phenomenon. Kellie took out the sweep unbeknown to her asleep in bed.

Leon

One of the "must do" activities while in Leon is Volcano boarding (Ralph did and K&D opted out). It's a organised tour where you are driven to Nicaragua's youngest volcano called Cerro Negro which means black hill. It is quite the right description for what the volcano looks like. Since it has first erupted in 1850 it has spewn ash and lava every 15 years. Mostly it releases very fine gravel in explosions which makes it look like an oversized pile of black gravel. We hiked up the volcano with our board (more about that later) along a path through the gravel and some more substantial boulders. The hike traverses some of the bigger craters where there is a small but constant stream of sulphuric steam being emitted.
When we finally reached the summit we got a quick intro in the history which also includes such uplifting remarks like "last time the volcano erupted was 1999, usually there are 15 years between eruptions". Not quite what you want to hear standing on top of a volcano.... The gravel on top of the volcano is also very warm showing that there must be magma not far away.

Time to get off this thing. We donned on our overalls, on with the goggles and put whatever we had over our mouths. Then it's onto the board which is just that, a wooden plank board. It has a rope to hold onto and a couple of pieces of wood attached to stop sliding forward. Then it's off in a straight line down the volcano. The speed record is apparently 90 kph and the average 60 kph. That's pretty fast considering you slide on fine black gravel and a lot of dust. After about 10 metres the visibility is 0 as there is a lot of stuff hitting the face and sliding under the goggles. Anyways when it's all done and survived it's quite good fun.

Otherwise Leon is a pleasant town with the usual cathedral which we climbed for great views of the town and surrounding countryside including loads of volcanoes. There are also pretty colonial buildings aplenty but not that much to do otherwise. That's one of the reasons why Kellie and Dillon took a trip to the cinema to see Trolls in Spanish. A language neither understands but apparently it was good movie. I was a usual for this trip sick again. Luckily this time it was just a one day cold.
We were very excited by the promise of a combined Sri Lankan/ polish restaurant and to our surprise the samosa, curry and peroigi were excellent. Who would have thought?

It was already time to say good by to Nicaragua. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in this very pretty place. It's a very pleasant country with loads to do. We'd come back if we are in the area. Next stop El Salvador but that's anther blog.

Video

Check out the video of our Nicaragua trip.

Nicaragua in 20 seconds Click here for the video. Password is warta

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Photos

Halloween
Dillon went as angry bird

it's there
Volcanoe crater with magma