Day 17-18: Granada

In the morning I woke up early and took a walk around Leon - stopping at Pan Paz bakery for some chocolate croissants to take with us for the ride to Granada. We transfered in La Perla's van leaving at 10am and were in Granada at Hotel Terrasol (we stayed there last year) at noon. We spent the next two days walking around Granada and had drinks and dinner with some friends we made when were there there last year.
We had good food at Nuestro Mundo (on the south side of the square), excellent steaks at El Zaquan, ice cold beers at O'Shea's, and good coffee at the Euro Cafe.
Day 19: Going home

At about 5am we were awoken to noises out on the street that initially sounded like sheep being herded down the street. Then we started to hear horns so I looked out the window and there was a huge parade of people. Later it was explained to me that it was the "Baby Jesus noise maker" parade and it goes on for 9 days before Christmas - Only in Nicaragua would such a thing happen!

Our taxi took us to the airport and our !:15pm flight left right on time. Unfortunately once in Houston we were subject to a random search at customs. They asked us a LOT of questions about our trip and hand searched all our luggage taking about 45 minutes but fortunately we had plenty of time to make our connecting flight.

Day 15-16: Back to Leon

Unfortunately we had to be back in Leon to return our rental car by 10am. We woke up at 6 and went to lad to car only to discover that one of the tires was flat. After changing the tire we were on our way by 7am and in Leon at 9. We checked back into La Perla and then went to return the car. They only charged an additional $2 to have the tire repaired.

We spent the next two days walking around Leon - going on the roof of the cathedral, drinking rum and hanging out at Via Via, also ran into a friend we made when we were in Leon last year. We also ate at the BBQ behind the cathedral both nights - yummy meat, gallo pinto, and a salad for $2.50.

Day 14: Hungover

I woke up at about 8:30 with a terrible hangover. I forced myself to get out of bed, take a cold shower, and have some breakfast of fruit, yogurt and granola. After swimming in the ocean, Tina made me a few awesome bloody marys to ease my hangover. We had an early dinner and were asleep by 8pm

Day 13: Jiquilillo and Rancho Tranquilo

The next morning Kat was feeling much better so after breakfast we packed up the car and drove north through Chinindaga to Jiquilillo. The road is well paved until you get to the Jiquilillo turn off where it's about 8km of gravel to the coast.

Jiquilillo is a small Nica fishing village - mostly composed of grass huts. We checked out Rancho Esperanza but there were quite a bit of hippyish people milling about so we drove up the road to Rancho Tranquilo and immediately fell in love with the location. We were met by Tina, the owner and David (the bartender) and he showed us to our cabin ($20/night) which was basic but comfortable with a brand new mattress and good pillows and a mosquito net over the bed. We also had a fan and electricity in our room. The shared toilets and showers (cold water) were clean. We learned that all the meals are all vegetarian and they only prepare one (sometimes two) dishes for lunch and dinner. Guests who wish to eat need to sign up and vote for what will be for lunch and dinner. Breakfast is whatever you want from the menu.

After a delicious lunch of veggie burgers and fries we went swimming - warm, shallow water and gentle surf with little, if any, undertow or rip current. Next we took a walk down the beach into the village and watched the fisherman unloading their boats with the catch of the day.

After dinner a party broke out in the bar with great music, dancing, and of course, lots of booze. Some people came from another hotel down the road and we were up until about 3am getting blasted.

Day 12: Wrong turn and an unexpected stop in Leon

We woke up early, had breakfast, and checked out of the hotel. Our plan was to drive back to Rivas and then head north all the way to Jiquilillo. We inquired about the road back to the Pan American Highway at Ochomongo but people told us that it was impossible to do in nothing less than a 4x4. As we left Popoyo we started to see some different scenery then the way we came in form Tola. We also did a river crossing that was a little deep and scary in our Toyota but we made it. I stopped a few times to ask people if we were on the road to Tola and they smiled and nodded. After another hairy river crossing and some really bad roads we came into Ocomongo! I wouldn't recommend that anybody else try this in a passenger car - especially a rental. I think we got really lucky that we didn't flood the car or get stuck anywhere. Once on the highway we made good time to Managua and then onto the road towards Leon. As we were approaching Leon Kat started to feel sick. We pulled over and she got sick to her stomach and vomited on the side of the road. She said she felt better but we decided that it would be best to stop in Leon and recuperate before heading onto Jiquilillo.

We drove to La Perla where we had stayed last year, got a nice room upstairs where Kat took a nap and I went out to find her some ginger ale and alkaseltzer to help settle her stomach. I then took a walk around town and ended up at ViaVia for some beers and lunch. When i got back, Kat was feeling better but didn't want to go out for dinner so i went to La Union and got some bread and lunch meats and we had a picnic in our room while watchig a movie on tv and were in bed by 9pm

Day 10-11: Popoyo

Breakfast was included with our room so we went to the attached Bario Restaurant. I showed the waitress our breakfast coupons and she brought us menus. We both ordered typico nica breakfasts but when it came time to pay the bill the waitress said the coupons were only good for a different breakfast that wasn't indicated on the menu. Since my Spanish is somewhat poor and nobody else in the restaurant spoke much English we grudgingly paid for our "free" breakfast.

Next we walked up to Pelican Eyes hotel tom pick up our rental car, a a Toyota Yaris, from Budget. We next loaded up the car, got some snacks at Pali and headed out of town to Rivas where we took the turn off to Tola. The road to Tola was in good shape but then turned to a decent gravel road with a few stream crossings. Not a problem for a regular car in the dry season but I'm sure in the rainy season you would need something with high clearance. Along the way we stopped at Playa Gigante which looked gorgeous. Once we got to Popoyo the road became really bad requiring some careful maneuvers. We didn't have any reservations but satopped at the first hotel we found, Hotel Popoyo. They had some plain rooms for $45/night and some super plush nice rooms for $62/night with hot water, a/c, wifi, and free breakfast - we treated ourselves to one of the plush rooms. Oh yeah they also had a nice swimming pool on the property.



Popoyo is a one street town with a few hotels, surf shops, and summer homes lining the 1km road along the beach. There is an estuary at the end of the road that fills up at high tide and the surfing waves seemed to be just south of there. On the north side of the estuary the waves were fairly gentle for swimming and there wasn't much of a rip current.

El Rancho is a good restaurant at the end of the road and had ice cold beers, decent food, an immaculate garden, and a great view of the waves. They were only open for lunch when we were there.
There is also a comidor at the end of the road - we had chicken burgers with fries and shared a liter of beer for only $7.
The best meal in town is the pizza at Rana Roja - a really sophisticated place next to Hotel Popoyo. We had a 750ml bottle of 7year Flor De Cana with diet coke, a garlic bread appitizer, salami pizza, and home made chocolate ice cream for dessert for $35

Hotel Popoyo also has a restaurant but we only had our free breaksts there which were delicious.

Day 9: San Juan Del Sur

The next morning we had breakfast, collected some laundry we had washed, and the staff called us a taxi to take us to Moyogalpa for $25. We arrived at the terminal just as the "Che Guevara" ferry was loading passengers. We got some seats on the open top deck under a shady canopy and we were on our way to San Jorge at 11am.



At the terminal we were swamped by people offering us taxis. Most wanted $30 to take us so we kept on walking until we found a driver that agreed to take us for $20. We were in SJDS 45 minutes later and checked into the Hotel Azul Pitahaya - $45 got us a clean room with comfortable beds, satellite tv, cold a/c, and most importantly a HOT shower which was pretty nice after only taking cold showers for the past week.



Kat took a nap while I took a walk around town - SJDS hadn't changed too much since we were there last year. I stopped at El Gato Negro for an ice cold lemonade and to use their wifi to check my email.



After Kat was up from her nap we headed to the beachfront Iguana Bar for some rum and cock while watching the sunset

The best restaurant in town is El Colibri on the south east corner from the church. We shared a bruschetta appetizer and I had fillet mignon kababs , Kat had fillet mignon with gorgonzola cheese. Along with a few glasses of wine the bill came to $40 and was well worth it.





After dinner we went to Iguana and met up with our Australian friends for more drinks - it turns out that ladies drink free until 8 so my wife and a few other girls were sneaking me some of their free drinks :)

Day 7-8: Ometempe

The next morning the ants were gone so we decided that we would stick around for 2 more nights.

We wanted to go swimming but the water in the lake was at record high levels so all the beaches were under water so we took the bus to Ojo de Aqua - a natural pool that is fed by underground mineral springs. A beautiful and refreshing place to swim. Entry is $2 and there is a snack bar by the pool. It seemed to be an even mixture of tourists and locals in the water and lounging about. The buses are pretty infrequent so we hitched a ride to Playa Santo Domingo and had lunch at Villa Paraiso before walking back to Little Morgans.



That night was pretty raucous - with a group of 9 Australians staying in the hostel along with various other guests. Lots of alcohol, music, pool, and good times and crazyness followed. We were up until about midnight before heading back to our room to pass out.



The next day we wanted to try to check out the waterfall on the other side of Maderas but we missed the bus so we walked all the way (90 minutes) to Ojo De Aqua to swim again.

Our last night at Little Morgan's was pretty mellow compared to the previous night. The Australians had moved on to SJDS along with their debauchery.

Day 6: Fly back to Managua and head to Ometepe

We were told that we should get to the airport by 6:30 to guarantee a seat on the direct flight as they were going to have two planes, one of which would fly to Bluefields and then to Managua later. Our flight was an hour late, leaving at 9am and arriving in Managua at 10:30. Unfortunately the guys at La Costena broke one of the clips on the straps for my backpack but it was till usable and they gave me a piece of wire to make it functional again.



We had previously arranged transportation with Adelante Express to San Jorge for $65 and they were right there waiting for us as we exited the terminal. The driver spoke good English and told us to wait while he went to go get his vehicle. Since we didn't have any breakfast we purchased some yummy pineapple pastries from a sidewalk vendor. The driver then pulled up in a ratty taxi - NOT the air-conditioned van they advertise on the web site. But he was nice enough so we didn't make an issue of it. It was about 1.5 hours to San Jorge - we got there just as a small boat was getting ready to leave but our driver said the water on the lake was pretty rough and we would be better off waiting for the larger ferry.



We went into a restaurant and had some beers along with chips and salsa and played some cards to pass the time. We then paid a 10 cordoba tax to enter the dock and boarded the ferry and sat inside on the second deck where they showed some pretty suggestive music videos consisting of scantly clothed women bumping and grinding, one even bordering on porn with a women giving simulated oral sex to another guy - not that I minded the eye candy but probably not best to be watched by younger kids. The ferry was 60 cordobas each and there is a guy to come to collect the fares once the ferry is underway.


The ride to Moyogalpa took about an hour and we took a $25 taxi in a nice 4x4 to Little Morgan's on the Maderas side of the island. The ride was about an hour and the driver pointed some things along the way passing fields of corn and tobbaco and even stopping for us to see some monkeys in the trees and take some pictures.

The roads on Ometepe were in good condition until you leave Playa Santo Domingo where they become really bad. The drive took about an hour and we arrived at Little Morgan's at about 4pm. We were taken to our cabana ($30/night) and were disappointed to find that the room had jumping spiders inside along with ants and various dead bugs all over the floor and there were thousands of ants swarming about the toilet. It obviously hadn't been cleaned prior to our arrival. Since we were exhausted from our long day of travel we were too tired to make an issue of it and crawled under the mosquito net on our bed and took a nap.

After waking up a few hours later we were famished and headed to the bar/restaurant only to find it completely packed with nowhere to sit. We ordered a quesadilla and had to eat it while standing. I found Morgan and told him about the insect situation and asked if he had any bug spray to at least get rid of the ants since we couldn't even use the toilet without ants them coming up our legs and bitting us. He told us that the ants would probably be gone by the morning and if it was a problem to use the toilet we could hike down and use the shared toilets in the hostal area. This really put me off since we were paying extra for a private room with toilet. If it wasn't after dark we would have probably left and found somewhere else to stay.

Finally some people left the bar/restaurant and we were able to sit down and ordered a yummy spaghetti with chorizo tomato sauce. We met the rest of the staff who were quite friendly. The drinks they pour at the bar are HUGE - 16oz+ rum and cokes for 50 cordobas. After eating and having a few cocktails we were feeling better about everything and having a good time.

Day 5: Sketchy ride back to Big Corn Island

We were up at 5am right when the power went off. It was still pretty dark so we had to get packed by flashlight. We waled across the island to catch the 6:30 panga back to Big Corn but on arrival at the dock we were told there wasn't going to be a morning panga and the next one wasn't going to leave until 2pm. With us was an Australian couple who were supposed to fly back to Managua form Big Corn that afternoon. Someone offered to take us for $130 but we thought that was too much so we all decided to have some breakfast in the village. The guy who owned the restaurant told us he had a boat and would call his son to come take us to Big Corn for $80. We figured that was a fair price and better then having to sit around for 7 hours with our backpacks on the dock. The boat was much smaller than the panga and only held the four of us along with our luggage and the pilot - no life jackets either. Going across was pretty rough with some big waves but I tought if it was really dangerous the guy wouldn't be risking his life. When we finally made it to Big Corn the pilot made the sign of the cross and said "That was REALLY scary!" and that he was afraid to have to go back alone!



He dropped us off on the northern part of the island and we said our goodbyes to our Australian friends as they caught a taxi to the airport to check in for their afternoon flight. We walked to Hotel Morgan and got a $25 room with a private bathroom A/C and satellite TV. They also had $15 room with shared bath and $40 rooms that were nicer and had a view. After getting settled we walked into town and to the bank to use the ATM and then a taxi to Picnic Center Beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and lounging with cold beers until it started to rain and caught a taxi back to our hotel. We had dinner at Hotel Morgan - good chicken salsa dinner and also reasonably priced. Since we had to get up early the next morning we went back to our room, watched a movie on tv and were sleeping by 10pm

Day 3-4: Little Corn Island

It was relatively cold during our time there. Apparently there was an arctic front that moved down over the Caribbean. Very windy on the eastern side of the island (where we were) and the water was too chilly to swim. Someone said the daytime temps were down to 74 degrees and at night it got a little chilly. It rained mostly at night but did have a few showers during the day as well

We spend our time exploring the island - we walked the path to the north side of the island ending up at Otto Beach. We walked along the beach and though some jungle passing Farm Peach and Love and Derrek's Place which both seemed to be completely deserted. We also took the path up to the light tower at the top of the hill but I was too chicken to make the climb to the top in my flip flops.






We spent the rest of the time hanging out in Cafe Tranquilo which has excellent food (the owner is a trained chef), cold drinks, good coffee, and using their free wifi with our iTouches (better then lugging around a lap top).

We also visited Little Corn Beach and Bungalow (which looks really nice) for lunch and snacks a few times as it was just a few minutes walk north from Carlito's.
We ate dinner and hung out every night at Cool Spot which is next door to Carlito's. It seemed to be the place to be for people staying on the east side of the island and always had a good number of people there to socialize with. We had some excellent chicken dishes and even tried the famous run down. I normally am not a big fan of sea food but the run down was excellent (order a day in advance). We washed it all down with beers and flor de cana rum. Dinner prices were reasonable with most dishes being around $10. On some nights they will have a free dessert for dinner guests. One night was a coconut pound cake and another night was a killer cake made with a fruit topping that tasted like chocolate.

On our last day we had breakfast at Rose's restaurant (on the path towards Casa Iguana) I had an excellent huevos rancheos, complete with coffee and juice for only $3 - definitely the best bargain on the island and would have eaten there again if we had tried it earlier during our visit

Day 2: Getting to Little Corn Island

We woke up at 4:30am and had a quick shower and walked across the street to the La Costena terminal. There were already quite a few people in line to catch the morning flights to various destinations. After about 20 minutes we were checked in, paid the $2 each airport tax and went though security. Once past security we decided to have a breakfast of champions consisting of a few Tonas and some potato chips purchased from one of the snack bars in the La Costena terminal.


At about 6:30 they called our names to board the flight. We loaded onto one of the small 12 seater planes and took off shortly thereafter.

Our plane didn’t stop in Bluefields and we arrived on Big Corn a little after 8am. Taxis were waiting at the airport and we were transported to the wharf for 20 cordobas ($1) per person. Once at the wharf as soon as the taxi driver popped open the trunk a man asked us if we were taking the panga to Little Corn, as soon as we said yes he grabbed our bags and told us to follow him where he loaded them into the boat and then told us that the usual tip was $1/bag. I reluctantly gave him $2 – he then told us that the panga wasn’t leaving until 9:30 so we decided to have some breakfast at the Fisherman’s Cave (right nect to the pier) which was just ok – eggs toast and crappy instant coffee.

At about 9 we went back to the Panga and loaded up shortly thereafter. We sat more towards the front and the boat was filled to capacity with both tourists and locals. The ride across is 120 cordobas (about $6) each and it’s best to have exact change or at least small bills to pay. The ride to Little Corn was pretty smooth (better then when we went the year before) although it did rain a bit for part of the ride. We were on Little Corn in about 30 minutes.

We had made reservations at Carlito’s previous to our arrival and on the dock there was a man waiting for us with my name on a sign. He introduced himself as Carlito’s cousin and took my wife’s backpack and led us along the path to the hotel pointing out local plants and telling us how the path that leads towards the east side will soon be paved (at least to the Iguana turn off) and how they are building a baseball stadium on the island.
We were at the hotel in 20 minutes and Carlito showed us our cabin - $30/night with two double beds, mosquito nets, private toilet and cold water shower, and best of all it was only 10 feet from the water! Our cabin had electricity but it was only on from about 2pm-5am.



We got some beers and then took a dip in the ocean. Gentle waves and the water was cool and refreshing. We were pretty hungry and I was in need of some coffee so we walked over the the village and went to Cafe Tranquilo. I had a cup of some really good nicaraguan coffee

Day 1 - Arrival in Managua

We left from San Francisco and flew though Houston on Continental. Airfare was $430 RT each. On arrival we found that the entry fee was raised to $10 per person. Since we arrived in the evening at 9:30pm and had to back back at the airport at 5am for the 6:30am flight to Corn Island we walked across the street to the Best Western and were in bed by 11pm