Nicaz

Greetings from Nicaragua (or as the locals call it Nica, as we call it, Nicaz)!

The Lonely Planet (the LP) describes Nicaz as follows…

“Despite the landscape being extra well endowed with natural beauty, it is the Nicaraguans themselves that remain their country’s chief asset."

We were told by many other travellers along the way that “it’s the next Costa Rica”, “you won’t want to leave”, etc. As you can imagine, we were really looking forward to spending time in this Central American “gem”...

First stop in Nicaz was, the border crossing… it sucked big, hairy, dusty, nicaz balls… at this point we had been on the bus for 24 hours... it smelt how it looks...

Not quite reaching our expectations yet

Next stop...

Leon

Leon Highlights…

-Finding a supermarket with air conditioning

-Avoiding the hostile customer service, by cooking our own dinner (so far Nicaragua’s "chief asset" is looking a little overrated)

-Volcano boarding...

... # 1 on CNN's bucket list is flying a fighter jet

Starting to experience mixed feelings upon viewing the volcano...

Alice feigning optimism...




Picking up a bit of speed...

Matching orange onesies GO JETTIES!!...

Leon Lowlights…

-Leon in general... Not much going on.

-Arriving into Leon post a 28 hour bus journey from Guatemala

-Shitty hostel (with shitty bathroom… it was run by volunteers… seeing a trend here *note to self: avoid volunteer run organisations)...

-Discovering that all the “recommended eats” in the LP were shut down

-Walking in the boiling heat for 2 hours dodging horseshit, potholes, dust squalls and cars billowing fumes in search of anywhere that had food! The fruit of our bounty was eating kebabs in the local arcade that was bustling with teenagers “necking” and playing pinball

- Encountering the customer service and the countries “chief assets”, being the people, were actually the rudest, most hostile, in Central America

-Alice missing the money shot while volcano boarding!...

 

We soon realised that Leon wasn't all it was cracked up to be... We should of realised this when we saw the promo... 

... *yawn*.... We decided to head for the much raved about, Granada. 

Granada

The LP describes Granada as “enchanting” and “the goose that laid Nicaraguan tourism’s golden egg.”

Granada Highlights…
-The yellow church that made the front of the LP!... not sure if it was originally white and has just become yellow after hundreds of years of locals urinating on it…

-Leaving Granada

Granada Lowlights…

-The only “golden” thing we noticed was the golden tinge of urine all over the colonial buildings and cobbled streets… probably because all the locals were doing this…

Kralice’s verdict of Granada… shit hole… or should we say piss hole.

  

Isla de Ometepe

“The sort of place that belongs in fairytales or fantasy novels; an island formed by twin volcanos rising out of a lake” –LP.

Ometepe Highlights….

-Getting a lift for $1 shuttle ON A SUNDAY for the last 5km section of our 10km accommodation relocation hike

-Rugged and wild...

-Infinity pool...

-The volcano hike turning into a jungle gym...

-Making it to the top of the volcano!...

   
     -The cloud forest ...

    -Walking the ridge...

                 -The clouds clearing...

     -Actually getting a view on the way down...  

     -Finishing it!...

   
   -Motorbike riding  (for some reason these crafty Nicaraguan’s built an International Airport that cuts through the main road on the Island…not sure what the hell they are going to do when the first plane lands)...

  -Alice’s $1 backyard haircut...

  -Sunsets from the infinity pool...

-Getting a cliché jump shot on self timer...

          
          -40m high waterfall...

          -Being away from it all...

-Kris discovering where melons came from...

-Cerveza time has never let us down...

Ometepe Lowlights...

 -Playing dodgem ferries...

  -Dusty +++ (below was our local bar)...

-Hot (turns out March is THE hottest month of the year in Nicaz)

-Difficult to get around, especially on a Sunday (everything stops!)...

-Finding out that the volcano hike was 9 hours instead of 4 hours

-Trekking up until we met the cool canopy of the cloud forest (notice the 2 tone coloured shirt secondary to sweating it up)...

-Getting to the top of the volcano only to discover it was a mud pit...

-Realising the 40 metre high waterfall was actually being used to supply the town with water (We hiked for two hours in the searing heat to get there!)...

*Sweat not water

-Getting a police ticket five minutes after renting a motorbike (for not having our licence or some made up reason like that)...

"come on!!!"

-The remoteness of the place (unable to find a store that sold anything to eat... only hand washing soap and coke)...

-Terrible Motorbike Helmets...

-Our local bathing spot = the bathing, drinking and toileting spot for the livestock...

-Waiting for chicken buses...

-Being on chicken buses...

-       

Magnific Rock

Mag Rock Highlights...

-The location...

-Happy Hour...

  -Sunsets...

- The food

- Kris being able to get her nurse back on...

-Being able to check out every surf break from the breakfast table...

-The surf...

Mag Rock Lowlights...

-The isolation...

-Finding out we had an extra room mate...

-Arriving into Mag Rock just in time for the biggest swell this season (not planned)... we got absolutely hammered by huge waves on day 1!

-Being surrounded by all the hardcore surfers (who get towed into the waves by a jet ski) that planned to be their for the big swell...

-Yoga nuts putting us to shame...

Crossing from Nicaz into Costa Rica...

Highlights...

-Reaching our destination just before the three day Easter break (all services shut down while locals get wasted)

-Avoiding departure tax sting (finally!!)

Lowlights...

-13 hours of travelling (one taxi and three public busses later) we only travelled 409km – note the suggested travel time of 5 hours and 26 minutes...  

-The border crossing itself (no, we were not in Afghanistan)...

-Realising we hadn’t completely said goodbye to chicken busses despite moving into a more expensive country

-Easter traffic jams

-Two annoying kids who pulled our hair, kicked and jumped on the backs of our seats for about an hour or so, during the traffic jam...

Currently writing this blog entry (between power cut outs, with very slow internet) in amongst the scarlet macaws in the very hot and sticky Corcovado National Park, in Costa Rica (also their hottest time of year, leading up to the wet season in 2 weeks). 

We are going to spend the following 2 weeks hanging with the monkeys and sloths, before we jet set back to family, friends, washing machines, microwaves, cars, hot showers, cleanliness, closets, proper supermarkets and consistent power.  Yes, we can’t wait! 

We will put up the Costa Rica blog while killing time in the airports.

Love Kralice.