after this very ecological trip to ometepe it was time to get all un-ecological and go for our final destination: san juan del sur. this is a little town on the pacific coast of nicaragua, which used to be a little fishing village but nowadays is full of primarily american tourists doing surfing.
on the last day on ometepe marianne and camille managed to catch a cold, probably due to chilling in that lake for too long. according to them the sunset in the lake cocibolca was just amazing and so they refused to get out of the water before it was completely dark. well, with two mildly sick patients the choice was simple: take a taxi to san juan del sur from rivas. once here in this little surfing paradise it was at first hard to find accomodation, since it ranges from quite expensive to very cheap (and uncomfortable). in the end we did spot an ok place to crash and well the days spent in san juan del sur have been very tourist-like, full of bathing in the sea and enjoying those amazing waves. surfing classes as a recreational option were kind of omitted in the end, and we just did our best at sunbathing and swimming. at around 5pm we´d get our ice-creams and sit down to watch the sunset, which is just spectacular here. the richness of colours in the sky is just stunning.
san juan del sur is full of hotels and tourists, however, that is not a reason why they would not just randomly cut off electricity for some 16h on sunday. we were told that this happens due to some construction works nearby. well, makes sense, who needs electricity on sunday anyway?and quite naturally if you don´t need light you don´t need running water either. so, sunday was interesting in this sense. we thought that after all that time in remoted places we finally were in civilization, but well that doesn´t still mean that electicity and water supply can not be cut off any day. appearently it was worse still a couple of years ago.
our holidays are approaching their end, it looks like the sunny days for us are almost over, since according to the last weather forecasts miami is suffering from heavy rains and possibly hurricanes and weather in finland is getting in an autumn mood as well. today marianne and i are going to leave camille here for one more day and head to managua, from where our bus to san pedro sula leaves at 5am tomorrow and hence our long and tiring journey home is about to start. these last days in san juan del sur with all those relaxing activities (includes camille and marianne going out in the sea fishing with some local fishermen) are almost over and now it´s time to start thinking how to pack those machetes and rum bottles in the best and safest way, so that they actually make it all the way home and don´t decide to stay in miami.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
15th of august
leaving the town of rivas on the 12th of august did not go as smoothly as we planned. the reason being: we simply slept in. the day before i decided it was time to buy some kind of a clock, an alarm device so that we´d get up at 6am and head to the island of ometepe. obviously a clock that costs less than a dollar does not have a guarantee and it kept showing 4am even though the sun was shining and definitely indicated that it was past 6am. well, not a problem. we got up and went to the nearest agricultural equipment store to buy some....machetes. now all of us are officially armed with el salvadorian machetes, marianne got herself the longest one, so it is still a puzzle how that thing is going to fit in her backpack and what the miami officials are going to think of it. there is only one way to find out: at the miami airport on the 22nd of august.
finally made it to the island of ometepe. got a ferry at 2pm i believe and enjoyed a pleasant trip full of sun and mp3 provided music. all of us learned our lesson, so the first thing was to cover the backpacks and handbags with plastic and then put a loooot of that sunscreen lotion on the face. obviously this time the ferry trip was a piece of cake, a sweet promenade in comparison with the previous ferry ride in the carribean sea. lake nicaragua (cocibolca) is lovely in this sense. warm water, hardly any waves and the most magnificent views. it is actually so huge that it resembles a sea. one can not see the other side of the lake, only two amazingly beautiful volcanoes rising from the water and forming an island of ometepe. the clouds usually cover the tops of the volcanoes so there are constantly slightly hidden by those funny, weirdly shaped clouds.
once on the actual island we had to figure out the way to take us to our destination: an ecological farm el zopilote. it was raining by the time we got to that spot and it surely was a streneous climb since the farm is situated on the hill and the road there is covered in mud and stones. any moment i thought someone was going to slide down the hill with the heavy backpack and the rest of the stuff carried in hands. luck was on our side, nevertheless, and we made it all the way to the reception. the italian boys on the corn island recommended el zopilote to us and well, the place is very ecological!everything is recycled and very simple. one can sleep in a hammock for like 2 dollars in the midst of a wild life. that was camille´s choice. marianne and i settled for a double bed in a dorm, and were quite glad with that choice. despite the place lacking any civilization except for the electricity it had an amazing atmosphere. first of all its location is great: very close to the beach or just a pier for swimming in the lake (marianne and i liked that a lot), right next to the volcano (8h hikes available every day, once again camille opted for this entertainment) and well generally in the nature. hens and pigs running around all the time, giving it a real countryside touch. the owner of zopilote is an italian guy of some 30 years of age. (no wonder those italians were so excited about the place) he is this most chilled out person ever who apart from everything else prepares the most amazing pizzas (real italian style in a real big oven) and his all being emphasizes the values of his farm: piece and respect to the nature. he also grows all sort of interesting herbs himself, so everything is virtually grown and made at the farm.
people we met at zopilote during our 4 days on the island are also difinitely worth a word or two. lots of europeans especially from germany. then this real character called loca from taiwan who proudly explained to everyone where taiwan was and how beautiful the island is and showed at least 10 times a video on his phone "taiwan will touch your heart", and many other backpackers taking latin america by storm. got a lot of new ideas regarding future travelling in this region.
our 4 days on ometepe went quickly by as we had things to do every day. my definite number 1 activity was riding a horse along the beach of the lake, though visiting the watersprings "ojos de agua" with thermal water was also very pleasant. crystal clear chilly water. the only negative memory was being bitten by some kind of a waspy like insect and watching my finger turning red and inflamed but even that didn´t ruin the experience. after all when it comes to insects here, one just has to get used to sleeping in a bed with possibly ants, cockroaches, spiders etc. i think i even developed an extra sharp reflex to anything touching me even slightly: jump 2m away from that spot instantly.
all in all ometepe was a friendly countryside place, which despite its 80% official unemployment rate is probably becoming an ever more attractive tourist destination, and it is completely uderstandable.
finally made it to the island of ometepe. got a ferry at 2pm i believe and enjoyed a pleasant trip full of sun and mp3 provided music. all of us learned our lesson, so the first thing was to cover the backpacks and handbags with plastic and then put a loooot of that sunscreen lotion on the face. obviously this time the ferry trip was a piece of cake, a sweet promenade in comparison with the previous ferry ride in the carribean sea. lake nicaragua (cocibolca) is lovely in this sense. warm water, hardly any waves and the most magnificent views. it is actually so huge that it resembles a sea. one can not see the other side of the lake, only two amazingly beautiful volcanoes rising from the water and forming an island of ometepe. the clouds usually cover the tops of the volcanoes so there are constantly slightly hidden by those funny, weirdly shaped clouds.
once on the actual island we had to figure out the way to take us to our destination: an ecological farm el zopilote. it was raining by the time we got to that spot and it surely was a streneous climb since the farm is situated on the hill and the road there is covered in mud and stones. any moment i thought someone was going to slide down the hill with the heavy backpack and the rest of the stuff carried in hands. luck was on our side, nevertheless, and we made it all the way to the reception. the italian boys on the corn island recommended el zopilote to us and well, the place is very ecological!everything is recycled and very simple. one can sleep in a hammock for like 2 dollars in the midst of a wild life. that was camille´s choice. marianne and i settled for a double bed in a dorm, and were quite glad with that choice. despite the place lacking any civilization except for the electricity it had an amazing atmosphere. first of all its location is great: very close to the beach or just a pier for swimming in the lake (marianne and i liked that a lot), right next to the volcano (8h hikes available every day, once again camille opted for this entertainment) and well generally in the nature. hens and pigs running around all the time, giving it a real countryside touch. the owner of zopilote is an italian guy of some 30 years of age. (no wonder those italians were so excited about the place) he is this most chilled out person ever who apart from everything else prepares the most amazing pizzas (real italian style in a real big oven) and his all being emphasizes the values of his farm: piece and respect to the nature. he also grows all sort of interesting herbs himself, so everything is virtually grown and made at the farm.
people we met at zopilote during our 4 days on the island are also difinitely worth a word or two. lots of europeans especially from germany. then this real character called loca from taiwan who proudly explained to everyone where taiwan was and how beautiful the island is and showed at least 10 times a video on his phone "taiwan will touch your heart", and many other backpackers taking latin america by storm. got a lot of new ideas regarding future travelling in this region.
our 4 days on ometepe went quickly by as we had things to do every day. my definite number 1 activity was riding a horse along the beach of the lake, though visiting the watersprings "ojos de agua" with thermal water was also very pleasant. crystal clear chilly water. the only negative memory was being bitten by some kind of a waspy like insect and watching my finger turning red and inflamed but even that didn´t ruin the experience. after all when it comes to insects here, one just has to get used to sleeping in a bed with possibly ants, cockroaches, spiders etc. i think i even developed an extra sharp reflex to anything touching me even slightly: jump 2m away from that spot instantly.
all in all ometepe was a friendly countryside place, which despite its 80% official unemployment rate is probably becoming an ever more attractive tourist destination, and it is completely uderstandable.
Monday, August 11, 2008
11th of august
the cabins on little corn island were primitive. the cabin itself had a cement floor, walls made of wood sticks with big holes everywhere and the roof made of just simple sheets of iron. the bathroom was outside as well as the shower. there was no electricity until 6pm and when there was electricity it was turned off at 10pm. water supply in the shower was also rather sporadic. so, all in all a perfect scene for a desert island holiday. the first night we spent in the cabin i couldn´t sleep even a minute. the wind was blowing so hard that it seemed that the cabin, that was situated just some 5m away from the water would not survive until the morning. the heavy showers produced horrible noise inside and well it felt like i was sleeping outside in a tent. not very tempting especially because the first night was the storm night.
in the morning things looked way brighter. there was some sun and we started exploring the island. walking down the beaches, completely wild, many covered in seaweed, swimming here and there, seeing some people occasionally. there would be palmtrees everywhere and a friendly local offered us some fresh "coco de agua", he probably wanted to say coconut milk but was insisting on his version "coconut of a milk". point being the coconut milk was fresh and good. the only problem was that i got severe stomach problems right from the first day we arrived in the island and well kept having them all the time we were there, so the coconut milk was not that good for me after all. this meant i could not really eat anything, just drink, so i spent some 4 days not eating, just drinking coca-cola. we had no clocks on little corn island and so days went by solemnly chilling in hammocks, guided by the sun and hiding away from the rains that actually visited the island all days some 5 times a day. so, in fact there was not that much sun, more rain during our stay on the island.
on the last day even the italians we met on the ferry appeared, so the atmosphere got even more merry. on sunday it was time for us to leave the little corn island and the friendly stuff of the cabin "hotel" offered to take us the pier on their own motorboat. it was a lot of fun for them to see me getting quite scared every time the boat made a surfing move on a wave but well they were inbibing tequila all the time from that one bottle on the boat, so obviously they didn´t feel anything!it was a jolly ride indeed!camille seemed to have the time of her life holding that rope with the rest of the guys and guiding the boat towards ever bigger waves :)
last night on the big corn island was calm and we went to bed early in order to prepare ourselves for the trip to managua next day. by plane.
in the morning things looked way brighter. there was some sun and we started exploring the island. walking down the beaches, completely wild, many covered in seaweed, swimming here and there, seeing some people occasionally. there would be palmtrees everywhere and a friendly local offered us some fresh "coco de agua", he probably wanted to say coconut milk but was insisting on his version "coconut of a milk". point being the coconut milk was fresh and good. the only problem was that i got severe stomach problems right from the first day we arrived in the island and well kept having them all the time we were there, so the coconut milk was not that good for me after all. this meant i could not really eat anything, just drink, so i spent some 4 days not eating, just drinking coca-cola. we had no clocks on little corn island and so days went by solemnly chilling in hammocks, guided by the sun and hiding away from the rains that actually visited the island all days some 5 times a day. so, in fact there was not that much sun, more rain during our stay on the island.
on the last day even the italians we met on the ferry appeared, so the atmosphere got even more merry. on sunday it was time for us to leave the little corn island and the friendly stuff of the cabin "hotel" offered to take us the pier on their own motorboat. it was a lot of fun for them to see me getting quite scared every time the boat made a surfing move on a wave but well they were inbibing tequila all the time from that one bottle on the boat, so obviously they didn´t feel anything!it was a jolly ride indeed!camille seemed to have the time of her life holding that rope with the rest of the guys and guiding the boat towards ever bigger waves :)
last night on the big corn island was calm and we went to bed early in order to prepare ourselves for the trip to managua next day. by plane.
6th of august
camille and marianne were at the bluefields port on wednsday at 6.45am in order to put themselves in a line where people were meant to buy tickets. some 2h later we all at that point were still standing in that line observing how 1 person was writing out tickets to some 200 passengers and making some 4 safety copies, checking ID´s etc. obviously there were smart individuals too who would just sneak in the middle of the line and hence it would take you even more time to get to that distant window with the lady sitting in there. finally with tickets in our hands and our gallo pintos with grilled chickens we were sitting on that ferry. quite naturally we grabbed the best seats ever, on the front part of the boat. once we started consuming our breakfasts it was time however to get off that boat once again and now re-enter it showing the ticket to the captain. what is the point of this system?no idea. once back at our places we were quite content with everything, sitting on those white eskimo freezers, chatting and eating fruit. the boat started heading towards corn islands. the first 20 min were amazing, it was calm and the ferry ride was promissing to be a piece of cake. that is while the ferry still maintained itself in the river. we were chatting with those really nice italian guys matteo and tiziano that were also travelling in nicaragua and the atmosphere was great. it was great until all of a sudden the ferry inclined downwards and then upwards and then the next thing that we felt was a huge wave sweeping us off the eskimo freezers, leaving us and all our valuable belongings and backpacks soaking wet. that was the end of my camera, mobile phone and probably my passport but it was the great beginning of a 5h torture.
camille and marianne are these two odd creatures that do not suffer from seasickness. the rest of the passengers were vomiting non-stop all 5h. i was suffering, holding tight to my freezer and thinking that seasickness pills is indeed a great invention. unfortunately the pill didn´t start working until some 2pm and so i had to sit still, do my best at maintaining my equilibrium at the rodeo session on that freezer and keep the eyes fixed on the horizon. it seemed like forever. once again i was feeling extremely seasick and once again i had no choince but to take another ferry at the carribean sea which is just simply violent. no wonder so many ships actually sank there in the past. it felt like the ferry was going to be swallowed by the sea any given moment. the moment when someone screamed "i can see the shore" was the best news of the day. once we finally arrived in big corn island people were being dragged from there barely alive. we hopped off the ferry and got another boat to the little corn island. at that point it was quite clear that everyone burned their faces very badly so we all looked like boiled crayfish. our backpacks acquired some 5kg of extra weight probably due to all that salty water absorbed by our clothes so when we got to those cabins on the beach on little corn island it felt like a great releif. life was going to get better from now on!
camille and marianne are these two odd creatures that do not suffer from seasickness. the rest of the passengers were vomiting non-stop all 5h. i was suffering, holding tight to my freezer and thinking that seasickness pills is indeed a great invention. unfortunately the pill didn´t start working until some 2pm and so i had to sit still, do my best at maintaining my equilibrium at the rodeo session on that freezer and keep the eyes fixed on the horizon. it seemed like forever. once again i was feeling extremely seasick and once again i had no choince but to take another ferry at the carribean sea which is just simply violent. no wonder so many ships actually sank there in the past. it felt like the ferry was going to be swallowed by the sea any given moment. the moment when someone screamed "i can see the shore" was the best news of the day. once we finally arrived in big corn island people were being dragged from there barely alive. we hopped off the ferry and got another boat to the little corn island. at that point it was quite clear that everyone burned their faces very badly so we all looked like boiled crayfish. our backpacks acquired some 5kg of extra weight probably due to all that salty water absorbed by our clothes so when we got to those cabins on the beach on little corn island it felt like a great releif. life was going to get better from now on!
5th of august
arriving in managua was hectic. there are a lot of people, everyone tries to drag you somewhere, sell you something or cheat you. once we got off that bus from granada the first thing we were told was not to grab just any taxi because taxis are dangerous in managua. a very assuring start.
managed to take ourselves to the hotel mentioned in lonely planet. since streets have no names in this town it is rather challenging to locate any place. while driving about in the taxi asking everyone for the hotel "casa vanegas" we suddenly got a guide in a form of a young guy who promissed to take us there. the driver was sceptic, we were just clueless as to what to do. got to the hotel that had no name on it. in fact we were not even sure it was the hotel we were looking for but since our bags were dragged in the "only" available room for some insane 40 dollars/night price, we just had to follow. it was already back then that we got this slight hunch that maybe we were being cheated. anyway once got the key to the room, the next question was if we were interested in buying something that is considered illegal in all the coutries except holland and jamaica (i presume). we were honestly just baffled but it was curious how the same guy that led us to the hotel was very much insisting on selling us his stuff anyway. all that time we tried to say that the only thing we needed was a taxi and well in 10 min time (a bit too fast actually) there was a taxi at the door ready to take us anywhere.
the driver don bayardo was just all a big smile, overly friendly and of course offered us a whole route around town with him being a guide for a mere sum of 12 dollars/hour. once again that feeling of paying tripple the amount the locals would pay creeped in our minds. the problem was that don bayardo was just way too friendly and i did encourage marianne to have a look at the clock when we left the hotel in order to keep the track of time, because somehow it was quite evident from the beginning that our "friend" was going to make us pay 3 times more than what we should pay. my hunch didn´t let me down. we were driven to quite a few touristic places that happened to be closed just then, took a 30min lunch break and what not and ended up in a heated discussion with the driver regarding the final sum of money we were suppose to pay him. can´t say that this was not typical, but well it still feeled pretty damn unpleasant to be sitting there knowing that you are being cheated and not being able to switch to another option, because of the non-existance of this other option. a day spent in managua was extremely expensive and not very productive but quite entertaining in terms of socializing with the hotel staff. the same guy i mentioned earlier (his name was luis if i´m not completely wrong) was of course around once again when we got back to the hotel and promissed to get his reliable taxi driver friend to take us at 5 am the next day to the bus station on the other side of the town. we negotiated one price, but however once we got to the bus station the next day at 5.30 am the price suddenly rose by some 30% due to some unexpected costs and in the end we got ripped off once again. the taxi did drop us off though right at the bus door because driving to the main entrance and leaving 3 girls with backpacks at 5am to walk some 20m alone is too dangerous in managua. funny how taxi drivers make their profit from the general insecurity of the city. i don´t think anyone wants to take his/her chance in this situation and empirically try to prove the taxi driver wrong. hence, accept to be ripped off.
now it was time to lay back and not even think of when we might get to the town of el rama, situated virtually on the other side of nicaragua. the journey was going to be long. well, the actual journey is only 300km but taking in account the condition of the roads and the type of bus we jumped on, it took us 7,5h. we had plenty of time to listen to every kind of music from cumbia to the world famous rock hits of the 80´s performed in spanish. no one probably even doubted they were not originally written in spanish. we did though and that is why earplugs were put to use at some poing. buying snacks from the sides of the roads every hour also made the travelling quite ok. it was very interesting to notice how the landscape was changing as we were approaching the carribean coast.
once in el rama the next chunk of our journey consisted of taking a motorboat down the river to the town of bluefield. obviously timetables don´t exist for motorboats and we were told to sit back and watch tv until the boat would get full. it was 1.30 pm. first we watched some crazy movie about mexicans in USA, yawning from time to time, then we were an object of interest of little shoepolishing boys that found it particularly odd to watch us sticking contact lenses in the eyes. there were still not enough people for the motorboat to leave. then we started watching another movie, this time french about moliere and i believe it was close to the end of the movie that we were told that the motorboat was going to leave. we got to the boat....in order to figure out that there were 21 passengers and 20 seats on the boat. as a matter of fact i was that 21st passenger who didn´t have a place to sit on the boat!that was when the captain started first encouraging the person without a ticket to stand up and give himself in and then just plainly started verifying everyone´s ID with the data they have about passengers on the paper. it took forever. questions were like "sir, how old are you?wait, you put here that you are 50 but you look much younger!". rediculous business. i was sitting on the pier all that time as the 21st extra passenger wearing the life-jacket. since the captain could not figure out who that extra person was, coast guards appeared and thought we 3 looked particularly dangerous. hence our passports were meticulously examined, questions were made and at some point it seriously looked like they were going to make us get off the boat because of those such suspicious european passports. i was afraid our passports would get dropped in the water or some papers would fly out or something since the coastguard was standing on another boat. eventually after all that half an hour passport control he disappeared in the office. the whole boat was still waiting. now we didn´t even have our passports. (btw i had to dig out that passport literally in front of everyone from my secret pocket inside the pants) some 10 min later that man of an extremely high IQ level appeared and said to us that we only could stay in nicaragua for 7 days. at that point it was our 8th day so according to him we were in nicaragua illegally. amazing. i thanked god that at that point the captain of the motorboat interfered and pointed out that EU citizens were allowed to stay in central america for 90 days without a visa. he then also pointed out that the paper the coastguard was holding and from which he was reading 7 days in fact said 7 dollars and not 7 days. 7 dollars is what we paid at the border with nicaragua when we came from honduras. unbelievable. efficiency at its best. at 5pm we finally got to leave el rama. finally!i was sitting almost in camille´s lap but i was sitting in that boat!in fact we even made an extra stop on the way to bluefields to pick up one more person, so max 20 people/boat is a flexible perception.
so, with our hair looking completely mad after that 1,5h boatride we finally were in bluefields. hurray!exhausted we dragged ourselves to the hotel we checked out from lonely planet. naturally the hotel was full. they guided us to the next hotel nearby. such a damp i´ve never seen in my hole entire life. i thought it was not possible to have a hotel like this: shady people, spider nets on the walls, wallpaint falling off and a strong smell of urine in the corridor. bluefields sweet at your service. a place lonely planet classifies as "definitely stay out of there". it was dark, we were tired and so sleeping was our only desire at that point. i sprayed bug spray on the windows hoping it would keep the cockroaches away. hopefully the mosquitos also stayed away, bluefields is experiencing a wave of dengue fever at the moment. we spent less than 12h in bluefields i think and it seemed like it was way too much.
managed to take ourselves to the hotel mentioned in lonely planet. since streets have no names in this town it is rather challenging to locate any place. while driving about in the taxi asking everyone for the hotel "casa vanegas" we suddenly got a guide in a form of a young guy who promissed to take us there. the driver was sceptic, we were just clueless as to what to do. got to the hotel that had no name on it. in fact we were not even sure it was the hotel we were looking for but since our bags were dragged in the "only" available room for some insane 40 dollars/night price, we just had to follow. it was already back then that we got this slight hunch that maybe we were being cheated. anyway once got the key to the room, the next question was if we were interested in buying something that is considered illegal in all the coutries except holland and jamaica (i presume). we were honestly just baffled but it was curious how the same guy that led us to the hotel was very much insisting on selling us his stuff anyway. all that time we tried to say that the only thing we needed was a taxi and well in 10 min time (a bit too fast actually) there was a taxi at the door ready to take us anywhere.
the driver don bayardo was just all a big smile, overly friendly and of course offered us a whole route around town with him being a guide for a mere sum of 12 dollars/hour. once again that feeling of paying tripple the amount the locals would pay creeped in our minds. the problem was that don bayardo was just way too friendly and i did encourage marianne to have a look at the clock when we left the hotel in order to keep the track of time, because somehow it was quite evident from the beginning that our "friend" was going to make us pay 3 times more than what we should pay. my hunch didn´t let me down. we were driven to quite a few touristic places that happened to be closed just then, took a 30min lunch break and what not and ended up in a heated discussion with the driver regarding the final sum of money we were suppose to pay him. can´t say that this was not typical, but well it still feeled pretty damn unpleasant to be sitting there knowing that you are being cheated and not being able to switch to another option, because of the non-existance of this other option. a day spent in managua was extremely expensive and not very productive but quite entertaining in terms of socializing with the hotel staff. the same guy i mentioned earlier (his name was luis if i´m not completely wrong) was of course around once again when we got back to the hotel and promissed to get his reliable taxi driver friend to take us at 5 am the next day to the bus station on the other side of the town. we negotiated one price, but however once we got to the bus station the next day at 5.30 am the price suddenly rose by some 30% due to some unexpected costs and in the end we got ripped off once again. the taxi did drop us off though right at the bus door because driving to the main entrance and leaving 3 girls with backpacks at 5am to walk some 20m alone is too dangerous in managua. funny how taxi drivers make their profit from the general insecurity of the city. i don´t think anyone wants to take his/her chance in this situation and empirically try to prove the taxi driver wrong. hence, accept to be ripped off.
now it was time to lay back and not even think of when we might get to the town of el rama, situated virtually on the other side of nicaragua. the journey was going to be long. well, the actual journey is only 300km but taking in account the condition of the roads and the type of bus we jumped on, it took us 7,5h. we had plenty of time to listen to every kind of music from cumbia to the world famous rock hits of the 80´s performed in spanish. no one probably even doubted they were not originally written in spanish. we did though and that is why earplugs were put to use at some poing. buying snacks from the sides of the roads every hour also made the travelling quite ok. it was very interesting to notice how the landscape was changing as we were approaching the carribean coast.
once in el rama the next chunk of our journey consisted of taking a motorboat down the river to the town of bluefield. obviously timetables don´t exist for motorboats and we were told to sit back and watch tv until the boat would get full. it was 1.30 pm. first we watched some crazy movie about mexicans in USA, yawning from time to time, then we were an object of interest of little shoepolishing boys that found it particularly odd to watch us sticking contact lenses in the eyes. there were still not enough people for the motorboat to leave. then we started watching another movie, this time french about moliere and i believe it was close to the end of the movie that we were told that the motorboat was going to leave. we got to the boat....in order to figure out that there were 21 passengers and 20 seats on the boat. as a matter of fact i was that 21st passenger who didn´t have a place to sit on the boat!that was when the captain started first encouraging the person without a ticket to stand up and give himself in and then just plainly started verifying everyone´s ID with the data they have about passengers on the paper. it took forever. questions were like "sir, how old are you?wait, you put here that you are 50 but you look much younger!". rediculous business. i was sitting on the pier all that time as the 21st extra passenger wearing the life-jacket. since the captain could not figure out who that extra person was, coast guards appeared and thought we 3 looked particularly dangerous. hence our passports were meticulously examined, questions were made and at some point it seriously looked like they were going to make us get off the boat because of those such suspicious european passports. i was afraid our passports would get dropped in the water or some papers would fly out or something since the coastguard was standing on another boat. eventually after all that half an hour passport control he disappeared in the office. the whole boat was still waiting. now we didn´t even have our passports. (btw i had to dig out that passport literally in front of everyone from my secret pocket inside the pants) some 10 min later that man of an extremely high IQ level appeared and said to us that we only could stay in nicaragua for 7 days. at that point it was our 8th day so according to him we were in nicaragua illegally. amazing. i thanked god that at that point the captain of the motorboat interfered and pointed out that EU citizens were allowed to stay in central america for 90 days without a visa. he then also pointed out that the paper the coastguard was holding and from which he was reading 7 days in fact said 7 dollars and not 7 days. 7 dollars is what we paid at the border with nicaragua when we came from honduras. unbelievable. efficiency at its best. at 5pm we finally got to leave el rama. finally!i was sitting almost in camille´s lap but i was sitting in that boat!in fact we even made an extra stop on the way to bluefields to pick up one more person, so max 20 people/boat is a flexible perception.
so, with our hair looking completely mad after that 1,5h boatride we finally were in bluefields. hurray!exhausted we dragged ourselves to the hotel we checked out from lonely planet. naturally the hotel was full. they guided us to the next hotel nearby. such a damp i´ve never seen in my hole entire life. i thought it was not possible to have a hotel like this: shady people, spider nets on the walls, wallpaint falling off and a strong smell of urine in the corridor. bluefields sweet at your service. a place lonely planet classifies as "definitely stay out of there". it was dark, we were tired and so sleeping was our only desire at that point. i sprayed bug spray on the windows hoping it would keep the cockroaches away. hopefully the mosquitos also stayed away, bluefields is experiencing a wave of dengue fever at the moment. we spent less than 12h in bluefields i think and it seemed like it was way too much.
Monday, August 4, 2008
4th of august
saturday was marked by the arrival of camille, my dear friend from paris who was on exchange in spain at the same time as i was. camille arrived glad, saying how she adors everything after spending some weeks in US and demanded an update on the current situation as well as on the plans for the future. " a la orden" we responded :D. so, from now on it is going to be me, marianne and camille. feels way better this way (and safer too as a matter of fact). the whole day was just spent wondering about the town (still in granada), visiting some churches, taking pictures and other must-things for tourists. we did finally go down to the lake nicaragua, just to state how contaminated it seemed to be and wonder how those little kids could swim in there. this little fellow of 7 years old assured us though that the water was warm and it was very deep there where he was swimming, and then he told us how he had god knows how many brothers and when i said that he must have been the baby of the family, he proudly said that he in fact was already an uncle because his sister had just had a baby. camille gave him a candy and he seemed to be quite happy with it.
at night it was time to go out and explore some night-life in granada. we ended up in this rather fancy club where everything was sponsored by flor de caña. that rum was just oozing from every possible spot. the music was in fact really good, and hence must have been the dj too, even though he kept cheering up the crowd with those constant "where is the best party in nicaragua?" and "now put your hands up those who feel proud to be nicaraguan" type of comments. boosting the national spirit, sponsored by the national licour. not bad. all in all granada has a positive atmosphere at night too and even though we were accidently banging on the wrong door at 3 am the neighbours did not even seem that grumpy. an extra point for granada!
sunday was just pretty much relaxing. we did go to the handy craft market of masaya though, it is some 1h away from granada and i did manage to spend immediately some 500 cordobas. it is justified though because i spent them on a book by gioconda belli that i wouldn`t be able to buy in finland. all in all the market was horribly pricy and we didn´t really spend that much time there. a hippie looking guy sold me a bracelet for 30 cordobas but it stayed on my hand for exactly 30min i presume, because this little boy on the bus was really insisting on having it as a present from me and well, in the end i just gave it to him. things come and go easily here. poor marianne didn´t find any good hammocks and was kind of regretting not buying that one that this elderly lady was selling to us for some 20 min on the street the other day. i could have even given her my hat if she just appeared, because obviously the moment we needed her, she was no where to be found. how typical is that?
anyway we are about to leave the hospitable town of granada with no hammocks, but with torches (reserved for the little cor island, where electricity is scarce) and overweight backpacks and start our long journey towards corn islands. next time i´ll post any updates will probably be in a week or so, because we are in fact planning to go all "survivors" on the island of little corn and hence internet is hardly included in this package. but so far so good, the spirit is up and bluefields, the old pirate town, is waiting for us.
at night it was time to go out and explore some night-life in granada. we ended up in this rather fancy club where everything was sponsored by flor de caña. that rum was just oozing from every possible spot. the music was in fact really good, and hence must have been the dj too, even though he kept cheering up the crowd with those constant "where is the best party in nicaragua?" and "now put your hands up those who feel proud to be nicaraguan" type of comments. boosting the national spirit, sponsored by the national licour. not bad. all in all granada has a positive atmosphere at night too and even though we were accidently banging on the wrong door at 3 am the neighbours did not even seem that grumpy. an extra point for granada!
sunday was just pretty much relaxing. we did go to the handy craft market of masaya though, it is some 1h away from granada and i did manage to spend immediately some 500 cordobas. it is justified though because i spent them on a book by gioconda belli that i wouldn`t be able to buy in finland. all in all the market was horribly pricy and we didn´t really spend that much time there. a hippie looking guy sold me a bracelet for 30 cordobas but it stayed on my hand for exactly 30min i presume, because this little boy on the bus was really insisting on having it as a present from me and well, in the end i just gave it to him. things come and go easily here. poor marianne didn´t find any good hammocks and was kind of regretting not buying that one that this elderly lady was selling to us for some 20 min on the street the other day. i could have even given her my hat if she just appeared, because obviously the moment we needed her, she was no where to be found. how typical is that?
anyway we are about to leave the hospitable town of granada with no hammocks, but with torches (reserved for the little cor island, where electricity is scarce) and overweight backpacks and start our long journey towards corn islands. next time i´ll post any updates will probably be in a week or so, because we are in fact planning to go all "survivors" on the island of little corn and hence internet is hardly included in this package. but so far so good, the spirit is up and bluefields, the old pirate town, is waiting for us.
Friday, August 1, 2008
1st of august
after a few days in leon it was high time to head to granada, another colonial jewel of nicaragua.
travelling with those backpacks is always a stressful business. this time there was just no room for our stuff in the minibus and so all the way from leon to managua our precious backpacks (the most precious obviously being the souvenirs from copan, honduras and not the dirty stinky clothes) had to travel on the roof of that minibus. quite stressful for us, not for them obviously. any time we sort of expected an 18kg backpack to fall of that roof and hence were ready to scream any given moment to the bus driver that it was necessary to stop and pick up our stuff. luckily we all made it to managua and were safely thrown into the next minibus to granada. once here it was time to relax though and discover the new city.
granada is just lovely. it is richer (and less politically extreme it seems) than leon and it also shows. the houses are in better shape, the streets are cleaner and in general the atmosphere is very friendly. granada is definitely the most attractive town we`ve seen so far and spending four days is not going to feel like a waste of time. marianne and i even made it to the near-by village of catarina today to admire the amazing view over the volcano crater filled with water, forming the lagoon of apoyo. behind it one could even see the edge of the magnificent lake cocibolca, a.k.a. lake nicaragua. spending 2h just gazing into the water didn´t feel like 2h at all because of the most breath-taking landscape. there are also two active volcanoes next to the lagoon, however no smoke was perceived this time :D
people here are very chatty, they love to talk and especially if they get a chance to express their political views to the strangers. unlike honduras where we mainly had discussions about "novios", well everyone´s love life that is and religion related questions with our hostfamilies and other people, here we tend to hear a lot about politics (especially leftist politics) and even about anarchism. a young man last night very eagerly explained to us how he is fascinated by ricardo´s theory and how anarchism is the only right solution for nicaragua. we were quite stunned but kept eating our grilled pork in a honey sauce without actively disputing with him over this matter. unfortunately discussing pro´s and con´s of anarchy is not very common at hanken, hence our knowledge on the subject was rather limited. the young man soon lost his interest in us and so we got to continue our evening at another place. good start.
travelling with those backpacks is always a stressful business. this time there was just no room for our stuff in the minibus and so all the way from leon to managua our precious backpacks (the most precious obviously being the souvenirs from copan, honduras and not the dirty stinky clothes) had to travel on the roof of that minibus. quite stressful for us, not for them obviously. any time we sort of expected an 18kg backpack to fall of that roof and hence were ready to scream any given moment to the bus driver that it was necessary to stop and pick up our stuff. luckily we all made it to managua and were safely thrown into the next minibus to granada. once here it was time to relax though and discover the new city.
granada is just lovely. it is richer (and less politically extreme it seems) than leon and it also shows. the houses are in better shape, the streets are cleaner and in general the atmosphere is very friendly. granada is definitely the most attractive town we`ve seen so far and spending four days is not going to feel like a waste of time. marianne and i even made it to the near-by village of catarina today to admire the amazing view over the volcano crater filled with water, forming the lagoon of apoyo. behind it one could even see the edge of the magnificent lake cocibolca, a.k.a. lake nicaragua. spending 2h just gazing into the water didn´t feel like 2h at all because of the most breath-taking landscape. there are also two active volcanoes next to the lagoon, however no smoke was perceived this time :D
people here are very chatty, they love to talk and especially if they get a chance to express their political views to the strangers. unlike honduras where we mainly had discussions about "novios", well everyone´s love life that is and religion related questions with our hostfamilies and other people, here we tend to hear a lot about politics (especially leftist politics) and even about anarchism. a young man last night very eagerly explained to us how he is fascinated by ricardo´s theory and how anarchism is the only right solution for nicaragua. we were quite stunned but kept eating our grilled pork in a honey sauce without actively disputing with him over this matter. unfortunately discussing pro´s and con´s of anarchy is not very common at hanken, hence our knowledge on the subject was rather limited. the young man soon lost his interest in us and so we got to continue our evening at another place. good start.
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