26 June 2013

Week 39 - Leon, Esteli, Matagalpa, San Salvador (Nicaragua, El Salvador)

We had a relaxed last day in Leon. Rhys got me to a agree to a Burger King for lunch before we headed to the Centro de Arte Fundación Ortiz Gurdián, a small art gallery composed of two restored, colonial buildings housing exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, images, and contemporary arts. After the gallery we wondered the streets for a while before Rhys headed back to the hostel and I popped out for a haircut. Later Rhys headed to the cinema to watch Superman in the air conditioned theatre as respite from the heat of Leon - we’re talking 34 Celsius minimum every day. That evening we headed to a bar for a few quite drinks with Charlie, an Irish guy who we went volcano boarding with.

The next day we left Leon and headed east to the central highlands and Estelí. Estelí isn’t the prettiest place in the world but apparently is a hotbed of political activity having seen heavy fighting and serious bloodshed during the Revolution. We checked in to a little hotel near the cathedral and after a brief wonder around town to orientate ourselves, stopped for a street food burger dinner. 

We were up early the following day (just after the air raid siren had gone off in the square, no idea what that was for) to catch a bus out to Somoto, a village 20km from the Honduran border. Having arranged a tour in Estelí, we were met by our guide at the bus station and piled in to a taxi to his house. We dropped off our bags, donned the wet shoes provided and jumped back in the taxi to the entrance of the Somoto Canyon national park. We spent the next 4 or so hours wading down river, hopping from boulder to boulder, swimming in the deeper bits and hurling ourselves off of the rock walls into the river below. I think the biggest jump I managed was about 12m with Rhys braving 16m. The canyon was extremely peaceful and beautiful, other than one family we didn’t see any tourists, just locals fishing. The trip ended with a short boat trip and a walk back to the guides house where we had lunch before grabbing a taxi back to the bus station and an express bus back to Estelí. 

Our next stop was Matagalpa, an hour and a half further east. Matagalpa has a prettier setting than Estelí, set as it is in the mountains, surrounded by bright green coffee plantations and alpine pastures. We spent the afternoon exploring the small town and sitting in a small coffee shop watching football on the TV.

Day two in Matagalpa we headed to the bus station for a bus to the Selva Negra, a stretch of pine clad mountains named by the area’s German immigrants in the nineteenth century after their homeland’s Black Forest. From the bus stop it was a 1.5km walk to the hotel where we paid our entrance and picked up a trail map. As it had rained during the night the paths were pretty muddy and at times were quite steep and overgrown but the forest was beautiful. We spent 3 hours walking 7km along a selection of the the trails listening to the birds and avoiding stepping on poisonous coral snakes before the heavens opened and we had to dive into the restaurant to avoid getting drenched. Rhys had found a small army of termites had made one of his hiking boots their home (they were literally covered in them, looked like the shoe was alive) so he hiked in his Etnies and ended up on the floor more than once as a result of the lack of grip and slippery slopes. After a disappointing cup of coffee (as a working coffee finca that apparently produces some of the best export grade coffee in the country, you would expect the coffee to be amazing), and a slice of cake the rain had subsided enough for us to walk back to the main road to wait for the bus. Unfortunately the bus stop was right next to a cock fighting ring and we had to spend 30 minutes watching truck loads of men rocking up to watch the ‘sport’, hearing the cocks crowing and listening to the spectators cheering.

We returned to Estelí at lunch time the following day and checked back in to the same hotel. Having already seen everything that we wanted to in town we spent the day catching up on emails and the like.

The week ended with an early start, having been awoken by the air raid siren and hundreds of fire crackers (they are obsessed with fireworks in Central America and set them off at any time of the day and anywhere) and a taxi to a petrol station on the InterAmericana where we sat for over an hour waiting for the Ticabus to turn up. A pleasant break from chicken buses we’d booked a Ticabus coach to San Salvador as we decided to skip Honduras altogether - not only because it meant we’d have more time in Guatemala and Mexico for where we’ve been hearing rave reviews from other backpackers but because we’d also heard a ridiculous amount of scare stories about how dangerous Honduras is at the moment with people walking the streets with guns and swords. Although a lot of people are still visiting the Bay Islands, because we don’t dive and we’re planning on spending time on beaches further north we decided we’d just race through on an international bus to El Salvador. 

The border crossings were a breeze with Ticabus organising all the practicalities for a small admin fee and the 2 hours we spent driving though southern Honduras made it look stunning and somewhere we wouldn’t be against coming back to when things have settled down in years to come. 

Once in El Salvador the bus went straight to San Salvador, the capital. From the drop off point we jumped in a taxi to the hostel we’d booked on line. We’d read reviews that it was hard to find but we weren’t ready for the hour it took the cab driver to find the place bearing in mind we were armed with an address, directions and a phone number. We finally got there after dark and were glad they served food onsite and the rooms were furnished with minibars so we didn’t have to venture out.
Massive tree, Selva Negra, Matagalpa.
Somoto Canyon, near Esteli.
Us looking snazzy in our life jackets, Somoto Canyon, near Esteli.
Me star jumping into the river, Somoto Canyon, near Esteli.

20 June 2013

Week 38 - Granada, Masaya, Leon (Nicaragua)

As the buses on Isla de Ometepe are few and far between we decided to jump on the back of a pick-up to get back to the port in Moyagalpa so we could make it to Granada before dinner time. We timed it perfectly and arrived in time to board the 11am ferry for the crossing back to San Jorge and the mainland. From there, we took a collectivo to the bus terminal/market in Rivas and onto a chicken bus for the final leg of the journey into Granada. On arrival we checked into a new hostel, whose owners we’d met on Ometepe. After saying hello to the resident monkey, we were straight in the pool to cool off. Since it was already early evening we only popped out to get our bearings and to buy hot dogs from the street stalls for dinner. Back at the hostel, Adrienne who we had met on the bus and a few people staying at out hostel sat in the bar until the early hours chatting and enjoying the rum and cokes.

The next day we were feeling a little worse for wears, we ventured out to an Irish bar, one of the most popular spots in Granada for lunch before heading back to the hostel to chill. Later that afternoon I left Rhys on the computer and headed into town to explore. Like every colonial town, the focus is the cathedral and Parque Central with colourful buildings lining the streets radiating from it. Every where you turn there are horse drawn carts decorated with an abundance of ribbons. My first stop was the Fuerte La Polvora, an 18th century fort that is a bit run down on the outside but has a peaceful little courtyard interior that you could peer into through the locked gates. My second stop was in an amazing little coffee shop opposite the Xalteva church where I whiled away a happy hour with a cappuccino and a copy of the latest issue of Monocle. Back towards the centre of town and I stopped to climb the bell tower of La Merced church only to get to the top to be deafened by the 4 o’clock bell ringing. A quick walk along the Calle La Calzada, the main street for bar and restaurants where tables and chairs spill out onto the pedestrianised road and a brief stop at the church San Francisco and I headed back to the hostel. After a quick dinner at a little local restaurant we turned in for an early night.

We had intended to spend the next day at Laguna Apoyo but unfortunately they need 4 people to run the shuttles and the other two who had signed up didn’t turn up. The cost of a taxi for two of us seemed steep so we decided on a chill day just relaxing at the hostel.

We left Granada on Saturday to head to Masaya, a little town 40 minutes away famed for its artisanal market. We checked in to a dirt cheap hostel for £4 a night for 2 people in a private room and went for a wonder around town and to check out the markets. If we were just on holiday and could bear the thought of carrying huge wooden bowls or paintings with us we could have spent a fortune but as it was we came away empty handed. Other than the artisanal market Masaya has little to offer tourists, the main market out by the bus stop is pretty dirty and confusing and after rain the pathways turned into mud tracks - you can however buy pretty much anything there should you want to.

Our second day in Masaya we were up early to catch a taxi to Volcan Masaya National Parque. From the entrance it was an easy 1.5km walk to the visitor centre where after a look at the exhibitions we arranged for a ranger to drive us the last 5km to the crater. Masaya continually emits large amounts of sulfur dioxide gas (from the active Santiago crater) and it’s quite impressive to see the smoke billowing out of the crater and up into the sky. A number of the viewpoints are currently closed after an eruption last year so we weren’t there for too long before the ranger drove us back to the entrance from where we flagged down a bus back into Masaya. Back at the bus terminal/waste land/market we jumped on another bus heading to Catarina, one of the ‘Pueblos Blancos’ - white villages so called for the white wash buildings and the white magic that used to be performed there. Catarina has a spectacular mirador overlooking the Laguna de Apoyo crater lake and to Lago Nicaragua with a number of volcanoes and mountains spreading out in the distance as far as the eye can see. Although you can walk down to the lake from here Rhys was a little under the weather and we settled for lunch at one of the restaurants overlooking the mirador. After lunch we wondered through the town which is full of craft stalls and plant nurseries, back to the main road for a bus back to Masaya. While Rhys stayed in the hostel for the rest of the afternoon I went back to the market to browse and sat in the main square people watching for a couple of hours.

We left Masaya the following day and caught a bus to Managua. From the bus terminal we jumped in a taxi across town to the shuttle bus stop for the drive to Leon. Sitting with our bags practically on our laps it was extremely uncomfortable but at least it was only an hour and a half. In Leon we got in a cycle taxi to Backpacker Street and checked in to a little family run hostel. We headed out for a quick wonder to the cathedral, the biggest in Central America and undergoing a face-lift after the most recent explosion of Cerro Negro coated it in black volcanic ash. On our way back to the hostel we bumped in to Adrienne from Granada and arranged to meet her at her hostel that evening for drinks.

The following day we booked to go volcano boarding with Bigfoot, the most well known hostel in Nicaragua and reputedly the owners of the fastest boards. The trip started with a 45 minute drive on the back of a truck though twisting dirt tracks out to Volcan Cerro Negro. Once there we began an hour long hike to the top at an elevation of 728m, stopping to peer into the crater and feel the heat of the ground. The volcano is the youngest in Nicaragua at only 160 years old and has erupted a staggering 23 times in it’s lifetime. It is a gravelly basaltic cinder cone black in colour and contrasts greatly with the surrounding verdant hillsides. The views from the top were breathtaking and you can see the Central American Volcanic Arc spreading out north to Honduras. At the top we had a quick guide on how to board before donning our orange jump suits and lining up to take it in turns to sit on our wooden plank, hold onto the rope and speed down the volcano. The experience is included on the CNN “Thrill seeker's bucket list: 50 experiences to try before you die” at number 2, second only to flying a jet plane. Now i’m not sure if it was that good but it was great fun, we didn’t come close to the 91kph record, Rhys reached the dizzy heights of 38kph and I clocked in at 41kph and it was all over before you’d really had a chance to master the technique but all the same I would highly recommend it. Back in town we enjoyed an included mojito before retiring to the shower to wash the volcanic rock out of our hair. That night we arranged to meet up with some of the people from our trip at a bar nearby and sat drinking half bottles of £2.25 rum until closing time.

View of Granada from La Merced bell tower.
The smoking crater of Volcan Masaya.
The Laguna Apoyo crater lake, outside of Masaya.
The biggest cathedral in Central America, Leon.
Hiking Cerro Negro, near Leon.
Rhys at the crater of Cerro Negro, near Leon.
Rhys in his snazzy jumpsuit ready to board Cerro Negro, near Leon.

12 June 2013

Week 37 - San Juan del Sur, Isla Ometepe (Nicaragua)

We left San Jose early doors and walked a kilometre to the office for the bus company heading to Penas Blancas and the Nicaraguan border. 5 hours later we were at the border and had a surprisingly easy crossing despite the confusing layout and lack of signage to tell you where to go and the stories of 2 hour crossings. We made it on to a Rivas bound bus just as a fight broke out at the bus stop, wondering what Nicaragua had in store for us. After we left the border our impression of Nicaragua instantly improved with the locals shouting at us to get off the bus at a cross road to catch the San Juan del Sur bus.

San Juan del Sur, is a cute little town on the Pacific coast full of hostels, bars and surf shops. Although the beach in town is decent enough, everywhere offers transfers to the surrounding beaches where the surf is supposed to be world class - we didn’t make it out of the town. The first afternoon, after a wonder around to get our bearings, we ended up at happy hour at one of the bars right on the beach to watch the sunset, you can’t turn down $1 beers and rum and cokes. Once happy hour had finished a storm drifted in and we ended up running through the streets, shoes in hand, ‘Tom Cruise’ style, to a little curry restaurant we’d spied earlier. Back at the hostel we were happy to see the electricity had finally come on having been off all day.

The next day we’d intended to head to a nearby beach but decided instead to relax in town. Rhys stayed at the hostel to fix the computer while I wondered around town and along the beach, amazed at all the driftwood brought in by the storm and the unusual sight of people actually clearing it (this never seems to happen in South America). In the afternoon we headed up to Pelican Eyes, one of the plushiest hotels in the area where rooms were completely out of price range at upwards of $180 a night, but where they let you pay a couple of dollars to use the infinity pool with views out over the bay. An amazing storm with ridiculous thunder and lightening started just as we got in from dinner.

We left San Juan del Sur as soon as we woke to catch the chicken bus (an old American School bus, normally pimped to the nines) to Rivas. We were dropped in a frenetic market area where we ended up paying over the odds for a cab to get us to the dock in San Jorge thinking there was a ferry at 11:30. The ferry didn’t leave until 12:30. We ended up spending an hour sitting on the rickety old wooden boat waiting for it to leave. By 2pm we had docked in Moyogalpa, the main town of Isla de Ometepe.

Isla de Ometepe is Lago Nicaragua’s largest island and a bit of a backpacker hub. The island is dominated by the cones of two volcanoes, the active Volcan Concepcion in the north rising to 1,610m and the dormant Volcan Maderas in the south, standing at 1,394m. It’s an incredibly laid back and peaceful place with just one road running as a ‘figure 8’ around the two volcanoes. On arrival we negotiated a taxi to take us from the dock in the main town across to the southern, quieter side of the island, to the small village of Balgue and Finca Magdelena. The Finca is an old hacienda, converted into an organic coffee co-operative. Using our new bargaining skills picked up from Fleur we managed to get a private room for a bargain $10 a night before heading back along the 1km track from the Finca to the village to an amazing little cafe, Cafe Campestre, for a delicious organic, fresh meal and to pick up an equally yummy packed lunch for the next day. Back at the Finca we settled down to watch the mesmorising sunset over Volcan Concepcion from the veranda enjoying bargainous rum and cokes. 

We were up early again the next day to meet our compulsory guide for a hike up the verdant slopes of Volcan Maderas, the smaller of the two volcanoes on the island and supposedly the easier walk. The volcano is clothed in cloud forest filled with monkeys, birds, and super loud cicada bugs and we were lucky enough to spot a brightly coloured venomous coral snake. The hike is supposed to take 7-8 hours. We managed it in 6 ¼ hours. It took 3 hours to walk to the crater lake, a pretty steep and slippery up hill slog followed by a 10 minute downhill in to the crater. The lake was covered in cloud when we got there and was very mystical but I wouldn’t say mind blowing. We ate our sandwiches before starting the return leg which was just as difficult as the uphill since it had rained a bit and we were scrambling over muddy, slippery boulders. It was a shame that the clouds were low so our views over Volcan Concepcion and the lake were limited but all the same it was worthwhile. As we got back to the Finca a storm hit, great timing! We spent the rest of the day eating cake, drinking coffee grown in the Finca and finishing the bottle of rum from the night before. 

We’d intended to walk into the village and catch the bus back up to Santa Domingo, a little stretch of hostels lining the islands main beach. That was until we found out that buses don’t run on a Sunday. We ended up calling a taxi which for the sake of ease was worth every penny. We checked into a little loft room just as another storm hit and apart from a short walk along the beach, spent the day at the hostel with lunch at a nearby comedor.

The rains continued all of the next day and ruined our plans of renting a scooter. Rhys hung around the hostel and I only ventured out for a short walk along the road and down a footpath before realising that plastic flipflops and ankle deep mud were a bad combo.

Luckily when we woke the following day the rain had subsided, we booked in to the hostel for another night and headed out to rent a scooter for the day. It took us about an hour to get up to the main port town in the north, Moyogalpa where we stopped at a great little cafe for lunch. Since we couldn’t take the scooter along the unpaved road we turned back the way we came. We made two stops, the first at a beach/mirador, Punta Jesus Maria where a spit of sand juts out into the lake from where you can see both volcanoes. Our second stop was at the museum. We haven’t been to a museum in ages and thought it would be worth a look, if you don’t speak Spanish I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s by guided tour only and there are about 4 rooms showing the history of Nicaraguan money and then another 4 rooms with archaeological finds from the island. Next we were back on the scooter to ride around to the eastern side of the northern volcano to the second largest town, Altagracia, before heading back south to El Ojo de Agua, two outdoor swimming pools in the forest filled with thermal spring water with medicinal qualities. We didn’t have swim wear with us so only stayed long enough to dangle our legs in before heading on to El Porvenir, a hacienda where for a small fee you can walk around the grounds and admire the ancient petroglyphs, swirling patterns and stylised animals carved in the basalt rocks. We ended the day back at the cafe in Balgue for an early dinner before returning the scooter.
Rhys in the pool at Pelican Eyes Hotel, San Juan del Sur.
Sunset over Volcan Concepcion from Finca Magdelana, Isla Ometepe.
Hiking Volcan Maderas, Isla Ometepe.
Storks on Santo Domingo beach, Isla Ometepe.
Riding our scooter, Isla Ometepe.
Petroglyphs, El Porvenir, Isla Ometepe.

5 June 2013

Week 36 - Pacuare Nature Reserve, Tortuguero, San Jose (Costa Rica)

We started the week at the north station of the Pacuare Nature Reserve, having written a lot of detail on the reserve last week I’ll concentrate on the highlights (and lowlights) in this week’s blog.

Alongside the activities I talked about last week, we also had the option of going out at 5am on the census, a walk of the beach in day light to make sure nothing was missed on night patrols, to count trails where hatchlings had hatched in the night and to check for any other activity. We went on one census in the north station and came across 4 hatched nests. A quick check of the top sand of the hatched nests (nests are about 50 – 70cm deep) for trapped hatchlings and we came across one who hadn’t made it out. He was so cute, a little dazed at first but he soon found his feet (flippers) and headed off to the sea, we named him Billy.

After 4 nights at the north station we packed our bags to head to the south station where we were due to stay for the remainder of our visit. After lunch we headed to the beach for a couple of hours to clear vines without any of the assistants bothering to join us. At 5pm we stopped work and headed to the hatchery – an area where some nests have been relocated for research purposes based on the temperature of the nests which determines the sex of the turtles. The nests were hatching and we were lucky enough to be there for the release of 13 hatchlings. They handed tiny hatchlings to us over the fence and pointed us to an area of shade where we could release them, for something so small they’re flippers were already pretty powerful and it was hard not trying not to drop them as they wiggled about. We let them go and watched as they made their way to the sea. You can’t help but laugh and smile as you see them go and getting wiped out with the first waves.

That night we’d asked to go on the 8pm patrol as all the turtles we’d seen so far had been out before midnight and the midnight shift is horrible messing with your sleep patterns. As soon as we started we noticed that the patrol was different with the assistant making constant contact with security with her torch and freaking when she saw a white light on the beach (assistants use red, poachers use white), it wasn’t until we reached the 3.5km mark where we met the patrol from the north station that we found out why. On a turtle project 30-40km along the coast an assistant had been shot by poachers while out on patrol with 4 foreigners. The assistants were shocked that we’d been kept in the dark and not having all the facts at our disposal we were angry and nervous about being on the beach. Fleur asked to be taken back to the station having had a bad experience in Colombia and we started back. Just when you least want it, we stumbled across a turtle and all agreed to stay with her until she was back in the sea. For an hour we all forgot about the shooting and were mesmerised by the turtle.

On the way back we bumped into Alvaro who was doing the midnight shift alone, closely followed by a security guard (where was our security guard?) and asked him why we weren’t told, he said we’d talk tomorrow and off we went to sleep on it. 

The next morning we had a meeting with Alvaro and Isabel after breakfast. We’d made up our minds that we wanted to leave, more because we didn’t want to create an awkward atmosphere than because we felt unsafe. Once we had all the facts I think me and Rhys would have gone on patrol anyway, the guy was singled out because he was petitioning for more police presence on his beach to stop poaching, it wasn’t a random shooting. The press release talks about drugs traffickers being unhappy that usually deserted beaches were being patrolled by environmentalists and that suggests that our beach could also have been at risk of attack. We were shocked that the team at the reserve had made the decision not to tell us, giving the reason that they wanted to keep things as normal as possible having spoken to the coast guard and the police and deemed there to be no risk – that doesn’t explain the increased security presence on the patrols that night, the reduced number of patrols (3 instead of 5) and the decision not to let anyone patrol alone! I am sure the Pacuare Reserve is a safe place for volunteers, it doesn’t border a town and access is difficult because the waves crash at the shore. There is a constant security guard presence watching the sea for boats and the poachers know this and no poachers have been seen on the beach at all this season – before the reserve was established, 98% of eggs were poached, now only 2% are poached. Poachers are far more likely to go to the beaches that can be accessed easily and where the patrls are understaffed. Our decision to leave the reserve was more based upon the way we’d been treated and not wanting to ruin such an amazing week by spending 2 days being awkward.

We caught a boat just before lunch for the 2 hour journey along the canal to Tortuguero. The boat trip was beautiful, winding through the waterways (which are more like murky rivers than British canals) surrounded by rainforest, spotting monkeys and birds along the way. The majority of the journey was actually through the Parque Nacional Tortuguero, an area which protects not only the canal and the surrounding forest but the stretch of beach that runs parallel and which is an important green turtle nesting site (Tortuguero translated means “Turtle Place”). The village itself was incredibly peaceful and despite it’s isolation with no road access (and so no cars) on a spit of land between the sea and the canal, it’s one of Costa Rica’s most popular spots, mainly because of the spectacular biodiversity. We were glad to be there before the green turtle season kicked in which meant the visitor numbers weren’t so high and it was quite peaceful.

After settling in to a hostel on the sea front with a great communal veranda (Fleur is amazing at bargaining the price down!) we headed for a beer by the canal before drinks at the hostel.

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to meet our guide, Castor, for a 3 hour canoe tour of the canals. There were 8 of us in the boat and only 4 oars so we had to take it in turns rowing while Castor steered us around the canals pointing out monkeys, Jesus Christ Lizards (they can actually walk on water!), caiman and lots and lots of birds. Back on dry land we had a nap before heading back into the National Park to walk the land trail along the coast. It wasn’t anywhere near as pretty as Cahuita but was full of lizards of all different shapes and sizes - you’d be upset if you paid your $10 entrance and only did the walk but it was worth it with the canoe trip in the morning.

As we got back to the hostel we found Fleur in a bad way, something had gone in her eye and scratched her cornea and James ended up calling 911 and rushing her back to the mainland to meet an ambulance to get her to a clinic - she’s on the mend now. 

We’d intended to leave the next day but decided to have a chill day, Rhys stayed at the hostel and I only ventured out to buy cake and browse the souvenir shops (not that we’re actually buying any souvenirs, souvenirs = more weight). James and Fleur got back early evening as we were enjoying a glass of wine on the veranda and joined us for cards and take out dinner. After spending the last month traveling on and off together and having shared the once in a lifetime turtle reserve experience it was sad to be saying bye to Fleur and James, although we hope that they’ll get bored with Costa Rica and head up to Nicaragua sooner than planned to catch us up.

We ended the week in San Jose having left Tortuguero on a boat to La Pavona docks an hour away and catching a bus to Cariari and another bus in to San Jose. Arriving late afternoon we jumped in a cab to the hostel I stayed at last time I was here with Mum - we stayed in the room next door, happy memories! (Miss you mum). Since San Jose doesn’t have much to offer and a storm was just starting we decided to make for KFC and then chill watching a movie in the hostel.

Hatchlings heading for the sea, Pacuare Nature Reserve.
Heron in Tortuguero National Park.
Canoeing in Tortuguero National Park.
Adult leatherback turtle heading back to the sea, Pacuare Nature Reserve.