Nicaragua

Estreli
Once in Nicaragua we had to figure out where to spend the night. We decided on Estreli. This was a little city in Nicaragua untouched by tourism. Luckily we found an awesome hotel where the owner let us camp in his secure parking lot for the night for super cheap. He also gave us tons of great advice on places we should visit. Another friendly country. That night we explored the streets of Estreli, ate at a vegetarian restaurant and ate cheap ice cream. It was nice to stroll the streets of a city where no one wants to sell you anything. It was the real Nicaragua. The next morning we got talked into breakfast at the hotel and then went shopping at the fruit market.

Laguna de Apoyo and Granada
We finally left Estreli and decided to head to Granada. On the way Karen read about another crater lake that sounded worth checking out so we made a detour. We drove down into the crater and started looking for a place to camp. Fortunately we ran into the nicest couple at a hotel that told us to camp for free a little ways down the road and past the basketball court. Perfect! We followed the directions he drew with leaves and found a great little spot right on the lake. It was a local washing, bathing and fishing spot. We set up, went for a swim in crystal clear water and cooked up an awesome dinner. That night we were ready to settle in and play a game of scrabble when we heard voices down at the lake. We went to investigate and we found a honeymooning couple fishing with a few locals so we joined in. Fishing consisted of baiting a hook with a freshly caught sardine, then throwing it lasso style out into the lake before pulling the line back in by hand. Fishing the simple way. We were going to stay out there until Pete caught a fish, but after 3 hours he hadn’t had a single bite. Karen caught a little fish that she returned to the lake and Peter our local fisherman caught about 10. He must have cheated. The next morning we jumped in the lake to wake up, cooked up an awesome feast and chatted with the local Jehovah’s witnesses. We were going to spend another night there, but were advised against it due to the influx of party hardy’s that come from Managua for the weekend. So we packed up and took off to Granada. Once we got there we parked and walked around for hours looking for a place with parking. We finally found a hostel that had free parking at the local firehall so we went for it. The beds were awful, but the shower had water and the owner Gus was hilarious. That evening we went for dinner and ran into two friends that we’d met in San Pedro and invited them to Cafe Nuit for live music later that night. Then we found a cheap restaurant on the street and were entertained by some awesome break dancers and were unfortunately harassed by a cracked out young boy. So sad. The live music that night was incredible and the dance floor was intimidating. They can really move their hips. We definitely need to practice more.

Playa El Coco
The next morning we decided to head to the beach. Our original destination was San Juan del Sur, but when we got there we knew we had to leave so we headed south on a dirt road to Playa El Coco which we’d heard was the prettiest beach in the area. 15km and an hour later we arrived in paradise. It was a small strip of beach with a few private homes and a restaurant. We lucked into an empty lot that we were told we could camp in for free right on the beach. It was too good to be true. We went for a swim, poached the shower and bathrooms at the restaurant and chatted with the local guy who lived on the beach with his family. That night we hung out with a super nice Nicaraguan couple on their honeymoon who were also camping on the beach and spoke English so we were able to discuss poverty, politics and baseball for the night. The next morning our bubble burst. At 7am we woke up to a work crew coming to build a wall around our free campsite. The last “public” access to the beach was about to disappear because the mayor illegally sold all the waterfront property to gringos. So sad. The Nicaraguan couple were planning on returning some day with their family, but it was not to be. I can totally understand wanting waterfront property, but it’s sad when the locals (and cheap tourists) lose their beach access. The work crew didn’t mind that we were there so we decided to spend another night and leave the next morning before the landowner arrived. It was our first drizzly day for awhile so we lounged around, checked our email and tried to stay out of the worker’s way. Then we went to bed early as we decided to hit the Costa Rican border the next morning. We didn’t spend much time in Nicaragua, but again we were getting pulled south.