Nicaragua

I know it’s not fair to the rest of Honduras but I was glad to leave and arrive in Nicaragua. I basically bypassed Honduras due to the fact that I would have to back track to see the places I want to visit. If things work out, I’ll see more of it when I am returning north. Oh man I said it… heading north… I have been on the road for 8 months now. I need to be back in Edmonton for October (unless work was kidding and I have actually been fired), so that leaves me with 6 months. It sounds like a lot of time but I know I’ll need at least a month at home to get organized; it would take me a month to drive home from here (Costa Rica) if I was on the road every day and without problems. That leaves me about 4 months to finish Costa Rica and sample South America. I really don’t think I’ll make it any further south than Bolivia unless I am taking flights. Everyone tells me that I must see the one country I was planning on avoiding… Colombia! My thoughts are Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, the upper Amazon basin of Brazil and ship north from Venezuela. Ship to where??? I will figure that out later.

Nicaragua was nice but not all that exciting. I hung out in the city of Leon for a couple of days while I survived my first bout of ‘digestive system instability’. I am not sure if it was due to the spicy kung-pow chicken the day before or a little left over stress from the border crossings. From Leon, I drove through Managua to Volcan Masaya. It was fairly straight forward other than getting lost briefly in Managua and finding myself in a small slum. There were shelters built from tattered pieces of plastic, corrugated steel, and pieces of plywood. There were a few cows and horses that were so skinny I was surprised that they could even stand. I thought it odd to find it so close to the center of the city. It looked like the ‘village’ took over what used to be a park. I turned around, took the turn I missed, and continued on my way. It was like a ‘Discovery Channel experience’ because I kept my windows up, air conditioning on, and the music playing. This isolated me from the heat, the smell, and sounds outside of my van. Volcan Masaya was a nice area to walk around. The ‘park ranger’ talked me into talking a night walk around the crater to see the activity in the volcano and to explore some caves but the guide didn’t show up.

Granada is a very nice city. It reminded me of Antigua as every second building around the central park has been converted to a restaurant or club. The street leading to Nicaragua Lake from the center has restricted traffic flow and opens up in the evening to live music and street performers. The locals were friendly... I met one girl who figured ‘it must be destiny’ because she already had my name tattooed on her breast. Even though the spelling was correct, I suggested it was probably a different Brian and found a different café. Besides that she was trying to sell me a ‘chupa chupa’ for $35.00 and I got the impression she wasn’t talking about a charm bracelet.

After a few days in Granada I continued on to Isla de Ometepe on Lago de Nicaragua ‘chupaless’. I crossed on the ferry with the van where I cruised around for a couple of days. The volcano I planned to climb was acting up and was closed to the public. Plumes of smoke and dust would regularly rise several hundred meters above the volcano each time it erupted. Without the walk my stay left me with little to do here so I left and bounced of Playa del Sur for lunch on the way to Costa Rica.

Before leaving Nicaragua I had planned on heading to the Mosquito Coast and visiting the Corn Islands but when I was arranging the trip I learned that the Italian version of ‘Survivor’ was being filmed there and the area was temporarily over-run. It’s now another destination I will try to see on the return trip. Oops, that’s twice in one blog entry.