Central America Travel News and Articles.
Nicaragua in one week part 2, By Calvin Crane
PART 2
There were a few other guests but we were the only young ones.
In the true style of not messing around with time I decided to take
a horse ride which turned out to be fun, beautiful, scary and painful
and very wet. As in San Cristobal De Las Casas many years ago I was
on a sulky brute who loved to run under low lying trees trying to throw
me at times. It rained hard mid way through and all the time one of
the stirrup straps was digging into my leg and they were of unequal
length, I didn't expect a perfect setup and this is the charm of Nicaragua.
After my return I showered as we had water here and dried and was ready
for a beer. That evening we all played cards drank and listened to Todd's
ipod station and were a rowdy crowd. What fun and stimulating conversation.
John has his own website www.johnum.com it really was his name. No more
major bus rides until the trip home. Alex and I had planned to go up
volcano Concepcion all 1610 m (the other volcano, Maderas is smaller
at 1394) but the weather was simply disgusting and curtailed any climbing
whatsoever. What to do in the rain? There was a break in the weather
that morning and I went for a small hike through the Charco Verde reserve
which had the promise of howler monkeys and special birds which I don't
know the name of; a white and blue kind. It was very nice indeed, no
monkeys but I spotted the birds. The rest of the gang had done this
yesterday while I was horse riding and had seen the monkeys quite close
and a snake too! I guess the rain had sent everyone for cover. In fact
the rain cleared and on my return to the hotel Alex and John (the others
all left that rainy morning) were on their way to rent kayaks. I joined
them and we went out on the initially calm waters of Laguna de Nicaragua
to explore a tiny island around the corner (the peninsular) I was really
getting exercise in that day. The isle de Quiste would be a hard swim
away from the shore but possible, we were bobbing and dipping along
as we got across to it in our three kayaks. It was full of bird life
and had a beach on the calm side. I really wondered how many bull sharks
were in the lake ? John had a quick cool off I saved mine until we returned
a couple of hours later in the calm waters by the shore of the hotel.
I had time still to catch the last boat off the island and we sat down
at the restaurant to get some food. Earlier it had seemed easier for
the others to book a cab, so I relaxed and shouldn't have. Firstly I
was going to the boat alone and thus would have to bear the brunt of
the taxi fare of 10 dollars. I discovered that the bus was really not
so regular and useless unless you left on the one before the nearest
bus and that was due in 10 mins as I waited for my food. It was with
seeming delight to the waiter that my problem began to unfold, I wonder
if they have so many problems themselves and maybe due to money can't
solve them and imagine we never have problems I don't know. I wanted
to not just pay for a cab as that was a cop out and I felt like it would
have been cheating. There is always another way no? The hotel was a
10 minute hike from the hotel, I quickly packed while I waited for my
food. Returning to my table the food was ready and I wolfed it down,
I had decided to give myself a chance to hitch a lift on the main road
and get back to order a taxi if possible, a chance! Even though I KNEW
I would be taking that taxi I had to keep sodds law honest. My pack
was light and the sun had decided for the first time that day to shine
down on me. I was in my reef flip flops which had been worthy footwear
lasting six months in Central America, not to mention they opened bottles!
But having walked the streets (if they can be called streets) of CA
I didn't use them for that. I made it to the road and a deathly silence
filled the land separated but the two hulking volcanoes. One truck passed
by and would have run me down had I not moved to a more side line position,
obviously not stopping for me. I waited as long as I dare then started
back to book my taxi and bite the 10$ bullet.
With 200 meters to go the right flop gave out, what a spectacular and
poignant moment to die. If they had wanted to tell me "hey buddy
you know I'm getting tired of supporting all of your weight and plus
on't other side you torture me with jagged rocks- give me a break and
I will give you advance warning of my death." They may have done
in my world- Instead one died. I made it back with the right flop skidding
in a sideways position as I remember it. I asked of the proprietor NOT
the smug waiter if I could get a cab. A sinking feeling which had begun
to set in since nearly getting run over earlier had another strong wave
over me as some other guy at a table machine gunned Spanish to me as
the bullets "no taxi-in Spanish"
ripped a hole through my stomach. I had resigned myself to staying another
night. It transpired that there was a motorbike which was for emergencies
only (not that this really constitutes that) apparently. But it was
going to save me a day and I had not to stay another night. The twisted
flip flop was still skewed crossways across my foot as we took off !
Along the way I chatted to the owner of the place and discovered he
spoke Russian as he had lived there a good few years on some kind of
visa back in the days when Russia took a great interest in Nicaragua,
maybe there was some credence to regans crusade against the unnatural
spread of communism ?
I had made the boat, and I was grateful and was rewarded with some views of both volcanoes Conception and Maderas At the dock we were all greeted by the usual haranguing taxi drivers and I needed to get to San Juan Del Sur. I knew it wasn't far (so far) so was ok with the idea of getting a taxi and getting there. It seemed no one else was going there so I was negotiating with this one guy alone. We had gotten to a price I was ok with and arrived at the car. I threw in my small black bag and then saw that someone else was going that way after all, maybe I can save 50 % of the cost. So I tried to help another Nicarguan (the actual driver but not as I knew) get this guy to go with us in a taxi. At this point the guy I was negotiating with and whom I thought was the driver decided to take my mobile phone from out of the front pocket of my small bag. It was too late by the time I had discovered to do anything about it, and really my back was turned momentarily and fatigue clouded my usual paranoid and sharp mind. The first loss in 6 months, at least it wasn't my money or passport. I guess these people are poor, I tell myself and I do really feel lucky.
San Juan Del Sur is the spot for surfing in Nicaragua. However a quick
inspection of the bay filled with boats and no waves indicated to me
that there was no "in town" surfing, which I had been led
to believe somehow. It was a30 minute ride away but everyone would be
based here in actual fact. I stayed at the Casa Oro hostal and shared
a room the first night with the same guys who I shared the cab with
if only they were not interested in shaving $.25c off the price I would
not have lost my phone. I have to say from now on the next week was
to be clouded by the phone incident; mostly anger at me for dropping
my guard on the pretence that I assumed the culprit was the driver and
would dare not steal anything from my bag. Back to the story. San Juan
Del Sur is a nice size and I had fun staying in a hostal dorm room again
(the second night), I don't know why. I also met Ravive an Israeli friend
who had done his divemaster in Roatan at our shop. It was strange that
I didn't think anything of it when I first saw him in reception, and
the delay was there then WOW Ravive ! We went out caught up with each
other over food (oh yes ! since rejoining the mainland electricity was
again being
cut) we ate in semi darkness and chatted about Roatan now and what he
had done like his working at Cayos Cochinos diving. It was no comfort
to me that I discovered he had been relieved of his wallet somewhere
recent and was getting by until he got some money from home, you see
due to Israel and Lebanon fighting the war his credit card was not being
accepted! That first night there was a turtle egg laying tour just departing,
I was too tired to go straight out, and hoped I could do it the following
evening (no such luck no tour-that night they had spotted them early
and come hone at 11.oo pm). So I was going to do what I had decided
to go there for and just that, SURF! It has been a while and I hadn't
forgot too much, didn't trip over my leash and remembered how annoying
it was trying to get out back of a sand break which usually has a lot
of white water breaking irregularly in front of you until you get that
bit deeper and then it smoothes out in the back. I spent a good 6 hours
at a break called Madera. I had gotten to that point with a new found
friend Simon from Bournmouth who had a jeep and was "trying to
crack it" until moving on. He was not too bad a surfer at all in
fact, I managed to get ON at least 5 waves which I was happy with. It
was to be my only day since running out of time so I didn't worry that
my stomach was getting "rashed up" although it made the last
session an uncomfortable one. There was little that occurred of interest
that night as we were all pretty bushed and the prospect of loosing
electricity dampens one's enthusiasm. I had achieved a couple of good
"takeoff's" an amazing natural feeling that day surfing and
was damn contented after the disappointment of not getting on a volcano
a day ago.
The return to Roatan sin mobile loomed (couldn't call my friend in Managua
nor Marlen in Tegus) and I prepared for a couple of long days on the
buses. I managed San Juan Del Sur the next morning to Tegucigalpa that
night, after a border crossing with two interesting things to note.
One was that they didn't seem to want to give me an entry stamp (due
to a new paper which covers 4 countries Guatemala, el Salvador, Honduras
and Nicaragua) as I already had a good visa! Which I got at cost on
the way out...The other that during this discourse of visa etc I was
privy to the "leisure" room TV of the immigration guards and
their hard core porn they were currently watching. One guy towards the
end realised that the door was open and slowly went back into the room
and angled the TV away. I got to practise my neutral face against similar
odds that general custor himself must have faced.
Tegucigalpa was different this time around as I stayed in a hotel called Granada 2 which charged 15 dollars per night and I could get an alarm call via telephone (which I didn't need due to my internal alarm waking me) as now I was mobile less which had been serving as my alarm. I went out and saw the main square and a couple of things from the guide book, felt a certain Saturday night vibe which I allowed myself a small piece of as I needed to catch a bus early (4.00 am) if I was to make the afternoon ferry back to Roatan.
The bus trips back were ok. I was shocked to discover that my early start may have been in vain at San Pedro Sula as seemingly my bus from Tegus had been an hour late. It looked like I had missed the bus to La Ceiba but as my watch hadn't been changed since the border crossing in Nicaragua it was me who was wrong with the time and in fact I didn't miss the bus. But how on earth did I catch my Bus on time in Tegucigalpa which left at 5.00am ??? I had gotten up very early to get the last ferry in la Ceiba but had to still wait there over 2 hours, for me quite some time. The ferry seemed to take an eternity and I found it hard to find a cab, eventually I got back to discover my fridge at some point had defrosted and all the food decaying and a mouldy inside.
Bloody electric companies and phone thieves.
About the author:
calvin crane can be reached at www.calvincrane.com
and his current projects include a travel resource www.landed.at