We crossed the border from El Salvador into Honduras early in the morning, and as reports said Honduras was still a wee bit suspect, we bailed through in two hours and passed on through into Nicaragua.

Just over the border in Nicaragua is a newish tourist area called Samona Canyon. It has a steep gorge that you can float through. After five hours of border crossings we rocked up, picked up a guide and after a hot 20min walk into the start of the canyon jumped into the water and cooled off. We enjoyed the scenery in the canyon as we floated down the river. In the wet season the water level can get up to 30m above where we were floating!!

After cooling off in the river we walked out of the canyon back to the van. Rather than camping out in Samona we drove to Esteli (a town famous for cigar making) where we stumbled on a really nice family run hotel – Hostel Marriot. Martyn was one of the nicest Nicaraguans we ever met. His hotel was simple, clean and cheap. Best of all his spanish was slow and he had the patience to practice with us. We really enjoyed our night there and when we left it felt like we were saying goodbye to family.

The next stop was the colonial town of Leon. Leon is a beautiful University town, with a rustic artsy feel about it. We enjoyed walking the streets in the morning and evenings, exploring the sights, and tasting the local food. In the heat of the day we chilled by the pool in our airbnb accommodation. The highlight for us was the visit to the top of the cathedral. The architecture and views are quite stunning.

Only 30 minutes from Leon is the beach of Las Penitas. We stayed a couple of nights here in the driveway of a local hostel run by a young Candian couple. We enjoyed the amazing sunsets, massive lobster feasts and a few waves for Glen. It was the end of the tourist season when we were here in April so a lot of the restaurants had closed and their Eurpoean owners had headed back home.

From Las Penitas south the wind blows offshore (the best wind for surfing) all day every day, which for a surfer is kind of hard to get your head around as usually offshore winds can be fickle and are gone by 10am and replaced by the dreaded onshore.

We skipped the busy capital of Nicaragua – Managua, stopping on the outskirts at a restaurant called Ola Verde. They had amazing food and heaps of gluten free cakes and desserts. We really enjoyed our lunch here and left with 3 days supplies of gluten free cakes and desserts for Glen….Yummmm!

We had planned on camping a night at Laguna Apoya, it is a crater lake and is supposed to be very stunning. When we arrived we found that there wasn’t any decent camping spots, and being a Saturday the accommodation was incredibly expensive. So after a swim to cool off we carried on to Granada.

Arriving late into Grenada we stayed at a nice airbnb close to the centre of town. We spent a couple of days wandering around this colonial town which has a nice vibe to it. It also has some amazing restaurants. One fun thing to do is to climb all the church bell towers in the town to get different views. The round photo below is taken in the Grenada Cathedral in the main plaza.

Back out at the coast again we caught up with a kiwi fella living at Hacienda Iguana which is a gated community on a spectacular beach called Playa Colorado. We enjoyed a beer with Hayden and it was good to hear the kiwi accent again. The beach at Playa Colorado is stunning and has good surf, but the lack of locals and American prices on everything made it feel like we were in the US not Nicaragua.

The next day was our Wedding anniversary and every year we take turns to book a secret weekend away. This year was tricky for Glen as he only had about seven days to organise something as we didn’t know where we were going to be. He pulled the rabbit out of the hat and found a really nice place to stay for two nights at Popoyo Beach.  We even found 3 random kiwis from Auckland to have a drink with and celebrated with pizza and bubbly on the beach – perfect!

Everybody we met that had been to Nicaragua raved about Omatepe – two volcanoes which form a island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. We took Jefe (our van) onto the ferry and spent 3 days exploring Ometepe. We met a really nice Dutch couple and their rescue dog (Mex) on the ferry. They were driving from Canada all the way to Argentina. We hung out with Thijs and Anna again in Costa Rica. Omatepe was the highlight of Nicaragua for us, there is something about being on a island that seems to chill everybody out, must be the “island time” effect.

On the island we visited a really nice waterfall – Cascada de San Ramon.  It was a three hour hike in the heat of the day up to the waterfall. We opted for the caballo option (horse back). We got two really nimble footed and hard working horses who zoomed us up and back on the narrow walking path through the jungle. Taking horses to this waterfall we would throughly recommend. After the horse ride we went to a small ecolodge close by called Finca Magica (magic farm). Run by an American couple that have lovingly built adobe/cob casitas over the past 15 years, the restaurant had really nice food and totally smoking smoothies, a must stop after the waterfall excursion.

 

After a lovely night free camping by the lake where the waterfall walk starts, we watched the horses get their morning swim then headed off touring around the rest of the island.

We found an amazing place to swim where a large natural spring forms two pools of deep crystal clear water, perfect for cooling off in 30degree weather. After hanging out at the springs for a couple of hours in the heat of the day we continued the circumnavigation of the island and stayed our last night at a cool place with a mccaw, a green parrot and lots of toads.

After a wee hiccup on the ferry ride back to the mainland (floating motorless for a hour!) we ambled back to the coast to Juan del Sur. This is a really touristy beach, popular with the backpacker crowd. Along the coast north of Juan Del Sur are a number of lovely beaches with surf and many marine attractions. We decided not to stay the night here, and only spent a few hours having lunch, and checking out a few of the beaches for surf.  The area was a lot like many other beachside places in Nicaragua, and we felt it lacked soul. Yes the beaches are lovely, climate is awesome, and its inexpensive but you feel like there is a big $ sign pinned to your back and the locals are there to fleece as much out of you as they can get. It felt like we were on the gringo trail – tourists everywhere, expensive beachside restaurants and not much interaction with the locals.

This was a complete contrast to El Salvador and Mexico where people were genuinely interested in where you came from, where you were going, and that you were enjoying their country. Case in point was the fat kid outside McDonalds in Grenada scoffing down his big mac, he sees us walking along the street and immediately puts out his hand and asks for money still with his mouth full. This was not the exception.

Our last night in Nicaragua we free camped in a lovely place on the edge of the lake near the border. The next day in Managua there was going to be demonstrations (turned into riots) and the warning signs for us were all the local supermarkets and petrol stations had long lines of people overflowing out onto the streets. Everyone was buying food, fuel, and water as they knew something was going to kick off big time. We crossed the border into Costa Rica early the next day with no problems.

Over the next week the civil unrest in Nicaragua caused riots, looting, burning of buildings, ripping down of monuments and loss of over 30 peoples lives. Pretty sad, but when a dictator decides to drain pensions and up taxes to pay for a bankrupt health service while himself and his family are still living in luxury, people are going to get pissed. Fair enough I suppose. This post explains the situation really well.

As I write this it is about 2 months after we left (yes Im very slack!) and the unrest is still in full swing with main roads being blockaded, lines of traffic up to 5km long waiting to go through and no end to the troubles in sight. Still, it is not a dangerous place as the people have no quarrel with tourists and welcome them to their country to enjoy their time in Nicaragua.