It didn’t take long to get to Panama City…we forgot how short the distances in Central America would be compared to South America. We settled in pretty quickly and booked a one way ticket out of Panama to San José in Costa Rica for the next evening. We arrived at the border about 2 hours too early so sat in a queue until the immigration offices opened…fun! After another “speedy” passport check on the other side we were back on the bus within 6 hours on our way to the capital. We weren’t expecting this delay so we had to spend an expensive night in San José but were out of there early the next morning to make our way to Rivas in south west Nicaragua. The border crossing was a little less painful and we quickly arrived to the bustling lake side town of Rivas. Not sure where we were going to go from there, we met some friendly “deutschers” who told us of a beautiful beach side town Las Salinas about an hour away. So we hopped in a cab with them and went to check it out for ourselves. We arrived just after sunset so it was pretty dark dragging our feet through the sand to get to our hotel but were greeted with a friendly Nicaraguan smile, a lovely sea view room and cold beers. What else could you ask for? I spent 3 lovely days lying on the beach enjoying the sun while Mitch did his 2009 taxes!! I refused to get involved.
From there we went straight to Lake Nicaragua (the largest in Central America) where we got a boat to the island of Ometepe which is dominated by 2 active volcanoes which you can choose to hike up. After a day of exploring the island on a little moped (going about 10 mph!) we chose to hike up Volcán Concepción. It was a pleasant hike up through jungle to be greeted by fantastic views of the lake on the top (and freezing temperatures). All in all, it was a pleasant stay on Lake Nicaragua. We quickly made our way to Granada, a city we’d heard so many fabulous things about. We found a little “posada” to rest our heads and quickly went out to explore the city. Granada is a beautiful colonial town on the shores of Lake Nicaragua but, unfortunately, is bustling with tourists who are being constantly harassed by street vendors and beggars (and I mean every 5-10 seconds!). But we kept bumping into these nutters (see pic) everywhere we went which was quite entertaining. We stayed around for a few days before departing for Matagalpa in the mountains for a cooler climate. We had started to feel guilty about our lack of activities of late so decided to rent some bikes to see the surrounding countryside. 
The easy-medium level route was much more difficult than expected with a full 45 minute start on a 45 degree slope gravel track. Our bodies are not in good enough shape to handle that kind of biking so we hiked it up instead until we got to a more reasonable flat. The locals did seem to find it amusing…seeing 2 gringos on bikes…I know, pretty exciting stuff…as they relentlessly stared at us for the duration. All in all it was a pleasant journey with some beautiful sights. The next and final stop in Nicaragua would be Estelí. Another pleasant little Nicaraguan town with some good food, cheap accommodations, curious locals and a freezing cold waterfall! Next stop…HONDURAS!(pic 1: on the beach at Las Sallinas; pic 2: Mitch on top of Volcan Concepcion; pic 3: "these nutters")
No comments:
Post a Comment