Nicaragua

Day 8: Monday, Nov 15th (Costa Rica - San Juan Del Sur)

After catching a ride to the Liberian airport with my uncle Phil and auntie Myrna, the three of us took a taxi to the bus station downtown and caught a public bus on route to the Nicaraguan border. The border run was very time consuming as all the directions were very unclear and had no signs in English. Finally, we navigated our way over the border and caught a taxi into San Juan Del Sur where we spent the night at the Pacha Mama hostel. After the long journey through the border, there was not much daylight left, so we got a bite to eat and went back to the hostel where we met some other guys from BC and a dude from Australia. We all went out that night to a couple of the local bars which was a lot of fun and after Lisa and Jason went to bed, I went to the casino with the hostel owner. Turns out that whole jackpot winning in Vegas was definitely a once in a lifetime occurrence and I need to give up any dreams of that happening again. The casino was fun, but not as fun as the large Hawaiian pizza I destroyed after...yup.

-Taylor

Jesus is watching, look busy!

Day 9: Tuesday, Nov 16th (San Juan De Sur)

ADHD kicked in
I dug a hole and made seat
Caught some hermit crabs and made a cage

We all woke up earlier then normal so that we could get a full day at the beach. We headed to the boardwalk in San Juan to get breakfast from the restaurant then headed back to our hostel. The ended up just missing the shuttle to the beach by 10 minutes but the reception ended up calling the driver and got him to come back for us so that was a good break because the road was pretty much only accessible by a 4 x 4. We rented 2 surfboards from the hostel. The boys jumped into the water immediately, but the waves were not very forgiving. We ended up spending 6 hours on the beach and Taylor caught a few good waves before our beach trip was over. When we finally headed back to the hostel, the drive was packed with the two groups of people and we all ended up having to sit on each others laps in the back of the pickup truck. We figured that we would grab dinner while all the beach goers were having showers so we would miss the mad rush to have the first showers. We made our way down to the market to see what we could find and were immediately handed us a menu. We didn't realize that it was a group of about five different restaurants that were all separate. But it didn't really matter. We all agreed that our meals were probably the best meals we had since the beginning of the trip. I had a bean sandwich and the boys had jalapeno chicken meals. We left fully satisfied and full. Finished our game of golf from the beach and played rummy and ping pong till we managed to round up a group of people to head out to the bar for an open mic night. To our surprise to bar was packed, with the majority of the people staying at Pacha Mama with us.

-Lisa

Novembers calendar model

Decembers!

So... surfing.... not as easy as we thought

Day 10: Wednesday, Nov 17th (San Juan De Sur - Moyogalpa)

The slowest, least fuel efficient fresh water ferry in the world!

We woke up a little bit later then usual thanks to our new friend ron (rum) and felt a little bit under the weather. We loved staying at Mama Pucha and were a little bit reluctant to leave but decided that we have a two day maximum stay at any place in hopes to complete our entire central american lap. We made many friends and had a great time, San Juan De Sur is a must for anyone in Nicaragua. Meeting lots of new people, everyone had a recommendation of where we should go, and since we are doing the trip South-North for this leg, we are going against the grain but we have been getting good advice. We went to the local market and had the exact same meal as we did the previous night, it was that good. Pinto (beans rice salad and a tortilla) with Jalapeno Chicken with a coffee, all for $2. We met a friendly cabbie outside the hostel who followed us through town to ensure that we didn't get into another cab. He waited outside the market while we ate. We negotiated $20 cab ride for roughly 2 hours, which included a hour stop downtown Rivas, so Taylor could look for a camera which turned out unsuccessful. We arrived just in time for the boat, we had to run full speed with bags for 200m to reach hop onto the bus at the last possible minute. We are headed to the island in lake nicaragua, to climb a volcano. We had no game plan, just recommendations from fellow backpackers. We have learned that everyone is trying to run some scam to make you pay more money then you need to for everything. Nice locals met us, spoke english with us, took us to the most expensive hotel in town ($30/night) were willing to set up guided tours up the volcano... almost too good to be true. We dodged the jab and ended up in a $5/person hostel/hotel, we are finding that most places offer dorm rooms or hotel rooms. We also got a spanish tour guide 'Jesse' to take us up the volcano tomorrow, starting at 6am for $40 for all of us, much cheaper then originally quoted and he is willing to take us to the summit, which is not recommended for dependent travelers. This is an active volcano, 12 hour hike round trip so not much is on the agenda for tonight :S This blog came to you from 'the landing hotel' bar where we are hanging out with Ron again ($2 pina colada's)

-Cheers Jason

The active volcano we are going to hike tomorrow. Apparently there are always clouds... science?

*Note the striped shirt, our friend/bartender/hotel manager/tour guide/translator/waiter. It's a one man show out here

Day 11: Thursday, Nov 18th (Moyogalpa)


We hiked the Volcano and it was a really hard work... we all sweat copious amounts. We couldn't summit because it was too windy and pointless because of all of the fog. A rough hiking trail made for a few twisted ankles and a trio of grumpy prunes. So we had an early night so we could get up early and head to Granada in the morning. Jesse our tour guide not only showed us up the volcano but made sure to point out jungle wildlife which made the difference between a good and a great hike.

-Jason

Day 12: Friday, Nov 19th (Moyogalpa- Granada- San Juan Del Sur)

We woke up pretty late today, and since we had decided that we were going to head out to Granada today we had to hurry up in order to catch the ferry over to Rivas so we could catch a bus into Granada and still have a bit of the day left over. So we took the slow moving ferry back and were once again bombarded by all of the taxi drivers. We found one that was charging us $1 to get to the bus stop and $35 to Granada. After all of us combining our Spanish skills we were able to reduce the price to $21. Better then waiting 2 hours in the middle of no where for the bus. After checking out the hostel and all of the rules that came with it we headed out to a bank and to find somewhere to eat. Took us a while and a trip back to the hostel to find the best spots then we headed to the "Central Park" where all the touristy spots were. As soon as we walked into the square two kids swarmed us, asking to buy them hot dogs. Taylor bought the two hot dogs with the works, and then next thing you knew a line of 10 kids and a 30 year old were around us asking to buy them hot dogs too. So we had to get out of there. While walking we thought we say some people that we recognized and who was it? One of the owners from Pacha Mama and two of the guys thats we had met in San Juan Del Sur. They were on their way back from Managua and so we all had dinner together. After some chit chat the idea of us going back to San Juan with them was thrown out there and after some serious consideration we decided that that's what we wanted to do it. We went back to our hostel in the car and loaded it up. The car was already full with hostel supplies and a huge tv in the back seat, and we figured that when in Nicaragua do as the Nicaraguans do and pack that car to the max capacity, which included 3 in the front and 3 plus a huge tv in the back. The car ride was nice and cozy once we finally hit the road at 11pm. Nothing like a spontaneous road trip.

-Lisa

Day 13: Saturday, Nov 20th (San Juan Del Sur)


Waking up back in Pacha Mama in San Juan was almost surreal. We decided that we have been getting pretty worn out from being on the road and to stay in one spot for a while and have a mini vacation. Also, compared to our hostel buddies we move around a fair bit more which is getting pretty expensive. We lucked out again when we found out that the Central America surfing championship was going on at the beach we went to the day before. So we hopped into the shuttle (an old half ton truck which we sit on benches in the back) and went to the beach to watch the surfing/have a siesta. At night we fired it up with the local Pacha Mama crowd and headed to a couple of bars. This place is unreal, everyone is in a good mood and friendly, all and all a good decision to come back for some R&R/good times.

-Jason
* We havn't been taking the camera to the beach because there has been petty theft which we didn't want  to be a victim of.

Day 14: Sunday, Nov 21st (San Juan Del Sur)


 Woke up this morning a little bit hurting from the night before and decided that today was going to be a nothing day. The weather has been pretty crappy since we've been here so thats kind of a disappointment. It was also laundry day for me and Taylor which could be one of my favorite days, getting clean clothes. After a day of watching movies on the couch and not doing anything productive we found out that it was one of the girls that had been staying at the hostel for a while birthday and they were having a "Flip Pong" competition, which is some kind of hybrid mix of beer pong and flip cup. Our team "dirty north" ended up taking home the big win out of all the other teams in the hostel, so it was a big night for us. It turned out the it was a Canadian Team Vs an American Team (our buddies from Idaho) in the finals. So after a big victory the American got serenaded with O-Canada which they were not too pleased about hahaha.

-Lisa

Day 15: Monday, Nov 22nd (San Juan Del Sur)

After our triumphant win at flip pong last night we figured that we were going to need a full day of recovery before we embark on our trip to El Salvador. We slowly made our way to the market for breakfast and then Taylor and a chick we met from Singapore wanted to get one more day of surfing before we all head to Managua. The shuttles were a little sparse and extremely full, so we ended up getting separated. Taylor came to the beach about an hour after me and Jason and by the time that he got there it had already started to pour out. We ended up getting stuck under a little shelter for a few hours and it rained the entire time. Taylors ride was leaving earlier then us so we decided that we were just going to take the hit and head home with him instead of waiting a couple hours till ours came. Once we were back in town we went to a Mexican Restaurant and learnt a very valuable lesson. Do not order Mexican in Nicaragua.

-Lisa

Day 16: Tuesday, Nov 23rd (San Juan - Managua)


We all decided that it was time to move on from San Juan and head up to the capital Managua where we could catch a bus to El Salvador. The taxi from San Juan to Rivas was short and dropped us off at the bus station where we ran to catch a bus to Managua. The bus ride was 3 grueling hours due to the fact that there were no seats left on the bus, which forced us to stand for 2 of the 3 hours trying not to fall into  other passengers every time the bus swerved. Upon arriving in Managua, we still had to find a place to stay for the night that was close to the bus station (our bus was leaving the next day at 3am). After heckling with some locals and other hostel owners, we finally decided on a place which was right next door to the tica bus station. By now it was only 430 and we still had the rest of the evening to find something to do. Im not one for Harry Potter, but the girls really wanted to go and see it, so we went to the theatre and watched Harry Potter in English with Spanish subtitles. I wont lie, it was actually pretty good....for Harry Potter.

Taylor