Nicaragua – a Recap
After being in El Salvador and Honduras, driving into Nicaragua felt like going home. Although it is the second-poorest country in the hemisphere, we’d heard nothing but good things about the people and many of our friends have already bought property to build their retirement homes there. As soon as we crossed the border, the country’s economic woes were apparent in the roads. The Panamerican Highway, yes that road that goes from Alaska to the tip of South America, is nothing more than a pothole- riddled unpaved street in northern Nicaragua. This slowed us down quite a bit but it eventually cleared up about 100 miles south and we made our way to Leon.
Leon is one of the three major cities in Nicaragua along with Managua, the capitol, and Granada, the classic Spanish colonial town. It is the liberal and cultural capital of the country. Although it is a bit rougher around the edges than some of the other colonial towns we visited, it is very charming with a huge 16th century cathedral. We stayed in Bigfoot Hostel for $4 a night each and feasted on cheap American/Central American fusion food. We also got some valuable information from the Aussie owner, Darren, about a little-known surfcamp on the coast further north. This was just what we were looking for so we set out after just two days in Leon.
After some hard exploring we found Hotel Chancletas in Aposentillo. www.hotelchancletas.com The little town was nothing more than a fishing village until recently when the luxury Marina Puesta Del Sol moved in, and it hasn’t grown much since. No gas, no phones but great people and excellent, uncrowded waves. Shea and Loretta O’Brien moved down from Miami to start their surfcamp/hotel and they run it with the attention and personality of a bed and breakfast. But make no mistake, surfing is king here and there’s really nothing else to do. We spent 5 days surfing an epic beachbreak, taking boatrides out to a left pointbreak for $5 from the local fisherman, and eating home-cooked food.
Next we drove south to the Popollo/Las Salinas area to stay with our friend Reid from Florida. He was house sitting for our friends Joel and Beth in their beautiful newly built house overlooking the ocean and they were gracious enough to let us stay as well. The area is well known to traveling surfers for world-class waves but unfortunately we got there just as the swell was fading. No matter, since this gave us more time to explore the area and meet some of the locals and ex-patriates. We met three couples who had moved there from America or Europe to start hotels and were living very simple, fulfilling lives. The locals were so friendly, one man actually jumped on his bike to ride ahead of us to show us the way instead of giving directions. The poverty of the country was only slightly apparent as most of these people seemed to be living very fulfilling, though simple lives as well.
After mentioning that we were interested in selling our car, we were introduced to Rudi, a taxi driver from Rivas who drove people back and forth from the airport in Managua and helped ex-patriates find cars in his free time. After doing some recon in Managua, he came back to Las Salinas with 4 prospective buyers for the car. We had originally planned to ship our car back after finishing the trip in Costa Rica or just sell it there, but we really couldn’t stomach any more border crossings with a car and we heard the tax laws in Costa made it difficult to exit the country for a few weeks after selling there. So, after 2 weeks lounging near the beaches, we picked Rudi up early one morning and drove to Managua to see if we could negotiate a good price. In doing so, we had to leave most of the gear we had stocked in our car at our friends house to lighten our load in case we ended up traveling the rest of the way via bus. Trust us on this, you really don’t need a toaster, a weight set or beach chairs when backpacking through Central America!
In Managua, we met with 4 used car lot owners about selling the car. Surprisingly, they all offered the same amount, $4,000, to buy the Rodeo. This was less than we had hoped for but, since the car was only worth around $3,000 – $3,500 in the states and we would save on not shipping it back, we decided to unload it. This was probably smart since the transmission was getting a little testy as well. Note – don’t buy a Silver, 1998 Isuzu Rodeo from anyone in Nicaragua. With our $4,000 cash (a little scary in Central America) and the rest of our gear, we set out on foot for the rest of the trip. We booked a bus ticket to Costa for about $12 each. The only problem was, we were now loaded down with 3 surfboards, 2 large travel backpacks, 2 small backpacks, a purse, a camera and a 90 pound military sized duffel bag with all the stuff we shouldn’t have brought with us but couldn’t leave behind!
Tags: Travel
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