Camping and a new country

Been on the road for over 2.5 months, now in the fourth country and experienced so much... it's crazy. It's so fascinating how you keep running into people you met somewhere a few weeks before. How you learn to deal with problems but also be more willing to take risks or simply be more open about certain things.

After my quite stressful stay in San Salvador, I went all the way to the east of the country, La Union. There I grabbed a seat on a "Super Special" bus for $5.55 and then sat halfway across the country for almost 4 hours in an air-conditioned and super comfortable bus.

When I arrived in La Union it was the most intense heat I had ever experienced up to that point. I went to the hostel but somewhere they didn't have a reservation from me, Hmm. After a few minutes and a phone call it turned out that I was in the wrong hostel. But who comes up with the idea of naming two hostels “Santa Marta” in a city with 3 hostels?😂 Well then everything was sorted out. I checked into my single room and tried to cope with the heat.

On March 24th, 2024 I actually planned to climb the Conchagua volcano but my stomach said nope. Okay so another day of chilling.

On March 25, 2024 I felt a little better and since I had found out about camping on the volcano the day before, I went up with two others around 1:00 p.m. My big backpack stayed in the hostel and I only went up with the essentials. After hitchhiking twice, we were only 5.5km and 800m away from the top. Once at the top you could rent camping equipment, buy small things and enjoy the view. Unfortunately it was a bit foggy but you could still see the islands off the coast. The evening brought another unexpected event. A dude who recited some poem, one who played the violin surprisingly badly and one from Lithuania who danced to trance and techno. It was very interesting. Afterwards there was a campfire in front of an artificial temple.

Of course, we got up on time for sunrise (03/26/24) and saw the sun fighting its way through the blanket of fog. The descent was pretty quick and in La Union I and the other two parted ways and went to the beach. Whereas I had to wash my clothes by hand🙃 After everything was fairly fresh and hung up, I didn't do anything anymore😂

(03/27/24) There are three ways to get from El Salvador to Nicaragua: by shuttle, which is pretty boring, by boat, which is certainly cool, or the cheap option with public buses😁. The only problem is that El Salvador and Nicaragua do not have a common border, there is also Honduras between them, so there are a total of 4 borders to overcome. I knew that I would have to pay $15 to cross the border and otherwise still had $13 left over for transport. But I didn't want to go to the ATM again so I thought I had to take a bit of a risk. At 7:30 we started, after a bus and a TukTuk (since the bus somehow didn't come) I was at the first border, out of El Salvador. Then I took a short trip to Honduras, where I got a stamp, even though I wasn't going to spend a night there, paid the $3 and off I went. I had already spent $3 on transportation so I had to change $10 to pay for the next buses. After 2 buses, a colectivo and $7.50 less I got to the border to leave Honduras again. They suddenly wanted my fingerprints...well, you have to do it. Then we went to Nicaragua. The migration guy checked my passport and said he wanted $13, I told him I only had $12 left (that was the price that was everywhere on the internet). He wouldn't let me in if I couldn't give the dollar. So I looked for the remaining cents that were distributed in my wallet and backpack, luckily exactly 100c. So I put it in front of him and he looked at me like a car. If he doesn't accept, it's not a dollar. After a discussion about how that was a dollar, he didn't budge. So I packed up my stuff and ran all the way back to the Honduras side to find someone who could exchange 100c for $1...that's where the remaining $2.50 of Honduran currency was exchanged for Nicaraguan currency. Visibly annoyed and sweating, I slapped him with the $13 and waited to be able to leave. But no, I still have to fill out a piece of paper with all my data for the government... At around 4 p.m. I was able to continue. I then hitchhiked to my hostel, which was 7km from the border. And now I was sitting there with 2.50 in my pocket without Wi-Fi in the hostel and the information that the buses won't run for the next 2 days due to Easter and the nearest town of Somoto is 11km away. But it's not all that bad. In the evening I met a German couple in the hostel that I met in Xela (Guatemala), as well as a French couple and an Englishman. We were the only guests there and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the suburb.

On March 28th, 2024 we went to the Cañon de Somoto with the Germans, the Englishman and our guide. A 5 hour hiking/swimming/jumping and boating tour. A very cool experience and with beautiful nature... sometimes we swam in the canyon, sometimes we ran through the water or jumped from cliffs into the canyon (I probably did a somersault from ~9m😁) At the end we went a short distance by boat , really nice. Relaxed but also adventurous. Due to the location of the hostel we had to rely on their meals so we had lunch at 2:30 p.m. At around 3:30 p.m. I decided to hitchhike into town to finally get some money. 40 minutes later I finally got a ride and was in town. Get some money, go to the supermarket and back again because it was now 4:50 p.m. and it was starting to rain. So I went back up the road and stuck my thumb out... the rain was getting heavier and there was already lightning and thunder. But nobody cared that I was standing on the side of the road in the rain😂 Luckily, after the rain got heavier and the thunderstorm got closer, a taxi saw me and took me to the hostel. I think that was the most violent thunderstorm I have ever experienced. In the evening we all sat at the table again and thought about what we should do tomorrow, since no one could leave there even though everyone actually wanted to move on😂

The next day (03/29/24) we all got ready to check out the viewpoints of the canyon. But we didn't want to go back the same way, so we asked locals up there if there was a way down to the canyon and there actually was. Well there were two, one consisted of climbing and a rope on which you could climb down ~150m pretty steeply or just a normal route. After much thought and hesitation, we decided to take the easy route together. Past some cows and over overgrown trails we came back to the canyon. We came out about halfway through yesterday's tour. There we parted ways, the German, the Englishman and I decided to swim and jump through the canyon again and the French and the German went back across the road to the beginning. It was great fun again, this time we just didn't have a life jacket or a guide but the passages for swimming were never more than 50m and we knew the route. We even found a higher cliff where we chased ourselves down (~11-12m). At around 4 p.m. everyone was back at the hostel and we had our last evening together. They were very nice days and the group harmonized really well, like a small family. We always sat together at the table for dinner or explored the canyon😂

By the way, there was always the same typical food there: rice with beans, sheep's cheese and plantains. Sometimes there was egg instead of cheese but otherwise we had this meal 3 times a day...so it wasn't bad but just that?! Very monotonous, especially since the people at the hostel ALWAYS eat it themselves. That's pretty awesome.

Today (03/30/24) everyone continued, but the others left at 6:30 a.m. because they had a longer travel day ahead of them. I was able to sleep in and only had to drive about 2 hours to Esteli. It's a nice city and I'm in a cool hostel, but the hustle and bustle here is tiring after 3 days of complete peace and quiet 😅