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THE WRAP UP.- Matagalpa, Friday Feb 11 th 1 am.       Travelling solo is an adventure like no other- it allows you to set your own speed and agenda. At times it can be risky and sometimes it can be lonely, but strangely enough, that did not happen often. There was always someone there to talk to, pretty well every single day. Often the communication was with locals and was a struggle as I mangled their Spanish and they butchered my English, but generally the message got through.   One little old lady on a bus was telling the guy behind her that “ this idiot next to me cant speak a word of Spanish” I just smiled and let it go although I was tempted to tell her “ I think my Spanish is not quite as bad as you think.”   In the course of 6 weeks I have seen every spot on the tourist map except for the Corn Islands. I have also seen a lot of places that many tourists don’t even know exist.   For being such a small country, it is absolutely amazing the ext...

9pm Thursday night   With a rather full day of activity behind me, I enjoyed a long walk back to the hotel this evening after dinner at El Mason. Located a good 1.5km from the hotel, the walk back allowed me to absorb some of the street activity at both city parks as well as the km of “main street” that separated them. Up in the hills, the lights in the barrios looked like stars, making a very beautiful nightscape- a far contrast to the daytime when the shacks and shanties are revealed in all their “glory”  Along the street the fruit vendors had packed and gone home, replaced by food vendors grilling meats over homemade barbecues cut from split oil drums. A few shops, mostly clothing were open, the boom of auto tuned digital music mixes blasting from their doors to let people know they were still in business.  In the cathedral a packed house was listening to a sermon on what sounded to me like respect for women. [Nicaragua and Matagalpa in particular seems to have some is...

Wednesday 5pm   As if the chorus of barking dogs and a howling cat weren’t enough, my first migraine of the trip decided to interrupt my sleep plans shortly after midnight.   The combined effects of an Imitrex and an Imovane   provided me with some relief around 1:30am and I slept soundly till 7:30 this morning.   Heading uphill towards the bus depot, I made a brief stop at the house of Jeaneth Larios, our homestay “mother” from the last trip. An enjoyable but limited conversation followed as her English comprehension is practically nil. Leaving her some copies of photos from the last trip, I continued to the bus depot where a bus for San Ramon was waiting. Some 12km east of Matagalpa, over reasonably good roads, San Ramon is a small village of perhaps 2000 people. Set into the hills it has few amenities but provides a nice “city break” with some pretty houses and little else. A few walking trails lead off into the hills, one to an abandoned mine and a coffee plant...

Matagalpa, Tuesday evening. According to my computer, today is Tuesday and I am in Matagalpa (although I figured out the second part on my own)   Yesterday’s bus trip from Jinotega into town was relatively tolerable, with never more than 5 or 6 people standing during the entire route. With the bus significantly less crowded than my ride north on Saturday, I was able to truly enjoy the beauty of the scenery as we descended into the Matagalpa area. The people on the bus looked at me like I was nuts as I snapped photos of various scenic areas. [“Look at the crazy gringo, taking pictures of rocks and trees!”]   Arriving around 10am it took several requests of various taxi drivers before one knew of my intended destination.   La Buena Onda (English translation- Good Vibes) is a small hostel with one private room, which I have for the next 4 nights [No-one would get any sleep if I slept in a common dorm!]   Located about 3 blocks away from the main cathedral, it is withi...

  While travelling in Nicaragua here are the Top Ten Signs you should be looking for another restaurant. Number 10: You order spaghetti Bolognese and get boiled pasta topped with ground beef and sweet and sour sauce. Number 9: When you look at the soup of the day it stares back at you. Number 8:   They have the number of the local funeral home on speed dial Number 7: The locals snicker and point at you as they walk by. Number 6: The bathroom attendant does double duty as the tortilla maker between flushes Number 5: All the staff behind the counter are skinny Number 4:   The posters on the wall are ads for Maalox rather than Toña (national beer) Number 3:   The staff are ordering takeout from the place across the street. Number 2:   When you complain your glass looks dirty the waitress dims the lights And the number one reason to find a different restaurant in Nicaragua is:    Even the street dogs wont beg for food there. Believe it or not, all but 3...

9pm. Saturday. Jinotega .   For a relatively small town the cathedral here was absolutely enormous. A bright white building with yellow trim and multiple domes, it’s size made it look very out of place. The interior was bright and cheerful with about 18 arched columns supporting the roof. Each one was fronted by the statue of a saint, some of which were readily identifiable, others not so,   The central park in front of the cathedral had the typical bandstand, several tall trees and various smaller bushes that were actually identified with small signs. Scattered throughout the park were various vendors selling pizza, tortillas, hamburguesas and various deep fried potato and plantain chips.   Walking east for a few blocks I found myself in the market area. Again, compared to other cities it covered an area much larger than expected. I was surprised to find large areas where coffee beans had been spread on the ground to dry. In some areas they were placed on black plastic...

3pm   Saturday, Jinotega   5am I found myself awake and re-thinking my planned route for today. Taking the scenic route to San Raphael would involve some pretty bumpy roads, plus, when I got there, I would be dragging 35 pounds of backpack with me wherever I went.   The smarter route would be first to Matagalpa and then a connection to Jinotepe, dump everything at a hotel there and travel with just camera and water bottle to San Rafael. I had already paid my room bill, so it was just a matter of dropping my key and flagging down a taxi to the bus depot.   It was actually chilly when I left the hotel at 6:30am- not a sensation normally felt in this country.   The bus for Matagalpa pulled out of the Cotran Sur (south bus depot) at 6:45am and by the time it had covered a mile it was standing room only.   The route was downhill all the way to the town of Sébaco where the road forks left to Matagalpa and right to Managua. The forest-covered hills of the Segovi...

Friday afternoon-Esteli    Feeling the need not to take a bus ride every single day of the trip I decided to stay over in Esteli for a second night.   I arrived around 10am yesterday morning and wandered the town centre looking for a room in one of the better, but still cheap, hotels. After getting a “ sorry we have no rooms” response from every one I resigned myself to the one high priced option in town -Hotel Los Arcos. The place is absolutely spotless with a couple of nice courtyards, hot water in the shower, clean and comfortable beds, free internet, 90 channels of mostly Spanish language TV plus free buffet breakfast in the morning. The kicker is that it is $45 a night-twice the price of the other hotels. However some of that money goes to local community projects and other charitable groups so the money is going to a good cause.   The last time I was here, we had a total of 2 hours to explore the town, so this time a more in depth look is in order.   The...

Today is Wednesday, according to my computer and my watch tells me it is 5:20pm. At the edge of my view the four faces of the town clock display 4 different times, none of which is correct.   I arrived here (Somoto) at around 9:15am after a rather cramped, but thankfully short bus ride from Ocotal. I was able to find a hotel and check into my room, without a reservation, just shortly after 10am. Within 15 minutes I was into my room, changed and ready for a tour of the Somoto Canyon. The Canyon, some 3km long is about 100 or more feet in depth with water depths   ranging from several inches to 20 or more feet.   The receptionist made a quick call and almost immediately a guide arrived who explained the options for the tour plus the time and endurance level needed. While a similar trip in Granada would cost in the range of $60 and require at least two people, the price was set at $20 for the 4 hour trip.   A taxi ride brought us to the western entrance of the canyon-...

JUST TO LIGHTEN THINGS UP A BIT- here is a little aside from the travelogues While travelling in Nicaragua here are the Top Ten Signs you should be looking for another hotel. Number 10: The comforter on the bed is thicker than the mattress Number 9: The toilet and sink are both supplied by the same bucket and barrel Number 8: The wanted posters at the police station look a lot like the staff Number 7: The screens on the windows let in more bugs than light Number 6: The family rooster’s favourite perch is the chair in front of your room Number 5: The church next door has two bell towers and a 6 am mass Number 4:   The mosquito net has bigger holes than your socks Number 3:   The desk clerk asks you how many hours you want the room for. Number 2:   The roaches are big enough to rearrange the furniture. (And the maid isn’t!) And the number one reason to find a different hotel in Nicaragua is:      The desk clerk asks “ Will that be cash or cocaine?”

Tuesday morning, Managua A healthy buffet breakfast of fruit, cereals, made to order egg dishes and coffee was included - in the price of the room.   After eating my fill, I packed my bags and grabbed a taxi on the highway for the Mercardo Mayoreo, the main bus terminal for northbound buses. The place was a hive of activity – a dozen bus bays- 6 per side of a central steel roofed building where people waited, vendors sold ‘stuff’ and ticket booths doled out tickets to a dozen destinations, I had just missed a bus so bought a ticket for the 11:15 Express to Ocotal, some 240km north of Managua. While I waited, food vendors offered me everything from ice-cream bars to fried chicken on a tortilla.   The difference between an expresso and an ordinario is not just the saving in time, The expressos are, typically free of the annoying food vendors who seem to get on and off at every other stop selling foods that would make a cardiologist smile. If the gastro upset doesn’t kill you, ...

THE Camino Real with Casino, Managua. A swimming pool, hot water in the shower and a toilet that doesn’t require a bucket flush is definitely a step in the right direction after my last few days.   Monday morning,the alarm went off at 5am and 10 minutes later the hotel had a pot of coffee, warm bread with butter and jam waiting for my arrival on the dining deck. At 5:30 they paddled me and my gear over to the town dock in the hotel’s small kayak.   Don Julio was waiting to see me off and helped me load my bags onto the boat when it arrived. Due to complications the night before the 6am fast boat had been taken out of service, so my ride was now the slow boat.   As a result I just missed the 8am to Managua. Not wanting to wait for the 11:15, I boarded a bus marked as heading for Juigalpa.5 punishing hours late they had me get off the bus 10km south of Juigalpa since the bus was, in fact, heading for El Rama- about 60 km due east. With the first 20km of the trip being pot...

The 10am slow boat arrived on time and the trip to El Castillo lasted about 40 minutes.   Once the boat docked I headed uphill to visit the fortress while Marissa and another girl we met on the boat set off in search of cheap lodging. A small museum at the entrance to the fort told the history of it’s purpose, construction and the various battles against pirates- the pirates typically being mostly heroic characters from English history, like Sir Francis Drake. For once the Spanish signage was accompanied with a smaller but passable English translation.   A few cannon balls, some old cannons and even some parts retrieved from old sunken steamships were scattered around the museum area. Steamships were used on the river during the time of the California Gold Rush as a means of crossing from the east to the west coast of the USA- it was apparently safer and faster than a land crossing of the USA. At one point there was even the thought of using the Rio San Juan and Lake Nicarag...

My 5:30 alarm wasn’t needed due to the 5 pm wake up call of howlers monkeys on the south bank of the river and the clumsy bumbling of two French fishermen dropping their fishing gear as they made their way past my room to their waiting boat,   Coffee was waiting for me when I made my way to the front of the hotel and by the time the clock had rolled around to 5:45 Don Julio was waiting for me down by the hotel dock.   After paddling back to town to pick up Marissa we set off down the Rio San Juan for the town of El Castillo. The trip took a little over an hour and a half as we paddled from bank to bank observing the scenery.   Rounding the final bend of the river, the fortress appeared as a large and very impressive stone citadel looming over the surrounding village. Built in 1602 to protect the area from pirates, the fortress is featured in many tourist posters of Nicaragua but is visited by relatively few tourists.   Trading our canoe for a 25 foot panga [wide, f...

Another day, another world. – Hotel Sabalos-Jan 28 th late afternoon. The Rio San Juan rolls slowly by the deck in front of my hotel room. The river is now bathed in the glow of bright sunlight as a ceiling of ugly grey clouds moves off to the west.. Five minutes ago the river was a barely visible through a curtain of torrential rain, which seemed to come out of nowhere but lasted a scant 10 minutes before continuing on its journey west.   Leaving the lodge ( La Esquina) this morning, I landed at the San Carlos dock with a good hour to spare. The lodge staff wanted to make sure that I was able to get a ticket for the fast boat downstream. Leaving at 10:30 it made the trip in just under an hour and a half. A launch roughly 30 feet long, it held about 20 passengers and covered the distance smoothly but much too quickly to obtain any good photos of the scenery. The view from the boat was of mostly rain forest and jungle for the first 15-20 km of the trip. As we progressed east the ...