The Volcano Trail (Nicaragua)

I’m not sure that I knew a country called Nicaragua existed when I started my travels, and if I did I certainly didn’t know where it was. It is the biggest country of Central America (excluding Mexico), with a very low population of 2 million, and is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere behind Haiti. We travelled up its Pacific Coast, following a trail of volcanoes.

The first volcano we came to was called Mount Conception. The volcano and its slightly shorter sister stick up out of an enormous freshwater lake in the south of Nicaragua. It is about as typical cone volcano as you can get. We stayed on the island these volcanoes have created and spent a whole day climbing up and down the volcano. I’ve done a few hikes around the world now, but this was easily the toughest I have ever done. My legs hurt for days.

We started at the base and hiked up through rainforest filled with birds and monkeys, before coming out above the canopy in a grassland phase before arriving at the rocky zone at about 1000 metres. After hours and hours of steep climbing over rocks that were both hot and unstable towards the top, we made it to the very top (1600+m) and peered down into the crater. Then there was the slow climb down, where it felt like a misbalanced step would send you tumbling down the side of the volcano. I wasn’t surprised to learn that people have died on this hike. 11 and a half hours it took to go up and down, and those of us that climbed it felt like we’d just been on a week long expedition. It was intensely hard but so worth it. To be on the side of an active volcano, fuming with sulphur, and to see the enormous views of the surrounding lake and the volcanoes further north in Nicaragua, was great.

On the island at the base of the volcano our group split up and we all got put in a house of the local village people. The homes were basic, no hot water, dusty and dirty, the walls in the bedroom didn’t reach high enough to meet the roof, lizards and insects roaming free inside. It was real, and I hope they never build a hotel on this cool island. The family we stayed with had some cute little girls who we played with; the younger one (4) like to hide our water bottles and make us find them, and me and the older one (8) stayed up playing cards the night we returned from the volcano. Their mother cooked us the food they eat on a daily basis which generally ranged from rice with beans to beans with rice. Our minimal Spanish meant we couldn’t talk to any of them, but we managed little conversations with gesturing and a dictionary they had available. It must be totally mind blowing for these kids who only know their little island to have these strangers from strange countries on the other side of the world come and take their bedroom for a couple of nights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Between the epic volcano hike and the stay with the family, Nicaragua was already becoming a favourite for me. But we had plenty more to see, and we got the boat back to the mainland and drove north to one of the oldest Spanish colonial towns in Latin America; Granada.

Granada was alive. It’s what I wanted to see here. Whereas some of the tourist orientated towns in Costa Rica were a little dull, the action on the streets of Granada, its busy market place, its colourful but crumbling buildings, and its street food options, made me wish we had more time there. Me and the guide had a discussion and agreed that no matter how fun the white water rafting and zip lining is, the things that are going have lasting impact, the experiences that I left home for, are the simple things like wandering through a lively market and eating what the locals eat.

One morning me and our guide Clare went to the local market for some iguana soup. This is a big grey area here, and I’m still not sure if I did the right thing by eating it, but here is the deal; the iguana is a protected species, but unlike other protected species that can’t be hunted for consumption, such as monkeys, iguanas are sold openly in markets and are a socially acceptable and traditional dish. The soup part was nice, the iguana meat was bony and tasted like chicken, as much as I hate to resort to clichés, but the iguana eggs were bad. It was interesting both to go and buy the soup in the market from a lady who does the same one dish every day all her life, and also trying something exotic.

Granada sits right next to a big volcano at the edge of the lake mentioned above, and a few k’s away on the other side of it is a crater lake. Water has accumulated in this big crater and now formed a lake 3kms in diameter and 200 metres deep. We spent a few hours there swimming and kayaking in the cool water. 

It was here that my friend Fok got bitten by a bee, which he has reactions to, and had to be taken to the hospital for a hydrocortisone shot.

Granada also marked the first robbery in the group. A Norwegian girl named Vilda had her necklace ripped of her chest in the street. Also, it was here that people had food stolen off their plates at restaurants by the street kids.

We passed straight through the capital Managua. This tour doesn’t take us into the capital cities of a few of these countries because it’s too dangerous. The WikiTravel safety advice for being in Managua is to not be there at all.

We visited Leon, the former capital, where we went to a surprisingly interesting museum and learnt about the crazy past 50 years of Nicaraguan political history. Its dramatic, to say the least. Assassinations, brothers killing brothers for power, torture, corruption, suspicious deaths, revenge murders - all within the highest ranking officials of the country. Totally out of control. Things are more stable now but corruption is, and will for a long time be, assumed to be the norm.

We were taken onto the tin roof of the museum to look at the view of the volcanos that trail, one after the other, passing Leon and running along the country. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before.

Our final stop was a beach shack that we could only access by small boat and walk though some forest. A total backpacker paradise, the whole group stayed in a big dorm. By day we swam and read in hammocks, by night we drank the local beer and rum and sat around a bonfire.

Nicaragua and its volcanoes were a hit, my favourite Central American country this far.

Holiday within a Trip (Costa Rica)

The day we crossed into Costa Rica from Panama was a tough one. To get from A to B took us 10 hours and four different public buses, all of which we had to wait long hours for in bus stations in dusty towns (not to mention the slow border crossing process). Days like this are an adventure for the first few hours but wear you down by the end. By the time we reached the town of Quepos we were both exhausted and grumpy.

We stayed in Quepos to give us good access to one of the most popular national parks in Costa Rica, which itself has more national parks per land area than any other country in the world. In Manuel Antonio National Park, a short bus ride from Quepos, we saw a sloth (pictured), some monkeys, some raccoons (stealing peoples stuff off the beach), a cool frog, a chameleon, some lizards, and a snake. The wildlife is why a lot of people come here.

The national park had a nice beach to swim in, which was filled with tourists, and only just around a small headland from another beach which was closed and had big signs up saying ‘crocodile on beach.’ The was itself was so warm that it wasn’t refreshing, especially because it was mid to high thirties outside with extremely high humidity.

From there we travelled to the capital of Costa Rica, San Jose (pronounced San Ho – Say), and we celebrated when we arrived because that was the last bit of work we would have to do for a month. We joined a tour two days later and the trip within the trip began. I haven’t been on a tour since I arrived from Bulgaria into Turkey last June, and after some of my travel days over last couple of months had been a real bitch, I was glad to hand over the reins to a paid guide and not have to think for a while. Arriving in San Jose felt like the last day of work before a holiday.

 

The other reason we joined the tour for a month up through the remaining Central American countries was for ease of getting through all the border crossings (7 to come), and also the security factor. We would be visiting 3 out of the top 5 countries with the world highest murder rates.

San Jose itself was okay. We were mindful of the fact that it wasn’t safe to explore the city outside the very central downtown area, which had the most police patrolling one area that I have ever seen. One thing that did impress us was the great little resturants (Soda’s they are called) that pump out a selection of local dishes for dirt cheap. Most come with meat and rice and beans plus some tortillas, and there is always hot sauce on the table. This hot sauce, and the different varieties of it, has seeped down to Costa Rica from Mexico, and was the highlight of a lot of my meals.

Some things about Costa Rica; they abolished their army in the 1940’s, it is known for is progressive environmental polices (because their rainforest environment makes them so much money), and has 5% of the world biodiversity – amazing for such a relatively small country. Its like the hippie country, and would be appropriately laid back if not for abundance of American tourists everywhere. Also, Costa Rica reminded me a lot of Thailand.

 

 

We joined the tour and met our 14 travel companions, some of who we will be with for the next 33 days. There were two other Aussies, one of which would be our guide who had born in Canberra and had been in Central and South America most of her adult life. She reminded me heaps of Emma, which made me like her immediately.

Our first stop as a group was a small town called La Fortuna, which sits just below a perfectly conical volcano. This volcano is only fifty years young, which is quite amazing. Ever since it started erupting and building upon itself, people have come here to check it out and explore the surrounding rainforest.

It was here that I did canyoneering – basically abseiling down a waterfall trail through the lush forest. It was great fun, and I owe the experience to Fok, who bought me the ‘Costa Rica Adventure Package’ prior to our trip so he wouldn’t have to do it by himself. We did canyoneering, white water rafting and zip lining over a four day period. This sort of thing is certainly not the reason I travel, but if it’s on offer for free, why not. 

It all made for a busy few days. We rafted down rapids that were surrounded by rainforest for two hours, and had good opportunity to go swimming and jump off little cliffs into the fresh river water. We did zip lining in Monte Verde, a town at the foot of a cloud forest.  It is the longest zip line in Latin America, at 1,590 metres. We were put flat on our stomachs and zipped above the canopy of the forest superman style. Here we also did a big swing, with about 10 metres of free fall. Nothing life changing, but most people are at work while I’m flying above the canopy or rafting down these rapids…

 

 

Costa Rica has always been a favourite destination of Americans who want rainforest, tropical beaches, wildlife and adventure activities. This means it’s fairly touristy, and I was a little disappointed by that. These later towns that we visited were built purely around these adventure activities, so there wasn’t a whole heap of culture to feel.

 

Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time in Costa Rica, partly because of Folk’s generosity and being able to do these things I wouldn’t normally do, partly because I got to meet and hang out with some new travel companions, and partly because of hot sauce.

 

Connecting Continents and Oceans (Panama)

Panama is the connector country. It is the land bridge between the two continents of North America and South America, and the canal that was built through it a hundred years ago connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. And finally, after a month in Cuba, I was able to freely connect to the internet again.

Landing in Panama really put Cuba in perspective. Suddenly there were familiar brands, nice looking buildings and cars, and some efficiency. It was clear that Panama had some money.

While it remains a developing country, the fact that it is home to the Panama Canal means there is lots of money pouring in, mostly in Panama City, which is located at the start of the canal, and was our first stop. Here there are super modern skyscrapers on the water’s edge - even a Trump. These are for the expats and locals who have gotten rich from canal related business. But there are also poor areas, and ‘red zones,’ where you shouldn’t go even in the middle of the day. Tourist have been kidnapped off the street here.

 

The canal was built where it is because it is the narrowest point of land all the way from the top of North America to the tip of South America. The canal was built by the USA to open up trade and military links between the ocenas, save sailing down and around the South American continent. Its impressive to see the big tankers working their way up through the locks. We saw one pass that was maximum size and had 60cm of room on each side to squeeze up. To see the boats lift up as the water rises in the lock components to cross Panama above sea level was pretty cool. We also learned that for each ship that passed us there was likely a fairly hefty bribe paid for it to be allowed through, on top of the 200K+ toll. That money no doubt accounts for some of the nice cars and high rise apartments in Panama City.

The city itself had a pretty boring old town area but made up for it with a big hill in the middle that we climbed and saw some wild Sloths, a Guniea Pig like creature, and Toucans. So close to the city and yet all this life in a small area of rainforest. I couldn’t get a photo of any of it though.

Although the city itself was in no way extraordinary, it is interesting to see and understand why it is the way it is. Just another piece in the big world puzzle.

After stopping over in the town of David for a night, we went up into the mountains to stay at a small town called Boquete, which straddles a volcano. The temperature in Panama City and David was a real uncomfortable muggy hot, but way up here it was borderline chilli. The town was at the foot of the cloud forests. These are forests that, because of the location and altitude, and because of the enormous amount of transpiration they produce, are perpetually under cloud cover. It’s pretty amazing. The forests here are dense with old tree’s, which are themselves dense with moss, lichen, airplants, and tree ferns. It’s lush, and very moist. While here we did a couple of hard hikes through the forests and through some coffee plantations. The tracks got muddy and treacherous to the poiunt there were a few ropes that had been stapled into the steep ground to assist the hikers. We got some great views and had a swim in one of the waterfalls we passed.

From the cloud forests and the big volcano, we went to the carribean coast of Panama and caught a small boat out to the island of Bocas del Toro. Here we rented a room in a villa that we shared with a young couple from Canada, who we befriended and who I’ll catch up with when I go to Toronto in a few months (on my way to meeting other people I’ve met on the road).

We spent our days on the island riding around on bikes and swimming. One spot in particular was the postcard Caribbean beach, with lush forest and coconut tree’s right up to the water’s edge. It took an hour and a half to ride there is the muggy heat, but it was all worth it to lay in the water and the same time in the shade of the coconut trees. Other beaches were average, but the tourists loved it all which really cemented the fact that Australia’s beaches are world class as the norm.

Here we also go to see their ‘Carnival’ celebrations. We caught the last of the four day event in which people come out on the streets to drink and dance and get hosed with water. At night we saw performers dressed as devils roam the main street challenging anyone to a whip fight. Young men from the crowds would come forth and whip the legs of the devil, and be whipped, until one of them backed down. It was hilarious to watch, and would have been bloody painful. It’s a rites of passage thing for young men; if the challenger does well, proves he can take a good whipping, he will be invited to join the devils in the next Carnival celebrations.

 

As of writing, I am back in David. The canal, the carnival, the cloud forests and the coconut trees of Panama are behind me.  Tomorrow we cross into Costa Rica.

Enter Fok (Cuba, Part 2)

Here enters Fok, whom I met last year in Russia and who I would now be travelling with for two and a half months through Cuba and Central America. We get along great, although we are pretty much opposites. He is a 37 year old, outspoken, gay architect and semi-professional photographer from Perth, who listens to Queen and Fleetwood Mac, and who was born in Vietnam and came to Australia as a baby on a migrant boat. Just another colourful character from the long list I’ve met, but it was going to be interesting to spend so long with someone I’d only ever known for two weeks.

 

He flew into Santiago de Cuba, the second city of Cuba, down the far end of the country. From there we went to Baracoa, to Sanctus Spiritis, Trinidad, Cienfuegos, and back to Havana. This blog will briefly cover these stops.

Santiago de Cuba – The city where the Revolution began; the air is filled with diesel fumes, it’s a little crumbly, and it has some old colonial heritage. It’s got a real working class vibe, (although technically there is only one class in Cuba), and the highlight here for us was our the guy who we rented a room off, a big friendly guy named Carlos who spoke to us about internet access (generally illegal in the home here) and what the USA is still doing in the nearby Guantanamo Bay (the clause the US put in Cuba’s constitution in the early 1900’s to allow them to use Guantamo Bay for 99 years expired in early 2000’s). Talking to people in this way is always better than going to some stale museum.

Here I also played chess with Carlos’s father who knew how to say just one thing in English; ‘Good Afternoon.’ The old man smashed me.

Baracoa -  5 hour bus through Guantanamo and over the mountains to this isolated seaside town. People come here because it has a cool Caribbean vibe of clear waters and palm trees. Because of the sticky heat we were excited for the beach but on arrival found it to be covered in rubbish, wandering chickens, and dead rats. The beach front houses here were the slums of the town. We had to walk about 40 minutes from the town to find a spot that was nice enough to swim.

A little further from the town was a cool little village accessed by a suspension bridge over mangroves and a river. Behind this village was something of a national park area, where we did a hike up into the palm covered hills, through some properties with wandering pigs, turkeys and jutia (tree rats which they eat), and into a water cave where we swam.

Baracoa was a highlight because it felt so remote and had the versatility to be beautiful or disgusting depending on which way your head was turned.

 

 

Sanctus Spiritus – we rode into town from the bus station in a horse drawn carriage, and after having a great meal in the casa, a wander around the next morning, and going to the immigration and police stations to inquire about my lost visa (causing me a little bit of stress), we decided we’d seen enough and bargained with a taxi to drive us an hour north to the next town.

Trinidad – This made Lonely Planet’s top ten places on earth 2014 list. We had three nights here and got into a routine; in the mornings we’d catch the bus out to the beach – a long white beach with palm trees and turquoise water. At midday we’d return to the city for some street food lunch. Spend early hours of afternoon in casa and out of the heat. Spend late afternoon/ early evening wandering around the incredibly picturesque town, soaking in the life and colour of it all. Dinner each night was a casa feast - pork, beef, goat. Having someone in the house you are renting spend the afternoon making your dinner is a luxury that we had to acknowledge by eating to the point that lapsing into a coma became a risk. Apart from the dead dogs/ kittens/ rats laying in the streets, Trinidad is as prim and proper as Cuba gets.

 

 

Cienfuegos  - unlike the rest of Cuba, this town was colonised by the French, not the Spanish, and so had a different feel to it…apparently. Here we wandered around the hot and dusty streets taking in everyday Cuba. We finished our days here out on a point of land that juts into the harbour drinking cheap beer and watching the locals swim in the filthy water.

 

 

 

Havana – I returned to Havana for a third time, and decided it was one of the highlights for me. We wandered around the streets of central Havana that look as though they have been bombed and risk collapsing at any moment, we visited the Florida bar in old town made famous by Ernest Hemingway who spent quite a bit of time in Cuba (lots of people have commented on the last name here), ate dirt cheap street food with the small amount of currency we had remaining, and hung out along the big sea wall running across the front of town.

The lack of internet in Cuba drove me crazy and getting in touch with Rin was difficult and expensive. To be on the other side of the world is one thing, but I regret that there were times and towns when it was impossible to even make contact with her.

A month in Cuba was always going to be a noteworthy part of my trip. Cuba is the land of big cars and big cigars, crumbling but colourful. These are interesting times for a country that is strictly communist but on the verge of capitalism, and many political commentators are predicting that when Fidel Castro dies the country will open up completely. People are saying that we made it here just in time. Out of everywhere I’ll go on my travels I think Cuba will be the one country I won’t recognise if I ever come back.