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Published: October 17th 2011
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Road Block
Amy breakting trail through cattle on our way to the ferry to leave Ometepe. Hello Friends! Since my last post in Granada we have had nearly non-stop rain - which means it has been raining for about 7 days straight. It is rainy season, and at first we attributed it to rainy season but about three days into the constant rain we were informed that we were hit by a perfect storm down here in Central America. First Hurricane Jova hit southern Mexico, the bands of rain pretty much covered all of Central America, causing multiple landslides and deaths. Then, Tropical Storm Irwin hit Central America, followed by Tropical Depression 12-E. I believe we are at the end of Tropical Depression 12-E and that the weather will go back to what it was - nice during the day and some sort of rain at night (or a few hours of rain mid-day). We don't pay attention to weather down here, so we will see, maybe wishful thinking.
From Granada we took a four hour ferry to Ometepe, two volcanoes connected forming an island within Lake Nicaragua. I wish we had a better feel for the island, but with the rain and storms we didn't really get to see or hike the volcanoes as they
Volcan Concepcion
One of the volcanoes that makes up Isla Ometepe. The top was covered by clouds the whole time. were cloud covered the whole time. We did get in a small hike in Charco Verde Reserve, which was a nice little place to visit. It was kind of interesting being on a lagoon within a Volcanic Island within the largest Lake in Nicaragua. At Charco Verde we saw some howler monkey's (see video - I think it is a Howler Monkey) along with some birds, butterflies, and other insects - for me it was the first time seeing monkeys in the wild! After two nights on the island we decided to head to the mainland to "escape" the rain - which at the time we thought was isolated to the island...we headed for San Juan Del Sur. Getting off Ometepe towards the mainland (not Granada) is easy as ferry's run several times a day (to/from Granda is only twice a week).
San Juan Del Sur is the base city for probably the most famous surf in Nicaragua and known to be a high traffic tourist area, probably comparable to what we will experience in Costa Rica. As with Ometepe, I wish we had a better feel for the area besides the constant storming/raining. We did have some great
San Juan De Sur
A view of the bay - notice the clouds - about 7 days straight of that kind of weather. woodfired pizza, Margarita's, and Fish Taco's in San Juan Del Sur, but besides that the weather once again was limiting. We did sneak in a run and a few walks along the boulevard, but that was it. We enjoyed some wonderful breakfast and coffee at El Gato Negro Cafe (The Black Cat coffee house). The owners roast their own beans at the cafe and use mainly organic coffee beans grown fairly close to San Juan Del Sur. Overall, it was one of the best cafe's we have been to on our travels. With the storms the surf was apparently horrible so there went another chance to surf. Two days and nights in San Juan with the same rainy weather and we decided to head for Panama City.
When we went to the Tica bus office to buy a ticket we were told that we could get a ticket to San Jose Costa Rica, but the connection from San Jose to Panama was full, so we waited a day and booked the trip that we could travel straight through from Nicaragua to Panama. We fly out of Costa Rica, so we decided to head straight to Panama and see Costa Rica on the way back at the end of our trip. We left San Juan Del Sur on Wednesday at 11:00am and arrived in Panama at 4:30pm on Friday - 30 hours of travel. It is worth mentioning we had about an hour break in San Juan Del Sur, another two hours in San Jose waiting for our connecting bus, and two hours at the Costa Rica/Panama border, so our total time on the bus was probably 25 hours. I must say that the experience was miserable. The Costa Rica/Panama border was so slow and seemingly understaffed for the quantity of people going through. As mentioned, it took us over 2 hours to get through, our other crossings were probably 15-30 minutes. However, that was not the worst part...we sat in the back next to the toilet. Our bus was full (about 50 people) and there was one bathroom (that was supposed to be for urine only). About halfway through our bus ride a constant smell of urine was pervasive in the back and it was aboslutely terrible when the door was opened. On top of that they would spray a deodorizer once and awhile that would give Amy a headache and me a sore throat, but it would only mask the smell of the bathroom for about 15 minutes - with the headache and sore throat lingering for the rest of the trip. With about 6 hours left in the bus ride someone decided that the bathroom was not only for urine and made the last 6 hours even worse - I was so glad to get to Panama! Given our experiences on bus rides in Central America, I would choose King Quality buses over Tica everytime.
My first impression of Panama City is that it is big and nothing like the other capital cities in Central America. The skyline is gorgeous! I can't wait to explore the city and see the panama canal!
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