Arright! Please allow me to break the silence down here, the last couple days have been sort of disconnected, if not hectic, if not both. Anyway, after two earlier intentions (aka semi-attempts) to go to the Corn Islands, I finally managed to get there! You know what they say - third time lucky ;)

The entire story on the subject is quite extensive, so bearing in mind the majority of visitors prefer a short story (and lots of pics ;)) you´ll find the “director´s cut” below. The full monte can be found by clicking on “read more” at the bottom of this article. Sounds fair, doesn´t it? :)

So here we go… As the islands are pretty isolated (70km off Nicaragua´s east coast), there´s basically two options to get there: by air (aka recommended and preferred) and by bus and boat (aka adventurous and dodgy). This makes for an easy choice: let´s take the latter!

That morning I got away from Lago de Apoyo by throwing both myself and my backpack over the fence. A quick busride took me to Masaya, famous for its “artesanias” - this is where I decided to buy a hammock, bearing in mind the large number of uncomfortable journeys I still had ahead of me (trust me, there´s more to come after this one!). Been there, done that and another busride took me to Managua. Three hours (and three attempts of theft, all unsuccessful) later I was on the bus to El Rama … what is it with Central American capitals!? One I got there all hotels appeared to be full so I spent the night sleeping in the bus - the hammock instantly came to good use :)

After being kicked out of the bus by its personnel (sorry, I have a hard time waking up!) I took the fast boat to Bluefields, and I mean F-A-S-T - the scenery was lovely though I didn`t get to see much as our boat hung almost vertical with speed :) Down in Bluefields I met up with some people (hello Rita and Mario) and together we learnt we missed the ferry to the Corn Islands by about an hour - bummer! Speaking to locals appeared to help though and we learnt a fishing boat would be leaving for the islands from El Bluff, a key just 1km off the coast. Friendly locals and even friendlier fishermen (yah man) allowed us to hitchhike and we got to Big Corn that same day.  We spent Saturday night on Big Corn (Reggae Palaca was nice!) and I left for Little Corn the next morning. I fell in love with the place as soon as I set foot on the dock - once again the pics should speak for themselves! Spent the next days enjoying perfect weather and, more importantly, went scuba-diing! You read that right: I CAN DIVE AGAIN! It was well worth it too; swimming among sharks and stingraysis quite an experience!

Unfortunately all good things come to an end eventually, and I now find myself in Cancun after spending 4 days on boats and buses, ready for the next journey. YAH MAN!

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Sunrise on Rio Escondido ... on the way to Bluefields

More Rio Escondido sightseeing

Our ride to Big Corn!

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Alright, mission backtracking - commonly known as “going the wrong way” - is coming to an end: after a little birdwatching tour on Lago de Apoyo - these things are fast! - I came back down into Nicaragua to do a proper visit to Leon. This is going to be the final bit of colonial stuff for the time being, after all variety is the spice of life right? ;)

One of Leon’s advantages is the fact that it’s surtrounded by volcanoes, which in turn offer the opportunity to slide down from them on wooden / metal boards. In other words: volcano-boarding! This was fast and fun (and a little painful, too!) - check out the pics for a certain impression ;)

After Leon I decided it’s time for a little more highland (what on earth happened to my beach-addiction??) so I went off to Esteli, walked through some mountains, swum in a waterfall and visited a historically important museum. Yes, again a waterfall… but what would you do with 28C and a non-stop burning sun on your skin? :)

Finally, I went back down to Granada as me New Year celebration is going to take place at Lago de Apoyo. Sounds familiar, right? :)

This leaves me to the following: I would like to wish you all a Happy, Prosperous, Warm, Fuzzy and Whatnot New Year… and speak to you again soon!

Hasta luego!!

PS: I’ll post a list of New Year resolutions… but only by request! ;)

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Lago Yojoa - without birds...

Tegucigalpa's central market and related bus traffic :)

That's the hill we slid down

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As promised, here´s a more visual update on the latest travel bits :) Have fun browsing through them - all pictures are from Nicaragua even though I´m in Honduras (Utila) at the moment. After Granada I passed through Leon, then went to Jiquilillo (don´t try to pronounce that ;)) to chill out for a while and attend a local celebration for Virgin Mary before passing on further north. Indeed, my travel plans have sort of made a little change (Haley and Jes, I hope you realise you are the cause of this!! ;)), so I´ll enjoy my time here on the Caribbean side of Honduras before making a big u-turn to the east (and later on, south) and going back down into Nicaragua. I´m going off the beaten track by quite a few miles next week, so will do my best to keep you posted! ;)

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Sunrise - Lago de Apoyo

Lago de Apoyo - like a swimming pool...

Bulls on the run (and the kid chasing them is a hero!) - Santa Catarina

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Note: Pics will become available in 2 days at the latest… this is about the time it takes to upload them ;)

Once again, sorry it took a while to post something new here but internet connections are just not too big in my favour in the places I visited… guess there´s no need to explain :)

San Juan Del Sur was big fun, and although the original plan was to connect to Isla Ometepe from here, I ended up meeting some very nice traveling companions which sort of caused me to change my plans (again ;)); we headed off to Granada, a large colonial city at Lago de Nicaragua. It´s a nice place and all and blablabla… see photos (to be posted) and locals seem especially friendly over here. We made a 2-day trip to a nearby lake called Lago de Apoyo, supposedly this contains the cleanest water in Nicaragua and it does look like a huge blue swimming pool from the lookout point we visited. The hike up there brought us to a village that had locals bullfights scheduled for the night… if only the bulls didn´t escape while we were there :D

Back in Granada we hooked up with locals, visited a school which is run on a voluntary babse where local kids learn to do all kinds of stuff to make some money. This includes breakdancing, really impressive. And … for the first time in my life I´ve been a real ´children´s friend´ as these did not seem to be afraid of me ;) Next day we visited Isla de Ometepe, an island consisting of 2 volcanoes in Lago de Nicaragua. The place looks like a picture from a fairytale book from a distance and its scenery (and local inhabitants) are really impressing. It keeps striking me this place is so different from what I´ve seen until now… hope these pics help explain so :)

Write soon again (hopefully)!!

Update 07-Dec: Forget about the pics for now, internet has barely been invented in the place I headed to (Jiquilillo)… I`ll soon put up a new post with lots of `em… promise! ;)

Hello from Nicaragua! After La Vida Activa I decided to call it quits in Costa Rica and cross the border to this place! There´s basically 2 ´open´ crossings between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, one by road and another by crossing a river (Rio San Juan). Decided to take the latter, as it would lead into a little less-explored territory in the south-east of the country. So far so good, river crossing went smoothly and after having crossed the official border it was like ending up in another world. Quite intriguing… but all the more interesting!

The next day I went down Rio San Juan, a river surrounded by dense jungle and lots of wildlife - about 2 hours down there´s a small village named El Castillo which is quite isolated but offers some interesting things to see and do. There´s an (unlikely) fortress in the middle of it, used to keep pirates from entering the country and the village really has an atmosphere of its own. I´d also like to make specific mention of two Dutch people who are busy setting up a very substantial form of eco-tourism in the area. El Castillo won´t be the same for long as many people have started buying up land but they seem to be developing one of the best forms of eco-tourism I´ve come across so far; please visit their website NicaNature!

It was here where my money started running low so a small trip back up the river to get money from a bank seemed necessary - if only they wouldn´t have stopped accepting Visa cards since a short period of time… This left two options; take a 10-hour bus ride (one way) to another ATM, or get money in Costa Rica. Well, 2 hours (and 6 Visa stamps) later I got what I needed :) Boat schedules didn´t turn out to be in my favour to go back so I decided to make a little turn and cross over land this time. It´s hard to say, but this land crossing was probably one of the craziest border crossings I´ve been to so far… having to block people and threaten with getting the police is not something I do every day ;)

Anyway, false start… ended up in San Juan del Sur (southwestern Nicaragua)… and there´s absolutely worse places to crash down! The place is laid-back, the beaches are nice and the surfing is great fun! When it comes to the latter, I´m still class ´S´ (the S is for sucks) but everyone needs to learn anyway…. right?! Also seeing nesting sea turtles was interesting, besides the fact we were surrounded by hundreds of them!

That´s all for now, I´ve got quite some more things on the programme so keep coming back ;) And thanks for all feedback I got lately!

Note: due to constant electricity problems over here I haven´t been able to upload pics yet, will try doing so tomorrow. Sorry!

Update 22-Nov: Pics now available! I´ll try to keep it shorter next time!

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Street life - San Carlos de Nicaragua

Sabalo - small river community

Lunch swims right in the river ;)

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