Pochomil, Carazo, Nicaragua
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
After our night in
Managua we got out quick smart, having soaked up the sketchy bus station atmosphere, we didn't want to hang around. Luckily as soon as we arrived at the bus station a chicken bus (local bus that you can take anything on including chickens) was ready to go so we hopped on. During a bumpy 2 and 1/2 hour ride whilst going over the mountains we drove through a thunderstorm and parts of the bus resembled a sieve. There was lots of window slamming and I was right by a window which continued to leak even after the hatches were battered down. Mike was standing at the back of the bus with our backpacks and managed to keep our stuff 95% dry. He also acted as unofficial door opener as the door of the bus opens with a latch from the back and it can also be opened from outside so people jump in and out all the time! We were really keen to hit the beach, so we decided to head to Pochomil which is renowned by the Lonely Planet aka the bible, as the Nicaraguan holiday destination! We arrived with a severe lack of local currency (although they do accept dollars which we had) we realised that there was pretty much no one else there. The beach was enormous, incredibly long and really beautiful and we stayed in a room almost on the beach. This establishment was run by a really nice family who unbeknown to us vacated the property in the evenings at about 6 pm. We had a lovely afternoon on the beach and after a really good lunch (cooked by the family) we went into our room to shower and change, came out at 7 pm and the place was deserted! Not a light to be seen anywhere down the beach. The evening security guard had already settled into his hammock for the night. Dinner anyone? Due to aforementioned currency issues although 2 neighbouring establishments offered to cook us fish, which I was keen on (!), we gracefully refused and went back to our room to eat 2 cookies each and try and drink a bottle of fishy smelling Pepsi purchased from one of the neighbours!
The next day we awoke early thinking we'd pay and then leg it onto San Juan Del Sur, however our early getaway was hampered by our card not being accepted, breakfast taking nearly an hour and numerous discussions on transport options on how to leave Pochomil. So after thinking we'd be away by 8 am, we eventually got to leave at 10:30 am. We had a very hot 1km walk up to the main road (with backpacks on) where we waited a while for the bus and eventually found what might be described as a taxi. Having 2 passengers already on board the driver said "not to worry there is plenty of room" in his small KIA hatchback. The mum and her son jumped in the front seat, we squeezed our backpacks in the boot and jumped into the back seat. After about 10 minutes the mother and son left us and off we set for San Juan Del Sur via a bank in some random town half way enroute to our destination. We had originally planned to jump out at the random town and pick up a bus or another taxi but our original driver decided he would take us the whole way so we settled into our 4 hour journey and enjoyed the view whilst listening to non-stop nineties hits on the local radio station - awesome!
