24/09/2019 - Somoto Canyon / Nicaragua

After driving on cobblestone roads through the cities of Nicaragua, it's time for nature again in the Somoto Canyon. The rivers Rio Tapacali and Rio Comali meet here and merge into the longest river in Central America, the Rio Coco. The Somoto Canyon is a tributary to the Rio Coco, which was discovered in 2004 by a group of Nicaraguan and Czech scientists and has been used for tourism since then. In the morning, we were picked up from our accommodation, equipped with rental shoes, and taken to the entrance of the canyon. We had 14 kilometers ahead of us. We were the only tourists today and had our guide all to ourselves. Despite him speaking very little English and us only understanding little Spanish, he was able to tell us a lot about the nature and wildlife in the canyon. We walked through breathtaking nature and climbed over huge rocks. Eventually, we couldn't walk any further and had to swim. It was inevitable that we had to jump into the canyon, fortunately only over a few meters. The very adventurous have the opportunity to jump up to 18 meters into the cool water. We saw several birds, large spiders, small sleeping bats, and orchids hanging everywhere. At the end of a truly great and diverse tour, we took a boat ride and were rewarded with a lunch after 5 hours of adventure.