la nica

We´ve made it to Granada, a cute colonial-nica town on Lake Nicaragua. While we were in León, I got some new glasses, and we spent a few days at the beach in Las Peñitas. It was a one road kind of beach town, which had some monstrous waves while we were there.

León is also a colonial town, on a smaller scale and with a more real town feel. We stayed in a cute hotel that´s like a home with family pictures on the walls and everyone eating together at the table.

Here we´re couchsurfing again, with an eccentric guy from L.A. who built a crazy modern house down here and has 5 rat dogs. .

capital a capital

View of Tegucigalpa, Honduras from Picachu.

Today we are leaving for León, Nicaragua. Wé've spent the last couple of days at a great couchsurfers house just outside of Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. Managua is a big strange place. It's very spread out, with most of the "toursit spots" like museums and things in the middle of bad neighborhoods, where you can only take a cab from place to place. Even then, there's not a lot to do or see. We visited the National Palace and Museum, which had some interesting exhibits. We also stopped on the malecòn, which isn`t the kind of nice place you`d picture. There are some ancient footprints in another museum that was closed, but they date to 6000 years ago, buried in volcanic ash. I really would have liked to see them.

We also made a day trip to Masaya, which is just down the highway, and there are a few pics from there. On our way to Managua from Tegucigalpa, we took TicaBus and during our 8 hour journey one of the tires blew out, ad they made a poor truck driver change it without letting anyone off the bus!

Before we came here we stayed in the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, for a few days with another great couchsurfer- a principal! She had the school send out a bus just to take us up to Picachu.

I liked Tegus a lot more, much nicer for walking around, a lot going. We went to a couple museums with great contemporary, historic and religious art - Galerìa Nacional and the Museo por La Identidad Nacional - the latter of which had a great show for Felipe Bruchard. We spent time in the center, and spent a day in Picachu National Park, with beautiful views of the city and an enormous statue of Christ, as well as a sad broken down zoo with depressed animals.

near Trujillo, Honduras

This little boy loved that I was taking his picture, he wouldn't stop smiling and climbing all over the bus like a little monkey. I think this was on our way to Trujillo.

The Metropolitan Cathedral in Tegucigalpa

downtown Tegucigalpa.

Lake Managua from the malecón - real dirty and very choppy.

fishing in Lake Managua.

Another shot of downtown Tegus from Picachu.

from our couchsurfer's roof in Tegucigalpa.

The view of Picachu from her roof, with the Christ statue and the Coca Cola sign.

The Americanization of Tegucigalpa.

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In Masaya, Nicaragua:

The Obama cigars.

¿Que le sirvo?

For Semana Santa we decided to stay on the safe side, and stayed at Casa Kiwi in Trujillo until today. It´s really difficult to travel during holy week, and they cancel buses on Thursday and Friday. It helped us out a lot, because they had us work in the restaurant for free food and accomodations, as well as about $5 each per day, which sounds like nothing, but after the few days we worked, we were left with a tab of about 7 dollars, whereas we were spending $20-$30/day there before. And they gave us a room for free for the last night so we could wrap up our tent!

Working the bar for the holiday was tons of fun, especially because it was so busy with Honduran families. The owner´s don´t really speak Spanish, so they were glad for our help in translating... practically anything. I even wrote them a formal letter of complaint to Coca Cola Honduras.

Aside from that sweet deal, and before we started working all day, we got to enjoy probably our last time on the Carribbean, swimming around and laying in hammocks. It was like the 8th plague of sand flies, and we got eaten alive, especially staying out in the tent. We even saw a ton of jelly fish in the sea, but thankfully no sting rays.

We are staying another night in La Ceiba before heading to the capital.

Snorkel Club

Staying on Utila, and not diving, made us feel lame and left out. Not because we were super jealous or bored, not at all, but because every person that visits or lives on the island is dive obsessed. Bars and restaurants are owned by dive shops, where their divers go. We could only really go to a few non-affiliated places because the first things anyone asks is "are you diving? Well why not? You should dive with us." or "are you diving? With who? Why? You should be diving with us. You're not welcome here." There was really too much drama and politics associated with diving, and the tourist oriented area is run by them, and segregated from the locals who live in poor neighborhoods in the swamps. Our couchsurfing host even got kicked out of his dive shop for not being "loyal enough" to drag all the people he had staying with him over there, and subsequently got into a big fist fight over it. So with the other 6 people who were staying on Sameer's floor, we created the Snorkel Club, because we're too cool for you.

We had a great time with our host, and the many guests. We didn't have to go to a restaurant for one single meal, because of all the food we bought and how easy it was for everyone to chip in and have a feast. We lazed on the beach, though the only one that was sandy and easily accesible cost $3 for use. We also snorkeled from another public, much rockier beach with lots and lots of coral all the way up to the shore. Unfortunately, we're some kind of clutz couple, becuase on the way out to the deep end, which was pretty hard to get to if you think about walking on coral in flippers and 6 inches of water, we got smashed around by the waves and cut up by the coral pretty badly. The girl we went with had no problem at all and didn't even know what we were talking about. But then we did see pretty fish, and right at the end of the reef it just drops off to hundreds of feet deep. A cool sensation to feel like you're floating in the middle of the ocean, like a shark could sneak up on you anytime. But I guess that's why people like scuba diving so much!

I was offered a job at Tropical Sunset, a bar, for sticking around during Semana Santa when it gets even crazier. But we couldn't stay with our host for the next few weeks, and room rates would just ruin our budget, so it didn't work out. It would have been a good way to stick around for the holiday, but nothing to make money from.



Now we are in another Carribbean town named Trujillo, where Colombus first set foot on America. It has a pleasant atmosphere in the centre, but we're camping at a place that's 7 km out of town, so I wish I could get to know it better. At our place, they have their own beach, which is very calm and not nearly as hot as the waters off of Utila (86 degrees!) But I'm always wary of foreign owners who make their hotel site all exclusive, where you must buy meals and drinks in their restaurant, or pay $4 for their shuttle back into town, becuase it is in the middle of nothing. Today we walked, hitched, and bussed to the centre. Whatever, it's a good way for us to save money during Holy Week, where it's pretty impossible to find any hotels that aren't triple the normal price, and completely full.

Next we'll spend Easter in the capital before booking it to Managua.

dive dive dive blah blah blah

We are on Utila! It is very very hot here, as it was in La Ceiba, but swimming in the Carribbean makes up for it. We had to stock up on tons of groceries to bring out here because everything is extra pricy on the island, and it's impossible to find fresh produce or anything like that.

Nearly every person on this island is here for scuba diving. In the water all day and in the bars all night. We're just going to snorkel and hang out, we're not in the cool club. We're couchsurfing, which is great for saving money and finding the nicest beaches on the island (there aren't many).