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Leon
After leaving the fun filled metropolis of Teguicigalpa, I settled into a chicken bus expedition across the border. All was going really fine and I was feeling quite proud of my amazing spanish skills until at a transfer point I saw my pack drive off on top of a shuttle bus without me on it. I was in line for my quesadilla at the time so could only stand and watch. The bus driver had definitely told me quince minutos until it was time to go. Lucky for me, I just went out to the road, waited a while and the bus came back for me. I have no idea how Central American people can read my mind but they always know in advance what bus I want to catch and look out for me. Its like magic!!!
Anyway the journey continued to get even more interesting, because at the border I was hustled by two lying border helpers. Border helpers do not help you any more than you can help yourself by the way. They just want your money and will tell any number of lies to get it. For example, how long the border crossing is,
how dangerous it is to talk to anyone but them, how difficult it is to work out which offices to go to get stamps in my passport, the cost of lempiras vs cordoblas, and whether or not there are any buses coming to the other side. After half an hour of lying and extensive heated negotiations whilst they held my pack hostage I agreed on a very large tip for their assistance. And when I opened my purse the greedy buggers wanted it all. This was after I had already suspected them stealing out of my purse when I accidentally dropped it. Nice.
Needless to say my first encounter in Nicaragua was tainted a little.
A few chicken buses later and I arrived in Leon, one of the main cities in Nicaragua. The best thing about Leon was that my hostel had a little splash pool. Unfortunately there was really nothing there I wanted to see and nothing I wanted to do. Luckily I needed a recovery day from my border helper encounter. And Nicaraguan hostels are awesome!! Big open spaces, cool communal areas, gardens and on the odd occassion a pool. Ahh practically like staying in a
resort.
Granada
So I moved onto Granada, again via chicken buses. I am seriously becoming the chicken bus master. I´ve had lots of queries from people wandering what exactly a chicken bus is. Well its an old American school bus, painted bright colours and which now serves as public transport. Its called a chicken bus because you are allowed to take anything on it... chickens and poultry both alive and dead, piglets in a bag, carsick roosters, fluro chicks, boxes of produce to take to market and bed frames for example. I´ve seen them all. But a girl I met saw a calf in a box which I think wins!!
Anyway Granada is a beautiful colonial city which sits on Lake Nicaragua. It unlike the rest of the country, gets a break from the hot dry and dusty temperatures with what could almost be described as a sea breeze. Its pretty awesome relief from the constant heat and sweat.
I took a volcano hike with a local guide Mauricio up Volcan Mombacho with an Aussie and American I´d met the night before in the hostel. The hike started at 7am and involved walking up the steepest
path ever to the top of this dormant volcano. There is a free truck you can take but we thought that walking would prove to be more rewarding. A lot of complaining took place and the rewards were elusive!! But at the top, in the forest, the view was beautiful over the lake and the islands caused by the last major volcanic explosion.
Mauricio was convinced that the volcano was dormant and kept assuring us it was sleeping. This seemed a little at odds with the fumaroles or steam holes all around the place. So whilst no lava or sulphuric smoke, the area is definately not asleep even if the volcano is!! The walk down the volcano would you believe was harder than the way up. We made it halfway down where we were rewarded with a beer from Mauricio - possibly enticement to keep walking, although he said it was because he´d promise we´d see a sloth and a monkey. We saw none. I´ve come to learn it is all part of the tourist company conspiracy to make you stupidly walk up un-dormant volcanoes at ungodly hours of the morning. By the time we´d finished our beer, we
opted to catch a lift with one of the rangers rather than continue walking. Mauricio in his very excellent english accidentally kept calling them Power Rangers instead of park rangers which was extremely hilarious and lead to lots of stifled giggles. Ha ha!!
Granada proved to be the place to have an awesome stack or fall. The American started the trend when he managed to fall off the top bunk in his dorm whislt sound asleep. He woke up midway through the fall before crashing onto the concrete floor. From then on he refused to sleep in a bunk and spent two nights sleeping outside in a hammock with the bugs and creepy crawlies. After laughing all day and telling everyone I met about his fall out of the bunk, karma caught up with me. Somehow, after just getting out of bed the next morning, I managed to slip walking out of my dorm and went crashing into the garbage bin and knocking over tables and chairs. Close inspection revealed a golf ball size lump and bruise on my knee and a hand sized bruise on my thigh. It is definately a show stopper!!!
San Juan del Sur
After a few days in Granada, eating on gringo road and taking in the view, I caught another two chicken buses to San Juan del Sur. San Juan is surf town close to the border with Costa Rica. I´d decided earlier to skip Ometepe and other tourist parts of Nicaragua as they had always been somewhat of a let down and I was getting a bit miffed with the whole thing, especially with the heat and dry dusty landscape. But San Juan was definately a cool place to relax... a bunch of accommodation, a few restaurants, a bar and a couple of bbq chicken comidors was all I could want at this stage.
San Juan had one thing that Leon and Granada didn´t - the rainy season!!!!!!!!!! Tropical storms a plenty at night meant there was lots of time for socialising in the hostel after a big day at the beach. The beaches of Nicaragua are very isolated and remote, but really chilled. Most beaches can only be reached by boat, no roads, and have a simple hut serving food and beer, or possibly with a few hammocks to sleep in over night. very chilled and very awesome.
The water was warm, the surf good and the sun shining. All in all a relaxing place to finish up my days in Nicaragua! I spent the day hanging out in the sunshine reading and swimming, and tormenting all the awesome purple and orange crabs I could find. High tide snuck up on me a bit, and for a few hours I was stuck on a more remote beach away from the crowds. But the tide went out enough for me to walk the few beaches over to the shuttle and all the surfers catching the last waves of the day. I can see how people get stuck in Nicaragua...
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daniel
non-member comment
quesadilla
I love the fact that when the bus drove off u were waiting in line for a quesadilla, haha. Do they just sell them on the side of the road? or are they like Macca's drive thru in South America, haha. sounds like your having fun.