Lofalitsidwa: 16.11.2022
Arriving in Nica, we felt much more comfortable again. We were able to hitchhike our way through and made it to Chinandega. Here, Milena didn't feel like it anymore and paid for a taxi to Aposentillo for all of us, as a small compensation for the delay at the border control.
The Boom
Arriving in Aposentillo, a small village in the middle of nowhere on the Pacific coast of Nica, we settled in at the sweet hostel El Marabü Surf Resort. This hostel is run by French people and is located right on a relaxed surf beach with smaller waves than The Boom. The dorm we slept in was right on the beach and we had the best view. There was a good kitchen here, so we could take care of ourselves. In the mornings, we always had shakes with oatmeal, cinnamon, bananas, apples, and coconuts. The nice thing was that we had two coconut trees, so I could prepare coconut meat for all days with a lot of sweat, which we only had to throw into the shakes, or we could snack on it in between. Here we met Zane, another Aussie, 22 years old, and from near Melbourne. We quickly took him to our hearts, so he now travels with us and we cruise through Nica together for about 4 weeks. He has a very relaxed way, likes to share, likes to play chess, surfs, and occasionally takes us out of our 30-year comfort zone. Since there is only one tienda after a 30-minute walk in this mini village and there are no ATMs anywhere nearby, we spent a day going to Chinandega, the capital of the district. After an hour's drive, the first ATM finally arrives. Here you really learn to appreciate our good Western infrastructure. We also bought some food for the remaining days. Otherwise, we surfed every day, one day at The Boom, a super strong wave. Otherwise, we were always in the water right in front of our door until it was pitch dark and enjoyed the magnificent sunsets while surfing.
León
The best thing about León for me personally is that I can now share these experiences and many more with Jannik. He will now join us for a whole 9 weeks in Latin America, which I am very excited about! It's nice to have the guy here.
Unfortunately, we left Milena behind here, but we will definitely see each other again, even more so. Our Aussie girl is back on her island. We hitchhiked back to Leon. The last driver was so kind as to drop us off right in front of our hostel. At first, we thought we weren't on time, as no cars drove past us in Aposentillo, but then, as always, we were lucky and arrived exactly 10 minutes before Jannik. After bringing another bed to our private room at the Hostel El Albergue, we went out to celebrate our reunion with a beer. We also had a Mexican Torta. The hostel was super centrally located and very quiet. The building had only one dorm and 3 private rooms. Breakfast was included here and we only paid 6 euros.
Leon is a big city by Nicaraguan standards, comparable in feeling to Stade for us. The old town has many old buildings and it's nice to stroll around here. Furthermore, this is the perfect starting point for hiking tours and volcano boarding.
One day, we strolled through the city and climbed the cathedral of Leon to enjoy an incredible sunset. See for yourself...
Another day, we did a free walking tour, where we tasted our way through a local market. We also learned a lot about Nicaragua here, such as the fact that Leon used to be the capital and much more.
I also had another tattoo action here. Since I felt very comfortable at the White Devil studio, I got a slightly larger tattoo.
Jannik and I also dared to climb the freshest volcano, Cerro Negro, in Nicaragua, where you can go volcano boarding. This is the only place on earth where this is supposed to be possible. The hike was relatively relaxed and took about 40 minutes. Going down was at about 50 km/h. I would have liked to go faster, but I didn't have the technique to do it. :D
Another day, I went to Las Penitas and enjoyed the sunset and a bonfire on the beach under the starry sky. The sunset was overwhelming. I'm glad I pushed myself to do this. I just sat by the fire until late at night and got lost in the embers.
El Transito
Yep, and our journey continues to El Transito. This is a super small fishing village that is only accessible by a gravel road. The ride here was very challenging and felt like it took us almost a day, since we moved around via hitchhiking and chicken buses. I actually expected to have really good waves here, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Since the bay is relatively small and a big swell came from the ocean, it pushed an incredible amount of water towards the beach. Because of this and the strong current, surfing was really difficult here. That's why we spent a lot of time chilling in hammocks. Here we stayed at the Bananoz Surf House, which we liked a lot because of the great kitchen with a view of the beach and the robust construction. We also learned to love this because another heavy storm hit us one night. This time everything stayed intact and there were no problems. We also spent a lot of time cuddling with Roxy, the hostel dog, playing chess, and learning vocabulary.
That's it from me again. I hope you're all doing well and in the next post, I'll report on Granda, the treehouse, and Popoyo.