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!

[Show as slideshow]

Street life - San Carlos de Nicaragua

Sabalo - small river community

Lunch swims right in the river ;)

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I must admit I do appreciate the fact people seem to return to this site, despite the fact not a lot is happening down here ;) Most of this is due to the elements (aka internet connections, electricity and computers built in 1985) not acting in my favour but I hope things have changed for the better now. Unfortunately I cannot post any pics right now but I’ll make sure to do this tomorrow (as in… mañana ;))

So here’s yet another summary of what I’ve been up to lately. Simply put, the last 2 weeks consisted of a few long trips (bus, plane, walk, bus, walk and again bus), swimming, surfing, sailing, beaches and learning a bit of Spanish. You might think this is quite a low level of variety but I can tell you it’s far from anything unbearable :)

So after leaving Colombia - and going through a one hour drug-check at the airport in Barranquilla while establishing a good friendship with the airport security personnel - I decided to go to Santa Catalina (South of Panama, 14 hours traveling) to check out my surfing capabilities and discovered I have yet another item to add to my list of addictions. My instructor took some pics of my first sessions but she hasn’t sent them over yet (no bs!!). In light of transparency it would be nice to post them, but I really have my doubts on whether I should once I receive them ;)

After Santa Catalina I had to make another 13-hour trip to Bocas del Toro (Isla Colon) to attend Spanish classes the next day. This Spanish course will last for four weeks on end so I’ll have plenty of time to post more pics of this place and it’s lovely surroundings (once again, elements…). As most of you probably know, the place is full of great beaches and I must say nightlife is not that bad either! Of course there’s more to do, so after finishing classes in the morning, activities also exist of snorkeling (no diving - still have to get my ears set straight!), walking some small jungle trails, boat trips and doing pretty much everything for which not a lot of effort is required :) The downside to all this is the fact that at the moment waves are as high as the beach chairs (I wanna surf!!) and there’s a severe water shortage which has caused people to be creative with whatever kind of supplies they’ve got. You read it right, Mommy’s little boy is going hardcore!

Last but not least; my camera has unfortunately not been able to bear my hardcore ways of traveling and therefore decided to call it quits :( Once again, the problem is being worked on and this time I didn’t lose any pictures.

Have fun watching… and smell you later!!

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