Nicaragua - June 1st thru 3rd

We’re safe and sound! Despite a 30-minute delay taking off from ATL we made it into Nicaragua around 7:45pm. Little did we know they don’t observe daylight savings time here, so arriving at what we thought was 8:45pm local in pitch black seemed about right. Sunrises happen around 5:15am and sunsets around 6:00pm. It’s technically their winter season, but temperatures seem to stay above 75 no matter what time of day, while climbing into the 90s regularly. I’m pretty sure we haven’t stopped sweating since we landed.

The first night took us to Poco a Poco Hostel in Leon, which was an hour and 45-minute shuttle ride from Managua’s airport. We had prearranged this which helped avoid the chaos upon arrival as is typical in most tourist-heavy areas. The main road through Managua was lit up with a variety of 40-foot neon trees every mile or so which was unique. Other than that the drive was uneventful. We arrived at the hostel in Leon and took a quick tour around after letting family and friends know we made it safely and calling it a night.

Friday morning we booked an 8:00am volcano-boarding trip to the active volcano named Cerro Negro, which was approximately an hour shuttle from the hostel. After a short 45-minute hike up in the already-high 80s heat and sometimes what seemed like 40-mph winds, we rode our wooden sleds down the 45-degree volcano-side with only our heels to slow us down. Jenna (being Jenna) decided to be the only person to try the “snowboard style” descent. Pretty sure she ended up sweating more going down than hiking up, but it made for good entertainment from the bottom of the hill. We also met Brice and Ally (sorry if I misspelled that and you read this) from Minneapolis on this trip. They’re on about a 3-week trip through Central America and have been on similar trips to other parts of the world already so it was cool to share stories with them in the short time!

Cerro Negro Volcano 

View Opposite Cerro Negro 

Looking at Highest Points of Cerro Negro 

Backside View from Cerro Negro 

Slide Path Down the Volcano

After returning back to the hostel we made a few reservations for the coming days and joined the hostel’s “Fortress Friday” tour. We took the backroads of Leon which led us down one road in particular of families and individuals who had been displaced by a Hurricane Mitch from back in 1998. It was an unfortunate sight to see, but you would’ve never guessed at their misfortune as several people waved at our shuttle and kids were playing all around the area. The El Fortin de Acosasco tour took us up to a good vantage point of the city of Leon where we listened to our guide give about an hour-long history of how Nicaragua was settled up until the present state. Some of the story was pretty gruesome from his description and pictures of torture and civil war, but all of it was very interesting – even for someone who isn’t that into history like myself. Unfortunately, the clouds prevented us from taking in what would’ve been an awesome sunset over the city, but the guide (Henry) and his friends built a bonfire and brought local Nicaraguan food for dinner. We ended the night with most of the group at a bar near our hostel.

Views from on Top of the Fort

Looking Over the City of Leon

Inside the Fort

Today (Saturday) was another warm day as we shuttled from Leon to Granada where we walked around the very colorful city before settling into a local restaurant/bar to watch the UEFA Cup Finals match between Real Madrid and Juventus. This might’ve been the first soccer game I’ve watched for more than 5-minutes straight so shout out to the local Nicaraguans for making watching soccer fun for a non-soccer guy. After the game, we found a local bus to take us to Laguna de Apoyo – or so we thought. That bus got us half of the way for $1.00, and then we ended up having to taxi to our location where I’m writing this from currently – Hostel Paradiso. This place is unreal. It’s built into the hillside of a crater with a freshwater lake at the bottom. The views are great, even though it’s been cloudy and the water was about bathtub warm – probably too warm for us to be honest after sweating for 48-hours straight – but it still felt good.

Views from Cathedral near Granada's Central Park

We’re going to try kayaking here in the morning before we leave out for our shuttle to San Jorge in order to catch a ferry to Ometepe Island where we’ll stay at Casa Morena for the next two nights. After that, it’s off to Playa Ocotal in Northwest Costa Rica where we’re signed up to obtain our scuba diving certification.

Safe to say it’s been a good start to the trip so far!