Los Robles Managua

We hebben echt een leuke vakantie gehad! Vanaf Managua zijn we naar de Big Corn Islands gevlogen met een heel klein vliegtuigje. Het was net een aflevering van de Flying Docters....12 mensen op elkaar gepropt in een klein vliegtuigje....inclusief een chemische taart en een mega ijsbeer...iemand is jarig. Het was een gave vlucht met mooi weer!
Eenmaal aangekomen namen we een taxi naar de haven en om half vijf vertrok de pancha naar small Corn Island....het einde van de wereld ...

... br>The Honduras / Nicaragua border, here we go again, 101 fixers 2 hours later we're through and into Nicaragua and another subtle change.
First of all we hit 2 miles of 4 lane off road (the road was under construction literally).
Much more organised agriculture here, and loads of tractors blocking the road, a bit like Norfolk!
Even the shanties are cleaner and further from the road and ...

... so we were able to finish early and go back to Los Pinos.. shower... relax... and get ready for dinner. My shower felt amazing, and all of the concrete came off - but I am still spotted all over with white paint (basically I should have showered in paint thinner haha). We then went to dinner at at very traditional Nicaraguan restaurant (El Garbano). We got a yummy appetizer tortilla/bean/cheese thing ...

... didn't. AnnaThea your crazy if you read this. Spent 3 nights in Granada. Went to a town called masaya to see some Volcanos which are still active. Theres really about 6 or 7 volcanos in this one area. The teraine is always changing. We thought it'd be a good idea to go down into a Lava tube. so we paid for a giude. 2 bucks each and we went hiking into a lava tube for 2 hours down 60meters and in 300 meters. Ton of bat and lots of wierd sounding insects. That was definitely a first ...

... for poorer countries. Seeing all these people with a sparkle in their eyes when they saw some "nice" trousers or whatever, really catched us. In the end we saw us hanging over the cothes too. Anja actually ended up finding some shirt. :) Returning back to the Finka through the darkness, with just the moon as our guide, we let the evening die away with some of our dorm mates. After our first night in those, former stalls, of the farm, we got up early to ...

... s open once a week, got a vaca negra (root beer float only with coke) and found some great Mexican food in a nice hotel! Granada : Kathy´s Blueberry waffles for breakfast - very delicious. Checked out my first and only baseball game and it cost about 50 cents. Unfortunately didn´t realize you could pay more for seats in the shade. It was a little ghetto, I had some weird fried potato ball and had to down 2 liters of water ...

... smaller volcano last night so we could get up early and hike it. Don't worry, this one hasn't exploded in a long long time. Its an 8 hour hike through primary forest filled with monkeys and tropical birds. At the top is a crater/lake from where the volcano blew it's top. Because of the volcanic rock the soil is ideal for growing cocoa and coffee beans. The plantations were fun to see - and it was on my list of things that I really wanted to check out. There ...

... Revolution and 30 year anniversary of the Nicaraguan revolution. Television and newspapers were filled with comments from Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez regarding the benefits of Socialismo, how the revolution was born in the Sierra Maestra Mountains of Southern Cuba, etc, etc. For me, the benefits are difficult to see, but, then again, I was not here under the repressive dictatorial regimes of the three Somoza's or Batista. These people were. While traveling ...

... houses, women washing their clothes in the river and cows making up the pace of the ride. A well deserved hot springs swim into 'the ojo de agua' was literally needed after all this activity. I found it hard to have a better feeling than the one I had while swinging in the incredibly comfortable hammock having a foot massage after hot springs and all day intense exercise. My last stop in Nicaragua was in the beach town of San Juan Del Sur close to the Costa Rican ...

... the laguna was a trip up one of the local volcanoes with a few new friends. First we went to Masaya to run some errands, and then we took a taxi to the volcano. Once there we signed up for a tour of a cave with a guide. The tour was cheap but there was a 5 person minumum, so we split the cost 4 ways and took the taxi driver along.

I forget the volcano´s name, but it was very cool. Fuming ridiculously and blowing chunks every few years when it gets clogged up with ...