Hi friends, family and readers!
I hope you are all doing fine and all survived the winter 🙂 Well here they do not even know what winter is…here means Leon. I have a sh#tload to tell, but anyway it will be short.
Travel route: San Jose – Isla ometepe – Granada – Masaya – Leon
2000 meters lower and 6 hours by bus heading to the north later, I arrived in the country where the Nicas live. Actually a very nice word for inhabitants of nicaragua. 1 milion tourists less and nicer and more open paople instead. That is what Nicas are famous for.
As I soon found out on Isla Omtepe, a twin volcano island, surrounded by Lae Nicaragua. There I stayed with a family, who rent me room. Nice as they were, they enthousiasticly told me how there life was just before the first tourists came. Of course, if you ask how everything is going, it is always fine…even if not! 😉 During my cycling tour on the island I just met people in the little villages, always very talkative. The bitter truth is that, Nicaragua IS one of the poorest countries in the world. It is painful…
But even in one country you can have 2 different kind of worlds. Isla Ometepe was quite, nice and friendly. Things you will not find in the aweful developed city, Granada. This is the place to be for the rich tourists, or the naive tourists, a city were foureign ivestments give the the city a mega boost. This resulted in a pretty artificial city…in my opinion. When I met some friends of the turtle project, things changed drasticly. It was that moment I did not feel good about travelling for longer… instead we went out a couple of times and allowed my self to forget everything in the world. See here the pics of the trip to Lake Apoyo! There is no need for explaining this 😀
Masaya was my next destination with my friends in Nicaragua. Very laidback! Tranquilo, souvenirs and a nice little town center. Also see pics. These places seems to have a therapeutic effect on my body. things I need to often, I think.
Because my slow brains of learning Spanis I decided to train my brains for two weeks in the city, Leon. Actually I was surprised about my own human hard disk. Not even affected by the raging temperatures of 34 degrees!! 🙁 😉 My teacher is a really nice woman, Gloria, of about early 40 years. Somehow Gloria got it flowing all the time. Humour and and nice. What else do I want? Well, I had a nice family where I stayed. Hilda and her doughter Heldita (7). She rents rooms to students… Better for me, because one of the girls, Marta Lorena, was so nice of showing me the city. Party, all the time. Studying and doing daytrips. Nice to mention were my hike to the volcano Telica. A climb of 1000 m. and rewarded by a look into the crater. I can tell you: awesome to see the heart of the earth boiling and raging 100 m. below you. The group I went with, was cool and my volcano fetish just started… ;).
Furthermore a guide showed me the Island of Juan Venado. Lovely and and educative at the same time….!
My great time is put in a summary below (photos). Despite my hard disk just died, I did not loose photos 🙁 My mp3 died 3 days later… so I think my stuf is in a dying mode…because today I got attached to a window with my t-shirt on the street, and the whole t-shirt was ripped of my body! 🙂 Too embarrasing.
Well friends, this was the adventure for now. Take Care!
Travel plan: 19th of April Leon – El Salvador (1 week in this tiny country)