So on day 21 I split up with Ramsey, Cadari, and Lindsey as they wanted to head to an island to dive in Honduras, Utila. I took a 18 hour bus ride down through El Salvador and Honduras to Leon, Nicaragua.
There is an agreement between the countries that they won't charge to cross the border. So they come up with fake things like, "We need to spray your car with anti-bacterial spray for safety. By the way, that's $3."
Leon is known for it's rich Spanish colonial history, which is evident around the town.
Also evident is really amazing places to get your nails done.
We stayed at Sonati Hostel, which costs $6 a night, and is a non-profit supporting eco-friendly decisions in the country. They had a pool!
At the hostel I met up with Antonia and Mike, whom I met in San Pedro. We kept in touch, and realized we would be arriving in Leon on the same day.
Leon is a cute town.
Rum is pretty cheap here. For C$200 you can get a 1.75 bottle of rum, which is about 2 and half fifths for $8.
We climbed Cerro Negro, a volcano that you can sled down.
The rocks were quite hot and steamy.
On the left you'll see Luke (New Zealand), whom we met at Sonata, and Mike (UK) and Antonia (Germany).
awwww, how adorable. Adventure buddies.
Antonia facing her fear of heights. It may look like she is going to fall over, but she was victorious!
Me all prepped:
Making food is cheaper, so we prepared a massive portion of veggie spaghetti for $9. It supplied 8 giant meals.
In the morning having ice cream in coffee for breakfast. Like a kid in a candy shop.
There is so many great second-hand hats in these countries!
Awesome gyms.
Hundreds and hundreds of bike taxis abound.
Awesome Jewlery stores. I'm loving the Mona Lisa with earrings.
WE went to the chicken bus station and boarded a bus to Managua ($1.30), from Managua took a city bus ($0.19), missed our stop, took a taxi back to the correct spot ($0.89), and then took a bus from there to Granada ($1.00).
At first impression Granada is really nice. It's complimentary to Leon, as in they have a lot of similarities but have been historically at odds politically.
Probably most of the folks back home know that I don't like hot dogs. Never have. But I was overcome with a strange desire for a footlong, and was quite happy with it. This would be the 2nd hotdog I've ever consumed. Counter to many of the sadistic glares I've received when relaying my anti-taste for hotdogs, I guess I may actually be "American".
Because it was a travel day, we were still ravished, and got some "typical" local food. That's how they advertise it. For example this place had 2 dishes, chicken with frozen banana, or the typical.
One of the great things about both places is the use of bicycles. Here you see just 2 people on a bike, but I've seen 3 in a similar style. It included a baby on the handle bars. This isn't rare either, it's like the number 1 way of transportation (or number 2 if you include walking). You see this 50 times a day easy.
Ramsey's first day of retirement, he looks like a little kid in a candy shop.
We boarded a bus to hike the volcano, and to our surprise there were 27 people hiking with us. A normal size group is close to 10, but a group of 17 Israelis joined todays hike.
We paid 300 Quetzals, or roughly $40 USD, and it included a tent, sleeping bag and food. Below is the food they provided.
I asked this guy, Timo, if he was new to the road because his hair looked so fresh. He has actually been traveling 10 months. He just has really great hair. He is a chef from Switzerland. He likes small brown dogs.
Up and up we went. The hike was about 5 hours up to basecamp.
We were on our way to summit the 3,976meter summit. (13,048 feet).
We set up camp here, and would do one more hour of hiking in the morning to the top. Immediately we were able to see Volcan de Fuego puffing smoke and bursting with lava. It sounded like thunder, and was fairly consistently going off every few minutes.
My sandwich got smooshed.
The sunset was perfect!
We went to bed to the sound of the thundering volcano next door. Also to the sound of real thunder, as a storm blew in. As I laid in my tent, I would try to distinguish the two. They are quite similar.
In the morning, Ramsey and I went to the summit.
Ramsey is great at posing.
We went back down to the fire and had hot chocolate. It was 100% caocao melted with water. It doesn't sound like it would be amazingly tasty, but it was the nectar of the gods.
Then we headed back down! Here you can see our friends Lyndal, from Australia, and Robert from Germany. Having been asked another 5 times in the last 3 days if I'm German, i asked Robert if he thought I looked German.
"No"
"And why not?"
"You look to relaxed."
Good time, good people, good views.
We all went out for lunch, went home, and then went out for beers together.
