Man, Mari and I have been outta internet reach for quite a while and I dont quite know how to fill in all the details between then and now.
Mari and I are now in Esteli - Nicaragua. We crossed the border today from Honduras. We spent the night in Danli last night, a little town just near the southern border at a place called La Esperanza. We awoke, had breakfast and left Danli around ten am on a local bus headed to El Paraiso (15 Lemipira each), in El Paraiso we caught another local bus to Los Manos (13 Lempiras) where we crossed the border on foot, walking between a backup up of buses and trucks a half mile long. We had been told the border crossing would cost $7 USD, but actually turned out to be $12 USD each, plus another guy walked up and sold us a local $1 USD local fee ticket as well. A little more costly than we had anticipated, but still quite do-able.
At the border we cashed in our Lempiras for Cordobas (which I believe exchange at 22 for $1 USD)and hopped on the third local bus of the day headed to Ocotal (11 Cordoba each), where we finally hopped on our fourth and final bus of the day headed to Esteli for 25 Cordoba each. Arriving here in Esteli at around 2 pm, we looked at places to stay and chose a place called Hospedaje Sacuanjoche for 100 C each ($4.5 USD). Although not as nice as Hotel Nicarao, which was double the price, it is still quite clean and nice and a good place to hang out for the night before moving on.
Because we have been moving quite fast for the last couple weeks, we had planned on staying here in Esteli a couple nights, but now that we are here and realize that the cinema is no longer woking, and the local Italian restaurant doesnt exist anymore, the dazzle of the city faded a bit. We were looking forward to some good times of relaxation after several days of butt numbing bus rides, chilling out eating good food and watching some Hollywood hits at the cinema, but with our dreams crushed we have decided to leave first thing in the morning. At 6:45 am there is an express shuttle to Leon we are planning to take. Leon is right off the coast, and I am sure we are headed to better, brigher, warmer weather.
The beer here is called Toña. Another C grade. I cant say that any beer along my travels in both South and Central America has blown my mind, all I can say is that they are all light, easy to drink Lagers that are delicious in the right time and place. Dont get me wrong, I have a personal heirarchy of beers, and given an unlimited number of choices I may never drink this beer. But, I will never talk bad about beer. I do wish I could have a Mannys though. A little travel keg would really do the trick. I wish Mannys made a water purifier that output Mannys beer. That would be amazing, anyway, I digress.
Right off the bat I can tell Nicaragua is a bit different than Honduras. Honduras was mountainous, with mountains in the foreground, the center, and the distance. Mountain upon mountain, and clouds, and green forests and beautiful landscapes. Already, the mountains have disappeared and we are surrounded by little hills. And, in Honduras, there are armored guards with shotguns, military police with machine guns, and local cops with machine guns patrolling everywhere. Here, so far, I have only seen armed guards at the banks. I dont know if the lack of machine guns should make me feel safer or more in danger? Guess we will see.
Working backwards:
Before leaving Honduras, Mari and I spent two nights at Lake Yojoa, at a place called D and D Brewery. Check this out from the book: ¨Oregonian brewmaster Robert Dale set up this highly original and attractive place to stay with lush gardens and an on site brewery that produces some of Honduras best beers. The good outdoor restaurant has homemade coffee and sodas. Oh, and you dont have to close your mouth when you shower - the running water is purified here, a legacy of the brewing process.¨ Sounds pretty cool right? Well, all in all it was not so cool. It proceeded to rain like crazy at the lake the entire time we were there. Not just Seattle drizzle, but like an all out war - sky versus ground. That wouldnt have been so bad if we could have just stayed indoors and drank beer and relaxed a bit, but unfortunately Mari and I both had food poisoning from the town before. So we laid there for two days, eating soup and smoothies, unable to partake in the quality ale. Fortunately the weather was horrible so we didnt miss out on a spectacular time, but it would have been nice to rejoice in some hometown revelry of brewpub ales.
I personally laid half comatose, nodding in and out to the thunderous sound of rain striking against the tin roof above my head, echoing through the room. If you didnt get the point, it was a white noise of sound above all else, loud. Normally, I am a light sleeper and noise like this would have left me wanting of sleep. But due to my sickness, the ceaseless rhythem helped lure me away from the reality of my feverish body. The sound left nothing to the imagination of how wet we would have been without a roof over our heads, and makes me ponder back to the 1500´s when the spanish crown was conquering this jungle land. Spanish soldiers in full military regalia marching through these lands, enduring storm after storm in this mountainous terrain. Unbearable! After two days in that spot, and learning that the rain - although unusually heavy - was quite normal, we decided to hightail it out of the mountains and back to a more temperate climate. Having seen nothing more than Lake Yojoa along the side of the road, we left.
Before the lake we stayed in Gracias for two nights. Gracias is a small, quiet, hot mountain town. I like these little places out of the way, but Mari got bored quickly. We only stayed there the second night because that was the day her food poisoning hit. We stayed there at a place called Finca Bavaria, a coffee plantation run by an exceptionally honest and friendly old Hondureño named Hernandez. He was a very pleasant and understanding and easy going man.
Its interesting to log into Facebook and see photos of Mari and I from people we have met along the way. Hope some of you have the possibility to see those photos, cause yet again I have nothing to show on this post.
Ciao
T
I just made a google map of our trip through Honduras, hopefully it works.
View Honduras in a larger map
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