Now back to Nicaragua! 4am wake up call to
get on the road. Armando, Kori and I drove to the border of Nicaragua &
Costa Rica to cross at Los Chiles. We
did have a short stop to check out the beautiful water at Rio Celeste. Unreal,
right?
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Rio Celeste, Costa Rica
This border crossing is only possible by
boat, so we ditched the car in Costa Rica and hopped on board a 2 hour slow
boat up the Rio to San Carlos, Nicaragua.
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| San Carlos, Nicaragua |
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| Getting our Yoga on in the customs line |
Hmmm where to
start about San Carlos…Let’s just say Nicaragua is attempting to get it on the
tourist route but they don’t know what the hell they’re doing. No running water
except for maybe a trickle for one hour in the morning – even in the hotels.
That just won’t fly, even for most backpackers. Big issue is transportation as
well. The boats only run twice a week to get to The Archipelago of Solentiname,
even though you can see it from San Carlos. To hire your own boat for the 30
min ride is $100 one way. Just to sum it up, there is potential but they are
not there yet.
We all
definitely made the best of it and ended up making it to the archipelago of
solentiname & El Castillo, but I woudn’t come out of your way be any means
to come this way. My few last days travelling with Kori were really great
though – we have some fun memories; Yoga in many random places, then attempting
to teach standbys in Spanish, boating back in the pitch black from the islitas
ekkk and many more.
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| View from the restuarant on Isla Fernando |
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| I would love to have that mango tree in my backyard, por favor?? |
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| Beautiful peacock on Isla Fernando |
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| We never have fun... |
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| Cabinas on Isla Mancarron |
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| The main street in El Castillo |
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| View of Rio San Juan from the El Castillo Fort |
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| View of Rio San Juan from the El Castillo Fort |
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Massive papaya, yes it's for real!
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| Amazing home cooked meal, thank you to Armando's Family for the delicious fish! |
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| The random drink Armando had us try...HA they were giving it to us out of this anti-freeze container |
Our ways
parted as I boarded my 14 hour boat across Lake Nicaragua to Granada. It ended
up being a really relaxing ride and well worth taking the slow route. They make
all gringos buy first class tickets with the up top ac. Not bad at all. A few
hours into the ride, I had the luck to watch this amazing sunset of the Island
of Ometepe.
I arrived in
Granada around 5am and witnessed the sunrise as well. It really all come full
circle and was breathtaking – relaxed me back into travelling on my own again.
I explored all over Granada Saturday morning before my flight that afternoon to
Little Corn Island. I even ate at the same restaurant, garden café, twice
because it was that delicious. Granada made me feel like I was back in Antigua,
Guatemala. Another beautiful colonial town!
Now, onto
Managua to catch my flight to Big Corn Island; FYI I highly recommend flying on
Costena to get to the Corn Islands - completely worth the extra expense as by
land and boat is long and a bit complicated.
Even though I did go photo crazy on this post, there are even more on Picasa:
We all
definitely made the best of it and ended up making it to the archipelago of
solentiname & El Castillo, but I woudn’t come out of your way be any means
to come this way. My few last days travelling with Kori were really great
though – we have some fun memories; Yoga in many random places, then attempting
to teach standbys in Spanish, boating back in the pitch black from the islitas
ekkk and many more. 
