Nicaragua

2 February 2008
Honduras/Nicaraguan Border
                About another hour went by before we got off the bus.  When it did drop us off it wasn’t in a town, it was on the side of road.  However just ahead was an intersection we had walk to for our next bus.  The first bus was a fancy, touristy bus, and this next one would be a cheap local bus.  The wait was only about 15 minutes. 
                This next bus ride was about another 2 hours.  The bus arrived in Leon just after sunset, 5:30ish.  We joined another couple, and shared a taxi to the central area of town.  The couple decided to stay at a hostel; we went to look for a cheap habitation (room).   Anna was being very difficult because she wanted hot water.  We finally settled on a place called “Hotel America”.  This place didn’t have any hot water either.  Searching through a bunch of different hotels but told us we would have had to pay $50 a night for a place with hot water.  Hotel America was only $20 a night. 
                We both cleaned up, and had much needed showers.  Then out for a walk to find comida (food), and some possible entertainment.  The streets were not lit up as we would have liked.  It was 7:30 by now, and it is nice when you can see around the dark corners, and in the alleys while exploring in a foreign city in the dark.  There were some people out, but not many.  We sat in front of the main cathedral for about 15 minutes, and then decided to eat at a restaurant close to our hotel. 
                Doug wasn’t hungry, and Anna was starving.  We ordered a liter of beer to share, and an appetizer platter of some sort.  When the food arrived, we didn’t know what to expect.  Not really knowing what we ordered, and hoped it would be edible.  About 90% of the platter was some sort of beef, or pork item.  Anna ate the two chicken items, and Doug nibbled on the rest of the food.  We were both really tired from the two bus rides, and taxi ride it was time to turn in.

3 February 2008
Leon/Granada, Nicaragua
                The book said Leon was supposed to be very beautiful colonial style city.  We were a bit disappointed from the prior nights walk, and today’s morning walk.  We decided to go to Granada today, instead of the next day.  Our friend Janae would be there the following day with her mom, and sister anyway.  Arriving a day early would give us a chance to check out the city a little bit beforehand.
                We gathered our stuff up, and decided to walk the 2km to the bus station.  This way we could actually say we toured ourselves around the city.  The morning turned out to be very hot, and humid.  The walk ended up taking us around 45 minutes.  Arriving at the bus station we were directed to the shuttle to Managua.  Managua is the capital of Nicaragua and we needed to go through there to get to Granada. 
                The ride to Managua was about an hour, and a half, and cost us about $50 cordovas ($2.50 USD).  After arriving in Managua, there was only about a 5 minute wait until another shuttle picked us up for Granada.  The ride to Granada was to be about 45 minutes and only cost us $30 cordovas.  We were loving the cost of transportation. 
                The shuttle stopped about a block from the central area of Granada.  We then walked another 5 blocks to the hospedaje we wanted to stay at.  After reviewing the $12 USD room at the Hospedaje Central, we unloaded our bags.  The lake front was supposed to be down the street, and it was time to stretch our legs a little bit from the morning shuttle rides. 
                We were hoping to be walking along the lake, and enjoy the views.  Well the view was nice from afar.  But walking along, just reminded us that we were defiantly in a third world area.  There was trash everywhere.  At one point we tried walking in the sand next to the water, our feet were just walking through trash.  There were also millions of little flies everywhere and we just couldn’t escape the bugs, we turned back after a while.
                Today was also Super Bowl Sunday.  We enjoyed a cold shower, and went to a nearby bar for an exciting football game in Nicaragua.  The NY Giants were the underdogs (so this was who we were rooting for) and luckily they played a good second half winning the game.  Today was a good day. 

4 February 2008
Granada, Nicaragua
                The website needed to be updated and we wanted to leave a message for Janae at her hotel, so we set off to do some chores.  Walking down the street we meet a guy who asked if we were looking for somewhere to eat.  We knew we were going to meet Janae for lunch so we said yes.  He took us around the corner to his restaurant, a little place called Garden Café.  It was nice, with a little garden in it.  We said we would be back at lunch.
                The next stop was the Casa San Francisco, which just happened to be about two blocks away.  At the front deck a nice gentlemen gladly took our message for Janae.  Doug noticed that they had free Wi-Fi so we decided to have breakfast and try to update the website.
                After ordering Doug tried to do the update but the bandwidth was just too slow so we gave up and checked email instead.  While eating there were a couple little parrots that were in the garden.  One gentleman was feeding one of the birds his eggs.  Later while Doug was checking his email one of the birds walked across the path towards Doug.  Doug was able to pick him up and Anna grabbed a photo.
                Next door we found an internet place that had a fast connection.  We were updated within 20 minutes.  As we were leaving the gentleman from the front desk came out from his desk and across the street to tell us that Janae had arrived and she had our message.  We thanked him and headed back to our room to drop off the computer, and change into shorts before heading back to see her.
                At Janae’s hotel we met her, her mom, sister Jill, and a bunch of other friends who had come from all over to help with a charity restaurant based here in Granada.  We took them all to the little café around the corner.  Walking to the café they told us about the charity they were helping.  They said the charity organization brings kids off the streets and teaches them to cook giving them a viable skill so they can go seek employment. 
                After lunch we took Janae and her mom to a bank so they could get some local currency.  Doug pointed out that getting change throughout the country was difficult (particularly when all you have are 500 Cordova dollar bills), so Doug and Janae’s mom went inside to get some smaller change.
                They were really tired from the red eye flight so we brought them back to their hotel so they could get some rest and we promised to meet up for drinks later.
                Wanting to do a tour the next day we went looking at different places for information.  The one tour that looked best to us was one through Las Isletas (the islands).  The lake is a host to many small islands, just off the shore close to Granada are 365 different islands.  This tour would take us around those including one island called “monkey island” where (you guessed it) there are a bunch of monkeys.  We booked the tour and decided to walk down to the water front.
                Down at the water we ran into three other travelers who wanted some information about the ferry and some other things.  We mentioned we were taking a tour of the Isletas the next day and they said they were interested so we walked them back to our tour place and introduced them to guy running it.  Shortly after we said goodbye and headed back to our hotel for a shower.
                After getting cleaned up we decided to eat at our hotel.  Doug ordered a chicken burrito and Anna had garlic chicken.  We ate and drank and listened to some other travelers play some music looking for donations.  After a bit we went back to our room only to have Janae and her sister Jill come looking for us.  We headed back out to a different bar to have a couple beers with them before calling it a night.

5 February 2008
Granada, Nicaragua
                Today we decided to go to Masaya to do some shopping.  Masaya is a town renowned as an epicenter for buying hand crafts throughout the country.  We set off looking for the bus station.
                While we were looking we were approached by a gentleman who said he could take us there as a guide.  We said no but he insisted on taking us to the bus station.  We reluctantly followed him a few blocks to the bus station.  When he got on the bus and we asked if he was also going to Masaya he said, “Yes I am your guide.”  Then we had to apologize and refuse his service he said $1 for his service, so we gave him 20 cordovas (about 1 USD) for his help.
                Once in Masaya Anna went on a shopping spree.  She was bargaining and haggling with the best of them.  The best technique we have found so far is to inquire about an item then look vaguely interested but decide to leave.  As you walk away they come after you with a lower price.  From there we would either do the walk away technique again for an even lower price, or we then ask for a price even lower than their last offer.
                With gifts in hand we went to find some lunch.  We found a nice little place that had rotisserie chicken and rice.  Then it was back to the bus for our ride back to Granada.
                Once we were back we got ready for our Isletas tour.  At 3:30 we walked to where we had booked the tour, and were pleased to see the three we met yesterday had decided to join us.  One guy was from Sweden, one from Switzerland and the girl was from Germany.  There were also three Americans from D.C. who joined us.  The guide soon came, and introduced himself as a gentleman named Dennis who was very soft spoken.
                We loaded up in a van and headed off to the islands.  Once there we loaded into a boat for the tour.  Dennis very quietly told us about the lake, islands, wildlife and people that live there.  To our surprise there were some very expensive houses built on these islands. 
                As we pulled up to the monkey island we were pleased to see that Janae’s tour had also just arrived at the island.  We all watched the monkeys and took photos; one monkey started bounding through the trees to get a better look at Janae’s boat.  Then the monkey leaped aboard their boat.  Doug was lucky enough to grab a couple photos of the monkey right by Janae.
                Our boat left before we could see how they put the monkey back.  The next destination was by one of the old ferries that used to work the lake.  Then we stopped at island that had a restaurant where all of the group had a beer and talked.
                It was sunset now and time to head back.  On the back we came to an old fort built to protect the lake.  Then it back to shore and then dropped off in town.  We got cleaned up and headed to meet Janae and her crew for dinner.
                The Casa San Francisco had put together a huge table so we could all eat together.  We had a good dinner with them and then said our goodbyes.
                On the way home we decided to stop off for some ice cream before turning in.

6 February 2008
Granada/Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua
                Today we were going to an island in the Lago de Nicaragua (Nicaragua lake) called isla de Ometepe.  The day started around 7:00, we were out the door by 8:00 to find the bus station.  First we had to take a bus to a city called Rivas, then another bus or taxi to San Jorge.  From San Jorge there is a ferry to take us to the island. 
                The bus station was a couple blocks away from the station to Masaya.  We got on the bus, and waited for takeoff.  During the wait, there were a couple of girls from the states we chatted with.  It is always interesting to hear travel stories.  They were not sure how long they were traveling; it was all up in the air.  After waiting on the bus for about 2 hours, the bus finally left for Rivas.    Rivas was about an hour and a half away.
                Arriving in Rivas, the bus let us off at a corner intersection before the bus station.  Here we would catch either a taxi or bus to the bus station.  Well getting off the bus, a taxi driver took our stuff, and immediately put it in his car.  We didn’t really have a chance to inquire about a bus, and barely had time to ask the price.  The taxi driver took us directly to the ferry station.  Doug purchased two tickets for the 12:00 ferry.  It was now 11:00, so we decided to get some food in our stomachs.  There was a little café nearby we decided to share a meal.  Well the meal turned out to be a small chicken drum, a tortilla, small salad, and some rice.  When Doug paid the bill, we were a little wide-eyed by the price.  Though the bill was $80 cordovas ($4us), this was a meal we had paid 20 cordovas before many times.
                It was now 11:40, and time to board the ferry.  The trip was to take about an hour to the island.  After reaching the island, getting our bags, we walked off the dock.  The taxi drivers once again were crazy with their offers, and didn’t want to take no for an answer.  Luckily there were a lot of travelers going to the other side of the island.  The bus system is supposed to be really bad on the island.  Luckily five minutes later the bus we needed to take showed up, and we got on.  We would have to take this bus around to the other side of the island, then get off, and take another bus to a small village called Santo Domingo. 
                To our surprise the bus rides went like clockwork.  Although the bus was very slow, it did the job.  We arrived in Santo Domingo around 3:30, and checked into a little hotel called Finca Santo Domingo.  The book listed two different places to stay, both reasonable to our budget.  The cheaper of the two turned out to be full, so we took the other place.  
                After checking into the hotel, and unloading our packs we decided to go for a little walk on the beach.  The Lago de Nicaragua is said to be much polluted, and the clarity of the water showed this.  We just walked down the beach, enjoyed the sound of the waves, and the quiet sound of no people.  This is the first beach (hopefully of many) we have been to with hardly any people.  There were some children playing in the water, but hardly any tourists.  This was very calming.  We walked down the beach about a mile, then up to the road to walk back to our hotel.  There is only one paved road on the island, and this wasn’t one of them.  Walking down the road we saw some beautiful blue and white birds.
                The walk was very pleasant, but we now defiantly needed showers.  We had taken a total of 3 buses, a taxi, and a ferry to get to our destination.  None of which were very clean transportation.  We both cleaned up, and decided to catch up on journal entries. 
                About an hour later, we decided to check out a small restaurant about 2 buildings down.  The book we have listed it as very cheap but good place to eat.  Arriving at the little place, the girl running the place said chicken or fish grande.  Not knowing what to expect we decided to share a chicken grande dish with two beers.  It turned out to be a nice night out to ourselves as we were the only ones in the restaurant.  The girl even asked us to pick out a CD of our choosing.  We told her to put her favorite on. 
                Dinner turned out to be good, and very filling.  The total bill was $84 cordovas which was a nice surprise.  Then we decided to go back to our hotel for desert.  There was a banana split on the menu…perfect.  We shared the dessert, and played some cards before turning in to bed. 

7 February 2008
Ometepe, Nicaragua
                After waking up we went out and got Anna a café and Doug a hot chocolate.  Then we went out to wait for the bus.  While we were waiting, 5 or 6 monkeys kept us entertained across the street.
                The bus arrived and took us back to the ferry.  We boarded a different ferry from the day before, this one was smaller.  There was a lack of seats so we lay on the upper deck.
                When we got off the ferry we had to fight our way through a battery of taxi drivers to get to the bus.  The bus took us to Rivas were we caught another bus to Peñas Blancas on the border of Costa Rica.  We heard that this border crossing was particularly difficult.  We walked up to the gate and were flooded by people trying to sell us the paperwork that we needed to fill out.  We blew them all off and went to the gate were we had to pay a buck each to cross over.  The lady we had to pay the dollar to said that we would need the paperwork they were trying to sell.  On the other side another guy handed us the same paperwork and when we asked how much he said that he only worked for tips.  We took the paperwork and followed him.  He took us right to the office and when we saw the 50 or 60 people standing in line, he took us to one that only had two people in front of us.  We handed in our passports and got our first stamp since Guatemala. 
                We were told that the Costa Rica office was a kilometer away.  As we walked the in the direction of the Costa Rican immigration we thought it was strange that there weren’t any other people going the same direction as us.  Finally an American girl caught up with us that worked in Costa Rica and had done this border crossing a few times whenever she had to renew her visa.  She guided us the rest of the way to the next office.  When we got to the Costa Rica immigration office there was nobody in line.  And just like that we were done with the border and we were officially in Costa Rica.

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