More of Nicaragua

In fact I did stay in San Juan del Sur the whole of Monday, walking around town and most of all not doing anything. Quite nice. The issue about the 25 US was easily resolved by me just walking past the tour operators place and getting the thumbs up and a hand shake. As easy as that.

Tuesday was the time to move on. The call was Granada. Just a short trip of about 4 hours away, we arrived in Granada. The first impression was great already. A town with very few tourists, with a nice market and where every house a an awesome green courtyard. Granada is a old colonial town, which explains why it has so manby churches and why it is build up in blocks. Friday was just spend exploring and relaxing. I met a South African guy that went to UCT, Rob, and we were both so happy to be able to speak SA slang together, that we just hung out and had an awesome time.

On Wednesday I headed out with Rob to explore the town, take lots of pictures, look at the churches and see all the sights of Granada. The city really fascinated me, with all its courtyards, its true central american style, but then also with some awesome coffee shops. Daria had met some guys she met earlier and headed to Lago Apoyo. My plan was to do a daytrip there on Thursday with Rob and some other guys I met.


Thursday moring we headed out to the lake for a day trip. We paid a bit of money to be able to stay at a resort kind of place for the day which has beach access, kayaks and a nice place to hang out. The lake was a crater lake, so we drove up a inactive volcano, and then on top descended into the valley where the lake was in. The visibility in the water was great and the water was warm. Perfect to swim in. I attempted to get to the other side of the lake, but after swimming out for 30 min I decided it would be wise to turn back. The lady working at the place said it was 6 km to the other side of the lake. I didn´t believe her, now I do... It was an awesome swim though. On thursday night we went out to a club called "el club". Seeing that it was the only real club in Granada, the name was appropriate. We had an awesome night out with lots of dancing and making fun of some of the dolled up people there...

Friday moring was planned to be the day to leave Granada. I had no idea yet though, whether I would join all the guys I met to go to Isla Ometepe or wether I would go to Leon, as I had to start moving northwards. In the morning I decided to join the pack and go to Ometepe. After a few hours aof travelling, we arrived on the island in the middle of lake Nicaragua. We decided to stay at Finca Magdalena, a coffee and Cacao farm on the island. It was a real cool place, quite isolated though, so it was perfect that we had a big crowd. We explored a small part of the island that night and organized a trip for the next day.

Saturday the alarm went off at 6.15h to get ready for the hike up Madeiras, one of the volcanoes that makes up Isla Ometepe. It was going to be 8 hours of hiking in muddy rainforest. We had an awesoem group of an english couple, Rob, an american girl and me. During the hike we spend 80% of the time staring at our feet not to slip in the mud and also most of the time in thick clouds. We had one good view as the clouds cleared for a second, but despite that we had a spendid time. We saw howler monkeys, coffee plantations and lots of rain forest. The trip was mostly signified by us singing a song we had heard a few days before. It used to be a chart hits in England in the 80´s and is called "I never met a nice South African". I hope we were able to convince the english and americans otherwise...

Sunday was the planned day of leaving the island. We all dispersed in different directions. Some to Costa Rica, some to San Juan and some back to Granada. I headed to Leon, another colonial town in Nicaragua. Leila, the american girl joined me on the trip. The trip took longer than anticioated as some ferries scheduels were very different to what we were told and the buses weren´t the quickest either. The afternoon we spoent exploring Leon, which by now has grown on me considerably already. I love the fact that there are even less tourists here than in Granada and that locals and tourists live next to each other and not seperate. We found an aweome restaurant in the evening and I had the first meal without rice and bean in ages. Fantabulous.

Monday we wanted to go sanboarding but we weren´t able to book anything on Sunday as most places were closed. So we didn´t managed to do the trip on Monday but decided to do it Tuesday moring instead. Monday we explored Leon completely, got washing done (wow that was necessary - bad sign if the people at the laundry service start looking disgusted when they see your washing). At night we met a guy I knew from San Juan and went out for dinner and had a few drinks.

Tuesday moring was an early start and it was time to walk up Nicaraguas youngest and one of the most active volcanoes, Cerro Negro to have a look around but most importantly to sandboard it down. It only took about an hour to walk it up, then we had a look around on top. The volcano was very impressive, with clouds of sulfur all over and lots of craters. It was extemely hot on the black rocks but fortunately there was a strong wind. I felt like I was in Cape Town... The boarding was good fun. But it was not the same adrenaline kick as snowboarding. I´m really happy I did it but it did not take away the strong longing for snowboarding. The afternoon I spend sorting out pictures and booking a bus ticket for tomorrow moring to go to San Salvador in El Salvador ( that took an hour...). So tomorrow its time to say goodbye to Nicaragua. I´m excited already to go to another country. I only have one week left on my trip, so it is time to speed things up a bit.