Nicaragua

  Isla de ometepe, Nicaragua
Saturday, December 6, 2008

Week 5
Friday
So finally out of Honduras, 68 hours felt like 68 days. I hear the Bay Islands are quite nice and if I had more time I might have tried to stay there but otherwise I let out a deep sigh of relief leaving the country. The drive to Managua was long but pleasant. I was able to measure progress along the road by counting the number of volcanoes passed. Nicaragua has 19 I think and from the border to Managua I saw 7. Managua itself has a reputation of being confusing to tourists because the streets have no name. Finding out where you are and where you're going takes some perserverence. It was the most developed city in Central America until it was devastated by an earthquake in 1972. It has never really recovered from this and much of the old town and was never rebuilt. That said it was still alot more pleasant than any of the cities in Honduras, surprising given Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America.

Isla De Ometepe

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures as my stay was just a brief overnight one, but it did teach me that I have some sort of stomach disorder, most likely a bacterial infection from the food. That advice came from three drunken Irishmen in an Irish bar. They had plenty of stories and other "advice" for me about their last 20 years in Central America and how they could now never go back. Their main message however was to get the hell out of dodge. Which I duely did and the next afternoon I arrived on the island of Ometepe.

Volcán Concepción

Volcán Madera

Ometepe is an island formed from two volcanoes, Conception which is still active and erupted last year and Maderas and sits in Lago de Nicaragua. The island is the worlds highest lake island and the lake itself is the tenth biggest lake in the world. So big that by late afternoon the waves get so choppy it is often too dangerous to sail in anything but large ferry boats. Throughout Central America wherever I went there were random fireworks or just explosions. This apparently is something to do with religous ceremonies every day. Often as well there are random parades passing through the centre of towns. I arrived in Ometepe just in time for the beginning of a long festival to the Virgin. I think she represents a combination of the Catholic Virgin Mary and some other Indigenous Virgin. A shrine to her is paraded around town many times a day followed by a procession and fireworks. There seemed to be no pattern to this and every morning I was awoken by a tirade of explosions outside my room which sounded like the beginning of World War 3. Combine this with frequent night visits to the bathroom and you can tell my mood has been getting noticebly more grumpy over the last few days. No smart comments please Brian!

A typical house on the south of th island

The beast

My last day on the island I hired a motorbike, another first for the trip, and after a 5 minute training session went off to explore the island with 3 others from the hostel. There is only one paved road and that lasts for about 15 km or so. The other 40 km are dirt tracks, full of potholes, stones, sometimes rocks, steep climbs and falls.  We passed through many small villages on the way around and got plenty of attention from the locals. We were even invited in for coffee by one farmer and his wife. I had two very close shaves, one with a chicken and one a pig but survived the 7 hours ride in one piece.


Week 6

San Jaun Del Sur

Tuesday, a boat and taxi ride from Ometepe to the beach town of San Jaun Del Sur. Entering the town I got a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean for the first time. The town is quite small and is full of Westerners almost all surfy types and I felt a little out of place with my pale skin, lack of long blond hair and the fact I couldn't manage to fit the word "dude" four times into every sentence.

Maderas Beach

As I had been on a motorobike for the first time and that was a success I thought about giving surfing a go too. The next we took a bus out to a nearby surfing spot, Maderas Beach. It was really beautiful and very good for swimming. However the current was really strong and when swimming

Pacific Waves

I could feel myself being swept out (many of you will know i'm not really a good swimmer) so that dented my confidence for surfing a little.  Maybe in Costa Rica or Brazil perhaps? I spent the remaining catching the sun by day trying to work on my tan and updating my blog in between the power cuts and telephone lines going down. (Again a hugely frequent occurence over the last 2 weeks).