Nicaragua

We were ready to get to Nicaragua, a country we had heard about a lot, thanks to JC. The first thing we noticed crossing the border, was how much time Nicaraguans had to spend at the Costa Rican border to get inside of Costa Rica. Nicaragua is a very poor country, so we guess that the Costa Ricans are a little afraid of foreigners offering cheap labour. Upon arrival in Nicaragua the atmosphere changed remarkably. All of the sudden people were friendly again.

Our first stop was San Juan del Sur, a nice little beach town (so far the first and only one in Nicaragua on the pacific coast). To put it short: We had a blast. The town provides the right mixture of locals and travellers, the surf is great (offshore winds every day, because of the Nicaraguan Lake) and it s easy to make new friends. On the first night we met Becky and Sam, a cool Canadian couple who we decided to travel with for almost two weeks. Saminator and Beckalicious were the perfect couple to travel with, because they had a car (only joking guys, we also traveled with you because you bought us rounds). Together we went to Isla de Ometepe, Masaya, Leon and Managua (We ll come to that in a minute). Before doing so we spend a week in San Juan del Sur, where I worked on my surfing skills and had the best day surfing Playa Colorado (thanks for the ride and all the help Carl). On the day before we left San Juan, Jana and I went out to a Restaurant/Club called Iguana. Guess who was there, movie star Matthew McConaughey drunk like a thirteen year old. Poor guy was so wasted they had to carry him out of the club. I am sorry ladies, it s not how it seems to be in the movies…

We went to Isla de Ometepe, a bizarre island in the middle of the big Nicaraguan Lake (approx. 150 km x 70 km). The island consists of two small islands (each with a volcano, one is active), which are joined by a small stretch of land. Sam and Becky waited for us when we arrived by ferry and we went to the hostel they stayed at. Met Nate and Bill (how is it going guys), two americans we became friends with in San Juan, in the hostel and had a beautiful day at the Ojo del agua (a natural lagoon in between the two volcanoes) on the next day. Did some hiking to a waterfall on the next day and we were on our way to Masaya.

JC I am sorry my friend you won t like that: so far Nicaragua is the most corrupt country we visited. On our way to Masaya we were stopped by the police (apparently recognizing us as „Gringos“, because my surfboard was strapped on the roof of our car). They pulled us over, asking if we would have a triangle and a fire extinguisher. After showing them both, they told us that our triangle would not work. I showed the officer that it did. So then he told me that we would need two, for „safety reasons“. Well we did not have two triangles, so he told us to pay a fine of 300 Cordobas. After telling him that we would need his name and a bill, because we wanted to get the money back from the car rental, he congratulated me for my good spanish and let us go without paying.

The next time we were stopped by the police was on the way of one of Leon s beaches back to the city. The cop who pulled us over asked us for a triangle and fire extinguisher again. This time we knew the procedure already and told him that we would have both in the trunk. He didn t bother to take a look, but instead asked us if we could do him a favour and lend him some money for gas. We told him he could give us money and then we would drive to the next gas station to bring him some. That was too much for him and he let us go.

So here is our advice, if ever pulled over by the cops in Nicaragua make their life as hard as possible and you are good to go. 

Masaya has some really nice markets, where the girls did some shopping. We went to a neraby active volcano, we could drive all the way up to the top. When we parked our car some guides started yelling at us. We wondered why and they explained us, that we wold have to park our car the other way around. So in case of an eruption we could drive away faster…

Our next stop was Leon, definitely the highlight of Nicaragua s cities. It s an old colonial city, maybe 30 minutes away from the pacific coast. We stayed in a hostel called Lazybones, which we would highly recommend to stay in if you are in Leon.

 

1. Playa Colorado   

2. Bjoern getting waves 

3. San Juan del Sur   

4. Germay : Poland

5. Someone s getting wasted    

6. Ojo de Agua   

7. Just chilling   

8. Big bug 

9. Driving around 

10. Petroglyphs  

11. Farmlife   

12. Waterfall  

13. Lake of Nicaragua

14. Volcano on Isla de Ometepe  

15. Volcano near Masaya  

16. On top of the volcano  

17. Getting there  

18. Nice views  

19. Leon   

20. Leon  

Costa Rica

We took our flight at 6 o clock in the morning from Brazil after leaving the barbecue party at 2 o clock. We arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica, at night only to find out that the rainy season just had begun. So the rain made a lot of sense. It still made sense after one entire week of hard rain, because a tropical storm made its way through Costa Rica and Nicaragua. By that time we replaced the Costa Rican saying „Pura Vida“ (Pure life) with „Pura mierda“ (Pure shit). We still enjoyed ourselves though.

From San Jose we went to Puerto Viejo on the Carribean side of the country. Went to a national park to find out that it was impossible to enter it without guide (they were all gone by the time we arrived), and without proper shoes (we were wearing sandals, because by the time we left our hostel to get there the sun was shining, of course by the time we arrived at the park we would have needed Noahs Arch to get around). Had one nice day in Puerto viejo which we used for a hike in another national park, called Cahuita. We saw leafcutter ants, monkeys, different kinds of crabs, lizards and a snake. After hiking for approximately 3 hours, fighting mosquitos and getting scared by the sounds of howler monkeys we made it out of the park. While waiting on the bus we talked to a dutch couple, who had done the same hike with a local guide. In order to show off we let them take a look at the picture of the snake we had seen. They explained us that it is deadly poisonous. Lucky us….

On the next day we drove to Monteverde, a nice little village located within the mountains close to the Pacific side. Monteverde is famous for its cloud forests and is home to several animal species, such as the Quetzal, a colourful bird that is rare to see and which I would not write about if we wouldn t have seen it ourselves. Our guide told us that some crazy bird spotters pay him 100 bucks only to see this bird. Well we paid 10 bucks each to enter the park and that was it. BUYAAAA. The cloud forest was pretty amazing. Moist, green and with animals all around it certainly felt like Central America. The same was true for the room we stayed in, which was home to lots of different insects scaring us during the night. Right outside of our room a sloth had its home in a little forest.

We left rainy Costa Rica after nine days curious to see Nicaragua, sun and waves. Costa Rica has been the first country that we did not like that much. Maybe it was because of the weather or the somehow unfriendly locals…  

 

1.Rainy season in Puerto Viejo

2. Leafcutter ant  3.Insects

4. Monkeys   5.Snake

6. Snake 7. Lizard

8. Monkeys in Cahuita park 

9. Bjoern with friends  10.Begging Monkeys

11. Colibri  12. Jana in the Monteverde park

13. Rainforest 14. Captain Bjoern

15.Big centipede

16. The Cloud forest

17. Big insect

18. Waterfall in the forest

19. A pig friend  20.Lazy sloth

21. Beautiful Quezal  

22.Our Costa Rican guide

23. A stick bug 24. A german bug

Sao Paulo again – thanks Daddy

We came from Ilha Grande and arrived 10 hours later in Sao Paulo. Took a quick shower in a hotel where one of Daddy s colleagues had a room (thanks a lot) and were out there enjoying dinner with Daddy and friends. We stayed in Daddy s place for the weekend, damn it is a big apartment, maybe I should start working 60 hours a week as well. The highlight was definitely the brazilean barbecue we had in Marcelo s place – you brazileans know how to live.

Daddy thanks again for housing, fun and a little bit germany. Love you for your patience and friendship. We hope we can make it up to you soon… 

 

1. The Mini-Bar  

2. Barbecue crew

3. Brazilean barbecue

4. Just chilling