How Not to Relax on Holiday

After departing for Granada on a 2hr bus to Rivas, we were herded by the drivers along with another backpacking couple into a van for a 30 cent ride to San Jorge, the dock of our ferry. The ferry crosses the giant Lake Nicaragua to get to our destination of Isla Ometepe. Thankfully the boat was a comfortable ride, although Lianna faced round one of sea-sickness. Luckily she knows to bring Gravol everywhere with her.

Once we arrived at the dock and without any idea of accommodations we decided to pick the one hostel for which the food was recommended, Hacienda Merida ($20). Unfortunately this spot is located on the complete other side of the isolated island. Rather than slug it out on a 3hr bus ride we decided to spring for the cab ride (in hindsight a good idea as later on we heard the bus was running 4hrs late). After a long and bumpy ride on some awful roads, we arrived at a beautiful hostel located right underneath Volcan Maderas. The guide book was right and Hacienda Merida buffets were definitely something to look foward to each night with a little bit of everything, our favourite being the fried fish fresh from the lake. The lake front did not have a beach but the dock was fine for jumping off and the water was the temperature of a bathtub. Our first full day was spent just laying around, swimming when we felt like it and eating and drinking lots. This was definitely feeling like a vacation now. Merida was also a great place to meet other travelers and through our stay we met some interesting people from Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland and Sweden. Given that we were staying right under Volcan Maderas Lianna and myself were planning to hike to the summit the next day. The owner recommended reading all the info about it before committing to it, as it was apparently quite an arduous hike. Lianna still wanted to do it, so next morning we were to set off at 7am.

The Hike

We were up at 6am to get breakfast and get an early start on the volcano because the hike was planned to be 8-9 hours round trip. We met our guide at approximately 7am which was on time which was surprising considering no one there is ever on time. The hike started off by going through farmers fields of plantains and coffee. The trail progressed towards the thicker jungle and we could hear the calls of the howler monkeys from the tree tops which is very scary if you have never heard them before. After about 2 hours Lianna began to tire and because our guide didn’t speak English it was difficult to know how far along we were on the mountain. After some more time of walking Lianna began to find it too tiring to go much further and even though she pushed it as hard as she could our guide was able to communicate it was just half way and the next half was much much more difficult. Lianna was faced with a tough decision and felt she couldn’t go further but didn’t want to disappoint me but she made the very intelligent decision to return to the bottom.

Luckily, as we began to head down another group of three, two Aussies and a German, were heading up and the German guy was too exhausted to continue so our guide took Lianna and the German guy down while I still was able to continue my hike with the two Aussies. This made Lianna very happy as she was afraid I was going to be very disappointed. After another hour of extremely intense rock climbing and vine climbing I began to realize how smart Lianna’s decision was to turn back. It was another two hours of the most steep and slippery trail I have ever been on. Once at the top it was a very strange landscape of cloud forest and strange flora and fauna. We were able to see a wild capuchin monkey swinging from tree to tree. Once at the top there was no view as the top of the volcano was covered in cloud but we still had a sense of accomplishment, after a few quick pics we began to descend as none of us were really interested in hiking to the laguna. The trail down was much more intense than going up and we all fell due to the slick mud mulitple times, it was grueling. The most rewarding part was when we walked under a troop of howler monkeys who began to shout and shake branches at us for coming into their territory. That made the hike for me as it was the howlers who I had really hoped to see. We celebrated our hike (and half hike) that night with beers and birthday cake as it was one of the Canadian’s Birthday.

San Juan Del Sur

We had originally planned to stay on Ometepe one more night but since the majority of people we had befriended were moving on we decided there was not much else to keep us on the island and we didn’t want to go back to Granada like planned. We decided to go to the Pacific Coast for 3 nights in San Juan Del Sur.

San Juan Del Sur is known as Nicaragua’s principal tourist town, and there is an obvious gringo presence, but despite the reports of it being overrun with tourists, touts and real-estate hawkers we found the town and beach a pleasant place to spend a few days. The beach is a stretch of sand protected in a crescent shape bay dotted with lots of fishing boats. The town has plenty of restaurant and accommodation options, but the prices are a little more inflated than we had experienced throughout Nicaragua thus far. After a three hour bus ride, an hour ferry, and a quick 20 minute shared taxi we began to hunt for somewhere to stay. After being surprised by some of the luxury options we decided to stay at Costa Azul which had super clean rooms, A/C, and T.V. for 45 USD a night. The next day was spent soaking up the sun on the beach with the occasional dip in the ocean to cool off, SJDS was noticeably hotter than where we had been prior. Despite a lack of confidence that we would be able to do it from an awful experience I had in Thailand, Lianna and I booked ourselves for surf lessons for the next day. Once we rented our surf boards from Casa Oro, we were glad to see the Australian couple and two more Aussies we met on Ometepe were going to join us in the lesson. After arriving at Maderas Beach we recieved a 1hr lesson on land from our instructor. Now if you are taking a surf lesson you want your surf instructor to look like him our instructor, a perma tan, sun bleached hair, mid 40′s Peruvian who learned to surf in California by the same person who taught Kelly Slater ( if I understand his broken english correctly). When it was time to get in the water he had Lianna and myself up riding waves in about 10 mins. That was it for me – I was hooked. Over the next few hours I never returned to the group and spent the rest of my time trying to catch bigger and bigger waves. I had a few bad spills here and there, but the feeling was really addicting, I cant wait to go again. Lianna enjoyed herself too but opted for the small waves much closer to the beach so she could practice her popping up. The day was fantastic the only downside being that due to the increase in crime, the hostel recommended not bring any cameras so we have no pics to prove our success. By the end of it all we were sunburned, exhausted and STARVING! Due to several unpleasant experiences eating along the beach we decided to hit up this BBQ spot not far from the hotel the Aussies recommended. It was fantastic local food that was cheap and delicious and just down from Casa Oro. Best spot we ate in SJDS by far! It was early to bed for the long journey ahead the next day.