Sooo, been a while. A few reasons, most importantly just did not feel like writing this because it is not the funnest thing in the world to do. But, I finally did it.
So a while back, a few weeks ago we had a 4 day weekend for the Nicaraguan Independence day. So me and 2 other people from work took the Friday off as well so we could have 5 days to do some traveling. And some traveling we did, here is the break down.
The Thursday night we broke rule number one of traveling in third world countries and took the night bus after work to Managua because we wanted to get that leg of the trip done and over with. We got to Managua at around 10pm found a hostel and were hungry. The lady at the hostel told us not to go past the first corner where there was a small restaurant because it was a dangerous neighbourhood. I don’t know if this was actually the case or if she got a percentage of the bill for the customers she sent there. Either way we did not feel like pressing our luck by wondering around an unknown nieghbourhood in Managua at night.
Friday we woke up nice and early at 6am and got some good ole breakfast at a local place. Of course I had some delicious gallopinto (beans and rice) with eggs and tortilla….always a good way to start the day, I don’t know why beans and rice have not caught on as breakfast in Canada because its awesome. Anyways a long journey ahead of us we took a 2 hour bus to Rivas, a taxi to the dock and then a 2 hour ferry to Ometepe island which is an island made up of 2 volcanoes. Unforunately Angela was sick this day and was either puking or struggling not to on the bus rides and the ferry (not really a ferry, it was actually a barge with benches in the bottom but I decided to stay up top on the flat part). So when we got to Ometepe island we had to change plans, we were going to spend the day at the beach and go to the hostel at night but Angela was pretty sick and we needed to get her to the hostel so she could rest up. Originally we had planned on doing the 2.5 hour bus ride to and then 1.5km walk to the hospital but Angela was definitely not in form to do that so we ended up paying a guy $20 to drive us to the hostel in his van. We got there, Angela went to rest in bed and Derek and I ate. The hostel was amazing, a bit on the side of the volcano surrounded by jungle with amazing views of the other volcano across the lake with the most amazing views of the sun setting behind the volcano….truly amazing. So around the farm there were paths in the jungle with petroglyphs (rock carvings). So Derek and I decided to check it out…..and got lost….in the jungle. haha. Yes we did, it was supposed to be a quick 25 minute walk but we ended up taking I would say around 2 hours. We obviously missed something on the path because we ended up in banana plantations (with amazing views by the way) and had not seen any petroglyphs after about an hour. Anyways we kept going back into the jungle and exiting into these random farms so we said ok. the farm is that way so lets walk that way. But first, we might as well go right into the jungle to see some monkeys…so that’s what we did! It took us about 3 minutes to find some monkeys and after about 10 minutes of trying to find our way we ran into some local hunter and gatherers and asked them for help and they told us the direction of the farm/hostel. So we started walking that way and eventually came upon a path…and some petroglyphs! so we knew we were on the right track. Eventually we made it back just as the sun was setting and we were covered in mud. Good times, next time look more carefully at any directions for the path and stick to the path!
Saturday was an awesome day. This was the day we were to climb volcano maderas. This is the only volcano that is on an island in a lake that has a lake in its crater. So we woke up at 6am because it was going to be a long day and met our guide, which is legally needed because people die each year climbing up this thing getting lost and falling into crevices and stuff because it is covered in dense dense jungle. Makes what jungles I saw in Costa Rica look like child’s play.
Anyways I’m not going to go into much detail about the climb other than the fact that the ascent and decent took just over 8 hours and was one of the hardest things I have done in my life I think. One of the hardest parts other than being super steep the entire way up and down is that the ‘path’ is really narrow and at some points you are walking with one foot infront of the other like a sobriety test but almost straight uphill because there are rock walls or vegetation walls on either side of you. On the way up we had 2 scare….both from deadly poisonous snakes! The first one was our guide was walking a snake fell from a branch onto his foot and he stopped and said no one move or make a sound. He was perfectly still and the snake slowly slithered off his foot and into the bush. Turns out that this snake is the most venomous snake in the Americas ( I will get back to you with the name) and if he would have been bit he would have had something like a maximum of 2 minutes to get an anti-dote before he died……considering we were in the middle of a jungle halfway up a giant volcano it was a good thing he did not get bit. The other one, we were walking, again, and the guide stopped us because there was a snake on the path (both of these snakes were fairly small in size…smaller the more venomous, like scorpions) and the guied stopped because he said that this one was also very venomous. Anyways, this little bastard was aggressive and did not want to let us pass as he kept putting his body upright and threatening to lash out at the guide who was trying to maneuver him with a stick. After a good 7-10 minutes of trying to move this snake finally he slithered slowly into the bush so we could pass. When we started out it was crazy hot and I was soaked with sweat but by the time we reached the top we were cold because we had been in the clouds (cloud forest) for about an hour and it was not warm. We got to the crater and had lunch and went for a swim in the lake in the crater in the middle of clouds surrounded by rainforest…..pretty amazing experience. I must say the water was disgusting and freezing but I figured when is the next time I am going to be in the crater of a volcano with a lake?
The descent was perhaps even harder than the ascent because it was so steep and………we got stuck in a massive thunderstorm and torrential downpour. Whats that rule about lighting and trees? Does that rule apply if you are in a jungle on a volcano higher than everything else!!! Oh well, there was no escaping it but I mean holy RAIN it was a torrential downpour for 2 hours and the we were literally walking in a foot of water the entire time and sliding down 45 degree slopes of mud/what had now become a river. We ended up playing a game and started giving points out for each fall everyone took. It was a tie between Derek and I, Derek’s fall was pretty good because he slipped and then ended up tumbling downhill. One of my fall’s was also a winner because it was right after I had a small slip and joked around saying that it could have been a winner but I backed out of the fall because I did not have enough speed. Just as I finish saying this my one foot hits a downslope and I completely faceplant into the mud! ah good times. boys will be boys I guess.
All in all I would say that the volcano climb was probably the coolest thing I have done in my life. I have been to Macchu Picchu and although they are different experiences, this volcano climb could take the cake. After the climb we sat on the roof of the farm house drank beer and relaxed.
That night was awful, for many a reason. We asked if there were busses that ran on Sunday because it was a holiday and the lady said good news…yes there is a bus…bad news…there is only one at it passes at 4:45 am…ouch. So that night we went to bed somewhat early so we could wake up at 4am…..we had a 1.5km walk down to the road. During the night 2 other girls in our dorm room had left food in there bags on the floor…not smart. So all night I could hear rats scuttling around the floor and eating their food…plus the one girl was snoring like crazy. So not much sleep that night and we woke up at 4am. Strapped our bags on and hit up the 1.5km walk to the road…..not thinking that at 4am it is still completely dark out! especially in the jungle! and we have no flashlight!........ah man. out come the cellphones, luckily mine and derek’s have a flashlight on them so we ended up walking 1.5km in the nearly pitch black through a jungle road…..quite the experience. We go to the end and placed our bags on the road outside a small local farmstead and waited……a long long time. At 5:15 no bus had come so we asked the lady at the small farm when the bus was coming and she said oh, its not coming anymore…it decided to come by last night so it would not have to come this morning. WHAT! How does that make any sense at all!! Oh don’t worry she says one should pass at 7. So we wait and sit on the side of this dirt road in the middle of nowhere for 2 more hours while many a local form groups along the side of the road thinking what the hell are these crazy white people doing. So 7:30 rolls by and no bus and we hear locals talking about the bus being cancelled so we get in on the conversation and a guy offers to give us a ride to the port in the back of his pickup for $25. Deal! Oh yeah, Angela was sick again, we felt kind of bad for her. But yeah so the ride took about 1.5 hours and we made it for the 9am boat across. We got back across hopped on another bus and made our way to San Juan del Sur. A beach/surfing town on the pacific coast. We got there found ourselves an awesome, really lively hostel, Angela went to bed (it was like noon, but she was sick again) and Derek and I got some lunch and went to the beach in town had a few beverages and scoped out the scene. Went back to the hostal and got Angela for dinner and I had an amazing fresh fish dinner on the patio of a restaurant right on the beach, and of course it was super cheap. We went back to the hostel sat down with a few English and Scottish guys and has some beers, I went to the hammock and ended up falling asleep and Derek woke me up at around 10pm and said lets go check out the nightlife. there were a couple of options one of them was $10 entrance and an open bar, I said no thanks because I was not in the mood to drink that much because I was tired and had just woken up, and plus $10 goes a long way on drinks here so we went to a bar/dance place that was jam packed. In hindsight, should have taken the $10 open bar deal hahaha. I have no idea what time what time we got back to the hostel at and we both ended up getting back to the hostel at different times, don’t really know what happened there. Actually, there are quite a few details missing from that night…oh well. It was a good time haha.
Monday woke up bright and early, for absolutely no reason but went and found a small café and had a relaxing breakfast and coffee and then went to a beach about a 30 minute shuttle ride from the town. This was a surfing beach and Derek knows how to surf so he gave us some lessons and I must say, I think I am a bit of a natural. It did not take long for me get up and ride some waves…..nothing fancy, but rode waves none the less. Oh yeah….Derek saved a girls life! We were just swimming around and I noticed I was drifting down the coast because of the current so I started making my way back and let me tell you, it was a struggle, that current was strong and did not want to let me go. Well, Derek was a little further down than me and he heard a girld screaming for help (I did not hear her) so he went to help here and she was caught in the riptide and had been swimming without advancing for 20 minutes already and was worn out. So basically 30 minutes later (I did not know this was happening) I see Derek walking down the coast holding this girl’s hand and I was like man, Derek is such a pimp, how does he do it. Turns out he saves girls lives. Anyways so he tells us this story how they had to fight the riptide and it took them 30 minutes to get back. We get back to the hostel and tell the surfboard rental guy this story and he is like yeah, we are never taking people back to that beach again because yesterday a lady died there in that same riptide spot…drowned. Her kid made it out and she did not. fuck.
So we were tired and had a relaxing night in the hostel after dinner played some trivial pursuit with people from all over the world. Another great day.
Tuesday was just a long trek back to Esteli, 4 different busses and 1 taxi ride. It actually worked out pretty well and only took about 7 hours.
So yeah, that was my awesome, awesome awesome 5 day trip. Can’t wait until the next one!
I probably missed a lot of stuff that I should have wrote because this all happened 3 weeks ago or so. Next blog I will update you on the time in between then and now.
Ciao ciao
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