Nicaragua

October 3rd, Day 58 – From Santa Cruz, I came to the town of Merida where they were celebrating their annual fiesta of some saint. This was perhaps one of the strangest experiences of my life. First, they had erected a makeshift 2 story arena to house a bull riding extravaganza. There were numerous drunk riders who are lucky to be alive today. It was a mess! People were getting gored left and right as well as horses that got in the way.

The night got even stranger when they hung a turkey up in the street by it’s feet. As 5 cowboys on horses lined up, I just assumed they were going to cut it’s head off. What they actually did was take turns trying to pull it’s head off while racing past! After about 20 tries, the turkey finally died. This however did not stop them from trying to pull the head off another 20 times or so. Definitely not something I’ve ever seen before.

That was enough for me. The next morning I packed and caught a bus to the ferry, ferry to the mainland (Rivas), Riva to the Costa Rican border, border to Liberia, then Liberia to Playa del Coco on the Pacific coast.

October 2nd, Day 57 – Life on Ometepe was interesting but quite strange. My first stop was Altagracia where I met an interesting mix of travelers. We tried to find something open for a drink and the only place we found was an outdoor pit where we had to wake the bartender up each time we needed a drink.

From there, I went down to Santa Cruz where I had planned to climb the Volcano (10 hour hike) the next day. However, the weather was not great the next morning and I don’t like hiking enough to be staring into clouds in the rain after 10 hours of pain. For me, there had better be a utopia at the top of the volcano if I’m trekking for that long!

Septemeber 29th, Day 54 – Leon was a great place where I met many great people. It’s supposed to be the artistic center of Central America which is apparent in many of the people. Most of my positive experience however came from meeting a huge group of Germans (Hamburg is the sister city of Leon) there for social work and an great Mexican guy named Eduardo who had been traveling for many years. The few days I spent here encompassed seeing some great live music, drinking some Flor de Caña (Nicaragua’s notorious rum), visiting the lovely beaches of Poneloya, and then drinking more rum!

From Leon, I made it to Granada which, though beautiful and pleasant, was not really my scene. Again, a few too many tourists and backpackers for my taste. So, I decided to head over to the Ometepe Island.

Septemeber 27th, Day 52 – Following a taxi ride and 3 bus rides, I arrived in the town of Esteli in the north of Nicaragua. I had planned to study here for a week but I just didn’t like the town that much. I have met many others who liked it so it was probably just me. One point of interest was the bus station where a very angry Nicaraguan was chained to a beam. At first I thought he may have had some mental problems but I later concluded he was just drunk and violent. Anyway, I guess he didn’t learn from his situation since he just kept getting more angry and throwing rocks at people. It did make the wait for the bus more entertaining!