Nicaragua!!

Nicaragua grew on us.  From humble beginnings in the mountains to finding our happy place on a beach we fell in love with this country.  We may have hit a bit of a breaking point in Leon but after a quick recharge we were able to rally and sand board down volcanos, see lava and explore quaint cities (and even being swarmed by a church group).  This is definitely one country we could return to especially since we were unable to explore Ometepe Island.

April 20^th – Feeling like true overlanders again

 

Before going to bed last night, the women who owned the restaurant asked if we wanted any coffee in the morning and we said sure that we would be happy to purchase some.  It seems as soon as she saw us wake up and leave the van she started preparing the most delicious cup of coffee for each of us.  She even asked how we wanted it prepared.  The coffee was everything we would have wanted and even came with some biscuits, the only “issue” is that she didn’t want us to pay for it.  The coffee, biscuits and the camping were all free.  She just wanted to make sure people had a good impression of her country.  We can easily say she gave us a great first impression; Mission Accomplished.

We explored Ocotal and neighbouring communities and even tried to go to a few places where coffee beans are harvested, assuming we could see the process and have more coffee, but these of course are industrial places with security, they did not let us in.

We ended up driving to a lake in a “fresh” area of the country (at least this is how the women who owned the restaurant we spent the night at described it) hoping to keep our trend of keeping ourselves cool by staying in the mountains.  We had planned to stay at a formal campground but missed the turn and ended up at the public dock which was pretty much empty except for a giant German Unimog.  Since the German’s appeared to be camping at the dock we decided we would be true overlanders and also camp at the dock. 

Our spot seemed great with an amazing view of Lake Apanas but before we knew it our German friends decided to leave (without saying hello or goodbye) leaving us alone for the night.  Maybe they knew something we didn’t like the plague of bugs that descended upon our campground as soon as it got dark.  We had never seen so many bugs!!  It didn’t take us long to retreat into our van for the night while ensuring all the windows were tightly closed.

 

April 21^st – The best burger of our lives in Coffee Country?!

We woke up planning for a slow start to the day; however, a local ended up coming to where we were camping demanding we pay for the use of the dock.  We didn’t have any money to give him, nor would we have, however once he started to explain that he was starving we decided to repay the hospitality of the woman of the previous night and give him some meat to eat.  He accepted the meat and went on his way. This is when we learned that Nicaragua is the poorest country we would be visiting on our entire Pan-American journey.

The community just south of the lake is Jinotega, the capital of the Jinotega region (same name) which is also the coffee capital of Nicaragua.  We envisioned cafes to enjoy locally harvested coffee everywhere but were surprised to see not a single café.  The only “café” we found was outside of a convivence store which had…amazing coffee.   Our next stop was a view point high above the city which had a good 4x4 road to get to it.  Somehow we thought we could make it, we didn’t!  So, although we didn’t spend as much time in the community of Jinotega, we at least had good coffee!

Our next stop was the community of Matagalpa which had a coffee museum.  Finding parking was a bit of an adventure but after a bit of backtracking we successfully found a spot for the van.  As we walked to the coffee museum Paul thought to throw the garbage out.  Most countries we go to have lots of garbage receptacles in the El Centro areas, but I guess not Nicaragua!  Paul ended up carrying two bags (small grocery sized bags) of garbage throughout the town looking for somewhere to put it.  When we finally made it to the museum Paul gave up and just placed the garbage beside the entrance hoping maybe someone would steal it.

The museum was really interesting, outlining the process of harvesting coffee, the different types of coffee beans and the history of coffee in the region.  Believe it or not, coffee is not native to Central America.

After checking out the coffee museum Paul was “surprised” to see his garbage was exactly where he left it, so he picked it up again and right before getting back to the van found a proper place to put it.

Kendra decided to head to another viewpoint which according to iOverlander was difficult for a 2wd vehicle to drive to, but thankfully this was not our experience and we finally reached a viewpoint of the area, which even had a restaurant.  We usually find that restaurants at touristy places tend to be expensive and subpar, but this was not our experience today.  Somehow the burgers were some, if not the best burgers we have ever had.  It sort of blew our minds, if someone would have told us this morning that we would be having the best burgers ever today, we probably wouldn’t have believed them.  So, if you are in Matagalpa, head to La Republica and try the Hamberguesa Don Mauricio, 10/10, or if two patties is too much the classic burger is excellent as well!

Of course, with every high there will eventually be a low, and ours was very shortly after leaving Matagalpa.  We broke the law, we were stuck behind a very slow moving vehicle and passed (with all the other Nicaraguans) on a sold (singular) yellow line.  Well, there happened to be a police officer right in front of us after passing.  We knew we had messed up and apologized hoping we would just get a warning, but the officer said that we broke the law and would have to pay a fine equivalent to $100 CAD.  We were willing to pay.  The issue is that we would have to pay, according to the police officer, in Leon the nearest big city and that to ensure we pay the fine he would be taking Paul’s license and could get it back in 15 days or so.  We spoke back and forth for a bit when finally, he said, give me what you have in your wallet and we can forget this happened.  Thankfully we had the equivalent of $5 in our wallet so we once again bribed the police and we were allowed to leave.

Our night ended at a Cigar factory which allowed overlanders to camp for free, but usually with these sorts of arrangements you’re expected to help out the business. So, for the same price as our police bribe Paul had purchased a cigar, something he hadn’t had since his Cuba days.  He was really overzealous with his smoking and after smoking the whole thing his headrush could only be described as “extreme”.

 

April 22^nd – Finding our Limitations

The area of Esteli is known for its tobacco and cigars, hence why we were able to stay at a cigar factory.   As a nice change we also didn’t stay at this factory by ourselves, friends we had met when we crossed into El Salvador were also there so we spent the morning trading stories and suggestions for the coming days.  One suggestion we got was to head into Esteli for some coffee and food, we even got some good recommendations of where exactly to go.

Esteli was crazy because, as we quickly learned, there was a festival going on.  We wish we could tell you that we explored this festival and had authentic local experiences but we knew we were getting burnt out again and found the festival very loud and overwhelming.  We got the coffee (it was amazing) and quickly left. 

Similarly, to Guatemala, Nicaragua is known for its volcanos so we decided to drive up and camp near a volcano.  We also planned to hike to the crater around sunset to see lava, unfortunately our plans didn’t come to fruition. 

We had read a variety of different reviews of the road up to Telica Volcano and although some said 4x4 is required, other’s implied we, in our dodge grand caravan would make it.  Well, we did need 4x4 because after driving for 15 kilometers we turned the corner and got stuck in volcanic sand. 

We did start the process of trying to get unstuck but thankfully some people on a formal tour to the volcano found us and they decided to help us (because we were blocking the road).  With 3 people pushing the van we were free of our predicament, but before leaving and after we thanked them the tour guide/driver was clear; “this road is for 4x4 only, it gets worse from here, you must leave this area”.

It seemed we had hit a wall; we saw our van’s limitations and were reaching ours.  So, we jumped on booking.com and booked the cheapest dog friendly hotel with parking for three nights in Leon.  We decided we needed a break.

 

April 23^rd – Taking our break

The hotel was really good, it came with breakfast, it had wifi and a pool.  We decided to just spend all our time in the hotel relaxing watching youtube or Netflix and chilling out. 

Our “room” was a thatched roof bungalow with a private outdoor shower(beside the outdoor toilet and sink) and was everything you’d envision a perfect little tropical vacation would look like.  This break was so needed!

 

April 24^th – Exploring Leon

Leon is the third largest city in Nicaragua with a rich history associated with the rebellions against American imperialism.   It’s known as the Liberal city (with Granada being the Conservative city) so we were excited to check it out.

Our first stop was dropping off some laundry meaning we’d have the entire day to explore Leon before returning to pick up our laundry.  Unfortunately, we found Leon a little underwhelming.  Maybe it is because we were still burnt out, or maybe because it was another colonial town after we had already seen so many.  Regardless this one seemed a bit rough around the edges. 

Our favourite part was the Museum of the Revolution which showed the history of Nicaragua starting in the early 1900’s and how they have continually had to fight for their sovereignty against American influences.  The general tone of this museum reminded us of North Korea, as so rarely you go to a museum with a clear villain and pictures of so much death and destruction combined with murals to instil patriotism.  It seems that the revolutionary party is still kind of in power today.  After overthrowing the leader of Nicaragua (placed by the American’s), the Revolutionary party ran the country for 10 years before the FSLN party took over, which has its history all the way back in the early 1900’s and is truly part of the zeitgeist of Nicaragua.  We really can’t tell the difference between the revolutionary party and the FSLN, but you see the FSLN party colours everywhere in Nicaragua (Black and Red symbolising Death and Blood- the revolutionary party’s flag was the same but with a skull on it).  Similar to North Korea government propaganda is everywhere combined with their historical narrative and a call for patriotism.

The best part of the museum is we got a great overview of Leon from the roof of the museum.  This roof was in rough shape.  No regulator would ever allow anyone to step on this roof back in Canada but if it is good enough for Nicaragua its good enough for us, and again the views of Leon, Momotombo Volcano and the volcanoes in the distance were amazing.

We left Leon and returned to our hotel with a couple pizzas (the box said Italian flavour in a Nicaraguanese style) and spent the heat of the day in the pool.  We did think about returning to Leon to see it in the evening but decided that relaxing was far mor enjoyable. Paul did have to return to pick up our laundry, which was not ready, and he said we would return in the morning instead of two hours after the initial scheduled pick up time.

 

April 25^th – EXTREME SAND BOARDING

One of the top things to do in the Leon area is to go to Cerro Negro Volcano and sand board down the volcano.  Well, we couldn’t not do that! We hope you’re not hating the double negatives there! We left the hotel and made our way down roads that gave us flashbacks to our adventure going to Telica Volcano but this time we arrived unscathed.

We were unsure how the process of volcano boarding would work, especially since we were not on a formal tour.  The process to rent the equipment was easy, we were given safety glasses, gloves and denim overalls as well as a sand board to toboggan down the mountain on.  To our surprise we had to hike with all this equipment to the top of the volcano and the hike was nothing to scoff at.

Paul thought it best to take off his shorts and shirt and put on his overalls right away while Kendra hiked her overalls up the mountains.  Each of us think our plan was better, but regardless we were sweating buckets carrying our gear up the mountain.  Thankfully the views were worth it and the videos and pictures of us sand boarding (tobogganing) down a mountain look EXTREME. 

In truth it was a lot of work for a few moments of fun.  We are glad we did it but decided against hiking the 30 or 45 minutes back up the mountain to do it again.

We had originally thought to camp at Cerro Negro but because we had already finished sandboarding and it was already 32 degrees at noon, we decided to leave and camp (as well as enjoy AC in the van as we drove) south. After eating our leftover pizza and sorting out our laundry, which unfortunately is not looking as clean as it usually does when it has been washed, we cranked the AC and hit the road.

We ended up finding a spot near the shores of Lake Xolotlan on the side of Chiltepe Volcano.  The place was almost fine, except we started to hear shooting which freaked us out a bit but it was too late for us to leave without good reason, and the shooting stopped as soon as the sun went down.  If only we had known that we were camping beside a militarized area; however, I’m not sure we would have felt any safer.

 

April 26^th – Detours for Ice Cream, Cheese and Beer

We woke up and left our volcano hideaway and headed towards some communities in the mountains known for dairy which also contained a brewery.  Seemed like the perfect one hour detour.

We left our camping spot and were surprised to immediately see warning signs for a military zone on the other side of the road, the more we drove the more military people we saw, making us first worried we had made a terrible mistake in where we were driving and second glad we had not driven this way to get to our camping spot as we would have turned around and who knows where we would have camped?

The first town we visited was Diriamba which we walked around and where we purchased some cheese.  The owner of the queseria even allowed us to try different types before purchasing. 

Our next stop should have been the brewery, but it never materialized.  We followed google, waze, and facebook and any other bit of information to find its location but in the end gave up after multiple failed attempts.

 Our final stop on our detour was the community of Jinotepe, known for its sweets and ice cream.  We indulged in the best rice pudding we had ever had and ice cream that Nicaraguans travels hours on the weekend to get.  The whole time we were in the ice cream place we saw a constant stream of people coming and ordering 4 to 8 ounces of ice cream then heading to work, school or home. We each ordered 8 oz. (Passion Fruit and Jack Fruit flavour) and enjoyed people watching.

After completing the detour, it was time to return to our main plan for the day, to see lava!  The easiest place to see lava in Nicaragua is Masaya Volcano, so we had planned to drive to the volcano, wait until nightfall and see lava for ourselves.  When we arrived to the entrance to the volcano we were told we were unable to enter the park until 4:30 so we had a couple hours to kill which we spent at a restaurant overlooking Lake Masaya and wandering through the town of Nindiri.

Closer to 4:30 we headed back to the volcano and we were blown away by how many overlanders were going to be joining us on our trip to the crater of Masaya Volcano.  After seeing one or two at any given time, suddenly there were 6 of us, one we had even seen multiple times starting in the Yukon! 

After entering the park, we did have more time to wait until sunset so we checked out the museum of the volcano and did a couple hikes in the park.  We even got in trouble, after hiking around to the old Masaya Crater viewpoint which we learned was forbidden, they really should have put up a sign, or maybe we missed the sign because it was dark? We really do try hard to be respectful and not break any rules, so we were apologetic to the park ranger when he said we weren’t supposed to be where we were.

In the end we watched the lava with everyone else at the defined viewing platform until we were told the park was closing, at that time we headed to the entrance where many overlanders camp for the night.

This is another one of those times where we were thankful for our compact size. There were very limited spaces for wild camping, and 3 spots had been taken by one Unimog, and our friends in the sprinter had the second spot, but we were able to squeeze in between some trees.  Unfortunately, the other overlanding vehicles would have to find somewhere else to camp, after dark, which is something we would have struggled with.

 

April 27^th – Previously White Coloured Buildings

We woke up to the sounds of children, when we poked our heads out of the van we were surprised to see 4 buses full of middle school aged children all waiting until the park opened to see the volcano.  I wish they were excited to see our rig and talk to us, but instead decided to take a million pictures of the Unimog beside us.  The Swiss people who owned it hid inside and didn’t seem to make any attempt to talk with the kids, we had hoped they (the kids or the Swiss) would come say hello to us, but never did.

South of Masaya we had read about a half dozen communities collectively known as Los Pueblos Blancos (or White Towns) known for their white coloured stucco buildings.  We left our camping spot and headed south to the communities, but were surprised at how few white coloured buildings there were!  We had assumed they would be like the communities we had previously seen in Spain, but instead we were greeted by newly painted, very colourful buildings.  Were these the white buildings we had read about, just now newly painted?  Who knows?!?  We did stop at a view point of Lake Apoyo in the community of Catarina where we decided to have a drink and a slice of pie while we watched tour groups arrive, take one picture then head to the tourist shops to shop.

After seeing three of the “white towns” full of colourful newly painted building we left the area, a bit confused, and headed towards Granada.  Kendra originally wanted to spend the evening exploring Granada, maybe even going out for dinner, but after arriving at the campground in the heat of the day, we thought it better to play some card games in the gardens found at the campground.

 

April 28^th – Exploring Granada

After completing an Amazon order of things Kendra will pick up in Canada when she is back we headed towards Granada’s El Centro.  Granada is a beautiful and colourful colonial city.  It may be one of the most colourful we have seen.  We spent hours walking and exploring only stopping for smoothies or fruit juices. 

We then walked to the lakeside and back finally stopping at a little bar to have a few drinks and to people watch.  Before we knew it the heat of Granada was really starting to affect us so we drank a bunch of water and returned to the campground after exploring.  Although we enjoyed a leisurely day walking around, the heat and living outdoors is really starting to wear on us. So as Paul writes this blog, Kendra is creating some covers for our back windows to keep the mosquitoes and bugs out at night.  We know we will hit rain and more bugs at some point, and this has been a task on our to do list for quite some time.

 

April 29^th – And this is why you make reservations

One location in Nicaragua that was highly recommended to us was Ometepe Island and we always try to do everything that is recommended for us to do, unfortunately, we were warned that reservations are recommended for the ferry to the island especially if it is was weekend, well today is Saturday.

We left Granada after a quick stop for water a drove to Rivas.  We had been warned of some corrupt police officer between Granada and Rivas but never had any issues.  After arriving at the ferry terminal, we decided to not park in the terminal itself as there was fee to enter it and we just wanted to make a reservation, ideally for today.  Paul left Kendra to figure out when we could get on the ferry and was inundated with tour operators all trying to “help” him.  Usually in these situations (booking finite tickets for a specific event [sailing]) people tend to try to take advantage of tourists.  The typical line is that “we need their help as there is no way we can figure this out ourselves and even if we could it is all booked up”.  Well, they stated most of the typical line, with one key change, everyone said that its all booked up completely for today and the rest of the weekend.  Paul frantically tried to find a ferry operator who would make a reservation for us but the earliest we go get a ferry was Tuesday evening. Turns out it was a long weekend this weekend.  What is worse, we wanted to go to Costa Rica on Wednesday to maximize our time in the remaining countries in North America. With heavy hearts we left Rivas knowing that Ometepe would not be a place we would be able to visit on this trip, but at least it gives us a reason to return to Nicaragua.

Back in Mexico a Belgium couple recommended a beach where camping was free in southern Nicaragua and thankfully Kendra (with a pin on google maps) remembered this just as we were starting to get concerned about where to camp for the night.  The beach was known Playa Amarilla and it was everything we expected Baja California to be.  Camping spots in shady locations two steps from sandy beaches with swimmable water and beautiful sunsets.  We quickly got over our disappointment pretty quickly.

We found a perfect spot for us, set up the hammock and relaxed, then before we knew it the sun had set and it was time for bed.

 

April 30^th – We didn’t go to church, church came to us

We woke up and saw the perfect spot to eat breakfast, so we set up our table and chairs overlooking the ocean in a shady level spot.  Breakfast was just about done when a school bus full of people decided they really liked the spot we had camped in and parked relatively close to our van.  All of a sudden upwards of 50 people exited the bus and started setting up their chairs and BBQs in very close vicinity to our van.  We really didn’t know what we should do.

We did eat our breakfast in our perfect spot, but it didn’t feel as tranquil as we had hoped it to feel with Nicaraguan children to the elderly walking around us checking out what we were eating.  We were happy when everyone left the area close to where we were eating, so we could enjoy our coffees, but we’re surprised when they made a huge circle right beside our van and started praying. 

The praying turned into preaching and singing and back to praying, YUP it was a church group that decided to do a seaside sermon literally right beside our van.  #blessed What was worse, Paul was not wearing a shirt and Kendra was in a bikini, we seemed totally out of place. #extremelyblessed?   It was at this time we decided it was time to leave our spot and allow the church group to enjoy it, we needed a few things any way from the nearest community.  Thus started the most awkward takedown and pack up we had ever done.  It really felt like we kept on getting in the church group’s way with them preaching louder every time we came a bit closer to them.  Finally, we were packed up enough that it was time to start the van and leave, but we didn’t know when the polite time to leave would be as the van, and specifically the exhaust was right beside and pointed at group. At this point, they had been preaching for almost an hour with no sign of ending and we decided, whatever, if this is why we go to hell so be it, we started up the van drove off our leveling blocks, packed those aways and left our perfect spot. Don’t worry, due to the heat of the day we were still wearing minimal clothing as we packed up around them, so we definitely did not blend in with them, but it is the most naked we have ever been and will ever be “at church”.

After getting our required provisions from the nearby community we returned to the beach with the hope that the church group would have left; unfortunately, we were wrong, they were still preaching an hour later.  The beach had also filled up with locals enjoying their own long weekend.  Thankfully the beach was large enough that we were able to find another spot to enjoy the day.

We spent the day playing boardgames under our awning, trying to stay in the shade and running after the ice cream man that would routinely bike past our camping spot.  Periodically locals would come and say hello, some even offered us lunch to trade for a bit of salt.  All in all it was a good day and thanks to the church group probably not one we will ever forget.

 

May 1^st – Beach(es) Day!

Today was the actual public holiday meaning the beach was again going to be busy so we decided to check out a few of the other beaches in the area, namely the ones Lonely Planet and Backpacker websites recommended.

Our first stop was Playa Guasacate within the community to Popoyo which had been heavily invested in by foreigners.  Most of the beach was blocked by hotels and restaurants leaving just small openings for someone to walk through to the beach itself.  The beach was fine, but lacked any greenery or shade meaning finding a cool spot to relax at was difficult due to the hot sand.  We had just about given up trying to find enjoyment in at the beach when we saw a few locals relaxing close to a river that connects to the ocean.  The river had created a large eddy perfect for swimming in that seemed to be the perfect temperature.  The sand was also tolerable on our feet.  The only issue we had is we didn’t have our swimsuits with us, so we decided to do as the Nicaraguans and go swimming in just our underwear, the first time we had actually done this on this trip!

This swimming hole was amazing, no waves, not very salty, and the perfect temperatures.  We ended up relaxing in the pools for longer than we should have (without reapplying sunscreen), but I guess we will pay for that mistake later. 

After such an enjoyable time at Playa Guasacate we decided to go to the backpackers favourite Playa Popoyo, it was definitely far less developed and just a couple hostels near the water, but the beach was not very good.  It was really hard to find anything that would set it apart of any other beach.  Once again there was no shade, and no where to really swim, since it is known for waves and surfing.  We walked around the beach hoping to find a spot to enjoy but in the end decided to leave.

Although there were a few places we could camp in the area we knew where we had camped for the last couple nights was the best.  Even though it was busy during the day, by 4pm it was not busy at all, and it was almost that time, but we didn’t want to go back to the beach quite yet, we had one more stop, a brewery.

As many of you know we often will stop in a local brewery to try the local beers.  During our time in Central America, we have been slightly disappointed by the quality, and in Nicaragua we have been disappointed that we haven’t been able to find any.  We have found them on google, but they are either closed when we are in the area or don’t seem to exist where google says they should be.  We were pretty excited when we saw a sign saying brewery, indicating it was open and only a quick few kilometers away.   We were shocked and disappointed when we arrived at the brewery only to be told that the only beer they had there was the national beers.  That would be like going to a brewery in Canada and being told they only have Kokanee and Keiths.  SERIOUSLY!?!  The trip was not completely in vain as across the road there was a craft ice cream shop with some of the most delicious ice cream we had had on this trip.  You win some you lose some.

By the time we arrived back to Playa Amarilla we practically had the beach to ourselves so we set up our table and enjoyed this paradise.

 

May 2^nd – The Dog Days of Nicaragua

The two most difficult borders for a dog to enter on the Pan-American highway are the Costa Rican border and the Panama border (with Panama being the most difficult).  As we would be going to Costa Rica tomorrow we had to spend today back in Rivas completing paperwork and paying fees to export (and by extension Import) our dog. 

The first step was the vet, the easy part.  Rupert was checked out, he is healthy.  We were given a couple documents and told to go to the bank.  There is only one bank in Rivas where you can pay your fees for exporting your dog and it just so happens to be the busiest bank with the longest lines.  After waiting 20 minutes the lines inside the bank were finally short enough for us to enter the bank itself.  The security guard asked Paul why we were at the bank, Paul told him we had to pay to export our dog and the security guard placed Paul in a special line to see a Customer Service Representative.  After waiting almost an hour Paul finally saw the bank representative only to be told that the security guard placed him in the wrong line, he needed to see a regular bank teller for that transaction.  The line for the bank teller was massive. 

After another hour in the line Paul could start to see the tellers, which is when he realized we would need his Passport for this transaction.  His passport was in the van, Kendra was in a nearby park with Rupert enjoying a smoothie and her phone had run out of data.  Paul’s heart dropped, thinking he would have to leave and spend another hour or more in the line.  Suddenly there was ding on Paul phone, Kendra had found some wifi in the park and was wondering how the process was going.  Thank god, within a couple minutes Kendra was at the bank with Paul’s passport, meaning after another 30 minutes of waiting the fees were paid (if you’re doing the math Paul was at the bank over 2 hours while Kendra was in the park with wifi and a smoothie- we will let you decide who is the winner).

With receipts from the bank and paperwork from the vet we walked to Cetrex, a government office whose purpose is still a mystery, as IPSA is the government agency responsible for import and export of animals (which we had to pay a fee to at the bank and would be going to tomorrow at the border).  The Cetrex employees took our paperwork, typed some stuff in his computer and gave us a 8 digit number to quote at the border and with that our day was done.  We had theoretically on paper exported Rupert to Costa Rica meaning we could relax for the rest of the day, not that there was much of the day left.

Our celebrations that we had completed the export process were short lived as the company we hired to ship the van to Colombia contacted us letting us know that Panama had changed their rules regarding the export of vehicles meaning we had to be in Panama City a week earlier than previously planned.  We were already on a tight timeline, but this news was demoralizing and created a lot of stress.  It meant that we would only have a week in Costa Rica, a place where the process to export the dog to Panama can take 10 business days. 

We made our way to a backpacker hotspot known as San Juan del Sur where we actually found a brewery that was open and had local beers brewed by the brewery!  We had a beer and talked through our options and our stresses.  There was a lot of unknowns.  We thought it best to get a hotel for the night so we at least would have a good night sleep in an air conditioned room and be able to have a shower.  The spot we choose was a hostel which offered free yoga and a welcome drink.  We are not too sure why, but we decided to take advantage of the free amenities and for the first time in our lives we did yoga.  At the end of it we were glad we had done it as it got our mind off of our predicament. 

Our quick trip through Honduras

Honduras was such a pleasant surprise.  We had heard that it was dangerous and that few overlander's spend time in the country so didn't know what to expect nor did we know what we should do, we just had a direction, north east towards the northern Honduras/Nicaraguan border.  After exploring Honduras we are so happy that we took the time and explored it, if even for a few days, and know that this will be a country we return back to! 

April 16^th – Leaving the established route

Kendra wanted to see sunrise at the volcano and what a site it was to see. We had camped at the vehicle camping/parking lot in a mix of pine and palm trees.  When we got to the mirador we counted 40+ tents set up which was double the amount we had seen last night.  We had a quiet night with only two empty collectivos to share the parking lot with, but the mirador must have been busy and probably loud.

At 5:30 am we went to see sunrise; Rupert refused to leave the van and kept sleeping. There was the sounds of some music playing and people talking waiting for a spectacular sunrise.  Unfortunately for all of us, the sunrise was rather anti-climactic due to clouds and possibly pollution.

We headed back to the van to catch our beauty sleep because today was the day we would leave El Salvador and head to Honduras.  For some reason, we always tell ourselves that since border days are stressful we are going to plan to get to the border early, do all the necessary paperwork, and then find a place to sleep for the night. Spoiler alert, this would not be the case today as we already started in breaking this “plan” by seeing sunrise. By the time we woke up again and packed up it was closer to 9:30 meaning we got to the Honduras border around 10:30.

The El Salvador side of the border was clean and easy to complete. Everyone was so friendly directing us where to go and even apologizing for not speaking English and making us wait 2 minutes!!  The only confusing part was immigration as we do not get a stamp to enter El Salvador and thus don’t need to be “stamped out”.  When we got to immigration we actually thought we were at the Honduras immigration meaning our questions really confused the immigration women.  But again she was helpful and pointed us toward Honduras.  Leaving El Salvador officially and heading towards the Honduras border was an experience in itself with various women of the night, beckoning truckers to the sketchiest hotels we had ever seen.

Since we were crossing on a Sunday we exchanged some USD for Lempira (Honduras’ currency) since we had to pay in cash with exact change since all the banks were closed.  The border was pretty easy, the most confusing part was ensuring Honduras knew we were not transiting through the country that we were actually visiting it.  99.9% of overlanders seem to skip Honduras, and for a somewhat good reason; it is the most dangerous country you go through on the Pan American highway, but we didn’t want to do two borders in one day and had researched safe areas to explore.  We decided to explore Honduras for 4 days and leave the established overlanding route.

To enter Honduras you needed to get prior authorization from the Honduran government, which we had done, have your covid vaccination checked, go through immigration and then import your vehicle. After completing all these tasks relatively easily we headed towards SEPA, the agency to import the dog.  Lots of people don’t bother but we had heard failure to import the dog can cause issues with Costa Rica (for some reason) so we had to do a u-turn and head down the truckers route back towards El Salvador.  The truckers all seemed quite confused when they saw us and our handsome dog but after submitting the paperwork and the Honduran government requiring a (cute) photo of the dog for their records we were off.

We had two plans for our first day in Honduras, which one we would do was dependent on the time we finished the border.  If we were done before noon, we would get to the historical capital of Honduras, Comayagua, if it was after noon we would head to the Valle de Angeles area.  We finished all our tasks at 11:57 so we headed directly north to Comayagua.

We had heard the roads in Honduras were bad, so we were mentally prepared for a slow drive, surprisingly we found some of the best roads we had driven on.  There were no posted speed limits but we knew in El Salvador the speed limit on these roads were 90 to 100 km/h, so we set the cruise control to 90 km/h and headed down the road.  This lasted for 20 kilometers when we turned the corner and saw police lights flashing, we were being waved over.

Turns out the maximum speed limit in Honduras was 80 km/h and they had us on photo radar going 90 (they were even happy to show us the photo radar picture).  They asked for Paul’s drivers license and the registration for the vehicle and let us know we would not get it back until we pay the equivalent of $100 usd for a fine.  The fine had to be paid now and in cash.  Technically, we had the money but it was in storage, the only amount of money we had easy access to was $20 usd.  Paul spoke to them for a long time, asking if they could go to the police station to pay the fine, while Paul explained that he only had $20 or card.  After 20 minutes or so, the Police said, “this time they would accept $20 to forget about us”.  We had officially bribed the police, something we thought we would never do.

Comoyagua was a beautiful colonial town with many Hondurans from other cities exploring the historical downtown.  It was like many other colonial towns we had visited but with one big difference, there were no international tourists and once again people were excited to talk with us and they seemed genuinely surprised to see Canadians driving in Honduras.

After a delicious lunch/dinner it was time to find some where to camp.  It became evident that we would not be able to rely on our trusted iOverlander app in Honduras, everything was so out of date with barely any information (some of the recent posts were from 2017-2019), but we were able to find an Eco Park that allowed camping.  This eco park blew our mind, it was full of families celebrating birthdays and a wedding.  It had a petting zoo, swimming pools, bouncy castles and a lake where you could rent rowboats.  This was not the Honduras we had built up in our mind. 

Everything was perfect as we enjoyed a cool evening camping beside the lake, it would have continued to be perfect until we heard gunshots in the distance and were reminded that we needed to keep our safety in the top of our mind. Please note, we have heard gunshots or sounds like gunshots more often on this trip than ever in our lives, but we have never felt threatened or been in danger.  We don’t know what these shots were fired for and can come up with many different possible reasons, but we were in a locked park in a secure area with a security guard nearby in case anything happened, but nothing else happened.

 

April 17^th – Hanging out with the Honduran Army

We woke up and headed towards the Valle de Angeles area on the west side of Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras).  The capital is not a city that the government of Canada recommends visiting and that warning is supported by Lonely Planet describing some neighbourhoods as “being controlled by gangs”.  This definitely had us on edge during our drive.

The area we had to drive through seemed rough, we made sure to lock our doors and drive the speed limit.  This is where we learned something interesting about Honduran driving habits, they are super aggressive drivers.  There was a lot of people cutting other people off and hand gestures.  We were worried that they were mad at us, but it seemed that many people were just mad at all other drivers.  The worst was when we stopped to get some water (in a safer area of the city).  The traffic was crazy with us weaving in and out of oncoming traffic to pass a garbage truck and a broken down vehicle. After finding a water seller and explaining to the water people that we don’t have an empty bottle to exchange they let us buy a bottle and fill our container and return the bottle with them actively watching. Next we needed new windshield washer fluid and some groceries and then we were ready to hit the road. We were so happy to leave the city and make our way to the first stop Santa Lucia.

Santa Lucia is a beautiful old mining town, there were even some American’s there visiting family friends.  We were both kind of shocked to see each other.  We wandered the streets that were full of flowers with various views of the valley, unfortunately pollution really prevented the views from being as spectacular as they should have been. 

We stopped for lunch by a little lake in the town decorated but lanterns, we assumed it would be just lovely at night, but knew that this was not a country to explore at night time.

Our next stop was the actual community of Valle de Angeles, which although looked cute we didn’t properly explore as it was getting later and we didn’t exactly know where we would be camping.  Although we did a lot of research, a lot of time had passed since the information for where people had successfully spent the night had been updated.  We thought it would be better to be safe than sorry and make sure we had a safe place to camp.  We had read the we could camp at a national park east of the valley but that the road was extremely steep and narrow and that a sprinter in 2019 was unable to reach it.  Well, the Dodge Grand Caravan was able to go where the sprinter wasn’t and we made it to the national park much to the surprise of the Honduran army.

The visitor center for the national park doubled as a military barracks for the Honduran army.  We confirmed we could camp there and they called the park warden who after 15 minutes appeared on his motorcycle to charge us the very minimal fee for entrance to the national park and for camping.  He even gave us a map of the hikes we could do.

We spent the evening hanging around with the Honduran army, who were all men in their early 20s.  Once it was dark they all jumped on their phones and we spent the evening watching listening to them shoot each other on Call of Duty laughing when they were finally able to kill their friends.

 

April 18^th – A perfect day in Honduras

We woke up and hit the mountain trails.  La Tigra National Park was a mountain jungle full of mining history and waterfalls.  There are two entrances to this park, and we were at the El Rosario entrance, a less visited area.  The other side has access to a few more trails and a canopy walk but was an hours drive away so we stuck with the quieter side. 

The jungle was the most diversified authentic jungle we had even seen, it felt like a stereotypical jungle you would see in the movies and Paul even saw an agouti.  The hike we choose to do was 8 kilometers and showcased old gold, silver, zinc and tin mines from the first half of the 1900s, all abandoned now.  

It was cool to hike past all the old infrastructure left behind.  The hike ended in a waterfall which wasn’t that dramatic because we are in the dry season, but the hike was amazing so we didn’t feel too sad the ending was anticlimactic. We also saw a cute and fluffy street dog on our way back to the van that was so cute it distracted Kendra. Unfortunately this distraction meant Kendra was not looking where she was walking and ended up stepping ON a snake! Measuring close to 1.5 feet it was the largest snake she has ever stepped on and hopefully she will never experience that again!

We left the park and descended to the mining town of San Juancito.  We definitely got a lot of looks from the locals wondering who we were but they always smiled once we smiled at them.  The town was cute, if not small, so it didn’t take us that long to explore.  However, this is where Paul would take his favourite picture of the trip thus far. 

We returned to Valle de Angles and did it properly.  We explored the streets, bought a Christmas ornament and had some delicious coffee at a local café.  We were very happy that we returned and did the place properly.

We were feeling pretty good about our time in Honduras and decided to celebrate by returning to Tegucigalpa and checkout their local craft beer scene.  The bar we would go to was in the “safe” part of the city so we battled the traffic once again to taste some craft beer.  It was wild how different the areas of Tegucigalpa were.  The area we were in felt like a totally different city from what we had experienced our first day, it was clean, modern and cosmopolitan with many young professionals in suits driving nice cars.  If we had been dropped into this area we would have never guess we were in Central America, let alone Honduras.

Paul had read on google that we could camp at some natural water pool near the Nicaraguan border so we left Tegucigalpa and headed south east where we finally experience the bad roads people had told us about.  The main highway was at least being actively improved but once we left the main highway to a secondary highway it was well used and rutted dirt road, but the drive was worth it. 

We got to the campground and unsurprisingly we were the only ones camping at it meaning we had a private pool and a little waterfall to ourselves, which was the perfect place to enjoy the evening and our final night in Honduras.

We spent the night mesmerized about how much we enjoyed our short yet memorable time in Honduras.  We had not seen any other overlanders, we hardly saw any out of country plates, at most one or two El Salvadorian plated vehicles in the capital.  Our biggest complaint about Honduras was the Spanish.  Our experience with Honduran Spanish was unique.  They speak fast and mumble making a sentence almost sound like one really long word.  Paul hardly understood anything.  The more rural we were the harder it was to understand.  It almost became a running joke listening to people and assuming what they had asked and answering back something, most of the time we guessed we had assumed incorrectly.

We are definitely glad we, if even for a few short moments, explored Honduras and promised ourselves we would return to do its Caribbean coast.

 

April 19^th – To “the most difficult border in Central America”

We had nightmares about crossing into Nicaragua (however it seemed Rupert woke up excited).  Many Pan American overlander alumi call it the worst border they did on their journey so our anxiety was high.  We left our private pool and headed down the dirt road highway until we got to that main highway which although dilapidated was a great to return to, and in fairness it did improve as we drove closer to Nicaragua. 

We knew we were close to the border when we saw trucks parked on the side of the road lining up for kilometers.  This did nothing for our anxiety as we didn’t know why there were so many vehicles so far backed up.  We still don’t know why, as when we got to the border there was relatively no one going through the process of leaving or entering Honduras.  Within 15 minutes we had stamped out of Honduras and returned our temporary import permit for the vehicle. 

Part of the reason for our adventure in Honduras was to avoid the two border day, leaving El Salvador and driving right to Nicaragua.  We had also heard horror stories of the south western border between Honduras and Nicaragua with people breaking down in tears or waiting around for 5 + hours to to bureaucratic nonsense.  We can say that we are very happy we choose the Las Manos border.  The border was not busy and felt like a scavenger hunt where we went from building to building (shipping container to shipping container that housed different ministry offices) asking where to go and once finding the correct building and completing a task asking where to go next.  We heard that the other borders no one will help you, but at this border the Nicaraguan officials were happy to point you in the right direction, with one even leaving her post to make sure we found the spot to do Rupert’s paperwork.  It was definitely not our easiest border but it only took us 2.5 hours to get through.

Unlike El Salvador and Honduras we had to have a typical first day in Nicaragua, our data had run out on our phone plan so we went to the first real community south of the border, Ocotal for groceries, a new sim card and cash.  We had read there was a campsite in Ocotal, we even wrote the address on all our official documents for Nicaragua, but it turns out that it was just a restaurant.

When we got to the restaurant it was all locked up and we feared we had to find a new place to sleep but after reading a review of the “campground” we thought to honk our horn.  After a couple honks a friendly woman came out and unlocked the gate.  She welcomed us with open arms and allowed us to stay for free.  We refused to not pay so ate at the restaurant, even though it was closed to the public, but open for us.

Paul spent the rest of the night drinking (too much) Nicaraguan liquor he had found in the grocery store as he tried to get some work he had done for a client to upload into dropbox while Kendra got caught up on social media. We did socialize a bit with each other, but mostly just when a puppy came into the retstaurant.  We are still feeling sad to have left Honduras today, but we are excited to see what Nicaragua has to offer!