Nicaragua

When You think about Nicaragua - what is the first thought in your head? If you thought about anything, congratulations, it is more than I knew before going there or, more specifically, ending up there because of my dislike of flying - I rather take long bus rides.

After leaving El Salvador, we got in a minivan to go to Leon. You are supposed to get an early shuffle, because road takes you through Honduras and it is best to get through it during daytime, getting into Honduras is easy - getting out of it takes surprisingly long and as with everything in Central America, we arrive at destination late, 8 hours late to be exact.

As a city Leon is cute and charming. It has amazing nightlife, has some nice museums, beautiful cathedrals. Is it worth visiting if you will only see the city?

I would say no, but the best thing about it - it has volcano tours from it and those are something you should do, maybe only once though. We did 2 of them, both through volcanodaynicaragua.com/ . First one was volcano boarding down the slope of Cerro Negro. Hike up there is a beautiful walk and there are only 2 places in the world where you can do this on an active volcano, so it is kind of experience you should not miss out on if you have the chance even if it is only to brag about it to somebody. The cost of it was 25$. That being said- would I do it again? No. I think some things sound cooler on the paper than they are in real life and this might be one of those - it was just constant breaking till I got to the end of the slope, because the sledge was uncontrollable and I have too strong of an instinct for self preservation :D For this one it is 100% true that the journey is better than the destination but the pictures looked good on Instagram so I take it as a 25dollar photo opportunity and maybe a new line on LinkedIn?

The same day we went to camp on Telica volcano. Honestly, after Acatenango hike - this was more like a walk, but a very beautiful one and at the end you are standing next to this huge crater wondering how many people have fallen into it because there is no way that people have not gone too close while being curious. It does not look that huge in the pictures, but it is 700 meters wide and 120meters deep. Last time it erupted was May 11, 2015 (some reports also state 2020). There are some houses at the bottom of volcano that were supposed to be guest houses but they were damaged after eruption, and with damaged I mean - they had huge burn holes in them, and it was deemed not safe to have anything there. We asked - when would you know if it will erupt? And he said - 'when it started'. Nice. #highestlevelofsafety

For dinner we made burritos while trying to avoid the horses that were chilling with us to get all of our food, which they did at the end of the night. Next day we hiked down and took a shuttle back to Leon to get to the marvellous hostel that had 2$ Mohitos, excelent 2$ Mohitos (Via Via hostel). But some hours later I just started violently puking. After a while and with no ability to hold anything inside of me - I went to a hospital where they called in only doctor that spoke English. I had some kind of infection in my stomach. First day I was in a ward with other people, second day I got moved to a private one - not sure if it was just to be nice or if they knew there will be no way I'll be able to argue the bill when everything is in Spanish. Nobody else spoke English, I just had nurses coming in, giving me huge amounts of medicine daily with 0 explanation and my Spanish level - which at that point was knowing how to order beers, was not sufficient enough. 3 days = around 350dollars.These are the times you miss home the most. Lot of times in hospitals you feel helpless, but being in hospital half way across the world and not knowing the language - it makes it so much worse.

Next stop on our itinerary is Granada, this is our interest point because it has a ferry that goes to Ometepe island. Granada is a small, charming city that you can explore in one day. Thankfully Hostel Oasis Granada is a great place - always something going on.

But Nicaragua is not a country you come to to enjoy cities - the main attraction is the nature and as we were a bit tired of backpackers and beer pong tournaments ( don't think I actually mean this) - we took ferry to Ometepe, it takes around 4 hours and the price varies a lot depending on how you will acquire your ticket. We book La Urraca Loca hostel - it is further away from the port but looks magical with all the trees and flowers. And owners make the best pasta dishes and they are so good that the pricing is Italian as well, but after all the rice and beans - even that can not stop me from eating pasta 3 times a day. Yeah, I did not arrive home skinnier than I left The island is beautiful, it is formed by two volcanoes, one of them still active, rising out of Lake Nicaragua. Hiking, Kayaking, Swimming or just relaxing - you can choose. We chose to rent motorbikes, which was 20$ per bike, and go around all of the island - which is possible to do in one day as it is only 30km long and 5 to 10 km wide. On one half of the island roads can not be called roads though, so follow the map - there is a reason why it shows you to not go some places. We learned the lesson by going there, of course. Also, I saw the biggest spider I have ever seen in wild and I did not enjoy it.

After being away from reality - we had to go back, and last city in our itinerary for Nicaragua - San Juan del Sur. If you have heard anything about backpacking Central America - you have heard about Sunday Funday, as we arrived on Tuesday - we had to wait almost a week to experience it. This is a great city if you are learning to surf but in general - there won't be much to do. Lets be honest- if you Google what to do in a city and one of the first things are to go watch sunset on the beach - it is kind of a sign of what to expect. But there are some nice bars, good restaurants and karaoke - enough to keep busy for a while. In places like this it is very important to have a community that you get by staying in hostel.

So Sunday Funday is basically a day long pool crawl. You start at 12 and it goes on as long you can stand, a guy was taken to hospital from the first hostel because he thought diving head first in shallow pool is a good idea, or as long as you do not get caught with bag of illegal substances as some did. It changes the places they go to, but for us it was 3 different hostels with pools and then a bar next to the ocean. In between hostels you are taken with a shuttle and somehow you always end up on a shuttle where everyone is singing Wonderwalll or Angels. The price of it is 25$, 20$ in case you are staying at the hostel where it starts (Pachamama, also, a great hostel with movie nights, beer pong and pool table), which is the best option, as you can still get ready while sipping your first drinks. The price includes the entrances, some shots and neon shirt that you should never wear.

And after a month in this beautiful country it was time to move on to a better...no, more expensive place.