Nicaragua - Home of Flor de Caña

By plane we went from Guatemala City (with a stopover in El Salvador) to Managua in the afternoon and from there with a shuttle to Granada.

Really nice little town, but way too hot and too little wind everywhere and at any time (even at night!!!) We tried to cool off in between at the 'beach' and spent the hot noon hours in the hostel in front of the fan, but that was not really satisfying. That's why we decided to escape the heat as best as possible and the next day we continued to Isla de Ometepe by chicken bus and ferry.

The island is much bigger than we thought :-) and you can do a lot of activities (volcano tours, waterfalls, lagoons, beaches, kayak tours, bike tours, etc.) For the first day we rented a scooter and drove blindfolded over the island in every direction until the roads end and turn into a bumpy road. We enjoyed the day and especially the feeling of aimlessly driving around and just enjoying the scenery, which we know and love from Asia. Stop where we like it and quickly move on where we don't like it so much.

The only fixed point of the day was the sunset, for which we wanted to be back at the hostel/hotel, because the view from there was outstanding (describing doesn't help, enjoy the pictures, even if they don't show it as perfectly as it actually was...)

The next day was Bundesliga (Bayern vs Dortmund) on the program, which is not a problem here in Central America because everything is broadcasted on free TV --> just ask for the remote control in the restaurant and zap briefly, either ESPN or Fox Sports always broadcast. Unfortunately, it wasn't as exciting as we had hoped (or a few weeks later in the cup :-) ), but in a good mood and especially after the heat of the afternoon, we went to the beach for the rest of the day.

We didn't have to worry about dinner that day either, because there was a pizza party at El Zopilote Hostel, in the middle of the jungle. Good pizza, lots of people, music, fire show, and more. And there was also a scorpion, which crawled out of its hiding place during the fire show and simply sat down next to Rahel's thigh... But after the brief fright, the party continued!

On our last day on Ometepe, we had a kayak tour on the program. We rented bicycles and rode over stock and stone to the kayak rental where Orbin, our guide for the day, was already waiting for us. The tour was quite nice, first we paddled a bit on the open sea before we arrived at the actual destination through a small inlet. A mini river, about 1-2 meters wide, and plants, shrubs, and especially animals everywhere. We saw many beautiful birds, caymans were also on the way, and Orbin told us a lot about nature. But he also kept telling us some things about life in Nicaragua, the history of the country, and the current political situation. So we had an all-inclusive package, so to speak.

It was a very nice day and the perfect ending for Ometepe, because the next day we had to pack our suitcases again and return to Granada for 2 days.

We used the two days to visit the old train tracks and the old train station, as well as to visit the Iglesia de la merced and to plan our trip to Little Corn Island.

To get to Little Corn, we had to take a chicken bus again, this time to Managua (the capital of Nicaragua), spend a night there, and then take a taxi to the airport early in the morning to cross over to Big Corn Island with a mini propeller plane (and almost 2 hours delay). At the airport, I coincidentally met Jonathan, whose sister lives on Little Corn and who helped us with tips, etc. in the coming days and who checked a taxi to the ferry for us on Big Corn.

Because Big Corn is not Little Corn, we spent another 30 minutes on a small skiff to get to Little Corn. However, Rahel and our luggage were on a different boat than Jona and me, as we hopped over to the ATM and the 'ferry' left earlier than announced. So we stood around in the area for another half an hour before the second ferry was filled enough with people for the guys to start and we caught up. Reunited, we set off for our hostel, checked in briefly, and then explored the island, had a bite to eat, and enjoyed the nice main beach, the blue water, and the beautiful weather.

The next day there was a beach party from our hotel, including snorkeling and fishing with Captain Jack. A super nice day at Ottostrand where we also got to know all the people from the hostel, which was great because everyone was there for the Easter weekend and it became much more personal and enjoyable than usual.

The following days we spent exploring the island and its various beaches, studying sunsets, drinking too much with a few people, and enjoying the good food (especially breakfast).

Just in time for our departure, it started to rain of course, so we spent both the waiting time at the jetty and half of the boat ride to Big Corn in the rain (on the boat you get a transparent water sheet handed to you from back to front to protect yourself against the rain, not really good air underneath, but very effective against the rain :-) ) To then board our plane in brilliant sunshine (which actually took off 30 minutes before the scheduled time) and fly back to Managua.

That same evening we took the chicken bus to Leon (good 2-3 hours) and checked into Poco a Poco Hostel. Mega chill and clean hostel with very nice people and a good location. Unfortunately, Rahel caught a cold somewhere on the way here and spent the next 3 days in the hostel at almost 40 degrees.

I used the time and went to a sports bar to watch the Champions League Semi-Final Real vs Bayern (second leg). There I met Gustavo and since we both (as well as the entire bar) were for Real, we had a boozy afternoon in the Snakebar. Because the Nicas don't do things by halves at such events, they drink, cheer, and celebrate like during the best World Cup / European Cup public viewing time in our country. Simply wonderful how the guys freaked out with every goal as if they had scored it themselves, that made me feel right at home ;-)

Since unfortunately there was no football every day and daydrinking is quite exhausting, we decided the next day to take the bus to the beach with Nicole (Swiss girl from our hostel room). A very nice trip, even though it was way too hot at the beach itself and shade was unfortunately scarce.

That's why I was doubly happy when Rahel was fit again and we could still stroll through the city (although only a short tourist program, since I had won a bottle of rum with a few guys at the quiz night the night before and we didn't leave my room until the afternoon...) to see some sights.

Especially the white cathedral was awesome and we were there at the right time due to my getting up time, shortly before it closed, so we were practically alone on the roofs and could enjoy everything relaxed.

For the next day, we booked a shuttle to San Juan del Sur, which left at 9 o'clock in the morning and more or less safely (our driver was in a hurry and was a little troublemaker in traffic...) threw us out at the hotel in the late afternoon. It was a tough ride and we were really glad we chose the shuttle instead of the chicken bus option, which would have taken about 5 hours longer and meant changing buses 5 times.

Our hotel was run by volunteers only, the owner is back in the USA, and therefore it was more of a hostel than a hotel. More helpers than guests, the TV (Netflix) ran all day long and the breakfast could use improvement, but it had a good location and the people were all nice and you could immediately feel the difference in the atmosphere when volunteers are there or not.

The beach is mega long and especially at low tide incredibly huge, San Juan itself is quite nice, but it is the party city of Nicaragua and that's what you see ;-)

We met Omar at our hotel. Omar is originally from Nicaragua but lives in the USA, he is here on vacation and to maybe buy a property. He was definitely a funny guy with a white convertible who took us everywhere. Among other things, we ended up in his favorite bar (he's often in San Juan), which is owned by a German and they brew their own beer there, always with different flavors. So in the afternoon we enjoyed a delicious passion fruit beer and talked about everything (jobs, real estate, beaches, etc.) when we started talking about rum and the Nicaraguan Flor de Cana. We told him about our experiments with the 4-year-old, which is not really good, the 5-year-old, which is quite decent when mixed with cola, and the 7-year-old, from which it gets really good. There are also the 12, 18, and 25-year-olds, but so far we have only seen the 12-year-old somewhere (and bought it in the duty-free shop). Omar started (as he had done before) talking to the waiter in Spanish and shortly afterwards we saw 3x Flor de Cana on the rocks poured from the 25 year bottle. We just looked at him, shook our heads, but he just said, if you like rum, you have to drink this shit, this is the best of all.

So we enjoyed it and yes, it's damn good!!!

After a stop at the supermarket (we needed Corona) and a detour to the hotel pool, we were back in town with Omar to find a good place for dinner. We found one, had delicious seafood before we sat at the same bar as in the afternoon. There was a live band (quite good, especially the bass player), NBA playoffs were shown live on TV, so it was already nice to stay here. Omar insisted on paying for the drinks (as he had done in the afternoon) since we had paid for dinner and so he ordered something again and again without our knowledge. And so we spent an enjoyable evening with beer, sports, and some more good Flor de Cana.

Omar, the hammer dude, really gave us a great time and a really nice ending because 1-2 beach days later we continued with the bus to Costa Rica....