Leon is another one of those beautiful colonial cities where the former splendour and glory is still tangible around the magnificent cathedral next to the main square, the biggest in Central America (Mexico not technically being part of central America), or the yellow-walled iglesia (church). Other than visiting these sites there isnt much to do though, excluding the sandboarding on volcanic ash as a day trip.
We stayed at a hostel called Sonati, which is an Eco-hostel with lots of other volunteering projects that you can join in if so inclined. The first night the hostel was fully booked, but the second night and third night we were able to get rooms there.
Most travellers who have done a backpacker route anywhere in the world will know from experience that certain loops have places that everybody visits with usually roughly the same time frame in mind. Therefore you bump in to people again and again. And this, luckily, happened to me. When we (still traveling with my Argentinian friend, the other, Talei, left us in Leon) left Utila, both of had forgotten our bikinis there. In an attempt to get them back we called the dive center and asked them to give it to a couple from New Zealand I though we'd possibly see at some point in Nicaragua, but it was a long shot. Lo and behold, when checking in to the second hostel in Leon, we stumbled across them!! And they still had our bikinis! We stumbled across another friend from before, a Swede a few days later, and upon reaching Granada we saw Talei again. Isn't it fun to travel?
We hung around Leon, but didn't do very much (not that there's much to do in the town itself). I was very excited when I saw a supermarket and a cinema - it'd been over 5 weeks!
Our next destination was Little Corn Island. The Corn Islands are off the coast of Nicaragua in the Atlantic ocean, and we'd heard nothing but good things about the little one - imagine a beach paradise if you will. The island is only 3km long, and also has superb diving - 4 resident/frequenting hammerheads are in the area. And I didn't want to miss an opportunity to dive with them. They also get dolphins but I never saw any of those.
We went the cheap was - which took about a day and a half o travel, but a return only amounts to about 40 US dollars whereas a flight, on top of being worse for the environment, is 165. It was, well, interesting. We took a bus at 6am to Managua from Leon, a taxi in Managua to a different bus station, waited for an hour only to take an 8 hour bus journey that nearly killed my ass, to a city called Rama, followed by a 2 hour boat ride (or panga if you wish to use the local word) down a river (quite pleasant actually) to Bluefields.
Bluefields is not exactly a nice place and we splashed out on Bluefields Bay Hotel, for 40 US for the room but with hot water, air conditioning and a TV! Luxury!
Bluefields is quite different from the rest of Nicaragua. The majority of the population is Afro-Carribean, with cornrows in their hair and adorned with gold rings on almost every available finger. They speak a mixture of Spanish and Creole English, some claiming that they speak neither English nor Spanish, and basically not trying either.
We took the Wednesday morning passenger boat to Big corn island, from which we had to take a final boat ride to little corn. Agustina, my argentine companion, was less than amused by the 6 hour journey to Big Corn. We had rain, splashes from the waves as a result of rough seas, and those who occasionally get seasick most likely would do so (thank my lucky stars I dont!), like Agustina who spent the journey going in and out of the toilet. Arriving in Big Corn soaking wet, and hour later we were in the 20 minute boat ride over to little corn, where we saw the aforementioned Swede.
We loved little corn the minute we arrived, though the weather tried vey hard to discourage us. Out of the 5 days we spent there we had 4 of on and off torrential rain all day long. Saturday, the 4th day, saw occasional breakthroughs of sun, and then Sunday, our final day, we ha the full paradise experience.
The rain wasn't as big of a problem for me, because rain doesn't change underwater conditions unless it's accompanied by strong winds and currents. I signed up for a 5 dive package (with dolphin dive), of which I did 2 on the dive site for seeing hammerheads (called Tarpon channel), and 3 others which were quite pretty. I've heard another site, blowing rock, is amazing as it's far away, but the weather was too bad to get out there. Strangely, both here and in Utila, I've always seen experienced divers go out with spears to kill lionfish. I was shocked at first, but soon learnt that they're an invasive species in the Caribbean, and were released when a ship carrying a big load sank near Florida, and lack of natural predators in the area means they thrived. They are quite voracious eaters, so it's for the safety of the reef to do it, but they can be very poisonous so it's not a danger-less hunt.
We met 2 Irish guys and an English guy, so us 2, the Swede and our newer friends spent the next rainy days doing nothing other than wishing for better weather whilst playing Argentinian crd games (when not diving of course!). There was a pub quiz one night, which we won! We also spent our sunny day exploring the Northern beaches of the island with our cameras.
Agustina and I had by this point decided to splash out on a plane for the way back, which only takes 2 hours compared to a day and a half.
We went to buy our tickets and were forced to take the morning flight As the afternoon one was full. A smooth and comfy ride back to Managua follow by a taxi and a minibus brought us to Granada, the former cultural epicentre of Central America. And we loved it the second we arrived. The wide parque, beautiful colonial buildings and atmosphere of a place loved by foreigners but not spooky by it has made it one of my favourite cities so far. The next few days will see us exploring before heading to San Juan del Sur and on to Costa Rica.
Until then!
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Monday, 11 July 2011
Honduras
I've tried to upload photos but the internet is pretty slow here so it'll have to wait another week.
Im currently in Nicaragua, so I spent about a week and a half in Honduras. There's not a whole lot to say as a week of that was diving on the bay islands!
One thing that struck me over the course of that time, is that here, and probably further south too, a lot of people are moreno (Latino-like dark-skinned) but there are also many that are so white-skinned they can easily be mistaken for Europeans/americans. And that was rarely-never the case in Guatemala or Belize.
To visit the ruins of Copan, just 12km off the border with Guatemala I stayed in a town called Copan Ruinas, which, despite it's proximity to the ruins, and therefore larger concentration of tourists (which by Western standards of the coast of Spain or the like is still a very small concentration) is still a very charming little town with a lovely square. Mind you - it is little.
The ruins were really cool. They are very different to the ruins of Tikal, because the construction and shape of the temples is distinct from that of those in Tikal where height seems to be the norm and here the ruins are flatter, more pyramid-like with the top chopped off, and the detail lies in the various pillars dotted around. Equally impressive. When I was there, though, the dark clouds where looming overhead and I even saw a lightning bolt right in front of me! Luckily the rain held out until after I finished. There were also tunnels beneath one of the temples, where you could see carvings of macaws and an old toilet-sewer system combo. Definitely worth it.
From there I spent a whole day traveling to San Pedro Sula, to La Ceiba and finally reached the island of Utila for some diving! Being on a boat of which the majority were tourists was a small shock to my system as I'd spent almost 4 weeks being one of the few white people around. Once on Utila I went to visit a friend I'd met in Nagoya, and I stay the night at her dive shop. I was almost going to dive there until I wen shopping around (there's about 15 on the island) and I guiltily went to a different one with cheaper rooms and a beautiful ocean view, and I did the first 2 of my ten dives there. Over the next few days I just hung in the hammocks, made several new friends (both the visitors at Altons -the name o the dive shop - and the dive masters were really friendly). I went for a hike one day to find some random caves, and was going to volunteer for a night with an organisation that is working to protect the turtle breeding ground (called BICA) but the rain stopped us. We had several evenings of rain actually. The diving was pretty good, though I'd say Belize was better. I never managed to see an eagle ray underwater, everyone else did, though there was a group of about 10 that in the evenings was attracted to the light off our dock and would float around in the water beneath - they're magical, imagine a flock of birds in a semi-v formation but underwater! I did see several octopuses (one on a nightdive) many moray eels, spotted drums, lion fish which are hunted as they are invading the reefs, boxfish etc etc.
Utila is quite the party island, with tequila Tuesday and other daily parties, and the food was the best at our dive shop - for the 4th of July the chef made barracuda and filet mignon with red White and blue potato salad (meaning bacon, cream and blue cheese) with coleslaw. All for a mere 5.5 euros!!
7 days of humming around and i forced myself onwards, having picked up 2 travel companions - agustina, from Argentina, and Talei, from the UK. We spent another long day traveling (not out of the ordinary) to reach Lago de Yojoa. This is Honduras' biggest lake, and is often overlooked by travellers, which in my opinion is rather silly. We stayed at a hostel-cum-brewery called D&D brewery, and the location was great, the owners were super friendly (one had just acquired 2 4-week-old kittens which were adorable!) though the beer wasn't to my liking as I dont like beer! The first evening we were subjected to the loudest thunderstorm of my life, we were quite literally in the eye of the storm.
The morning after we arrived we did a boat tour on the lake - which is stunning by the way. It's about 8km wide at its largest point, and apart from one side which is developed for local tourism, is still very unspoilt. Our guide, Malcolm, was this really nice man originally from Ipswich but has spent a lot of time traveling around, especially India. He's nothing less than a connoisseur of birds, and all 3 of us had a great time spotting several cool species, of which I got some great shots. Highly recommended!! In the afternoon we went to visit waterfalls, which were once again extremely well hidden but beautiful to see!
Then we moved on and said our goodbyes to Honduras with a 12 hour journey, a lot of which was on surprisingly comfortable buses, a border crossing at which we had to wait till a huge busload of tourists got their 50 passports checked and finally arrived in Somoto by taxi. Somoto isn't even in the Rough Guides that I'm using, though it is in the lonely planet. It takes so long to get there (even though it's 20km from the border) because it's off a different border crossing from the main one. It was recommended to us by a friend (at this point I'm still with my 2 companions) because there's a beautiful canyon there which was only discovered by foreigners in 2003. We did a half-day excursion with a guide called Henry (super nice!) which entailed clambering over rocks and fighting the currents with a final 7m jump into the water. It was pretty magical, swimming through a canyon that's surrounded by high walls, at the top of which green plants grow up to the light. We even saw a hummingbird fluttering above the water, dipping into the water a few times before heading off. All 3 of agreed it was a lot of hard work, but worth every cordoba (the currency of Honduras).
Honduras is, by far, the hottest out of the countries I've been to. By 8.30am you're already sweating buckets. Some travelers say you have to bank on a 30C minimum, and it's winter!!
From Somoto we traveled a more reasonable 4 hours to Leon, where hostels seem to pack out quickly. Talei has left for a surf camp on the coast, and in a few days I'm traveling with Agustina overland (ouch!) to the Corn Islands, exciting!!
Im currently in Nicaragua, so I spent about a week and a half in Honduras. There's not a whole lot to say as a week of that was diving on the bay islands!
One thing that struck me over the course of that time, is that here, and probably further south too, a lot of people are moreno (Latino-like dark-skinned) but there are also many that are so white-skinned they can easily be mistaken for Europeans/americans. And that was rarely-never the case in Guatemala or Belize.
To visit the ruins of Copan, just 12km off the border with Guatemala I stayed in a town called Copan Ruinas, which, despite it's proximity to the ruins, and therefore larger concentration of tourists (which by Western standards of the coast of Spain or the like is still a very small concentration) is still a very charming little town with a lovely square. Mind you - it is little.
The ruins were really cool. They are very different to the ruins of Tikal, because the construction and shape of the temples is distinct from that of those in Tikal where height seems to be the norm and here the ruins are flatter, more pyramid-like with the top chopped off, and the detail lies in the various pillars dotted around. Equally impressive. When I was there, though, the dark clouds where looming overhead and I even saw a lightning bolt right in front of me! Luckily the rain held out until after I finished. There were also tunnels beneath one of the temples, where you could see carvings of macaws and an old toilet-sewer system combo. Definitely worth it.
From there I spent a whole day traveling to San Pedro Sula, to La Ceiba and finally reached the island of Utila for some diving! Being on a boat of which the majority were tourists was a small shock to my system as I'd spent almost 4 weeks being one of the few white people around. Once on Utila I went to visit a friend I'd met in Nagoya, and I stay the night at her dive shop. I was almost going to dive there until I wen shopping around (there's about 15 on the island) and I guiltily went to a different one with cheaper rooms and a beautiful ocean view, and I did the first 2 of my ten dives there. Over the next few days I just hung in the hammocks, made several new friends (both the visitors at Altons -the name o the dive shop - and the dive masters were really friendly). I went for a hike one day to find some random caves, and was going to volunteer for a night with an organisation that is working to protect the turtle breeding ground (called BICA) but the rain stopped us. We had several evenings of rain actually. The diving was pretty good, though I'd say Belize was better. I never managed to see an eagle ray underwater, everyone else did, though there was a group of about 10 that in the evenings was attracted to the light off our dock and would float around in the water beneath - they're magical, imagine a flock of birds in a semi-v formation but underwater! I did see several octopuses (one on a nightdive) many moray eels, spotted drums, lion fish which are hunted as they are invading the reefs, boxfish etc etc.
Utila is quite the party island, with tequila Tuesday and other daily parties, and the food was the best at our dive shop - for the 4th of July the chef made barracuda and filet mignon with red White and blue potato salad (meaning bacon, cream and blue cheese) with coleslaw. All for a mere 5.5 euros!!
7 days of humming around and i forced myself onwards, having picked up 2 travel companions - agustina, from Argentina, and Talei, from the UK. We spent another long day traveling (not out of the ordinary) to reach Lago de Yojoa. This is Honduras' biggest lake, and is often overlooked by travellers, which in my opinion is rather silly. We stayed at a hostel-cum-brewery called D&D brewery, and the location was great, the owners were super friendly (one had just acquired 2 4-week-old kittens which were adorable!) though the beer wasn't to my liking as I dont like beer! The first evening we were subjected to the loudest thunderstorm of my life, we were quite literally in the eye of the storm.
The morning after we arrived we did a boat tour on the lake - which is stunning by the way. It's about 8km wide at its largest point, and apart from one side which is developed for local tourism, is still very unspoilt. Our guide, Malcolm, was this really nice man originally from Ipswich but has spent a lot of time traveling around, especially India. He's nothing less than a connoisseur of birds, and all 3 of us had a great time spotting several cool species, of which I got some great shots. Highly recommended!! In the afternoon we went to visit waterfalls, which were once again extremely well hidden but beautiful to see!
Then we moved on and said our goodbyes to Honduras with a 12 hour journey, a lot of which was on surprisingly comfortable buses, a border crossing at which we had to wait till a huge busload of tourists got their 50 passports checked and finally arrived in Somoto by taxi. Somoto isn't even in the Rough Guides that I'm using, though it is in the lonely planet. It takes so long to get there (even though it's 20km from the border) because it's off a different border crossing from the main one. It was recommended to us by a friend (at this point I'm still with my 2 companions) because there's a beautiful canyon there which was only discovered by foreigners in 2003. We did a half-day excursion with a guide called Henry (super nice!) which entailed clambering over rocks and fighting the currents with a final 7m jump into the water. It was pretty magical, swimming through a canyon that's surrounded by high walls, at the top of which green plants grow up to the light. We even saw a hummingbird fluttering above the water, dipping into the water a few times before heading off. All 3 of agreed it was a lot of hard work, but worth every cordoba (the currency of Honduras).
Honduras is, by far, the hottest out of the countries I've been to. By 8.30am you're already sweating buckets. Some travelers say you have to bank on a 30C minimum, and it's winter!!
From Somoto we traveled a more reasonable 4 hours to Leon, where hostels seem to pack out quickly. Talei has left for a surf camp on the coast, and in a few days I'm traveling with Agustina overland (ouch!) to the Corn Islands, exciting!!
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