Nicaragua

We arrived in San Carlos, after an hour on a little boat up the Rio Frio from Los Chiles in Costa Rica.  San Carlos is the largest town on the South side of Lake Nicaragua, but it is by no means large!  It is not an interesting or particularly nice place, rather it is the gateway to other places on either the lake itself or down the Rio San Juan.  As poor Le Roux was not very well (violent tummy bug), we stayed one night in San Carlos, before catching a little boat down the Rio San Juan to El Castillo.  Nicaragua seems to suffer from random power cuts and the mains water supply is only turned on for a couple of hours in the morning.  This meant we’ve had to get used to using buckets to flush the toilet and to shower with, and hot water is a thing of the past!  It was a concern that there were large dustbins of water sitting around everywhere, as we’ve been told that that is the cause of dengue fever.  Luckily we don’t seem to have been struck down yet, and I’m liberally using insect repellent!  While Le Roux was resting, I headed out to explore town and to find an ATM.  I managed to find the ATM, but as there was a power cut it wasn’t working, so I decided that it was time for a long lunch while I waited for the power to come back on.  I had my first taste of the amazing river prawns on a brochette – delicious, although it was obviously accompanied by the mandatory cabbage salad and plantain crisps!

Buying a ticket for the El Castillo boat proved a little tricky as the guy manning the ticket office said “momentito” to us and then disappeared for 1.5 hrs – a little frustrating!  We did eventually get the required tickets and headed off on the 3.5hr cruise downstream.  Boarding the little boat was a challenge as there seemed to be more food and drink vendors than passengers on the actual boat - it would have been far more sensible if they’d sold their wares from the side so we could get on a find a seat!   The passengers were mainly locals and we docked in the most random places to drop them off – it looked as if we were dropping them in the middle of the jungle, as there was barely a pathway, let alone any buildings.

El Castillo is a lovely village on the river with a population of only 3,000.  There are no cars or motorbikes, only bicycles and horses.  This made for a very relaxing stay as the pace of life was so much slower.  We stayed in a lovely rustic wooden guesthouse built on stilts over the river.  I even spotted a caiman lurking underneath.  We did unfortunately have 2 days of very heavy rain which obscured the view and made a terrible racket on the corrugated iron roof!  However, we happily sat on the porch at our guesthouse chatting with a few other gringos and reading.  When the sun came out, we visited the fort which was of particular historical significance and had great views over the village and river.  

We wandered around town soaking up the atmosphere, dodging random animals that were left loose to roam for food.  We also watched a bit of the Sunday afternoon baseball game between El Castillo and the surrounding villages.  Le Roux ventured out in a canoe with one of the locals for yet another fishing trip, but that prized tarpon was still proving elusive and he returned very wet from yet another rainstorm having only caught 6 little fish.  

One evening for dinner we had the enormous river prawns the area is famous for – they were more like lobsters or crayfish than prawns and were delicious.  The only thing that marred our visit was the open air bar at the end of town that had about 20 massive speakers and the DJ loved playing music so loud that my ears and chest were vibrating in our room a 5-10 minute walk away!  Both of us really liked El Castillo – it had such character and charm, with the little wooden houses on stilts and the tiny shops in peoples’ front rooms, and everyone was so friendly saying hello as you passed in the street.

We left El Castillo on the 7am boat back to San Carlos as we were then catching the 2pm ferry to Ometepe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.  The ferry ride was a long one at nearly 11hrs, giving you some idea of the size of the lake.  We stopped at a couple of small islands on the way and the usual gathering of food vendors was there to meet us.  The ferry was also used as a cargo boat moving fresh produce grown on the islands to the mainland for distribution.

We arrived at Altagracia on Ometepe Island at 12.30am and luckily there was a minibus waiting that we shared into town with 3 other gringos.  Unfortunately the hotel we’d all picked out of the book was locked up tight and despite many knocks on the door and hoots from the taxi, no-one came to the door.  Luckily the taxi driver suggested another hotel down the road and it just about had rooms for us all –we were close to having to set up our tent in the courtyard!

Le Roux had set his heart on hiring a motorbike so that we could explore the island and over breakfast the next morning he managed to find a friend of the owner who was willing to lend us his for 48hrs for $30 per day.  That afternoon we rode around the northern volcano to visit the largest town on the island, Moyogalpa.  There wasn’t much to see, but we enjoyed the ride over and found a great cafe that had been opened by an English guy and his Canadian girlfriend.  I had the best meal I’d had in a long time – a roasted vegetable and grilled cheese salad with real greenery, including rocket and spinach, and Le Roux tucked into a very nice steak and onion sandwich on proper home-baked granary bread – delicious! We’d been warned that the roads were pretty bad on the southern part of the island, but this hadn’t really prepared us for how terrible they actually were.  The word “road” shouldn’t be used in connection with these rocky, holey, gravelly undulating nightmares!  I spent the day clinging on to Le Roux and the bike, grimacing and tensing as we scraped and bumped our way along.  The road itself wasn’t the only danger, we had to contend with random animals leaping out into the road in front us with no warning – one pig came pretty close to being squashed! 

We headed to San Ramon to climb part way up the Maderas volcano as we’d been told that the waterfall was definitely worth a visit.  We sweated our way up the path through the forest, clambering over boulders and traversing dry river beds but on reaching the waterfall, we were somewhat disappointed - there wasn’t much water falling!  The best part of it all was the pool at the bottom which we gratefully sank into to cool off.  In the forest we did see a blue and yellow snake and lots of blue magpies as well as a fleeting glimpse of a couple of green parrots.  

Next stop was some petroglyffs for which Ometepe is known – they are stones with various pictures carved into them.  We visited the ones in El Porvinor and I have to say we were pretty underwhelmed as most of the pictures were barely visible.  Given the hideous journey we’d endured to get to both the waterfall and the petroglyffs, we’d hoped for more, especially as they were mentioned as highlights in the book – oh well.  

Back in Altagracia, we were pretty limited for dinner options, so we ended up eating at the same place for 3 nights.  Next door to our hotel was a lady who had a BBQ in the street and a few picnic tables on the pavement.  She cooked up different meats each night and served them with gallo pinto (rice and black beans), fried plantain crisps and cabbage salad – nothing to write home about, but it was perfectly edible and pretty cheap.  Various people we’d met along the way had commented on how much they’d loved Ometepe Island, but I have to say, although it was nice, I didn’t fall in love with the place, and we were ready to leave at the end of our 3^rd day.  The beaches were very average and in fact you’d find it hard to put your beach towel down as they were so small and narrow!

The ferry to Granada was due in at anytime between 11pm and 1am, and as taxis are scarce on the island we were dropped down at the port at 9pm.  Luckily we managed to bag a plastic chair by the cafe hut, otherwise we would have been sitting in the dust for 3.5hrs before the ferry arrived!  The journey was relatively short, albeit choppy (the sea sickness patches came in useful!) and we arrived in Granada at 4.30am, having had very little sleep.  We stumped up for a room at our chosen hostel as it was so early and we were pretty tired – we managed to get a few hours sleep before the morning noise of the hostel woke us.

Granada is an ok colonial town at the northern end of Lake Nicaragua.  It is pretty dirty, smelly and noisy – what is it with people needing to have massive speakers blaring out of their shops or in the back of pickups driving around town with the volume up so loud the bass makes your chest vibrate?!  Granada looked nicest from above when we climbed the church bell tower – the view across the terracotta tiled roofs and coloured buildings to the lake was lovely.  Having read a spa leaflet over a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes in a little cafe we found, I decided to treat myself to a massage as I’d not had one since we came away.  It was a painful experience as she worked on all my tense muscles – carrying around 30kg of stuff is not good for your shoulders!!  Afterwards though my body felt loose and relaxed so it was worth the money.  

We left Granada a day early to head to Lago de Apoyo, 30 minutes north west of the city.  The lake was a beautiful tranquil spot, with lots of wildlife in the forest.  We spent a couple of days there swimming in the lake and diving off the platform moored a little way out, kayaking and bird spotting.  The kayaking was slightly tricky with a strong wind blowing across the lake so I had to try and stay perpendicular to the waves, however, I didn’t quite manage this and ended up rolling my kayak and going for a swim!  Le Roux was laughing at me and it took a couple of attempts to get back into the kayak, but I succeeded in the end.  

Unfortunately it was time to move so we dragged ourselves away from the lake and on to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, as we were getting a 5am bus over the border into Honduras, our 9^th country on the trip.  Luckily I found a hostel two doors down from the bus station as we had to check in for the bus at 4am.  We then spent the next 14.5hrs driving across Nicaragua and into Honduras. 

We’ve enjoyed our time in Nicaragua, with El Castillo and Lago de Apoyo being the highlights.  The people have been friendly and made us feel very welcome.