So, we arrived tired from 2 days on buses and decided to stop immediately in Ocotal. Its a small town just over the border with a pretty square and friendly people. When we asked some shopkeepers where was good to eat they entered into a 20 minute discussion trying to figure out the best place for us to eat. It was quite funny, we hadn`t seen any other gringos for so long that the day we left Ocotal when we saw a bunch of Americans, we couldn`t stop staring. What were these tourists doing in the middle of nowhere? We stared for so long that they had to talk to us or it would have been really awkward. Turns out they were missionaries travelling around some of the smaller towns.
Not a lot going on in Ocotal though, so we pushed off for Estelli. Estelli, a lot like Ocotal but bigger. We`ve now been in Nicaragua for two days and the two things that are most apparent in Nicaraguan society are rocking chairs and revolutionaries. Nicaraguans love their rocking chairs. Every house has about ten rocking chairs in their front porch and the locals love to sit outside nattering away all day and all night. That and their revolutionaries, This is particularly obvious in the Northern part of the country which was heavily involved in the fighting in the recent wars. You can see bullet holes in some of the buildings, and the bigger towns all seem to have museums dedicated to the martyrs of the revoutionaries, which are run by the mothers of the dead.
We again moved quickly to the lovely colonial town of Leòn which was very pretty. One of the big attrations of Leòn is not only the interesting architecture, pacific beaches but also the nearby Cerro Negro.
Cerro Negro is Central America`s youngest Volcano. Its not very high, not a difficult hike, maybe 30 mins or so. But when you get to the top, you can smell the sulfer, see the steam and feel the heat coming off the volcano. If you put your hands in the ground for more than 4 seconds and they will be burned. But its not the walk up thats the interesting bit, lovely and all as it is. What's really interesting is how you get back down. Leòn is the home of `Volcano Boarding`, which is a little bit like snow boarding or sledding down a volcano. People have reached speeds of up to 80km/hour sledding down this volcano. That`s faster than what the average bus travels at. (Which by my estimation is about 10km/hour.) Its pretty quick. So Ian and myself spent 40 mins hiking up this volcano then we got into our orange jumpsuits - yes we did look like inmates in an American television show. After a brief 10 minutes of instruction on how not to smash your face on the way down, we readied ourselves for the big plunge. Sitting on the top of a volcano about to slide down it is intimidating, I`ve never been skiing, but I imagine its something like going down a big slope for the first time. Except that if you fall off or put your hands out you`ll be completely cut up by the lava rocks which you`re sliding down.
Now what everyone wants to know is who went faster? Well, I`ll have to disappoint you, it wasn`t Ian. Actually, we both hit 50km/hour on the way down. Its quite scary, but there are a few simple things to remember, keep your back traight so you`re well balanced, that way you won`t fall off. Also keep your mouth closed unless you`d like to eat the volcano, which would be a bit like chewing a gas bbq. The ride down is fast and scary and exhillirating. By the time you get down, you're covered in lava rocks, right down to your underwear and yet, all you want to do is go again.
After being given a celebration can of beer each by the guide, we piled back into the big open truck to head back to town. We were all having a brilliant time, chatting about how much fun it had been when all of a sudden a bunch of what I though were leaves came in the back of the truck. I look over and Ian is making a mad dash to jump out of the back of the still moving truck. Its at this time that I start to realise that my legs feel like someone has thrown a pot of boiling water on them. I look down and realise that there`s a nest of wasps currently waging war on me. Thats when I also ran and jumped out of the back of the truck and ran down the road screaming until I found Ian, who was by this point waspless. It took me a few minutes to realise that I was still screaming and no one else was. It was the first time in my life that I had been completely hysterical, actually dictionary definition of hysterical.
The wasps dispersed and we headed back to the truck me still shaking quite a bit. I got the worst of the wasps stings. Ian had about 10 and the guy next to him had about 10. I had 40 or 50 stings on my knees, it felt like I had been scalded and my knee was swelling. It was the ozzy guy sitting next to me that had it really bad. He only had 5 or 6 stings, but it turns out he was allergic. He had to make a trip to hospital. I was limping for two days because my knee was so swollen. But we got ourselves together and decided to head off to the beach on the Pacific. We spent a few days on the beach at Las Penitas playing in the waves, body boarding and generally having a good time.
At this point, I'd just like to tell you a little bit about the chicken buses here. They're old american school buses, very often with the name of the high school still written on the side. They're called chicken buses because the locals bring all kinds of things including chickens on the buses. We've been keeping track of funny things that people bring on the buses, from a 2 year supply of rice to a basket of live crabs. The funniest thing we've seen so far was a man who brought a tree trunk the length of the bus onto the bus with him. Everyone had to climb over the tree to get on and off the bus. I don't think you'd get away with a suitcase on Dublin Bus, not to mind a basket of crabs or a whole tree.
When we left Las Penitas, we made that fatefull decision to go to a volcano crater called Cosiguina. The shortened version is that we spent 2 days getting to the middle of nowhere, and surprisingly there wasn't anyone in the middle of nowhere. Turns out the mother of woman who owns the hostel we were supposed to stay at was sick. She told us unfortunately they were closed and she couldn't look after us. Stranded as we were in the middle of nowhere, we got straight back on a bus for another 8 or so hours and ended up right where we'd started.
At this point we were actually getting a bit sick of buses having spent 10 of the previous 14 days on chicken buses. So we decided to hit up some more of Nicaragua's famed Pacific beaches. We got the 5 hour bus to Pochomil and landed in the land that time forgot. Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Bart goes to the world fair and arrives 50 years too late? Its supposed to be amazing and all that's left is a falling down theme park? That's exactly what Pochomil is. Somebody told the locals that if they built restaurants and bars they'd make loads of money off the tourists, but no tourists ever came. The place is crumbling and falling apart and the locals have absolutely nothing. When you get off the bus they crowd around you as if you're the first tourist (Nica or Gringo) to have turned up to this place in the last ten years. It was actually intimidating and very uncomfortable. The first time we've really felt like that since we've come away.
We had had enough. We went straight to Managua airport and got on the next flight to the Corn Islands. We took a holiday from our holiday and landed in paradise. There are two islands that make up the Corn Islands, Big Corn and Little Corn. We spent a full week just on Little Corn and it was by far the best place we've ever been. We stayed in a place called La Casa Iguana, we had our own litle cabin that looked over a sandy white beach and water so clear you could see where the coral was for miles. The snorkelling was fantastic, we could swim out to the reef and spend hours looking at the life. The water was actually too hot sometimes, and you'd have to swim to the bottom to cool off. We did 5 dives there, 2 on a sea stack about 16km out from the island. Honduras has nothing on Little Corn diving. The rock formations, the cavern systems, the sharks, the life was spectacular.
One of the best things about Little Corn was the brilliant and funny people we met there. Cole our Dive Guide and her lovely assistant Kate (Dive Master in Training) were both from New York and diving with them was like diving with the mafia. Every briefing was in mafia speak and we were informed we would be 'swiming with the fishes'. The way these two girls went, you'd swear their weight belts were made of guns or concrete boots! That said, Cole was by far the best and most professional Dive Guide we've had. From the minute we stepped off the boat, Brandon (Aka Sponge) was there looking after us and generally having a laugh with us.
If anyone is looking to get away from it all, go to Little Corn Island and stay at the Casa Iguana. You'll be well fed with fresh Barracuda and Lobster regular meals. There is one footpath down the island, but mostly its just dirt paths along the island, which means no cars, motorbikes or other such nuisances. Little Corn island is the postcard definition of paradise.
So that brings us to Granada (the city in Nicaragua not the island). Granada is a lot like Leon, a beautiful old colonial city thats starting to crumble a little. Its as if you're in a part of Europe that had a lot of money but doesn't any more and the granduer is starting to fade a little. That said, Granada, like Leon had been fantastic.
So this is where we leave you, on our way to Isla Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Would you believe that we're a quarter of our way through our trip already? Its been 3 months, 5 countries, 7 cans of insect repellent, 5 bottles of suncream and a lot of laughs so far.
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