The island of Ometepe...

Once we finally decided to move on, and leave the wonderful beach of Las Maderas, we crossed the Rivas province from part to part to go from the Pacific ocean to the Ometepe island within the huge Lago de Nicaragua. This trip involved a combination of a truck ride, a chicken-bus ride, a taxi ride, a lancha boat ride, and finally another two and a half hour chicken-bus ride... We left at 10am and got there at 6.30pm, yeepaw !

We stayed at Finca Magdalena, the farm of a former coffee plantation on the side of the Maderas volcano. This was our starting point for the 3-hour hike all the way to the top of the volcano !

The volcano is covered up with "cloud forest" : the following pictures are the best explanation for this kind of very wet and foggy forest !

It took us 3 very wet hours to get to the top, hiking through a trail turned into a narrow and muddy river... "Normal conditions", as a local guide would tell us...

Actually, in a way the conditions looked like a "Tahiti douche" TV commercial... Pierre definitely noticed that :

Obviously, there was absolutely no view from the top nor from the inner crater lake, but the atmosphere was just mystic !

The sky cleared up on the way down, so that we could have a nice view of the Ometepe double-volcano island :

And this is the sunset view from La Finca Magdalena, where we stayed for 2 nights :

We left at 7am this morning in order to be able to get on a chicken bus, catch a boat, get a cab and hop on a bus and reach the border with Costa Rica as early as possible.

After two and a half hours queueing to get our exit and entry stamps, we finally made it to Costa Rica !

We then made a first stop in Liberia, before eventually reaching Canas, where we ll spend the night.

Tomorrow morning we are going on a wildlife boat tour on Rio Corobici, and then we ll head to the Monteverde National Park to get some more wildlife watching !

Playa Madera, San Juan del Sur

Due to a really bad connection, which made it almost impossible to upload pictures, I'll make quick comments about these ones : We stayed two full days at a hard-to-reach beach. We got there late at night, so we could not see the view, but here is the view once the dorm room is open (true!)

My fat toes sunbathing....

first sunset

Arnaud going for his sunset swim!

Another view from the dorm room.

Last sunset (sunday night).

We had to walk to another beach to get a ride from a pickup to San Juan del Sur, and then to Omotepe island!!

Granada

After our morning visit of Managua, we headed south to Granada. The feeling there is very, very different. Many beautiful old colonial buildings are still present in the center, making it a primary touristic spot in Nicaragua (which is not necessarily a good thing...).

We stayed in a nice hostel, cheap, with hammocks around the swimming pool, and a good party on Wednesday.

And in the lost&found category :

Managua

So we spent a night in Managua... (Just to follow the "dont stay in capitals advice"). Thing is, the bus got late again... There are very few tourists in Managua, but it is very different from Tegucigalpa. There's much more space between buildings, and the feeling of insecurity is much lesser. Revolution is all over the place, as proves the next picture (does that look like christmas spirit to you?)

Just as Tegucigalpa, the last earthquake (1972) has left strong marks. The clock of this chuch is still stuck on the time of the earthquake.

The government is trying as hard as it can apparently. On the 5th, all kids were invited to the capital for partying. Free transportation, free food, free rollercoasters for everyone! ( I would not go on one of the rollercoasters we saw though...)

Extra stop : Tegucigalpa

Today, we tried to make it from Copán to Managua in a day... With a stop in Tegucigalpa. We had not anticipated that the bus from Tegucigalpa to Managua would be full (only 2 seats left, not enough...). So here we are, in Tegucigalpa for 24 hours. The first impressions came from a so-called Charlie :

Welcome to Honduras!

Where are you from?

Do you have 5 dollars?

We'll be on the bus to Managua tomorrow, we want to avoid staying too long here, as there's not much to see and the safety record is not optimal...
Pictures are coming up sooooon....

Ok, that was actually yesterday, but we're safe in Managua now, so no worries :-P