I’m now in Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. This is country 113! Getting here was fun, a challenge and an interesting day all round. I started Saturday morning in Esteli, north Nicaragua, my task to find an internet café and Skype my girlfriend. This was my second attempt to find an internet place, my first attempt had ended in almost failure. I did find one eventually but when I arrived, the internet decided to quit working. This Saturday morning, 7th May was more successful. I walked five blocks from the Sonati Hostel where I stayed and turned left and walked two blocks as instructed. Still no café. I asked one guy and he crossed me over one road and pointed up the street with my stick. I walked up the street and asked in the first open building I found, it was a café, but no internet. The owner spoke English and was originally from Kenya. I decided to have breakfast and attempted to order a sandwich – ham and cheese with no salad. Moments later the food arrived, but strangely with lettuce only and no meat or cheese, I chewed away wondering to myself what had happened. The owner returned and I mentioned the problem laughing. He also laughed and said nobody listens. Eventually the correct sandwich was produced and happily feed, I continued my quest. One block later I found the internet café in question. Naturally, the headphones and microphone failed to produce sound and my only option was to write messages. This done, I retraced my steps back to the hostel and with minutes to spare, grabbed my backpack and jumped in a taxi and headed to the bus station to go north to the border with Honduras. Not a straightforward trip, first a two hour chicken bus to Ocotal crammed in with many locals and other people jumping on and off the bus selling anything from water to mango, chicken and rice to chocolate bars. Once in Ocotal, I was taken to the stand for the next bus to Las Manus, the frontier town with Honduras. This was another bumpy ride of 1.5 hours with more being squashed and squeezed!
Once in Las Manus, sweating like a pig and bladder full and aching, I walked towards immigration up a steep hill with much traffic doing its best to run me over. One guy helped me up the hill, then another officious type asked me in Spanish for my passport and demanded $2 exit fee. I looked and acted confused. Two ladies who spoke Spanish and English came to my rescue and took me in their pick up truck to the Nicaragua immigration. I climbed into the open back and sat on the wheel. At immigration, I paid my 2 dollars in Nicaraguan Cordobas and we continued to Honduran immigration in the truck. Five minutes later customs officials questioned me, took my passport, asked my destination, and eventually stamped my passport and let me cross the border. The family who I was travelling with, a mix of one lady from the US and Nicaraguans, took me to a small town named Danli from where I caught a minibus to the capital. For anyone doing this journey, there is a bus from the border to Tegucigalpa, but the last bus buggers off at 2 pm!
2.5 hours later in the dark I arrived in Honduras’s capital and largest city. A spread out place with little to see or do apart from a large statue of Jesus Christ in the hills. I took an expensive taxi to my intended hostel, but was told it was closed. The driver tried to explain this in English but I didn’t understand. Eventually a pedestrian managed to translate what he was saying. Therefore I headed to Palmira Hostel and stayed for 2 nights. By the time you read this I will be in Los Naranjos, near Lake Yojo.
Nicaragua was interesting, in two and half weeks I managed to cover almost all of the west side of the country. I’m not sure where I left you, maybe in the historic city of El Castillo on the banks of the calming Rio de San Juan. This is an historical tourist town with a beautiful old castle built around 1660 to stop pirate raids on Granada, Nicaragua’s oldest city in 1524. Exploring the castle with a lovely local lady I was led onto the ramparts which give magnificent views over the river and surrounding hills. The lady gave this description. After two nights in El Castillo it was a boat back to San Carlos my first stop in the country and a nine hour journey involving three buses to Granada, Nicaragua’s first capital.
Two nights of historical wanderings, plus a crazy zipline on Volcán Mombacho and it was off to explore Isla Ometepe. Island of two mountains. A chicken bus takes you to Rivas after a rough two hours of yet more bouncing and twisting, then an expensive taxi to the port of San George before an hour long boat ride to Moyogalpa, the main town of Ometepe. I had one quiet night at Hostel Yogi, which I found with the help of a French traveller I met on the bus from Granada.
In the morning with a couple from Ireland, I caught a taxi to Little Morgans hostel on the lake where loud music and lots of drinking awaited me. Little Morgans is a fun place, mostly made of natural material with dorm beds close to the ground, the toilet and shower block too far to walk if you’re caught short, it is nevertheless a happening place. It’s basically a beach bar without the ocean. I spent four lovely relaxing days there, went horse-riding into the foothills of Volcan Maderas one evening, a lovely ride up the steep slopes with birdsong in the trees and nothing else except the clip-clacking of the horse’s hooves.
I made some friends at the hostel, Alex a crazy seed who’s been living in Australia for the past year, Carli a small, kind Aussie girl who attended to my every food need, and Whitney a lady, who like myself doesn’t like men! The first people I met however were Jessie and West, a funny couple from Ohio. They took me down to the lake on my first morning, a refreshing dip and a bit of sunburn. The remainder of that first day was spent relaxing. Other people arrived during the course of my stay and many drinking games were played. Iggy from London was an especially memorable chap, especially re-encountering him later. Also two nice chicks from Australia arrived on my final day, Nicole and Alisa. What jokes we told and funny card games were played. Finally I said goodbye to one and all. I remember the final night with fondness as we listened to Thunder Struck by AC/DC during an actual heavy thunderstorm! Then it was back to Granada for one night before heading to Masaya.
Unfortunately, when I arrived, late in the evening, the hostel I visited was full. I found a cheap hotel, but no English and was a struggle to find places or internet cafés. Alas, with the slight disappointment of Malaya and not finding much of interest I continued to the hot streets of Leon. Staying at Big Foot hostel not only meant meeting old friends again but allowed me to climb Cerro Negro volcano and try my hand at Sand Boarding.
A bus picked up people from the hostel and a 45 minute ride took everyone to the national park. It’s 31 dollars to sand board, another 5 dollars to enter the park and another 5 more dollars if you want someone to carry your board up the hill. A lovely funny Swiss guy took my board up for me and dragged me up the mountain, which for most people takes roughly an hour to climb. Once at the top, panting and out of breath, I put on my jump suit, walked down part of the black ash and stone covered mountain and waited for the fun to begin. When my turn came, I sat on the end of my board which had wooden ridges along it, took hold of a triangle-shaped handle attached to the board rope and put my feet either side of the board on the ground and pushed off. Immediately, having not gone three metres, I fell off and rolled in the stones! Not bad for a beginner. Laughing I picked myself up, sat back on the board and began again. If you keep your body weight forward you can go slowly and control your speed. The further back you lean the faster you go down the hill. The run is mostly straight but the board likes to go left or right. In order to keep the board straight you need to tap one foot on the ground, the right foot if it goes left and the left foot if it veers right. The faster you go the more it tries to change direction. About half way I fell off again and rolled three times, sliding in the gravel. I managed to keep hold of the board and after digging it out of the stones remounted and continued. After the half way point the hill gets a little steeper. I leaned back too far and began going too fast for me to control the board. I finally went left tipped over, landed extremely hard on my left shoulder, bounced a second time and rolled a further three times before sliding to a stop. I sat up and sat still. My left shoulder hurt. I mean really hurt. I didn’t make a sound, I just sat there for maybe five minutes. Thinking this might be broken. I eventually bounced down the remainder of the hill where the others met me. One girl put warm water on it and another asked me if I could move it. When I tried moving it backwards it was OK, but moving it forwards hurt like hell. A doctor later checked it out and gave me pain relief. I continued travelling…