Catch Up

Here's a quick summary of our last bit of travels in Honduras and Nicaragua.

After a couple of nights around Lago Yojoa, Honduras, see Dave's blog for more details, we set out for Nicaragua. We thought we could drive to Danli easily in a day. On the way we stopped at a cavern for a short tour. Think Natural Bridge Caverns, but we were the only ones there.

Our guide was really nice, and excited to practice his English, especially the names for the different formations.

Then we set off on what we thought was 3 or 4 hours of driving. WRONG! It was the worst single day of driving we have had.

All of CA-1 was down to one lane. The Honduran solution to this was for all of the cars to cut over to the shoulder of the on-coming lane and leave a long long line of buses and trucks waiting. Because Dave drives it like he stole it, we were in the line of cars on the shoulder going against on-coming traffic. We were just about to the end of the line of trucks, about 4 miles, when there was a detour. CA-1 was closed in both directions. The detour was a small dirt lane, this would have been slow, but there was a cattle drive down the lane, making it a crawl.


After the cattle drive turned off, people started going fast. It was so dusty from all the cars, it felt a little like we were back on the Playa at Burning Man.


After the construction it was a smooth drive through the mountains, until this semitruck accident. Luckily we were there before it started backing up and we were able to go around.


Around 5pm we pulled into Tegucigalpa, the capital. Traffic was slow chaos, but we made it through until the outskirts, were we were "ticketed'' at a police check point for not having a fire extinguisher or safety triangle.

We made it out of the chaos, and headed to a small town, Yusacaron. There are three hotels in Yusacaron, and one small guest house. All three hotels were full, and it looked like the guest house, Casa Colibri, was shut up. It was dark and we were exhausted, then Brucito showed up. Bruce is in his 60s, he and his wife have been working for half the year in the area for over 10 years doing medical training and community health development. The rest of the year they live in Ohio. He let us in, called the care-taker, and we settled into an idilic weekend in a beautifully restored colonial house. We didn't do much, just enjoy the quiet of the cobblestone streets and watch the processions of devout who walk every weekend during Lent. They walked in two lines, one women, one men. Following a cross and singing.

Dave shows off his panditos candy on the streets of Yusacaron.

View from the porch of Casa Colibri.

After two nights resting in Yusacaron, we crossed into Nicaragua, spent a night in Esteli, an industrial town that would be a good jumping off point for nearby parks in the rainy season, but for us it was too hot and dry for hiking. Next we headed to Granada.

Granada is a beautiful colonial city, and the oldest colonial city in Nicaragua. It is located on the shore of Lake Nicaragua. People were friendly, there is every type of restraunt and diversion you could desire. Generally we liked it. The only downside is how aggressive vendors can be when you are on the street. One boy pushed me twice while we were sitting waiting for our food, and one woman screamed at us then demanded our chips. It caught us off guard because things had been so mellow elsewhere.



There is one very old church where you can walk up the bell tower. We went up for a picturesque sunset.

After Granada we went to Lago Apoyo, a small crater lake between Granada and Masaya. We camped at the Monkey Hut. They had two kitchens, one of them outdoors, and three of four levels of lawn going down to the lake shore. We spent two nights swimming, reading, napping, enjoying the company of a very friendly cat and playing cards.


It was a great place, and we really enjoyed it. Lago Apoyo is the place in Nicaragua I would recommend the most.


We drove from the lake to Playa Popoyo where our friend Zach was hanging out with Lance and Kristin of Surfari Charters. On the drive, Dave found a giant cola. They don't have guests there yet, so we camped behind their bungalows on the beach. They were great hosts, and we enjoyed hanging in hammocks, dinners of fresh fish, and great company. There's not much going on in the area except surfing. But thanks to Kristin, Lance, and the other people from Surfari Charter it was fun.

Sea Turtle on the beach infront of our bungalow. Not really sure why it was there in the morning, but cool to see it close up. It was sad, because there are guys on the beach who just wait for the turtles to come in and nest so they can take their eggs. Gringos and some Nica environmental groups are trying to do community education, but from talking to people it is an uphill battle.

After a week we headed to San Juan del Sur. There are amazing sunsets in the calm bay where the town is. One restaurant has happy hour specials, we enjoyed some appetizers and played cards.
Other posts cover what happened while we were in San Juan del Sur. The town was small and easy to get around with lots of lodging and food options. We also saw Robert and Justin, the two Canadians we met in El Salvador. Minus the robbery and the flooded room, it was a good time.

After San Juan del Sur, we headed for Costa Rica. More on that soon...

Tomorrow we leave Playa Guiones and head towards the Caribbean. From there we'll head south and hopefully get to Bocas del Toro April 9.