Central America 2005

The countdown to the end of our trip has begun. We have about three weeks left and we now have to plan a bit better in order to fit everything we want to see and do into our remaining time. We have enjoyed all the countries we have visited so far although we found the cities in Nicaragua a bit too hot, especially since our grade of hotel rarely has air conditioning.

Leon was the first city in Nicaragua where we basically laid low in the afternoon. We would do our walking tour of the many churches in the morning, then return to our hotel and sit under the fan until the temperature moderated in the evening.

Our favourite restaurant faced the main plaza. One evening a group of Nicaraguans was enjoying some beers and food at a sidewalk table when a group of Mariachi style musicians came by. The Nicaraguans, who knew all the songs and sang along, encouraged the group to play for quite a while. The Nicaraguans had a great time and we were sorry when they finally left.

A beach holiday sounded like a great way to beat the heat of the city. We took a bus to Las Peñitas, a short distance south of Leon. We stayed at the very nice small hotel, Barca de Oro, owned by a French woman, Sandrine, and her Nicaraguan husband. Their hotel is at the junction of a white sand beach and the mouth of a mangrove lined river leading into the Isla Juan de Venado nature reserve.

The tides are quite high on that coast and the waves break continually on the shore. At low tide the fishermen's boats are left high and dry on the sand. As soon as the tide starts to come in, the fishermen get together to push their boats into the advancing waters and make their way through heavy seas to start their daily fishing.

The sea was nice and warm and the waves were perfect for boogie boarding. Barca de Oro had boards for guests to use so we had a great time renewing the skills we learned in Australia last year.

We took an early morning boat ride up the river into Isla Juan de Venado park. The narrow channel of river cuts off the 20 km island from the mainland. There weren't nearly as many birds as Crooked Tree in Belize but it was nice and relaxing anyway. We stopped at one point to walk 100 M across the Isla to the ocean side. White sand beaches stretch the entire length of the island with no development allowed. On the way back our boat driver gave a local fisherman in a dugout canoe a tow home. He had already caught quite a few large fish that lay in the bottom of his canoe. Needless to say we enjoyed good fish for dinner each day.

Semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter, is a big holiday in Central America. For many people it stretches over two weekends and everyone goes to the beach. That means that our quiet Las Peñitas beach was about to be invaded by vacationers, so it was time for us to leave. We decided to head for the hills, where it is cool and not as popular with Nicaraguans as the beaches. Another guest at Barca De Oro, an American working in Nicaragua, told us about a great place to stay in the mountains, so away we went. It was one of the nicest spots we stayed in.

We took the chicken buses to the forgettable mountain town of Matagalpa where we stayed overnight before heading up to Finca Esperanza Verde (Green Hope). We had phoned and reserved but were told we had to make our own way there. That meant walking the last 3.5 km uphill to the resort. We took our daypacks and left our larger packs in Matagalpa, took the bus to a tiny village where we started to walk. We got lucky as one of the only cars to pass us on the walk to the Finca gave us a lift when we were half way up.

Finca Esperanza Verde is a relatively new EcoResort started by a Durham NC group and run locally by Nicaraguans in nearby San Ramon, east of Matagalpa. It has already won several awards for Ecotourism. All the profits go to aid the local community. They can take up to 26 people in small brick guesthouses set amongst an organic coffee plantation. There is a small butterfly house and several good walking trails, which of course we followed. Amongst our fellow guests were two families from the diplomatic community in Managua, a Canadian family with four children and a Dutch family with three children.

We left with a few regrets and walked out to the bus stop. To my chagrin, I realized I had forgotten to turn in our room key. Being a conscientious person, I decided to stop off in San Ramon and return the key to the local office of the Finca. We knew we would have to wait for the next bus going to Matagalpa, but we were either waiting at the wrong place or the buses were on a break. After nearly two hours, the Dutch family drove by on their way home. Just as they were about to stop for us, we realized they had a very flat tire. It took about 45 minutes, with the help of several helpful locals, to change the tire. We of course gratefully accepted a ride to Matagalpa where we retrieved the rest of our luggage and found a bus heading for Masaya.

Masaya is not a particularly attractive town but it is known for its artisan markets. A large tourist market sells locally made hammocks, black pottery, leather goods and painted wooden articles in nicely arranged booths. Most of the goods were too big for us to carry home, so we didn't buy much but it was interesting just looking. We also visited the more traditional market in town. It was so big it would be easy to get lost in the labyrinth of stalls. Everything from meat, fruit and veggies, to clothing and household goods could be purchased plus all the same products for sale in the more plush tourist market. It was a busy place.

Another day we walked to El Coyotepe, a fortress built in 1893 on top of a hill overlooking Masaya. The fortress, which is now owned by the Boy Scouts, figured prominently in a 1912 stand against US intervention and during the Nicaraguan revolution from the 1930s to 1983. We admired the view of the countryside from the top of the surrounding walls and walked through dark tunnels under the walls. One of the Scouts on duty gave us a tour of the dungeons under the central building. These were used by Somoza's dreaded National Guard to house political prisoners. We were told as many as 50 to 70 people were kept in the largest room that was about 30 by 30 feet. There were other tiny rooms for high risk prisoners. We were glad our guide had a flashlight. It was dark and scary in there.

Our last evening we walked to a local tienda (small store) to buy bottled water. We couldn't get near the store for the crowd of people in the middle of the street. A brass band was playing as several locals carried two platforms on their shoulders. Each town has a patron Saint and this town had a mannequin dressed as a Virgin Mary with a long lace train connected to a second float carrying a young woman dressed in finery. The parade stopped in front of the tienda and the crowd milled around until prayers were said. The tienda owners came out with drinks for the band members and the floats moved on to the next small store.

This was just the first time we saw this scene enacted during Semana Santa. Later in Granada, a procession carrying a float, complete with fluorescent lighting and flashing lights surrounding three mannequins of Saints and a glass coffin with a figure of the crucified Christ inside made its way down the street where we were staying. A hoard of street vendors appeared first and wheeled their booths to spots on the street where they could sell ice cream and drinks to the following crowd. The float approached a fire hall on the corner of the street, accompanied by a brass band. Sirens blared out from the fire hall to greet the Saints. The parade stopped, prayers were said, the vendors packed up and ran ahead and the crowd moved on to the next stop.

Granada was an attractive city, much like Antigua in Guatemala. Well kept Spanish colonial building surrounded a treed central plaza lined with street vendors and small outdoor cafes and crowded with families. It was especially busy in Granada during the holiday period. For the first time we had trouble getting a place to stay and had to settle for a typical hostel. We did get a double room, but it was hot in Granada and our little room was steamy, in spite of the fan. We even tried to get a room in a more expensive hotel but they were all booked for Semana Santa, so we stayed where we were and suffered a little.

Granada is on the shore of the huge Lago Nicaragua. We walked down to have a look. All we could see were bodies in the water and on the 2 Km of beaches. It was packed with families taking advantage of the Semana Santa holiday to cool off in the lake waters. We were not tempted to join them but we enjoyed the happy atmosphere.

We stayed cool one day by taking a bus out of town to nearby Laguna Apoyo, a volcanic lake similar to Lago Atitlan in Guatemala, but smaller. It is a dramatic ride from the rim of the crater several Km down to the lake. The Bearded Monkey, our hostel in Granada, owns a nice lakeside house where you can stay or just visit for the day. Grassy terraces led from the house to a dock for swimming. There were big inner tubes for floating in the cool waters and a few kayaks to try out. We had a great relaxing day just swimming, sunning and reading. In fact, we are paying for all that sun as we both got a little burnt.

About 1/2 Km farther down the lake was the public beach and it was filled to capacity with people doing the Semana Santa beach thing. We didn't want to return to Granada until it had cooled down in late afternoon, so we delayed leaving until nearly 5 PM, just at the same time as the public beach was emptying. We should have taken a taxi back to the highway where we would get a bus to Granada but we didn't. We took the public bus along with everyone else. We had a seat but I think there was a record number of people crammed inside. It was a good thing everyone was in a good mood.

That night brought a new element to the festivities. I guess all the Saint blessings were over as the party goers on the street after dark were adults and children dressed in Carnival type costumes and dancing for whomever would toss them a few coins.

We delayed leaving Granada until Sunday, the last day of Semana Santa as we didn't want to face more crowds at Isla de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua, another favoured beach location. Isla de Ometepe is shaped like a barbell. The round ends are two volcanoes, Conception and the smaller Masera, joined by a narrow isthmus of beach formed by volcanic runoff. Lago de Nicaragua is connected to the Caribbean at one end by a river. Long ago sharks made their way up this river and some still live in the lake, although we saw no evidence of them. There is a boat from Granada to Ometepe, but the lake is especially windy, so we passed up the rough four-hour trip in favour of a one hour boat trip from the south side of the lake.

As soon as we reached Ometepe we headed for Playa Venicia, a half-hour ride from the port. We stayed at a nice beach hotel and spent most of the day reading in hammocks. We did join four others from our hotel on an excursion to walk up to a waterfall on Volcan Masera. The start of the walk is only about 12 KM away but it took 1 1/2 hours to drive there in a minivan because the roads were so bad. The roads from the port town of Moyogalpa are gradually being rebuilt with interlock brick but they have only completed just past Playa Venecia, about 1/8 of the total distance. The bad roads do keep the tourist population down, which is good for us but not the local economy.

The trail to the waterfall was on private property, owned by Estacion Biological de Ometepe, which operates a hotel complex that specializes in bringing International school and college groups for a week studying tropical ecology, birds and plants. We had a good, although sweaty 1 1/2 hour hike up to see a waterfall streaming down 35 M to a small pool. We all disregarded a sign warning that rocks could fall from the waterfall at any minute and splashed cooling waters over ourselves. Once we were back down the hill we cooled off again with a swim in the lake.

Right next to our hotel on Playa Venicia is a nature reserve, Laguna Chaco Verde. We had a nice walk around the laguna, and up a hill for a view of Ometepe. There were lots of raucous Urracas flying about. They are Blue Jay cousins with a more elaborate feathered crest and a longer tail than the northern Blue Jays.

We said goodbye to Nicaragua and headed for Costa Rica. The border crossing was relatively easy once we figured out where we had to go to pay exit fees and get stamped out of Nicaragua then get accepted in Costa Rica. At least there were no lineups.

Click the map above to see an album of Costa Rica photos. Close the window to return to this page.

As soon as we were on the bus in Costa Rica we noticed the relative prosperity of the country. Costa Rica has highest standard of living in Central America and it showed in the more substantial houses and neat yards. Someone told us that apart from the well-developed tourist industry, Costa Rica has more money to spend because they do not maintain an army. In contrast, Nicaragua and El Salvador have a high military budget to contend with.

Our first stop was Liberia, a pleasant, prosperous town but still too warm for our liking. There are now direct flights from the US to Liberia, allowing more tourists to start their visit in Liberia rather than the capital, San Jose.

We had planned to stay just overnight, but the hotel we stayed at was offering an interesting trip to a National Park nearby. Rincon de la Vieja is in the mountains just 21 Km from Liberia but it took over an hour to get there because of the rough roads. The park has several good hiking trails but it isn't as popular as some of the other tourist destinations in Costa Rica, so most of the time we had the trails to ourselves. We had a three-hour hike to a waterfall in the morning. It was a lovely trail through the woods and through fields with views of the mountains. The waterfall was worth the 1 1/2 hour walk. It fell about 25 M into a pool deep enough to swim in. We were too lazy to change into suits and contented ourselves with splashing cold water on ourselves and resting in the cool of the glade.

After returning to the park entrance, we passed up the opportunity to climb to an active volcanic crater. Instead we took a break to eat lunch and started out on a second, shorter trail to see thermal hot spots. Just at the entrance of the walk was a Coati, a brown furry animal that looked like a cross between a possum and a racoon. It ambled about poking in the forest floor for bugs and wasn't in the least disturbed by people following it about trying to take photos.

Fumarole in Rincon de la Vieja

We finally left it alone and walked through the woods to find the fumaroles. You could smell the sulphur far before the steaming vents came into view. There were several spots where volcanic gasses bubbled up through pools of water and mud. They were all far too hot for bathing as the temperature of the fumaroles was near 200 C.

We have just arrived in the popular cloud forest park of Monteverde, where I am finishing this Episode. We plan to investigate more walking trails tomorrow with the hope of seeing some tropical birds and animals.