Nicaragua

Hello!

After my previous post I stayed a few more days at DD where I went for a couple of walks, got a massage in the garden and read a couple of books. Pretty much nothing, which is awesome.

Anyways, when I finally left, it was May 1st, workers day. I didn´t think about this, so when I came to the Hondurian/Nicaraguan border, I got stuck. No buses. Luckily I had met a nice Nicaraguan girl on the bus, and she had a friend who picked her up in a truck. She also happened to have a mother who runs a hostel in Ocotal, close to the border, where I could stay. Furthermore, this girl worked in tourism, so she gave me all the tips I needed for travelling in Nicaragua. Every cloud has a silver lining.

The next day I left for Estellí where I spent a couple of hours touring a cigar factory. I tried to make my own cigar, but that didn´t go too well... After the tour I headed down to León, a city close to the Pacific coast. Main activity: Vulcano boarding.

Nicaragua has a lot of vulcanoes, and a few years ago an Aussie decided to slide down one of them. After trying car doors, fridges, snowboards and a few other things, he realized that a simple board/sled was the best thing. Thus, vulcano boarding was born. Today León is famous for the this activity, partly because its the only place in the world where its possible, and partly because its fun - a lot of fun! I got a top speed of 59km/hrs (40mph), and was fastest of the boys. This got me a free night at surf turtle lodge, a nearby hostel. Here I went the next day, and it is one of those places from paradise. The lodge is at the beach on a small island off the coast. The hostel was simple, but it was surrounded by palms, and it had an awesome view of the ocean. Furthermore, the sun was shining, the hammocks were comfy, and the drinks were cold. One of the better places I have stayed on this trip!

Next stop out was Granada, a nice colonial city a bit further south. I stayed here for a few days, but my cough returned, so I didn´t do much. I went to a nice marked, got another nice massage, relaxed by the pool and went out for cofees and pub trivias. I also had a job interview, so now I just have to keep my fingers crossed.

When my cough had gotten better, I took the ferry to Isla de Ometepe. The island lies in Central Americas biggest freshwater lake, and is dominated by two massive vulcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas (approx 1600 and 1400mts). A couple of hours after I got there, I decided to climb Maderas the following day. With me was an Irish couple, Desmond and Liz. I had heard that it was the thing to do on the island, so I didn´t get scared by the prospect of an 8hour trip. The thing that sucked was that we had to get up at 4am... Anyways, we got up at four and took the bus towards the vulcano. The bus broke down twice, so we had to walk a bit further than planned. After a breakfast stop at a local finca, we started climbing. The first thing I noticed was the difference from the vulcanoes in Antigua and Leon. Unlike those dusty and barren places, this was super green and lush and there were plants everywhere. The second thing I noticed was that the guide was in a terrible shape. We walked super super slow, and he stopped every 10 or 15 minutes to explain about some plants "to teach us about the stuff". It would have been a bit more convincing if he didn´t need to catch his breath before explaining... We made it to the top, and inside the crater, there was a big forest, and an open plain with a small lake. It was exactly like the vulcano in the the movie "You only live twice", except that this lake was real, and there were no bad guys hidden inside the vulcano (that we know of...) After lunch, we went back down. And it was a looooong way. When we finally made it to the bus stop, we heard that the bus, the last bus of the day, had passed early. Two minutes later it started raining. Rotten luck. But when we sat there, sad, tired and thinking about what to do, a tourist truck passed by and gave us a ride back. The luck of the irish finally came! When we finally got back it was 6pm, so the our 8hour hike had turned into a 14hour expedition. Awesome.

Despite the hike being a bit longer than planned, we rented bikes the next morning and went to Ojo de Agua, a small lagoon. The day after we all had to leave, and after a grand pizza-lunch, we went back to the mainland. Here we had yet another encounter with sneaky taxi drivers. "No more buses, last one left. No buses, only taxi. Special price for you, only 15 dollars. Very cheap, buen priceo. No buses, only taxi". After telling them to sod of for the umpteenth time, they finally left. And 30 minutes later, the bus came. Price: 1 dollar. Fancy that.

Now I´m in San Juan Del Sur, right on the pacific coast. I had my first surfing lessons on monday, and it was great fun!
Our teacher made a film of us, and you can check that out here; http://vimeo.com/66267631‏

Apart from surfing, San Juan is basically beach, pool and pubs, so thats nice. There are a few Norwegians at my hostel, so tomorrow we´ll celebrate May 17th, the norwegian national day. Wuhuuu! After a couple of months of going back and forth, I´ve finally managed to meet up with Mike whom I first met back in Antigua, and thats awesome as well. Hi Mike!

Ciaoo!