Nicaragua

Back in civilization.

As I said before, Nicaragua is awesome. It is exactly what I was picturing when I planned this trip. People are super nice (locals are called Nicos), culture is authentic, food is great, scenery is stellar, and there is a solid backpacking curcuit. So far, the weather has been fantastic. It would be pretty tough travelling during the dry season with the crazy heat. Temperature now is perfect and everything is super lush and green. Nicaragua used to be pretty unstable about 10 years ago, but now it is being built up everywhere. The auzzie was telling us the land values have gone up 10 fold over the past 5 years. Century 21 is all over this place, and they have actually starting buying up a lot of it.

The first night I stayed in a town called San Juan. Hostel was a little rough.....well, on me anyway. It was my first real dose of poor living conditions. Basically a dumpy garage, literally on the side of the road. My head was practically hanging out on to the street, separated by a couple of steel bars (a parade actually went by, about 7 feet from my head....good view I guess). During the night, the guy in the bunk below me rolled over and I jumped up thinking that somebody was reaching through the bars and shaking my bed. Definitely an adjustment. Also, you have to become one with the bugs, or else sleep becomes even more of a rarity.

Next day we heard about a beach about a half hour away, called Majagual. It was stellar. Basically a hostel with its own private exotic beach. Living conditions were a step down from the previous hostel though. Set a record though for the largest dorm that I´ve ever been in......32 beds. And, I wouldn´t call it a dorm........more like a prison camp. I actually spent one night with water dripping on my forehead. The place was damn cool though. Cool swinging chairs, awesome sunsets, and some pretty good surf. I cant get over how giant the waves are here. We actually couldn´t go surfing for a couple of days, because they were too crazy. Got to watch some awesome surfers though. We actually had a cool night there where a few Spánish dudes put on a show with some latin music. Hostel was owned by a cool Auzzie guy named Paul. Got to play cards and hang out with the local Nico dudes working there.

Nico Time
This Nico time thing is pretty funny.....you definitely have to adjust. It is pretty much pointless to be on any kind of schedule. For the ride back to town, we were told that 2Can the truck was leaving at 5 (it was me, the Irishman, and an Aussie looking to get the lift). Five turned to 6, then 7.30, then another 20 minutes. We finally left at 9, after sitting around for 4 hours (cars can´t handle these roads). Then, about half way through the ride back, the truck stops and turns around! I asked my buddy what the hell was going on and he said that they had decided to go for a beer! Ha (after waiting 4 hours.....I guess why not). We ended up hitting this hole in the wall bar on the side of the road, and pounded beers with the owner of the hostel, and all the Nico workers that we had met when we were there. It ended up turning into a pub crawl. One of the spots we hit actually had a jukebox.......no windows, doors, or flooring, but a giant jukebox! I threw on some Paradise City from Guns n Roses and the Nicos loved it.

The funniest part is, is that by the time that actually got us into the nearest town, it was about midnight and all the hostels were closed for the night! We actually had to go all the way back to Majagual with them!!! Ha (impossible to leave). That of course, after hitting a few more bars. Was probably the highlight of the trip so far. Me the Irishman and the Aussie have been travelling together ever since.

Isla de Ometepe
Super awesome spot. Its an island with 2 twin volcanoes on it....one of them still being active. My love of mountains has now expanded to volcanoes. They are the coolest things. I got a stellar pic of the sun setting behind one of them. The locals put a cross at the top of one of the volcanoes in Nicaragua as they had thought that it was the gateway to hell.........a look at this picture and you can see why.

The first night, I stayed at a resort at Chaco Verde. Felt amazing to get a shower and a nice meal after my 2 day pub crawl. The lake is giant (10th largest fresh water lake in the world) and the beaches are wicked. Everything just runs free here......chickens, pigs, horses, dogs, monkeys. I then moved on to a plantation that accepts backpackers. Super cool spot called Zopilote......run by hippies. Everything was organic. By this time there was a group of 7 of us who had met on the ferry. They were happy to see us, because it meant that they could fire of the stone oven and do a pizza night. We didn´t have power in the evenings.....so it was all by candlelight. Kind of felt like summer camp or something. Beds were shit though, so I didn´t get much for sleep. And yes, I got to experience my first outhouse of the trip. Strangely enough, it was actually much nicer than most of the washrooms that I´ve had the pleasure of using.

We did a guessing game about each others ages (there was about 10 of us in total staying at the plantation). They decided that I was 23!! Ha! It ended up that I was the oldest at 28. The Aussie asked me what the midlife crisis was like.

If I ever end up owning a farm, the first thing I´ll do is lay a beating on all the rosters, and train them to shut the hell up in the morning. The howler monkeys are little bastards as well. They sound like giant apes. Pretty eerie actually.

Have learned to play the international backpackers card game.......its called shithead. Its pretty cool, because it transcends language........and pretty much everyone knows how to play it. Given my lack of Spanish, its nice to be able to interact, although, I must admit that I´m becoming somewhat of a master at sharades.

Got to do laundry yesterday.....thank God. Showers were becoming pointless, given that my towel smelled so bad.

Anyway, my pictures have now uploaded, so I´m out of here. Happy hour just started.

Updates are a little tougher when I´m going through the more rural areas, but keep checking in as I can update when I hit the ¨cities¨. Loving all the comments. I´ve been showing some of my travelling friends the blog and they can´t get over it......especially that there was even another MLA who posted a comment!

Here are the pics. Note that I have posted the rest of the Tamarindo pics on the previous post.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=8ab2nqp.1ujkvsnd&x=1&y=-sjkuu8

Talk to you soon.

Ryan