Part One
Trip Start
Jan 08, 2009
1
Trip End
Jan 24, 2009
Ometepe, Nicaragua
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Clay:
We landed in Managua, Nicaragua on Jan 8 at around noon and hit the ground running. We spent our first few days traveling with a guy from Spain that we met at the airport. We spent three days in Granada seeing the pre-columbian ruins and touring the 350 islands in the area. One day our boat was over taken by a hungry monkey who went through our bags bearing its teeth and screaching at us. Our guide told us to just stay away or it would certainly bite us. Monkeys aren't so cute anymore. We toured some of the churches in the city some of which were built in the 1500s and haven't seen much improvement since it seems. After a few days in Granada we started to get a little restless, plus my ipod was stolen from our hostel, so we knew it was time to go. We took a day trip to the most active volcano in Nicaragua, Volcan Masaya, and sat at the crater edge watching it spit clouds of ash and gas. Masaya still spits up rocks every now and then and a few years ago spit up a rock that crushed an Italian tourists car.
Its dificult not speaking Spanish, but our sign language and phrase book have come in really handy. After spending a few days with our Spanish friend, he headed for Costa Rica and then we were on our own. We left Granada and got to a nearby city only to find out that we had missed the only bus to our connection point for the day. We managed to talk a taxi into driving us there for a resonable price and took a little wave hopper to a volcanic island just off the coast. Our first night we stayed in a really dodgy hostel with many lizards in our room that we were told were supposed to be there to take care of the bugs. We spent a day on a motorcycle traveling around the island and then hopped a bus with our bags to get to an ecological reserve on the other side.
Jeff:
We've been staying on a double island/volcano in
Nicaragua (Ometepe) and the geology of
this place is incredible. The larger of the two volcanoes was active
just a few years ago spewing out sulfur gasses and ash. We stayed at a
hostel right under the smaller volcano last night so we could get up
early and hike it. Don't worry, this one hasn't exploded in a long long
time. Its an 8 hour hike through primary forest filled with monkeys and tropical birds. At the top is a crater/lake from where the volcano blew it's top. Because
of the volcanic rock the soil is ideal for growing cocoa and coffee
beans. The plantations were fun to see - and it was on my list of
things that I really wanted to check out. There is an
international team of archeologists here that arrived the same day we
did at the hostel to study the artifacts/islands/etc.
We've made friends with a Canadian geologist and a couple from Wales and
have been traveling around with them for a few days. We expect to leave
the island tomorrow if we're able to get out. The buses are unreliable,
the roads are bad, and the electricity and water goes out in some parts
of the island constantly. I imagine we should be able to catch the
ferry out however. Truth be told, I think it'd be fun to get stuck here.
Clay:
Today we rode horses to a waterfall at the base of the smaller volcano and tomorrow we're waking up to do some kayaking before we have to head out. Right now I'm sitting about 10 feet from the beach and a donkey that is kept by the hacienda we're staying at trying to eat my guide book off my lap. We eat lots bean and plantains and fruit juice and are as happy as clams.
Comments
Happy as clams?
Clams with a lobotomy! Love you, Mom