Mars 2022 - Nicaragua - Isla de Ometepe, Popoyo

Our next stop in Nicaragua was Isla de Ometepe, and island with two volcanoes tied together with a chunk of land. We spent a whole week on this island, first exploring, hiking, and kayaking, and then a few days to just relax. The first three nights we spent in Moyogalpa, the town where we arrived with the ferry. Our hostel was a bit like a homestay as we had both breakfast and dinner in the family’s kitchen. One of the days we rented a scooter and drove around the island, which was longer than we expected, and with pretty bad roads in some parts, but with beautiful views.

Our first hike was the western volcano, Volcán Concepción, 1610 m high. The return trip took about 6,5 hours, and we walked about 16km. First we went through the forest, steep and sweaty in the heat, stopping occasionally when our guide showed us different plants and their usages. Once we got about halfway up, we took a bit longer break. As we got above the tree line we were greeted by strong winds which cooled us down quickly, though we took care to apply some extra sunscreen as the sun was still very strong. The last part of the hike we basically walked straight up the volcano on the steep, rocky and windy path. The crater was very impressive, and we enjoyed the incredible view from the top as well as a small lunch before we headed back down. In the trees on the way down we saw some howler monkeys, a capuchin monkey and plenty of blue jay magpies.

The last four days we spent at Finca Mystica, a place a bit further into the jungle on the south part of the island, with cozy bungalows and great food. The shuttle we took between our accommodations was kind enough to stop at Santa Cruz, where the weekly Saturday market offered various food and snacks, many of them vegetarian or vegan, so we could buy a bunch to bring with us. In the afternoon, we decided to join some other people at our hostel going kayaking in the wetlands. While the wetlands area was beautiful and we got to see lots of birds, turtles and a caiman, we had to paddle pretty far to and from this very small area, where we only spent about 10 minutes. However, we had good company and once we returned to the kayak place we enjoyed a few beers and the sunset before we headed back to Finca Mystica.

The next day, it was time to hike the second volcano, Volcán Maderas, 1394 m high. Maderas is a very old volcano which is now completely covered in forest, and with a crater lake. This hike was very different from hiking Concepción, and unlike any other volcano hike we have done before. When we got to about 1000 m elevation, the trail became very steep. Landslides had put big trees across the path, and we had to climb over, under and squeeze through branches and tree trunks, and often having to use both hands to climb our way up towards the summit. It was a lot of fun, definitely one of the more adventurous hikes we’ve done! As we had heard that it was possible to swim in the lake, we let our guide lead the way down into the crater. The trail down was very muddy and it didn’t take long before the both of us had stepped on what we thought was solid ground and ended up with a mud-covered shoe. And so, we were looking forward to a dip in the lake to wash off the mud before having some lunch. However, it turned out that the lake consisted of about 70% mud and just a small layer of water on top. Our attempts to swim ended up getting us more dirty than when we went in! If you ever find yourselves doing this hike – don’t try to swim in this lake. It’s not worth it. Overall we really enjoyed the hike though, and after hiking two volcanoes in just a few days we were happy to spend some more days just relaxing.

cloudy cloud forest

view of Concepción

the non-swimmable lake

Apparently we timed our stay with the last Sunday rodeo of the season, an event where all locals gather and there is plenty of food, drinks and music. This was however the same day that we hiked Maderas, and as we are not big fans of rodeo we decided to stay in, drink some local rum, and rest our tired feet. Others who went told us of a fun, chaotic evening with DJs as well as brass bands playing at the same time – no doubt an interesting experience.

Around this time, as we had been considering how and where to finish our trip and when to return home, the flight prices suddenly went up a lot, and we had to hastily buy a very expensive flight ticket back from Panama City. We also started to plan out a few stops in Costa Rica and Panama, and booked our accommodations during Easter as Semana Santa, as it’s called here, is a big holiday and we didn’t want to risk waiting and finding everything fully booked.

Time for our last stop in Nica, for which we chose Guasacate – the northern part of Playa Popoyo. Most hostels here were either expensive or fully booked, but we ended up finding a place via AirBnB – Casa La Aventura - that had a few rooms as well as our choice, a van remade into a “double room”. As with most of the Pacific Coast in this region, Popoyo is a surf spot, but we chose it as a place to relax, walk along the beach and read books. 

The hostess at our place told us about a turtle sanctuary a bit further north, where she had been lucky enough to see hundreds of turtles hatch, so we decided to rent bicycles for a day trip there. We stopped in El Astillero on the way, a small fishing village, where we had some nice lunch, including tostones con queso (fried plantain with big chunks of cheese). The last part of the road to the sanctuary was very steep, and we arrived tired, warm and sweaty only to find out that there were no turtles there, and that the beach still required and entrance fee to be paid. We managed to find another beach nearby where we rested a bit, before starting again on the long ride back. At least we got plenty of exercise, but I would say it’s not worth the trip (especially on rental bicycles) without knowing for certain it’s turtle season. A day walking along the beach and cooking some dinner was a nice way to finish off our time in Nica before heading to Costa Rica.

Mars 2022 - Nicaragua - León, Granada

Coming from the cool February weather in Honduras, the moment we stepped off the bus at the border to Nicaragua it felt like we were in the desert. The dry heat and scorching sun caught us a bit off guard. Once again we got dropped off by the side of the road in the dark, as our bus headed to San José while we made León our first stop in the country. León was a nice town with a strong backpacker vibe. Surrounded by volcanoes, there are enough activities to keep you occupied for days. We stayed our first two nights at Vía Vía, a backpacker hostel which also hosted one of the biggest tour agencies in the town - Volcano Day.

The first day we took our time to walk around the city, look at the colorful colonial buildings, and visit museums. First, we visited the Museum of Traditions and Legends, a small museum where we could read about myths, legends, folklore and fables. While the museum itself didn't feel like it was very well-visited, the stories were quite interesting - they seemed a bit weird and crazy, but then again most myths and legends do! It was even more rewarding when we returned to our hostel and saw that they had an entire mural depicting most of these mythical people and creatures; had we not gone to that museum we would have had no idea what we were looking at.

The second museum we visited was Museum of the Revolution. We were a bit surprised to find out that this was not a museum where you go around looking at things yourself. There was a single guide, who himself had participated in the revolution, who walked the tourists around the building and told the whole story, while showing old photographs and articles. With a mix of Spanish and English, he made sure everyone got the full story, even those who joined us when we had only gotten halfway. The tour of the building ended with a very sketchy walk up on the half broken tin roof (which had arrows painted on it to show where you needed to step) to show some views of the city. It was definitely a museum experience out of the ordinary.

view from a sketchy rooftop

In the afternoon, we took a shuttle from our hostel to the beach, which was only $2 for those who had booked a tour with Volcano Day. We spent a few hours reading and watching surfers, and then watched one of the most beautiful sunsets we've seen. Out of all the sunsets that we've seen, this was definitely special.

The next day we went on our Volcano Day tour. They offer tours to most of the surrounding volcanoes, but several of them were very expensive since the roads are pretty bad and you need a 4x4 to reach the starting points. The most popular tour here was to go volcano boarding - basically you get an overall and a board/sled and you get to go down the sandy slopes of Cerro Negro pretty fast. We thought this might be a bit touristy for us (there were big groups going from many different tour operators every day) so we instead picked something we thought would suit us a bit better: an overnight hike to Volcán Telica, around 1030 m high. Our group was very small, as we were joined only by two more people, one of which who was working as a volunteer at the hostel, plus our guide. As we started the hike around midday, the trail up was hot, dry, and dusty. We set up camp near the top and went up to the very big and impressive crater, where we watched the sun set over the volcanoes to the west. In the morning, we walked the short path up to the crater again to watch the sun rise over the volcanoes to the east, before taking a short route down on the other side where the car to take us back was waiting. We had a really nice time at Telica, and the only thing we could complain about was that we wished we got a little more food.

On the topic of food, our go-to in León was a spot behind one of the churches where some women served various grilled treats and you can just point at the ones you want. A lot of them were meat of course, but we also found some nice halloumi-like cheese, cheese filled potato, fried yuca, fried banana and more. Served of course with some salad, and the traditional Nican gallo pinto - rice with beans.

Our next destination in Nicaragua was Granada, a town that felt even more touristy but less backpack-y. A long walking street packed with restaurants selling the same type of food and offering the same happy hour deals, but every single one playing different music - seemed to be targeting mostly local tourists. We found our own favorite spot at Pan de Vida - a brick oven bakery/pizza place with a cozy backyard. While we found their pizza to be more like crisp bread with topping, their huge slices of banana bread, big cinnamon rolls, great coffee, and cocktail deals to match the walking street (2 cocktails for $3) had us coming back on a daily basis.

Like León, Granada also offers volcanoes to see. After inquiring at a tour agency, we decided to visit Volcán Mombacho, 1344 m, on our own, hoping to save some money by taking a chicken bus. However, we found out that it was not really a cheap deal to visit Mombacho. Being an old, tree-covered volcano, it had three walking trails on the top, and the way to that top was about 5km long and very steep. As we got to the ticket office, we were informed that a car ride up would cost an additional $15 on top of the $5 that was the entrance. Then, we would have to pay a second fee depending on which trail we wanted to walk - the shortest one cost only $2, while the longest one which we were hoping to walk, was $6 but also required a guide, which would cost an additional $17 for a Spanish-speaking guide, or $22 for and English-speaking guide. Since we thought the car ride up the mountain was too expensive we wanted to walk up, but figured we would likely be too tired to walk the long trail when we got there, so in the end we only payed $7/person, but indeed we got a lot of exercise!

howler

That road up the mountain was really steep, almost the entire way. At least, we got to see a lot of howler monkeys, and we got a nice view at the top. The heat had us compeltely drenched, though, and tired. Walking down that steep hill again was not much easier. We wanted to take a little detour on our way back and took a chicken bus to Masaya, famous for its craft market. However, we got there tired and hungry and had to hunt down some quesillos (quite similar to pupusas - cheese filled tortillas) first. When we got to the market it was late enough that it was empty of people and most stalls starting to close up, but we did have enough time to find two small vases as souvenirs.

The next day, as our legs needed some rest, we decided to let the upper half of our bodies work instead! We rented kayaks, and headed out among the islets of Granada, 365 small islands in Lake Nicaragua that were formed as a reaulst of an eruption by Mombacho, a very long time ago. It was very beautiful, and quite nice to just paddle around the different islands. Some hosting fancy resorts or houses, while others were home to monkeys, or bats that camouflaged against the bark of a tree. The tamales that we had bought at the market and brought for lunch though was a bit disappointing as they had no flavouring or filling at all, not even salt I think - not at all like the big and tasty nacatamal that we had bought from a kiosk on the square two days before. As we found it was time to paddle pack to mianland, the sun was already high in the sky and we nearly got burnt to crisps before we got back. After another day filled with adventure, we enjoyed some gallo pinto with cheese and tajadas (banana chips here) with an iced cacao drink from our favorite kiosk.

Overall, we preferred León over Granada as we found it to have a nicer atmosphere and better and cheaper food. The cheap and high quality cocktails in Granada was a nice treat though!

Januari 2022 - Guatemala - Flores, San Pedro La Laguna

 At this point we have been travelling for a month and a half, and we feel like we are really getting into the travel mode. I feel like I'm a bit behind on writing these posts as I am enjoying doing nothing or reading books more than taking the time to write - this truly is a time to relax and enjoy the moment! And so, that's why this first part of Guatemala is getting written as we are about to leave El Salvador. Here are some overall impressions of Guatemala:

• A colorful country with a lot of culture
• The breakfast - desayuno tipico - is filling and tasty: many Guatemalan dishes will be served with frijoles and fried plantains, and the avocado is plentiful and always perfectly ripe. We seriously had avocado or guacamole with a majority of all our meals
• Guatemala has a very clear backpacker trail, which means beautiful places are often also touristy - although that can mean that it's easy to find people who speak a little English, and that you can get an abundance of vegetables in the vegetarian food options
• People here are kind and helpful, though taxi drivers (especially in the capital) will try to rip you off
• The local "chicken buses" are repainted old American school buses which reminded us a little bit of the jeepneys in the Philippines 

Let's start at the start. The border crossing from Mexico was very straight forward, the only complicated part was getting the antigen-test in Palenque, as I mentioned in the last post. Our first stop in Guatemala was Flores - a small island in a big lake. Basically, the island is where all the tourists hang out, and on the other side of the bridge, the town of Santa Elena is where most of the locals live. Flores is also the jumping-off point for going to Tikal, the ancient Maya ruins. Booking this tour was one of the first thing we did. Surprisingly, the difference in cost between going with or without a guide was very small, so we decided to go with for a change. We chose to go early in the morning, although not the "sunrise option" which was more expensive. Probably a good choice as well, as it was a rainy day and no sun to be seen.

Going with a guided tour of course meant we had to adapt to the pace of the guide and the group, but we did enjoy getting that bit of extra information. Overall, the temples of Tikal were impressive - huge, and ancient - in the middle of the rainforest. One of the highlights though were of course the wildlife we spotted near the café where we waited for a bit before starting the walk: some different types of wild turkeys, coatis, and some kind of small capybara!

While in Flores, we also took the opportunity to explore some caves just south of Santa Elena. A much less visited site, but definitely worth a visit - although I would recommend some Spanish skills as our guide did not speak any English at all. We opted for the "long tour" (the short option did not require a guide) which was about 2 hours, and included crawling on our bellies through some small openings and walking through quite a big part of the cave system. Definitely a different experience, but pretty cool I'd say! 

the guide instructed me to pose like this, a classic apparently

Another highlight of Flores was taking a boat the short distance across the lake. There are some places to stay there as well, but few options for restaurants and shops. What they do have however, is a viewpoint where you see the island - a perfect postcard picture. There is also a beach where you can hang for a while, and a bar with cheap drinks and snacks just by the water. Watching the sunset from there was just perfect.

At first we were thinking of heading to Semuc Champey next, known for the beautiful waterfalls, but getting there seemed both difficult and expensive, so in the end we decided to get a night bus to the capital and then head to either Lago Atitlán or Antigua. It was almost down to a coin flip; in the end we decided on Lago Atitlán - more specifically, San Pedro La Laguna. There would be a chicken bus heading there without any transfers, so we planned for that. A few things happened on the way, however.

First, we arrived earlier than expected in Guatemala City - 4.30 AM - and it was still dark, so we decided to take a taxi to the bus stop with the San Pedro bus. Even after bargaining hard, we still had to pay quite a lot for the short drive with a guy who had the "taxi" sign in the trunk rather than on the actual car. I'm not 100% sure he was an actual taxi driver. During the drive he also tried to convince us to let him drive us all the way to San Pedro, which would surely have been incredibly expensive. As we arrived to the bus stop he also tried to convince us that there were no buses running that day, and that we should instead let him take us to a hotel. We throught that sounded odd, it was a Monday after all. In the end we just walked away from the taxi and asked a local guy about the bus to San Pedro. He assured us we were in the right location and told us that he was also going there. Five minutes later, the bus arrived!

All good, we thought... until about two hours later, barely halfway to San Pedro when the traffic suddenly stood completely still. Turned out there was a blockade, not letting any vehicles through. No one seemed to know really what was going on, and for a long time we just waited on the bus. Then the other passengers started to leave, and eventually the local guy from the bus station told us (communicating some in Spanish and some via translation app, as he didn't speak much English) that he was going to walk to the other side of the blockade and try to catch another bus there. We followed. 

After that, we alternated between walking (with our big backpacks), waiting by the side of the road, and spending a couple of minutes on a chicken bus, or on a colectivo (so full that we were hanging out of the door). Eventually however, there were no more buses or colectivos as the road was blocked every few kilometers. We started walking more, and trying to hitchhike. Every now and then, someone would let us ride on the back of their truck until the next roadblock. At one point, around 3 PM, we still had more than 30km left and saw fewer and fewer cars passing - we started to lose hope that we would make it to San Pedro (and the hotel we had booked) that day. But how would we spend the night?

Thankfully, just a few kilometers later the blockades eased up, and we just had to take another colectivo, truck and tuktuk before we arrived in our town at 6.30 PM, about 10 hours after we were supposed to arrive. All in all, we had walked around 17km, and mainly eaten some sugar packed snacks that were sold by the side of the road - all the restaurants and shops were also closed - so we were exhausted, but happy, to finally be in San Pedro. All with the help of this local guy who had been able to guide us and talk to people along the way. I can say for certainty that it would not have been possible without him to help us.

Well in San Pedro, we spent a full week. San Pedro is a small and cute, but touristy, town just by the lake, and from our hotel we had a beautiful view of the lake and the mountains and volcanos nearby. We enrolled in Spanish classes, one of the popular acitivities there. Our classroom was a table, a whiteboard and some chairs just by the lake, and our teacher was a local woman who lived nearby. For the next five days, we spent four hours every afternoon improving our Spanish grammar and vocabulary. In the mornings, we would go kayaking to a pretty beach, hike up to the viepoint of Rostro Maya, or just relax. We were hoping to hike the volcanos as well, but most of the travel aggencies were currently not organizing any tours there due to risk of robbery at the summit. While a much shorter hike and lower summit, Rostro Maya still offered a nice experience and incredibly beautiful views from the top. 

Beautiful views from Rostro Maya, with San Pedro town & volcano in the background

Local fisherman / view from our kayaks

Our "classroom"

sunrise over a tiny volcano

We also visited the nearby village San Juan, which was very cute and colorful with plenty of murals, a main street that was just a long market, and plenty of decorations around. On our last day, we took a day trip to Chichicastenango, which hosts one of the largest markets in Central America two times per week. We were hoping to find some nice souvenirs there, but while it was interesting to see, the busy, narrow streets offered either mass produced items for tourists, or fabrics and clothes for the locals. There were some beatiful pieces of fabrics, but they turned out to be table runners (and not scarves, as I was hoping for) so we skipped that and instead bought a pretty painting i San Juan. After a week by the lake we felt relaxed and refreshed, and ready for new adventures in Antigua.

Colorful San Juan La Laguna

Chichicastenango market

corn!