2 countries in a week
Trip Start
Mar 31, 2006
1
6
37
Trip End
Mar 31, 2007
San Juan del sur,
Nicaragua
Sunday, May 7, 2006
Before getting here we have been through two borders and done two countries - not bad for a week!
We left Chiquimula on the 26th and crossed into Honduras at El Florido; what a pleasure, such helpful people on both sides of the broder and very patient with our lack of Spanish, slow but you knew everything was going to be OK. In to Copas Ruinas which although a tourist town was very pretty and to the ruins in the afternoon. Lovely but not the drama of Tikal; they have a geriatric flock of Scarlet macaws that welcome you and although they fly around during the day they go into cages at night. We stayed just outside in a mini-hotel in Santa Rita which was a sweet little town with absolutely no gringos that we could see. The local "revivalists" put on a very loud concert in the main square with lots of hallelujahs after each song but since it was all in Spanish it was fine by us and everyone was enjoying themselves.
Granada from church tower
Everywhere you go people are making the most of their lives and are unfailingly kind, helpful and polite (outside of the tourist hang-outs). Sheila has developed a royal wave and is gratified that nearly all her subjects wave back and the truck drivers and bus drivers always hoot in a very jaunty manner. I feel really sorry for truckers in Latin America they always seem to be the vehicles stopped by police and several times in Mexico we saw lines of trucks several kilometers long waiting to get through some sort of inspection - or hand-out? The authorities through slow borders, police interference and shocking roads seem to be doing everything they can to bring commerce to a halts. (so far...fingers crossed...we haven't been stopped once).
After Copas Runias we headed East and fortuitously saw a little sign on a fence advertising hot springs a few kms south of the very nondescript town of San Juan. The sign and the listing gate were so broken that Sheila was all for driving on but we forced the gate open got to another locked gate but a little man materialised out of the bushes and said we could camp for some paltry amount and within an hour we were soaking (all on our own) in three lovely little swimming pools. We had the place to ourselves so a very quiet night and relaxing start to the next day.
Our next destination was the La Tigra cloud forest park just north of Tegucigalpa. It is next to an old mining town called San Juancito. We stayed in old mine buildings that have been converted to a dormitory but were the only people there even though it sleeps 54; maybe the high cost keeps people away but we felt it was worth it because the next day's hike up in to the forest was spectacular - although nearly all the trail signs have disappeared and we could not go one the hike we wanted and had to retrace our steps.
Hospidaje in granada
It was Sheila's first long walk so we were a little nervous but all was fine and she is getting better by the day; although some 10 days without beer is the longest she has gone since starting to drink the stuff in the 70,s.We next had a night at El Paraiso just short of the Nicaraguan border and across the next day. All of the little hotels we have stayed in either have a centre courtyard where we can keep our car or have arrangements for it to be locked up elsewhere so one of our worries about leaving the car in the street has been avoided. The Honduran/Nicaraguan border was much more challenging because of being pestered by touts and because it is on the main Pan-Americana highway. Again there were loads of trucks sitting idle on both sides but eventually we were through; you think it is becoming an absolutely insoluble tangle (usually because of the car) and suddenly the last stamp is stamped and you find yourself on the other side; never quite sure what happened but grateful.
The plan on the other side was to "take the road less traveled" and head up to the Miraflor Park and along what the Lonely Planet calls the prettiest road in Nicaragua. It is definitely pretty and definitely awful! We could find nowhere to camp and the "park" seems to be a bio-diversity experiment with local cooperative farmers who in theory co-exist with the cloud forest but really seem to be nibbling away at it. The area is lovely though with all the small well kept farms tonguing up into the forest.
life is good in Honduas
But the road was another matter with a layer of very sharp rocks which finally, with a very loud hiss, did in one of our tyres. Much swearing and scrabbling around in the dirt and soothing words from Sheila - which I think are designed to inflame me even more - and we were on our way again to stop at the first decent sized town called Jinoteca where the next morning we visited a Llanterra (which for obvious reasons are big business in these parts) and boy were they efficient. The tyre in NA would have been condemned but they were quite happy to stick on an extra big patch and send us on our way. That day dawned misty and wet and we were told that the rains were starting and the what was the most beautiful stretch of road was shrouded in mist for most of the time but we did manage to stop at Silva Negra a coffee plantations started over 100yrs ago by Germans using innovative techniques and they have developed a lovely place with hotel and restaurant and have lovingly preserved a large tract of cloud forest. You can enter for a dollar each which can be put towards an excellent cup of coffee and then spend hours hiking in the forest which we did. Although the hotel is expensive by Nicaraguan standards we have earmarked it for our return for a few nights.
Even the paved roads in Nicaragua can be a challenge and you definitely need a co-pilot..."pot-hole".."another pot-hole".."oh hell!"; Sheila has always been a very active co-pilot so pot-hole watching comes very naturally to her. We have seen lots of kids who "beg" by filling in the pot-holes then hold their hands out for a coin; beats squeegee kids by a long way.
From there we went to Granada for a couple of nights and stayed in a delightful hospidaje called El Libertad (photo above) and wandered the pretty streets in searing heat. But it is a lovely place and very quiet at this time of year. From there to here on the shores of the Pacific where we are girding our loins for another night of disco beat! Then into Costa Rica probably tomorrow (the 6th of May).
Comments
Trip
Hi sheila and Chris , reading your travel log , in a rainy Uk and you must have got it right , you seem to be making excellent progress- cannot beleive sheila has given up beer!
rgds barry and yve