Central America Travel News and Articles.
Nicaragua in one week part 1, By Calvin Crane
PART 1
She came to me in Roatan one or two days after my arrival. She is no
longer with me. Another guy took her from me while in Nicaragua, He
gave me no warning and like me he believed in possession being 9 tenths
of the law. There was no real warning, I got complacent I guess and
took her for granted. I now have to wake up without her screaming at
me, and she illuminated my way as we were left in the dark during the
first stages of the trip.
That poor bastard, he will not be able to use her as I could, but never
mind I have a better one in England.
Nicaragua in one week.
I was in need of a visa run and found myself on the ferry to the mainland
in Honduras for a gruelling day of travel to the Nicaraguan border.
It is less convenient to do a visa run in this direction however I was
interested in visiting Nicaragua for a few reasons. I had a week plus
the week ends surrounding it. So I was under a bit of pressure to get
down there fast and start relaxing. I got on a bus with a company called
El Rey (the king) for 79 lempiras one way to San Pedro Sula from La
Ceiba.
There was an annoying Spanish guy with dreadlocks who got on the bus
half way through the 3 hour trip with his friend complete with machete.
There were no more seats. He insisted on resting on the edge of my chair.
How is it I attract these people?
Normally I have no problems with people being in close but this guy
was just annoying and I'm sure he was working hard. Humming silly little
tunes and rustling his newspaper in close proximity. The machete made
things easier to bear and I decided not to escalate things past their
current standing. Thank goodness the guy in the seat in front of me
(of all the 52
seats) got off and he then had THE chair he insisted was going to come
as far back as possible. But he was out of my face. Once off the bus
I got in line at the el Rey office to see if there was a fast connection
with them after having called another luxury bus company (Headman Alas)
earlier while on the first bus to see what time buses were. I was sure
I was getting on one if the luxury buses as I had been given a time
which was ok. I doubted they get that Spanish riff raff travelling on
them. The luxury bus was a half hour quicker and left a half hour earlier
so I left and jumped in a cab to get to the luxury bus companies station.
You must understand in CA there are rarely central bus stations housing
all the buses you need to walk past bad blocks or take a cab between
them. Upon arrival I was told that the bus I was after was full and
did I want to take the next bus two hours later! Pushed it to the back
of the mind and back in a cab back to el Rey after the useless expense
of two cabs and 25 minutes, and guess what by now it was full, but not
when I had questioned the girl the first time around and she gladly
reminded me of this nugget of info. There was however a woman who pushed
in the cue and got the last ticket (bear in mind I have been pushing
stuff to the back of my mind). She took the last bus ticket which I
was waiting in line for, lines are grey areas and she somehow got this
ticket. I saw her looking at me from the corner of her eye and I was
by this time getting to the end of my patience. I complained desperately
in vain. It transpired that at the moment I stepped up to the counter
there was a cancellation and the woman said well I could take that ticket.
Of course you could but it was or should have been my turn to take it.
In a stroke of luck there was still room on the bus so we were all happy-sort
of. It transpired that she was to feel so guilty that she offered me
a place in a spare room in her apartment in Tegucigalpa and a lift to
the bus station and a look at real Honduran middle class life. I think
I was looking pretty tired and stressed in the Bus station in Tegucigalpa
and she first offered me a lift in her car to where I wanted to go.
After grappling with my broken Spanish I had learned her name was Marlen
and she worked in the University. She was travelling with her friend
also on the bus called Alma. She offered to put me up in her spare room;
it was a stroke of luck as two places I called were full. Her English
came out eventually during the course of the evening which was good
as she must have spotted my brain steaming from the intense work. We
had a good old chat and I was shown her family photos and learned a
lot of her life and family and vice versa. The next morning I got away
in the Tica bus after Marlen dropped me off as promised on her way to
work.
The Tica bus is an international bus line and I had my ticket for 20
dollars from Tegucigalpa to Managua. Tegucigalpa had been a nice climatic
change being a bit cooler. The trip was so far interesting even if I
hadn't seen Tegus I had seen a slice of real Honduran life at Marlens.
I was refreshed and relaxed on the bus with about an hour to go to
the border. I started to look at my passport and noticed the stamp was
not for the 15th but for the 13th which was yesterday!
I was a day over. How had I let that happen I had put the dates into
the computer. Upon closer inspection I saw another stamp of the 15th
that same month, two years ago, coincidentally I had made an entry into
Honduras two days later so I had thought I had until the 15th but alas
my three months had been up on the 13th. So what would happen at the
border? Bloody whittle whittle whittle until it was over. They took
all our passports in the bus and I was hoping in the pile it might get
overlooked and they might do as I had done and look at the 15th date
stamp. No such luck! "61 dollars please" I tried to explain
to no avail, the guys face was hard as nails, he repeated the same.
I said I couldn't pay that much. He told me to go back to Tegus to sort
it out. Of course if the worst cam to the worst I was going to pay the
61, and why 61 not 62? Or 60. Anyway I said please a better price, I
was sorry and explained the reason and my error.
He said 30 dollars, a pause I put my face into action, wounded and dying
I could have been and it fell to 20 dollars, how much in lempiras (I
knew exactly how much that was) I was buying time. I had already changed
most of my limps into Cordoba's and had a sum of lempiras left in my
wallet, my Cordoba's had been stuffed into my money belt. He told me
20 dollars was 380 lempiras, would you take a cool round 300? Done!
I opened up my wallet and took out everything, there was 243 or something
like he accepted this final sum to my surprise. My passport was handed
across and got the paper and I thanked him and left, half angry at myself
and half happy I had negotiated a better rate, if he had been as hard
as his face suggested I would have paid the 61. So there we were moving
into Nicaragua at Los Manos.
While playing volleyball during Santa Semana in Roatan I had met a half
German half Nicaraguan guy and he had given me his mobile number. I
was now going to meet him again and he was meeting me in Managua, which
is nice as Managua is a poor place in many ways and one takes taxis
from the Bus station or one gets robbed. It happens a lot apparently,
and I have heard of guys getting robbed there that I know of too. But
Gunter was there as promised and I had hardly hit the ground and we
were chatting away catching up as he drove. We drank some beer and ate
some food but I was to go to Granada, no time to hang round on a quiet
Monday in Managua. Gunter told me there was no power, no power I said
, yes no power nationwide. It will be dark he told me. I got on a shuttle
bus to Granada an old colonial town not dissimilar to Antigua. It was
dark.
I stayed in a hostel called hospedaje central, a big place full of
travelling people from all over the world. It has been too long since
I stayed somewhere like this and it was good. I got a room for $5 to
myself which is cheap. There was no electricity nor water, my mobile
phone came into its own as a torch. Outside the hostel had tables and
there was food and beer readily available to which I took advantage
of. It was here I bumped into a couple (Uliska and Bruno) I had first
me on my return to Roatan on that famous ferry after returning from
Sun Jam 2006-a rave on a small water caye. This was a lovely surprise
and we stayed out drinking a bit and chatting about where we had been
among other things. The beer in Nicaragua is Tona, Victoria or Premium.
They also do those all in 1 litre bottles. We discussed what we had
seen and done to that point. There was this Argentinean guy who was
also around as were many travellers interspersed with the street urchins
one finds or that find you in Nicaragua, the staff shoo them away before
they annoy people too much and its all slightly nauseous. This was one
thing Honduras didn't have so much of and forms a part of the current
culture in Nicaragua. We ended up going out briefly to a spot called
Café Nuit where there was live music and a dj. Neither was particularly
good and we didn't stay long. That was pretty much that day done. But
what was more fun (at this point) was the lack of electricity, it was
novel. Darkness clouded various corners others had light those places
with generators, with a backdrop of colonial architecture and 100 years
of neglect. I found it all very appealing. Bruno and Uliska did a canopy
tour that morning and I visited the city which is all very achievable
in half a day. I wasn't sure if I would stay and so kept my backpack
packed and left the room to which I later retook. The lack of water
made me smell I'm sure, my hair got past that greasy look and was well
on the way to being rock star sexy. But we were all in that same boat.
Tomorrow I would have to wash using purified water if necessary. I had
also met up with Alex an Austrian who was on my Tica bus, and who had
been in Utila and a girl also called Alex from England and a Nicaraguan
girl called Fernanda. The day passed nicely Bruno and Uliska left for
Omotepe, which was the next step on the "route" backpackers
generally took. We went out as me Alex,other Alex and Fernanda that
night to a different bar as Café Nuit was closed. Then ended
up in a regaton type club which was too full and too local. The locals
are fine but in a club and drunk there is no respect and the music is
dodgy. The dj deserved a mention as his choice of music was fine for
the locals however his mixing skills were non existent and he kept trying
to do these tricks like dropping and ramping the volume and stupid stuff
like that.
I found it entertaining as regaton is shit anyway. The pushing and shoving
pissed me off so I left, Austrian Alex also we got a cheap cab back
to the hostal. I was happy that I had sampled a typical Granada night,
and that I was missing nada. As it happened both I and Alex were headed
for Omotepe so we travelled a bit together. The route was a bus to Rivas
and then a connecting collectivo to the port of San Jorge where a ferry
would take us onwards to the unique island in the massive lake Nicaragua.
Lake Nicaragua is fresh water and has rivers connecting it to the Caribbean
miles away where bull sharks came from and live in the lake. Bull sharks
are the only shark that can swim in both fresh and saltwater. They are
also aggressive and cause far more attacks than any great whites or
other type of shark. Now what is Omotepe? Omotepe is formed as two volcanoes
next to each other fused together in an isthmus between them. There
is a unique ecosystem here and dare I say it two very beautiful looking
mounds indeed! I was hoping to climb one or the other I didn't have
time to do both. On the ferry we met up with a gang whom we ended up
sharing a mini bus with. We were I and Alex, John Um ,an American, two
English girls Elle and Claire (twins) from my neck of the woods and
Todd an Australian guy. We all stayed at the same place Hotel Finca
Playa Venecia a nice spot on the lake almost between the two volcanoes.
About the author:
calvin crane can be contacted here www.calvincrane.com
and he is currenty helping develop www.landed.at
a travel resource.