Nicaragua - First Impressions

I’ve noticed while traveling through a relatively small continent like Central America that the differences between each nation can be subtle at best. Panama and Costa Rica both had a healthy dose of North American influence - Panama because of the USA’s longtime involvement with the Canal, Costa Rica because of its highly-developed tourism industry. Since arriving in Nicaragua though I’ve felt much more like I am travelling in a relatively untravelled country. You can tell just by looking at the faces of the Nicaraguans that the country has retained a stronger connection to its indigenous culture.


Our first stop in Nicaragua was the beach resort community of San Juan del Sur, a place we thought would be a good starting point because of its popularity with tourists. It was the weekend that the town celebrated the fiesta to honour the Virgin Carmen, patron saint of fishermen, and there was quite a bit of activity. We saw horses parading down the cobbled streets and street musicians playing Latin American music. The oddest thing we saw was a couple of transvestites strolling down the street. It was just as we rode into town in a taxi and the driver honked at the two trannies, right away the whole car erupted in laughter. The two Germans that were sharing the cab with us and the driver all understood our surprised exclamations of "Ellos estan hombres!"

A popular way of celebrating for Nicaraguans is to set off bottle-rocket-like fireworks. There wasn’t any sort of colour in them, just a loud bang. For the first few days in San Juan del Sur Mary Beth and I would duck and look frantically around whenever one went off as they are quite loud. But by the time we arrived in Granada, the day before the country celebrated the anniversary of the victory of the Sandinista Revolution, we were pretty used to the almost constant bangs of the bottle-rockets.

In Granada we were guided to a cheap hostel by a couple of American volunteers that were in town to work with local schoolchildren. At $10 US a night for a private room with private bathroom, it was one of the cheapest places yet that we have stayed in. But we soon learned that the joys of cheap travel are often balanced by certain hardships. In Granada, and Nicaragua in general, the defining characteristic at the moment is the country’s energy crisis. Apparently the nation’s aging electricity-generating plants are not meeting the needs of the country. Plans are in the works to remedy the situation, but the new plants won’t be online until later this year so meanwhile the country is getting by on 30% less electricity than it needs. In practical terms this means that for 5-6 hours a day most citizens deal with the rolling black-outs that the government has scheduled. Our first week in Granada there was no juice from 2pm to 5 or 6 o’clock, the next week it switched from 5 to 10 at night. The lack of electricity is really no big deal as one can get by with flashlights and such to see, but most buildings’ water pumps rely on electricity so the lack of running water is the most trying part of the energy crisis. For us it meant we could only flush the toilet once each morning and splash a bit of water on our faces before the water flow returned to full force in the evening. Not every community is affected and some homes have water reservoirs that allow them to get by for most of the outages.

For the first few days we searched fruitlessly for a public pool to cool off in since the A/C and fans weren’t running, but to no avail. Our first solution was to head to the Laguna de Apoyo - a lake in an extinct volcano crater - to swim and relax, but we realized we couldn’t go everyday as it was a full-day trip to get there and back. After two weeks we finally heard about a hotel that allows non-guests to swim in their pool, so it’s safe to say we’ll be there often.

In general every one we meet agrees that Nicaragua is a great country for travellers. Every one coming from Costa Rica comments on the lack of American influence and the more tolerable number of tourists. Though we haven’t had a chance to travel very much within the country as we get settled in Granada, Mary Beth and I are both excited to spend a lot of time in Nicaragua and see the many attractions available.

Costa Rica - A Summary

While I usually like to write about more important things than our touristy activities, I realize that most people that read this blog just want to know where we are and what we are doing. So here is a quick summary of our time in Costa Rica.

After leaving Panama we went to Dominical, a smallish surf town on the Pacific coast. At first we planned to be there one week, but ended up staying for two weeks. We got a good deal on a hotel room because we wanted to stay for a while and ended up meeting some nice people there. The guy we hung out with most is a semi-pro skier from France named Max. He is a real adrenaline-junkie type and was in Costa Rica to surf as much as possible, as well as "to make bungee jump, make jump out of plane" and other extreme activities. Max is a real solid guy and invited us and any of our friends to come to the French Alps - where he’s from - for a ski vacation anytime.

Next we headed to Jaco, what we hoped would be another charming surf town, but instead found an over-developed, over-crowded resort beach community. Because it’s the closest beach to San Jose, Jaco is the most popular spot for Costa Rican urbanites to spend a weekend. We got there on a Monday to avoid the weekend crowds, but we were gone before the next weekend because we found the place over-priced and just generally not the kind of place we were looking for. People in Dominical had also warned us that there were a lot of prostitutes, summing it up by saying that all the girls in the clubs and bars were just there to sell their bodies. While eating dinner one night we overheard a group of older gringo men talking about how "Costa Rican girls will fuck you til your eyes roll back in your head." At the same bar I say a large gringo with a big belly to match his big white beard leaving the bar after having dinner with his young Tica (Costa Rican woman) girlfriend and their baby, with them was the Tica’s parents who looked to be much younger than the gringo. I couldn’t believe my eyes as the Tica’s father loaded his granddaughter into the car and sat next to what would be his son-in-law if they were married, although the gringo looked like he could be his grandfather. Scenes like this painted Jaco as a pretty seedy place in our minds, so we opted to take off before the weekend parties started.



After Jaco we headed to Monteverde, a very popular mountain town. The crowds in Monteverde weren’t much better than Jaco but we were getting used to them. We were there mostly to do a canopy tour (zip-lines through the cloud forest trees) and not much else. The whole town seems to exist for these types of tours and we were swamped as soon as we got off the bus by people trying to get us to stay at their hotel and take their tours. Our canopy tour was a blast, although they didn’t warn us about the rappel drop and Tarzan swing until we were already strapped in and seconds away from a quick free-fall that brought a lot of screams from some and laughs for the rest of us.

Andrew had recommended visiting Volcan Arenal, the most active volcano in Costa Rica, and we decided to head there next. There were several options for getting there from Monteverde, including horse rides, a taxi-boat-taxi combo trip and taking a public bus that would take over nine hours. We took the taxi-boat-taxi which included joining a convoy of vans driving to Lake Arenal, loading into a boat with everyone for a trip across the lake the back into a bunch of vans to get to the town of La Fortuna. The volcano is one of the three most visited destinations in the country and prices reflected it. Our hostel was nice as there aren’t many backpacker hostels that have pools, but all the activities in the area were pretty expensive. We did a volcano hike that included dinner at the resort hot springs that cost $60 each. The hike was interesting because our guide was funny and informative, but we didn’t get to see the volcano as it was hiding behind constant cloud cover. We did hear it rumbling though. The hot springs were very deluxe and the dinner was great. We actually skipped lunch so that we could take full advantage of the buffet dinner.

After that trip in the highlands we headed back to the coast. Our first stop was Puntarenas where we spent one night before catching the ferry to the Peninsula de Nicoya where we went to Montezuma. All the guide books talk about how it was a quiet fishing village before a group of ex-pats moved in a made it a traveller destination. Now there is a nude beach not far from town (the first I’ve heard of in Central America) and loads of blonde haired kids running around town being chased by their single Tica moms. The place was very nice and we had an ocean view room and went to the waterfalls one day and the nude beach the next (there was no one nude there). We also did a boat tour to Isla Tortuga for snorkeling and hanging out on an idyllic beach. The snorkeling wasn’t great as the visibility was bad and there were tiny jelly fish that kept stinging everyone. Montezuma is the kind of place I could stay for a while, but there were no bank machines there and we were running low on cash. We tried to find a bus up the coast to Samara, but the state of the roads meant no buses would go that way. Our options were a $45 per person shuttle or a day-long trip back towards Puntarenas. We figured since we needed to go that way anyway we would just go all the way to San Jose where we could catch a direct bus to Samara. I also read in the Tico Times that there was a clown convention in San Jose at that time that would include public shows of fire-juggling so we wanted to check it out.


San Jose was quite a nice town though many people have told us not to judge Costa Rica by the capital. There’s a very nice pedestrian mall down the middle of the city that’s great for walking and people watching. The fire juggling clowns were a little rudimentary but still neat to see. We only wanted to stay for a couple of days, and that’s what we did before catching a bus to Samara.

Samara turned out to be pretty much just another beach town that was taking full advantage of growing tourism. Not that it wasn’t nice, but we have been through so many beach towns now that it would be nice to find a place that’s truly different. While in Samara we mostly lazed on the beach and read. I should say that a definite plus of visiting all these beach communities has been great seafood at cheap prices. Lately I’ve had shrimp dishes of every imaginable variety, and am just waiting for a restaurant that has lobster at cheap prices before I start ordering that regularly.

From Samara we went to Liberia, a large city in the north, where we would spend a night before making a run for the Nicaraguan border. So now we’re in Nicaragua and looking forward to taking Spanish lessons in Granada, exploring the volcano islands in Lago de Nicaragua, and some many other activities we have planned.

Pics from top are: Montezuma waterfalls, Jade exhibit at San Jose Museo de Nacional, MB & I on canopy tour in Monteverde and Puntarenas church.

List of Places We’ve Stayed (updated & expanded!!)

Here is a list of towns we’ve stayed in since leaving Victoria, B.C. on April 15, 2007. I’ll be updating this list as we go, so check back to see where we are or where we’ve been.

USA:
Seattle, Washington - 1 night at Green Tortoise Hostel before flight to San Jose, Costa Rica

Panama: (entered April 18, 2007)
David (we stayed here several times during our time in Panama)
-the capital of Panama’s northern province Chiriqui. I don’t really know much about the town as we spent most of our time there hanging with Andrew’s friends and his in-laws, and then going to the casino, bars and grocery store.
Valle de la Minas (village closest to the Lost & Found Eco-Hostel)
- only went into the actual village once to see the weekend party, but all they were doing was playing volleyball and there was no beer because the power was out.
Bocas del Toro
- Panama’s corner of the Caribbean, best part for us was a snorkeling trip when we saw dolphins from the boat.
Panama City
- big city, lots of traffic, nice waterfront views and the old part of town has great architecture. Oh yeah, the Panama Canal, too.
Robinson’s Island, San Blas Islands
- a true island paradise experience Just us and the palm trees on a small island you can walk around in 5 minutes.
Pedasi
- small village on the Pacific coast, mostly just surfers come here, but we did see a few older gringos looking for property to buy. Also stayed at the cheapest hostel so far on the trip, a room with shared bathroom for $8 for both of us.
Boquete
- mountain town with lots of old gringos (that explains the midnight curfew), went to some hot springs and a wildlife rehabilitation centre that had parrots, various monkeys, an ocelot and a kinkajou that Andrew subsequently adopted.
Playa Larga on Isla Bastimentos
- went to Bocas del Toro again to see more after Craig left. Mary Beth and I hiked to a secluded beach and camped for 2 nights. Had an amazing last night there when a huge leatherback turtle laid its eggs right outside our tent.
Punta Burica
- not really a town, just an area where you can find the Mono Feliz (translated means Happy Monkey) hostel. Very rustic accommodations and tough to get to since you have to drive on the beach at low tide to get here, but an amazing spot to see howler, white-faced and squirrel monkeys. The owner has been feeding the monkeys for years and now they come around every morning.
NOTE: our time in Panama also included day trips to Las Lajas, a long beach, and Playa Venao, the best surf break in Panama (or so I hear).

Costa Rica: (entered June 11, 2007)
Dominical
- small surfing village inundated with gringos (we would later find out Dominical was relatively unspoiled by the gringo migration to Costa Rica). Did surfing lessons with Green Iguana surf camp. Stayed at a hostel that had iguanas crawling all over it.
Jacó
- Mary Beth’s brother told her about a small cabin he stayed in here 6 years ago for $6, now the whole beach front is private resorts and all the girls in town are prostitutes. Saw a large number of older gringos here with significantly younger Tica girlfriends. We didn’t stay long here.
Santa Elena/Monteverde
- practically the birthplace of canopy/zipline tours and eco-tourism in Costa Rica. Canopy tour was a blast, but once again there were just too many tourists here.
La Fortuna/Volcan Arenal
- expensive to get here from Monteverde, and the super expensive ($60 each!) tour to see the volcano was a huge disappointment as the volcano was behind the clouds the whole time we were there, we never once saw the volcano. The volcano tour did include a trip to a hot springs resort and a buffet dinner that was quite nice.
Puntarenas
- nice coastal town with a large fishing a shipping industry, we were just here for one night to catch the ferry to the Penisula de Nicoya.
Montezuma
- similar to Dominical in that this is a smaller seaside village that is popular with tourists, we went to a great waterfall within walking distance from the town. Good party scene here too.
San Jose
- only went here because there are no roads up the coast from Montezuma to Samara, instead we went to the capital and caught a direct bus for Samara after a couple of days. Saw some of the free events that were part of a clown convention, stayed at a swank hostel: Costa Rica Backpackers.
Samara
- another surfing village that is getting overpopulated with tourists, we just spent our time chilling out on the beach and swimming.
Liberia
- just a one night stop over on the way to the border, kind of glad to be leaving Costa Rica, it just didn’t seem like much of an adventure when there were at least 60 other tourists right behind you at every attraction.

Nicaragua: (entered July 15, 2007)
San Juan del Sur
- first stop in Nicaragua at this small resort town. Prices not much lower than Costa Rica. We rented a dune buggy and drove up the coast and on the beaches.
Granada
- we had thought about staying in this city known for its colonial architecture and friendliness longer to do Spanish lessons, but while looking around town on our first night Mary Beth got a job offer to teach English, ended up staying 3 months. Too many adventures to mention here, but we now have many memories and friends from this place.
Laguna de Apoyo
- a crater lake just 40 minutes from Granada, amazing swimming, good for relaxing as it is very, very quiet here. PS - there are 2 hostels for sale at the laguna, check the Crater’s Edge website, the other is called the Monkey Hut (sister hostel to the Bearded Monkey in Granada).
Masaya
- just did a day-trip here to see the market and traditional dancing. Market was somewhat disappointing after hearing about it so much, all the stalls had the same stuff and I didn’t want any of it.
Montelimar
- the estate of former-dictator Somoza is now an all-inclusive resort owned by Barcelo. We treated ourselves to a night here for my birthday, $70 per person per night gets you a room and all the food and drinks you want, as well as access to the beach, casino and other amenities.
Moyogalpa, Omotepe Island
- an island formed by 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua, we actually saw this from the plane on our way to Panama. Amazing geography and scenery, but not much else to do.
Managua
- never wanted to stay here as we heard it was dangerous, crowded and not a particularly nice city to visit. Just stayed one night before flying to the Corn Islands.
Big Corn Island
- Nicaragua’s very little corner of the Caribbean. Didn’t need to speak Spanish here as most of the friendly locals are of Caribe descent. With no ATM and no set ferry schedule it is a bit of a hassle to visit here. When we tried to go back to the mainland we ended up at the other island.
Little Corn Island
- actually better than Big Corn, more backpackers chilling out here and good scuba diving too. No cars on the island make it very peaceful, but when the occasional bundle of cocaine washes up on the beach we heard everybody goes crazy (more on this later).
Bluefields
- just a one-night stop over before taking the river boat-bus combo trip back to Managua.
Leon
- Granada’s rival, Leon is bigger and more liberal they say. A university here, and a population twice the size of Granada, makes Leon a bit better for nightlife, but not as friendly. Lots of volcanoes nearby make for good hiking, we did an overnight with QuetzalTrekkers to Volcan Telica. Also look for volcano boarding at BigFoot Hostel.
Esteli
- quiet town up in the mountains, we stopped here on our way to Honduras. Went to some very nice waterfalls that we had all to ourselves.

Honduras: (entered Nov. 16/2007)
Tegucigalpa
-just one night in the capital, the whole place was too crowded and polluted, the only place we went to was a modern shopping mall to get to an ATM.
La Cieba
- a long bus ride form Tegucigalpa got us to this town on the north coast, it’s really just a jumping off point to go to the Bay Islands, but we stayed for 3 days while trying to get laundry done, our hotel didn’t have a dryer so after 2 days straight of rain we had to take our damp clothes to a laundromat that had a dryer.
West End, Roatan, Bay Islands
- advertised as paradise, but the brochure pics don’t show the all-inclusive resorts full of families just the beach and blue water.
- we ended up staying in the basement of an old local called Uncle Bud, he rented out a couple of apartments as well as having a couple rooms in his basement, it was the best deal we could find which was good because we stayed close to a week after I got sick and had to stay in bed for a couple of days.
Utila, Bay Islands
- we took a ride on a private catamaran to get to this smaller island, at $50 each it was still cheaper than taking the ferry to the mainland and then again to Utila.
- more of a budget backpackers scene here because of the cheap diving, just about everybody was there to do a dive course.
- MB did her Open Water cert. with Cross Creek Dive Center, I did a few fun dives and we met a lot of good people there.
San Pedro Sula
- just one night at this transportation hub on our way to Omoa.
Omoa
- very quiet coastal town with a well-preserved Spanish fort, the most popular hostel, Rolie’s Place, is nice - we slept in a little, raised wooden hut - but Rolie is grumpy and doesn’t like talking to guests.
Copan Ruinas
- our last stop in Honduras was at these Mayan ruins (1 of only 3 sets of ruins we plan to visit while here), surprised to find a cheap room despite the popularity of the ruins, the hotel staff kept offering us a horseback riding tour we didn’t want.

El Salvador: (entered Dec. 12/2007)
La Palma
- a slow start from Copan meant we had to stay in this mountain village right after the Honduras border, spent the next day wandering around the village, then left for the coast.
Playa El Zonte, La Libertad
- just a tiny village on the beach west from La Libertad, wanted to go surfing here but couldn’t find a good instructor, went to a good reggae party on the weekend, if I were to go back I would stay at Esencia Nativa.
Juayua
- a mountain village recommended to us by a guy we met in Bouquete, Panama, supposed to be good hiking but we never went, the tiny town is very picturesque but there are way too many intoxicated guys in the streets asking for money for the size of this village.
Tacuba
- another spot recommended by the fella in Panama for hiking with Imposible Tours, did a great all day tour that included hiking through coffee fields and ended at waterfalls, good accommodations at Mama y Papa Hostel, almost didn’t leave Tacuba when the tour operator asked us to run his business for 2 months while he went to Europe, he kept saying "Don’t go to gringo land and spend all your money."

Guatemala: (entered Dec. 20/2007)
Monterrico
Antigua
San Pedro de Laguna, Lago de Atitlan
San Marcos de Laguna, Lago de Atitlan
Chichicastenango

Belize: (coming soon)

Mexico: (coming soon)