From Matagalpa to Somoto (Nicaragua) to Bay Islands (Honduras)

I am going to try and keep it short to get up to date! I am developing a slight allergy to computers and the internet and can't be on here long, haha. I got used to doing nothing so much, I don't even notice the time passing. I surprise and impress myself with being able just to sit and stare, enjoy the beauty around, maybe chat a bit, and sincerely do nothing. Mind you, it is not the case that I do nothing all the time.
I'll start with Matagalpa first, where I went together with the Americans in their van coming from playa de asseradores. It is a city in the mountains, supposed to be lush and green, but with the dry season it has all turned brown and yellow, the ground is in dire need of some rain which will come very soon. It felt like a proper Nicaraguan hill town, small houses, colours, lots of buzzing and traffick and people, little shops everywhere. And nice street food, they sell corn tortilla with cheese on top in banana leaves. Delicious and a welcome change from rice and beans and eggs! The other day I was burping egg flavour all day it was so disgusting I felt like turning into beans and eggs, had to go on a forced diet or find just fruit to recover! Now here on the islands where I am now luckily they serve lots of tortillas and burritos and shakes so there is a little more variety, plus I can use the kitchen.

Anyway, so Matagalpa was an interesting stop over, went out even, and then I went on to Somoto which is a smaller town by the Honduran border, surrounded by green mountains, a truly beautiful setting. There is an amazing canyon which I visited and I ended up living with the family of the man who guided me and three Frenchies through it. We were climbing and swimming and jumping and and hiking through the canyon which at times is really high and narrow and deep. There were bats flying around and several bee nests. Impressive place. So I stayed at the farm of Beryardo, such a lovely man, just like his family, I had tears in my eyes when I left them! They were looking after me so well. They let me stay for free in the little room with two of the daughters, one of them with her own two kids in her bed. They get up at 5am and go to bed between 8 and 9pm, and so did I. Was really hard to adjust to staying up longer again when I got to the islands here! Another day I explored a bit more of the canyon with one of the daughters and just hung out with them and all the animals running around, pigs, dogs with puppets, chicken, geese, cats and cows. I lovede it! When I left the husband of one daughter gave me a ride on his moto to the bus station, making sure I would be on the right bus. All were very helpful and caring.

At the border I emmigrated from Nicaragua but managed to walk straight past the Honduran immigration without getting a stamp!! Some dodgy boys who hang out at the border to help people for whatever they can get, including stealing your stuff if you are not careful, but they did help me by telling me I had gone past. Then when I waited for the bus they were telling me I could go with a truck driver through all of Honduras to the coast which would be much cheaper and which would mean I didn't need to stop in the capital Tegucigalpa, the second most dangerous city in Honduras. So I spoke to a truck driver, Silvio, and he took me with him on a ride all teh way to San Pedro. He didn't even let me pay him! And he got so worried about me going to Honduras on my own that when we got to San Pedro, THE most dangerous city in Honduras, which is already a country most travellers I met just drive straight through, or some go to the islands, he stopped and sorted a taxi for me to the bus terminal to make sure I could travel on safely. Honduras apparently has the most violent criminal gangs in the world, but as long as you do not get caught between them you are generally fine. In la Ceiba, where I stayed one night before taking the ferry to the bay islands, I walked at night to buy some mango and water and upon my return an Israeli guy told me that an hour before that had been some shooting and screaming just down the road from where I walked. ! Well, all good. All that strip of my travels I met close to no Westerner at all, in Honduras none until that hostel and also there were only a handful leaving the next day.

Then I got the the Bay Islands, to the smaller one Utila which is the cheaper one. There is just one little village here with two main roads which still are just some narrow streets wwith motos and tuck tucks. I found such a lovely place to stay, I am in paradise. I could so very easily just stay and get a job here. I am already going to stay longer and I know it will be hard to leave. I am staying at a small hostel which is also a diving school righ at the sea front. I have my own little room where I have made myself feel at home, I smile everytime I enter. I have sea view as well and there is a constant breeze everywhere making the heat more barable and keeping the mozzies off (there is a very high malaria risk here - I bought some tablets of the Americans but since I stay longer they won't last me now). There is even a sea view from the shower and the kitchen. The house is made from wood painted in white and blue shades and it looks a bit like and old boat the material. It is cozy and the instructors mega friendly and so are the guys staying here. All men at the moment. I feel like they are my friends or family, they all look after me and I get on very well with them. Sergio is so funny my cheeks hurt! I am overly mega happy here, I found my paradise! Today at 2pm I will start my diving course, with some practises in the shallow water. I am a little scared because of my traumatic experience at the Great Barrier Reef where they lost me at the bottom of the ocean! So they are extra nice with me and I am going with the instructor as well as another guy. All good. Every morning I have been going out on the boat with them and snorkeled whilst they dived. And I also explored the island on a bike. What a life!

Nicaragua! Isla de Ometepe, Granada, Leon, Playa Asseradores

I wish I could just post mentally when things happen, that would be so much easier! Every time I write a post I think afterwards about all the stories I forgot.
Montezuma was nice, lots of backpackers but also locals. The last night I sat with Reini chatting to a Swiss guy who was telling us about all the places one must never visit and how certainly crossing from Guatemala to Mexico should only be done by plane. We laughed so much because he just mentioned one place after the other that we are going to and of course we are both crossing the border by bus. It was completely exaggerated, just so you know. He´s probably gonna stay stuck stoned in Montezuma forever with fears of leaving, how boring! Honduras, however, IS a dodgy place and thus I will probably just make for the islands straight away and not visit much else. The islands are safeish.

So stories! The border crossing was fun, just a long dirt road connecting both countries. A circus was crossing with us :). In Nicaragua we took the ferry from San Jorge to Isla de Ometepe crossing a huge lake (the only one in the world with sharks) and it was yet another shacky experience. The boat itself looked like out of a movie, small cabin and all made from wood, old school. It was getting dark and they were showing some freaky kids movie, like if you imagine David Bowie directing it. In all that weirdo atmosphere the boat was rocking from side to side so much I thought we were gonna capsize any time. I was making escape plans, designing evacuation routes depending on which side the boat capsizes and in particular how I would get out of the cabin, my biggest worry. Better if we were in an open boat, at least I could just jump and swim (with the sharks).Whilst I almost shat myself making survival plans, I looked over to Reini, who had opted for yet a completely different strategy. He thought, it's scary, best just sleep, and that´s what he did. How the fuck he could is a riddle to me. So annoying. Anyway, arrived safely, and the people in Nicaragua and particularly on Ometepe are so friendly and cute and helpful it can make your eyes water.

Isla de Ometepe was created by two vulcanoes, one of which I climbed with Reini. It took 8 1/2 hours up and back. You´re supposedly only allowed up with a guide because people died, but since there is no check point we went without. Don´t know how people managed to die, maybe they fell in the crater. It was a tough and adventurous climb with lots of falls! When you pass the tree line it just gets rocky and sandy, with loose ground. The real beauty was, that up there you are way above the eagles. That was the mightiest impression for me, seeing them glide far below you. When we got to the top it was still cloudy and we didn´t even realise we were at the top! We saw some metal bars and crouched down and beyond were just white clouds. So we went back down and up another part of the ridge and as the clouds disappeared we had actually already made it. Impressive crater. And great views! We half slid down, with a little incident where we slid and the backpack didn't. It was towering above us out of reach with the ground all soft, such a struggle to get it back!

I have been having a great time, but I also got ill and again there are so many stories that have happened in the meantime I can't even write them all down now. Must have a photo and stories party when I am back! So when I crossed the border from Costa Rica to Nicaragua I went straight to the Isla de Ometepe. The people there are so cute and friendly it is heartwarming. In fact, this is the case with the Nicaraguans in general, such friendly and helpful folks. Anyway, on the Isla de Ometepe amongst other places I stayed at an ecological finca. They make bread and things themselves, all organic, grow loads of fruit, herbs and veg, have compost toilets and so on. It is up on a hill and really beautiful. In the mornings there is a free yoga class on a little terrace looking down the hill. First time I did some Kung Fu as well in the evening when there was nobody there, perfect space. I also joined a circus workshop (acrobatics, hula hoop, poi) and thoroughly enjoyed that. One day I thought I should join them making natural products, as I'd seen all those homemade natural remedies, shampoos and NUTELLA they had for sale. So I go, and what happens? They have me make Italian pasta sauce (as if I couldn't make simple tomatoe sauce already) and papaya chutney, how disgusting. I don't even like chutney and besides I live in the UK. Out the window went my dreams of learning new natural tricks or munching some homemade chocolate spread! Instead I was telling the Nicaraguan head chef how to treat hair and skin naturally, haha. The thing I enjoyed less was their filtered water. And with me quite a number of people! I was sleeping in my hammock at the finca the same night as me two other girls fell ill. It was no fun having shitteritis and throwing up and almost passing out outside the compost toilet. The other girls had fever as well, one had 40 degrees fever, at least I didn't really have any. I was just lucky that Reini was still at the same place travelling with me, so when he found me in the morning half dried out he got me some fresh bottled water. We went to the hospital that day, like three emerging zombies, which really was some experience! First of all the clinic looks more like a small old school that is in need of a clean. The reception room had some old flowers in a sink and whilst we spoke to the nurse a swarm of tiny flies was flying around our heads and between her and us and into our mouths. Then we had to provide a stool sample. Well. We had, if I didn't make that clear, diarrohea in its severest form. And they gave us some random collection of "plastic cups" for the samples the size of a thumbs' fingernail. This was obviously impossible. In addition, there was no soap or running water in the toilet. Lovely! If that weren't disgusting enough, we then had to WALK with the little open, see-through cup with our sample THROUGH the clinic to the laboratory. Mega embarrassing. And its not like we are not standing out already. They found parasites and bacteria in us. The pills we got they took out of some chest of draws and counted them on the table, all the while I was thinking this man could not have washed his hands... Counting is not a strength of many people here, so we had to point out that they didn't give us the right dose of antibiotics. Well, I am fine now, I think those antibiotics actually made me feel worse after some days.

After Isla de Ometepe

Ah it is so lovely. Right now as I am writing I am sat on the second floor of a little house in Aposentillo, which is my home at the moment. It is more like a roof terrace open to the sides and with a wood and palm tree leaf roof and you get to it over a wooden outdoor staircase. I have a desk and tables here, my hammock and a bedside table. I even have electricity. I am writing on the laptop of two Americans whom I met in Leon in Nicaragua and who gave me a lift to playa Aserradores, where I am now (northwest of Nicaragua). The little house is sat on a large piece of land full of palm trees, avocado, lime, mango, cashew and papaya trees. The "bathroom" is open air and really is just a wall around a toilet and a shower. At night you can watch the stars whilst you wee. The family that live on the land have a horse which I may ride. Maybe tomorrow! Today I went surfing with Linda and Aron, such a nice couple, and I had a little go at the long board. So much fun, in the red evening sun it was almost too cheesy ;). Ah and we roasted some fresh cashew nuts! I have a whole new level of respect for cashews. So much work! One cashew per fruit!