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Hello again everyone. Thanks for the comments and greetings over the last few days. Your reward/punishment is to get another ghastly email to read. So here goes.....
The end of the last email saw your valiant hero back in Managua. We only spent one night there, which was plenty of time to do a rapid tour of the highlights for the boy Zach. The next day it was on the road again to the very gringoyfied (potentially a new word? - or just a very bad spelling of an old one!) town of Granada. To many this beautiful place is their favourite town in Nicaragua. There is certainly lots on offer and the town itself is classically colonial. We check into a hostel called The Bearded Monkey. It seemed kind of appropriate considering the condition my own facial hair. Through the crowd of backpackers swarming around this hostel Zach manages to spot someone he used to go to school with many years ago. And with that my collection of pet Canadians goes up to three in number - welcome to the gang Toby. We explore the town and have a good old time of it. The HUGE Lago de Nicaragua is somewhat of a disappointment. It was the colour, and I suspect the texture, of sewage and had rubbish everywhere. No swimming for me!
The main highlight of Granada was the day trip to the Masaya market. Not quite as impressive as the Chichicastenango market in Guatemala but certainly worth a visit. All the sights, sounds, smells and lies you expect from a Central American market. After the purchasing of a few knickknacks we visited some of the other local towns and other arty places. There is some beautiful pottery and other stuff on offer but, in my opinion, its a bit tricky to carry around in a backpack - not that it stopped others in my party! Before leaving the topic of Granada, I must spend a moment to put an advert in. If any of you ever get there you must go for breakfast at the Tica Buffet. Awesome breakfasts. Please don't mention us though because the combination of the four of us managed to break his toilet! Granada certainly is a fun place for backpackers and in the four nights there I did mange to acquire one or two hangovers.
Myself, and my Canadian entourage (which has now risen to 4 with the addition of Sharon who we met in Matagalpa), then headed from the mainland to the dual volcanoed island of Ometepe. Its a hell of a site when you first see it. Its the shape of a giant 8 with a huge volcano in the middle of each side. On the journey from the mainland we managed to increase our already bulging travel group even further. The addition of Ruben and Christa, from Holland, turned us into quite a formidable group. We spent one night in the port town of Moyagalpa (spending most of the evening in the pitch black after another Central American power cut), but head off by bus to the other side of the island the next day. Despite the warnings that only 4x4 trucks can make the journey due the bad roads, the buses regularly make the journey as well. Its a real 'hold on to your dentures' trip though. You could have convulsions half way down the road and no one would notice!
We eventually arrive at our destination of Balgue and hike the 1km (upwards in the heat of the day, with packs (sympathy please)) to La Finca Magdelena. This backpackers haven was to be our home for the next two nights. From there we were taken on a tour of the ancient Mayan Petroglyphs. It was a fun trip made more amusing by my eating termites to gross everyone out, Zach doing a monkey impression and having the branch snap leaving him in a mess on the ground, and our teenage guide 'fishing' for tarantula's. The resulting 8 legged beastie made Lorelli scream so loud those just round the corner came running back in a panic. The next day was another volcano climbing day. The mission was to ascend 1394m of Volcan Maderas. The reward, at the top, is a cool crater lake you can swim in. As its currently the rainy season it was a very slippery undertaking. By the time our group got to the top we were as muddy as hell. It took a good 4.5 hours to get up there but it was worth it. The real fun was coming down. We heard that the quickest descent was in 1.5 hours and that to Zach, Ruben and myself was a real challenge. We really zoomed down the volcan, even running (almost suicidally) down the last two km's. Despite taking 1 hour 34 minutes, we had plenty of excuses to explain why we didn't get there quicker - and that to me is all important!
When we left Finca Magdelana (along with the huge moths - the size of a plate - and the billion mosquitoes) we headed to the islands premier beach spot. Its a lovely area where all the rich Nicaraguans head for weekends and holidays. Having said our goodbyes to Sharon that morning we found ourselves at Playa Santa Domingo. We were to meet up with Lorelli and Toby who had opted out of the volcano climb in favour of a girly pampering day (each to there own I guess - although I can't see how chilling out on a beautiful beach can be more relaxing than hurtling down a volcano risking life and limb!). The boys all enjoyed an afternoon on the beach playing football while the girls started on the rum we got. The rum drinking became the theme for the rest of the night. We all drank far to much, and yes, before you hear stories from other sources, I did wear one of Toby's skirts out to dinner. It may have all been in jest but I got some strange looks from the locals. I think that evenings photos won't be making it onto the website!
Our next stop was on the the other side of the island and we stayed at the grandly named 'Biological Station of Ometepe'. Before heading there we parted company with Ken and Barbie (Ruben and Christa - a nickname they fully deserve as a better looking couple I challenge you to find) who had been superb company over the previous days. The bio station is the creation of an ex-politician who seemed to have acquired a lot of money from somewhere (I'm suggesting nothing) and wanted to make even more out of American universities. He seems to be doing a great job as the station is great, and growing bigger, and the food even better! From here we went on two hikes. The first, following directions kindly supplied by some students there, took us to view a troop of Howler monkeys. The baby one in particular was really cute. We got to see some stunning butterflies, huge caterpillars and other assorted creatures. These include my now favorite beetle. We stumbled across a jeweled scarab beetle. It was the dark brown of varnished wood and looked like someone had got some gold paint and delicately drew patterns on it. The second hike took us up to a really nice waterfall with more and more wildlife to look at on the way. On the way back down from this Zach and I were happily hiking through the river getting nice and wet. It all ended though when I almost lent on spider that was equal in size to my hand. We stuck to the path after that!
After another night in Moyagalpa, due to missing the last ferry back to the mainland, we headed to our final Nicaraguan location. San Juan del Sur is yet another cracking beach town. The beautiful beaches were used for chilling out, football, body surfing, boogie/surf boarding and generally acting like kids on a beach. Yes folks, I did try surfing. And no, I wasn't great. I feel justified in using the excuse that the board shops had no long boards for rent so I tried to learn on a short board. And for a lad my size that's just not possible.
Our five night stay in San Juan was made what it was by the people at the hostel. There were folks from all over who made the stay great. Many times we ate together, went to the beach together and went drinking and dancing together. Its often said by travelers that the people you meet at a place are as important in forming an opinion as the place itself. Despite losing the lovely Toby (who made an exquisite ice cream eating partner) there were plenty of cool people about.
My top highlight on San Juan is the fact that I fell in love there. We met on a beach in the middle of the night and spent a couple of hours together. She was about 80 pounds in weight and was approx. 150 years old. The object of my affection was an Olive Ridley turtle. Our hostel organised a tour to visit a nesting site at a nearby national park. The journey there in the back of an antique lorry was hell but was well worth it. We watched as the turtle crawled out of the sea, dug a deep whole, laid her eggs, covered and compacted the whole, and wandered back to the sea. On her way back to the sea she brushed past me. It was to be our first and last touch but her memory will stay with me forever.
That's pretty much it for Nicaragua. As you can probably tell from the two huge email it is one of the best countries I've ever been to. I never thought we would stay a month. Next email stop is Costa Rica - where we left recently. I'm now in Panama running out of friends. The superb Zach had to leave us a few days ago after being with us for about 5 weeks. And tomorrow I loose Lorelli who is also heading home. I'll be on my own. Lets hope I survive.
Take care folks and enjoy the weather that's probably much better than here!
Rob
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