Nicaragua... in a nut shell

Here it is, at long last I have finally set up a blog so that I can tell you guys all of my travel stories without forgetting who I've told what, and to avoid telling stories twice and boring you all :)

So... Nicaragua. Where do I start? When we arrived in Mexico, the general consensus among travellers coming up from the south was that Guatemala and Nicaragua would knock your socks off. Guatemala certainly lived up to its reputation and has probably my favourite place that we have travelled to date. And so after a very small stint in El Salvador we arrived in Nicaragua with high hopes. We arrived very late at night after a very long and tiring bus trip where we experienced driving through an amazing electrical storm.

So truth be told, I was a little bit over life by the time that we got to Leon, Nicaragua. After the hostel that we were staying at stuffed up our booking, we were even more over life. But finally we settled into our dorm beds, and drifted off. The next day was spent sampling Guatemalan coffee (amazing) and walking the streets of this run down colonial- style town. We arranged to go volcano boarding the next day, and after downing some very tasty $1 mojitos, we passed out early so that we could be fresh for our volcano boarding experience.

Volcano boarding is the thing to do in Leon, and no one that we had talked to had been disappointed. It involved us hiking up a volcano for 45 minutes with a wooden sled in tow, wearing some very sexy workers suits, and sliding down one of the sides of the volcano on a little wooden board. Suffice to say it was absolutely awesome, and all we wanted to do when we'd gotten to the bottom was climb back up to the top to do it again. The fastest speed that a person has gone down the volcano is 87km/hour. I think I only managed about 40km/hour because I'm totally uncoordinated and kept falling off, but that was scary enough!

So all in all, Leon was pretty cool, volcano boarding was awesome, and the scenery around the volcano was amazing. The town itself was run down, but quirky. Very different vibe here... a tad more sketchy maybe?

On from Leon we travelled to a surf break called Miramar, which is near a beach called Puerto Sandido. Not much to do here but lay in hammocks and surf, which is a pity as there was hardly any surf, but it was the first time I had hopped on a board in central america. The ankle held up well, but my surfing was pitiful and only made it onto my knees- have got a bit of work to do :) Stayed only 2 days as the place we were staying was a rip-off ($17 for a dorm bed- ludicrous!) and made our way to the city of Granada, the pearl of Nicaragua (according to the Lonely Planet).

Granada was nothing like a pearl for me... it was dirty, and sleazy and the hostel that we stayed at was atrocious. Some people love the place, but it definitely wasn't for me. I'm not a fan of unwanted male attention at the best of times, but when the police are whistling and hissing at you as well as the general scumbags, you know that something is up. The best part about Granada was the 1 hour massage that we got in this fancy hotel. $30 for the two of us, and they threw in some chinese cupping and hot stone massage as well. I've never had a massage before, but once I got past the weirdness of a stranger rubbing my body I was pretty content to lie there and enjoy the experience. We only stayed a couple of nights, and then ventured to a lake situated about 30 mins from Granada (which is in the crater of volcano- so cool) to enjoy the next few days. This place was bliss, the water was so warm and bright blue, so we lazed the days away relaxing on tubes and kayaking, it was paradise!

To finish off our Nicaragua experience we settled at a beach called Maderas, near a beach town called San Juan del Sur. Unfortunately we still haven't been too lucky on the surfing front, the waves were only good for a couple of days, but I did get out there and I am standing up on the board again (yippee!) and Jono got some great waves as well. We also went one night to see Olive Ridley turtles nesting on the beach, and hatchlings taking their first swim out to sea, which was an incredible experience.

So these experiences sound amazing (and they were) but it was the people of Nicaragua that let the country down for me. We continued to get lied to, and ripped off, and it felt like being in India again, struggling to get an honest price and answer for tours, hostels, buses and taxis. So we were back on our toes, but those scumbags that we did encounter really let the whole Nicaragua experience down for me. BUT the places were cool (bar Granada) and we still had an awesome time :)

Hope you guys have enjoyed the first blog experience, let me know what you think! Much love and miss you all xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo