Nicaragua - Return to Sanity

The border crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua on Saturday 5th November was shambolic in the extreme. The customs and immigration officials varied between friendly, apologetic and jobs worth. We didn't break the record for time taken to get through the chaotic mush that calls itself customs and immigration, this time it only took one hour forty minutes, the record being two hours between El Salvador and Honduras.

Cowboy on the road to Leon

We then headed for the city of Leon, some three hours drive from the border and checked in at a little colonial place called, appropriately enough, Casona Colonial. Leon is a colonial city with something of a proud albeit rather chequered history as it was the headquarters of the Sandinista rebels in the 1980's.

Sunday was an interesting day. We set off to try and find Leon Viejo near Lago de Managua. This was Nicaragua's original capital established in fifteen something but apparently it was run by a variety of extremely wicked governors and their hit men who did unspeakable things to people and therefore by way of divine retribution the local volcano had a mighty big eruption and covered the whole place. It took them three hundred years to find it.

We went the direct route to Leon Viejo as directed by Matron (also known as the verbal manifestation of MapsMe) which turned out to be a sporting little road although undoubtedly direct. The road started as a perfectly good dirt road but then the going deteriorated and got worse and worse and at one stage we were driving along what could best be described as a small river bed. Unfortunately the small river bed was about four feet deep and about four feet wide with steeply sloping sides and therefore it was necessary to try and keep the vehicle on the sides rather than letting one side go down to the bed.

The biggest challenge was a series of drops which were a little alarming and at this stage Alan asked Sue if she would get out of Lucy so that he could concentrate on getting through this hazard without having her squawking in the passenger seat. She said later that she would not have wanted to be in the vehicle anyway because apparently it tipped over so far that she thought it was going to fall onto its side. Alan then admitted that the thought had crossed his mind as well.

We both agreed that this was probably the most extreme test you could put a 4WD vehicle to but, in the event, Lucy behaved in a superlative way using low ratio and diff lock and she clawed her way out of the trouble that Matron had got us into.

When we finally reached Leon Viejo it was closed (we think probably because it was national election day) so we went to have a look at the lake instead and Volcan Momotombo (the one that buried the city) looming on the far side of the lake.

View of Volcan  Momotombo from Lake Managua

On Monday we went volcano surfing! To do this we went to Volcan Cerro Negro which is a very young volcano, in fact it's all black because it hasn't had enough time to get enough soil to allow vegetation to become established. It is quite an interesting climb up which takes about an hour and then you can surf back down it on the other side. Surfing down it involved putting on a jumpsuit, a pair of armoured gloves and some goggles and then they sat us on boards which looked a bit like toboggans without any runners and off we went. We whizzed down this powdery black basalt stuff with clouds of volcanic ash flying past our faces. Alan went at a rather greater velocity than Sue who frustratingly kept getting great piles of volcanic ash in front of her toboggan which slowed her down, then when we reached the bottom we looked as though we'd just done a day's work down the pit, our faces were so black. So, that's something else to tick off the bucket list!

Caldera of Volcan Cerro Negro

Sue volcano surfing down Volcan Cerro Negro

Tuesday was a day of culture and we wandered around the city to look at the various churches and the cathedral which is apparently the largest in Central America. We went up onto the cathedral roof which is pure white and has something of a Greek look about it. There was a pretty good view from the top and we could see a bunch of volcanoes, some of which were busy smoking away.

Interior of Leon Cathedral showing lovely mahogany finish

Lion guarding Leon Cathedral

View from  the bell tower, Leon Cathedral

Bell tower detail

Sue on Cathedral roof

On one corner of the square there was a mausoleum where there was a very powerful and touching mural which portrayed Nicaraguan history from the Spanish Conquest to the most recent revolution.

Happy ending in final part of mural depicting Nicaragua's history of war and destruction

Market day in Leon

On Wednesday we went to the coast, about half and hour's drive from Leon, to a place called the Reserva Natural Isla Juan Venado although it's not actually an island, it's a long spit of sand with mangroves on the landward side and a 22 kilometre long waterway weaving its way through the mangroves. We hired a boat, a boatman and a guide just for the two of us and we had a three hour bimble around the waterways.

Royal gulls, Isla Juan Venado

Osprey, Isla Juan Venado

Woodcutters with their boat full of firewood

Mangrove swallows

Very large spider

American Pygmy kingfisher

The boat trip was very good and we saw a lot of birds, then on the way back our guide took us across the spit to the seaward side where we called in at the turtle sanctuary. The way this place apparently works is that volunteers go up and down the beach at night looking for where the turtles lay their eggs. Then, to stop the eggs being taken by poachers or predators, they dig them up and put them in sand inside large sacks until they hatch. Once they hatch they are kept in a large plastic bucket until nightfall and then they are re-introduced to the ocean and hopefully go on to lead happy and active turtle lives.

Saving the turtles

Dog and vultures fighting over a fish

When we got back to Leon and set off to go and find some supper we ran slap bang into a carnival. We were told it was to do with the various university faculties each having their own floats and there was a great deal of noise, lots of flashing lights, lots of scantily clad girls and a band with the usual oompah instruments. To begin with we thought it was an ice cream sellers carnival because we could hear the band blasting away but down the road came about a dozen ice cream sellers all running in a shoal towards us. We then realised that they were just intent on getting the best position to sell ice cream to the crowds but to begin with we thought that they were the focus of attention!

We left Leon on Thursday 10th November and drove fairly gently to Granada which is quite a splendid colonial city situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. The plaza and the cathedral and the surrounds in particular are well proportioned and well designed and it looks very much as though there's been some grand Spanish colonial plan involved in the creation of it. We stayed in a lovely old place very close to the central plaza which is owned and run by a convivial Irishman called Gerry.

We rose in reasonable order on Friday morning and set off to have a look at Volcan Masaya. Now this is one of the few volcanoes in the world where you can actually see the red gurgling hot lava down inside the caldera. We could actually drive right up to the rim where there was a small wall separating us from the caldera although it was quite a long way down to where the red stuff was gurgling and bubbling like a devil's cauldron. There was also a lot of steam and sulphur fumes coming up off the molten lava but it was a pretty amazing sight.

Fumes from the caldera, Volcan Masaya

Molten lava inside the caldera

Having done that we went to Laguna de Apoyo which, by way of a change, is situated in the caldera of an extinct volcano and is almost completely spherical. We had a bit of lunch at a restaurant overlooking the lake and then found somewhere that had kayaks of sorts which we rented. We paddled along for an hour or so and then had a swim. The water was very, very clear and cool and very refreshing after the humid atmosphere outside the water.

Close to the lake shore where Granada is situated there is an archipelago of, we are told, 354 tiny islands called Las Islatas. Apparently, they were formed when the adjacent volcano blew several hundred thousand years ago and deposited great lumps of basalt in the lake which became the islands.

We were up early on Saturday morning to take a boat trip around the islands with a very pleasant guide called Mani. Many of the islands are occupied by local fishermen and boatmen although a number are privately owned by foreign and local oligarchs who build big homes there and then keep them for weekend and holiday escapes. The islands themselves are a bit of a dream really. About a mile away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Granada are these wonderful basalt islands covered in vegetation, loads of mangos and guavas, and they are full of birds and also a few monkeys. Apparently the howler monkeys can swim between the islands.

Osprey at Las Islatas

Spider monkey, Las Islatas

Great tailed grackle

Whilst we were there we met a bunch of fishermen who had been out on the lake for about five days and had returned with a good catch, including four or five huge tarpon. We don't know how big the fish were because they only had the heads left but the heads were about four times the size of ours. Apparently they keep the heads to make fish soup; waste not, want not!

Fisherman with head of very large tarpon

Washing day on Las Islatas

Fisherman with casting net, Las Islatas

We left Granada on Sunday morning to drive 60 miles or so southwards to catch the car ferry at San Jorge to the Isla de Ometepe, an island with two volcanoes on it, situated in Lago Nicaragua. The ferry port was called the Che Guevara terminal and many of the benches were emblazoned with some of his better known political exhortations. The first one was completely lost on Sue. It said "Vamos por mas Victorias". She, bearing in mind the local beer is called Victoria, thought that it said "Let's go for some more beer"!

Tortilla seller on beach at San Jorge with view of Ometepe

Once on the island we found a lovely quiet spot to camp by the lakeshore where we had a palm fringed deck to sit out on and watch the birds, listen to the water lapping on the lakeshore and a glorious view across the lake. We spent a relaxing couple of days exploring bits of the island (for once deciding not to climb the volcanoes) before returning to Granada on Tuesday 15th November.

Finca Sumaria, the campsite on Ometepe

Sunset at Finca Sumaria

Charco Verde - a lake on an island within a lake!

View of Volcan Concepcion, Ometepe, taken where the road crosses the airport runway

Wednesday was a gentle day looking at the sights which Granada has to offer. None of the buildings are particularly old as the city was sacked so many times by various pirates, ne'er do wells and free booters. The cathedral featured the usual lurid Catholic stuff but also included some rather nice ceiling frescoes, a couple of which were direct cribs from the Sistine Chapel and a charming one of Noah's Ark. The convent which was also ransacked a number of times is now a museum.

Ceiling fresco, Granada Cathedral

And on the eighth day God went ten pin bowling

Iglesia de la Merced, Granada

View of Granada Cathedral from Igelsia de la Merced

We left Granada on Thursday morning and headed off around Lake Nicaragua again, this time in the opposite direction with the aim of visiting the rather more remote part of south eastern Nicaragua. The 200 kilometre trip was largely uneventful, a good road made slightly more interesting in that we encountered large herds of cattle being driven along it in the other direction.

Nicaraguan cowboy herding cattle on the main road

There was also a little moment at a police check where we were pulled over because we had apparently overtaken something on one of the speed bumps. Well, Alan overtakes things on speed bumps all the time because Lucy's suspension is such that we can go over them quite quickly and other people virtually stop. Anyway, he decided that this was a good excuse to stick his paw out. He told Alan that he would like 800 Córdobas (about £25) and he took Alan's driving license and the two of them had a little bit of a stand-off for a while. Alan tried the charm offensive and told the policeman what a wonderful country Nicaragua was and how much we enjoyed it whilst fingering his United Nations passport (40 years out of date) and ultimately he decided that it wasn't worth the trouble trying to screw us for a 25 quid bribe so he gave Alan his driving license back and off we went.

We stopped off for the night at the lakeside village of San Migueleto. The highlight of this place was the walk out onto the jetty which extended across an area of wetland where we saw twenty or thirty different kinds of bird as well as a beautiful sunset.

Family group of purple gallinule

Purple gallinule

Sunset on Lago Nicaragua from San Migueleto

We completed the last 50 kilometre leg of our journey to San Carlos on Friday morning without incident. San Carlos is a port town in the south eastern corner of Lake Nicaragua where the Rio San Juan links the lake to the Caribbean some 200 kilometres away. There wasn't much of interest in San Carlos but we found it to be comfortably shabby and whiled away our time quite happily until Saturday morning when we pottered down to the municipal boat dock where we then had a three our boat trip down river to the village of El Castillo, our next stop.

Did you ever wonder what happened to Winnie the Pooh?

There are some rapids at El Castillo which were the main impediment to the ravages of Henry Morgan, Horatio Nelson and others on their way up to sack Granada. As they could not take their ocean going ships through the rapids they had to trans ship into smaller rowing boats and continue up river in that fashion. It didn't seem to stop them though.

View of the river from El Castillo fort

The rapids at El Castillo

In 1675 the Spanish built a fort on the top of the hill in a very commanding position and quite clearly they could have bombarded anything within the range of the river and no doubt frequently did. This however didn't stop it getting sacked approximately every twenty years, once by Nelson who occupied it for a while until most of his crew died of malaria and so nearly did he.

El Castillo is a charmingly shabby village with narrow paths that wind up and down and around the hill whilst the rapids and the fort give it a pervading sense of history.

El Castillo high street

View of El Castillo from Rio San Juan

View of fort from the river

Local housing, El Castillo

A relaxed Nicaraguan

Another relaxed Nicaraguan!

We were up at half past six on Sunday morning to take a trip into the Reserva Biologica Indio-Maiz, an extremely large and well preserved rain forest although we were just in one little corner of it. It took us about half an hour to get down river to the start of the park at the mouth of the Rio Bartola and then we had four hours or so wandering around in the jungle with a very pleasant and knowledgeable guide, Gustavo, and enjoyed it hugely.

A jungle bunny

We saw all three species of monkey found in Nicaragua, namely howler monkeys, spider monkeys and white faced monkeys (known locally as Cappuccino monkeys). Now most of the residents of Nicaragua have been very friendly and welcoming. Not so the spider monkeys. One particular group we came across kept breaking off branches and slinging them at us from the tree tops as if to say "get off our land". Mostly they missed!

We found a couple of poison frogs, one of them green and black and the other red and black and apparently the indigenous people who live deep in the forest wipe the slime that the frogs exude from their skin onto the blade of an arrow and this is enough to kill any animal it hits. Gustavo did mention that if you pick the frog up and get the poisonous slime on your skin that's fine as long as you don't get it into a cut in which case you die.

Arrow poison frog, highly toxic!

A stay beside a mighty river like the Rio San Juan would not be complete without a fishing trip and that is exactly what we did. We met up with our boatman at 7am on Monday morning and then we took off up through the rapids and commenced fishing.

For the first hour nothing much happened at all. We solemnly went up and down the river and it was quite tranquil. The kingfishers flew past, the coconut palms nodded over the banks of the river, the cattle grazed, the sun was in the sky and all was well with the world. And then suddenly, bang!
The bang, as it turned out, was a tarpon of apparently about 150lbs in weight which proceeded to jump out of the water and show us just how impressive a fish it was. Sue asked what it felt like and Alan said that it felt like he'd caught a whale. Then after about five minutes of reeling and heaving the fish came off.

All was quiet for the next hour or so and then bang, another bloody great tarpon! When it finally jumped it was probably about the size of Sue but a great deal heavier. The boatman said it was 90 kg which would make it about 200lbs. Alan fought this one for about twenty minutes (apparently it can take up to two hours to bring a tarpon of this size to the boat) but then it gave a rush and straightened out a treble hook and was off. Alan said he didn't know how the fish felt but he was knackered! He did have another a little later which felt as though it was a tiddler of about a hundred pounds but it only stayed on for about a minute. So that was 3 nil in favour of the fish.

The boatman, a jovial fellow, kept punching the air and shouting "Tarpon, bueno!". Alan said he hadn't enjoyed a tussle with a fish as much in his life and we went back to the landing stage with him feeling very satisfied.

We came back to San Carlos from El Castillo yesterday (Tuesday 22nd November) after a brilliant few days in this beautiful and remote part of Nicaragua. We had one more river trip up the Rio Frio from San Carlos this morning and were rewarded with close viewings of countless birds and monkeys.

Pelican and cormorants, Rio Frio

Blue heron, Rio Frio

Passerini's tanager, Rio Frio

Mangrove swallow, Rio Frio

Anhinga, Rio Frio

Jeuvenile tiger heron

Osprey with breakfast

Howler monkey (definitely male!)

Black crowned night heron

Our plan is to cross the border into Costa Rica tomorrow. However there is a hurricane warning out for Central America and 'Otto' is due to make landfall in south east Nicaragua/north east Costa Rica sometime tomorrow. The forecast is being updated regularly and it may or may not be downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a severe tropical storm. So, for the moment we are keeping our options open as to whether we sit tight or get on the road again. Having been quite smug about the glorious weather we are having compared to UK we are now not quite so complacent!

Gerry, the proprietor of our hotel in Granada, told us that Nicaragua is the 'land of the not quite right'. That didn't seem to us to be entirely fair because it's a great deal righter than Honduras was. The roads are better, the people are more cheerful, the driving is a great deal safer although arguably the country is not as folded or as mountainous, at least not in the parts that we have visited. However, we have found things 'not quite right' around Rio San Juan. Things quite often aren't fitted properly or are broken and there were several power cuts. In restaurants the staff cheerfully brought us out the menu, only later to tell us that there was only one thing available, usually fish or chicken. It all just added to the charm of the place really. We have very much enjoyed our time in Nicaragua and take pleasant memories with us on the next leg of our journey.