I haven’t been writing for almost a week and a lot happened (good and bad). Thursday Morning we got up really early and we managed to catch the first ferry to Fixing Isla Ometepe in the Lake Nicaragua. The island is about 40km long and has two big volcanoes on it so it should be almost impossible to get lost… but we managed to! First of all we took the road that went trough the north of the island that was in quite bad condition (later we found out that the road in the south was paved!) and then we missed twice the right turnoff. Finally we arrived to the first hostel just before a huge thunderstorm arrived. We wanted to camp and sleep in the car but the hostel was too far away from the road so we ended playing cards for an hour waiting for the rain to stop and then went to the next hostel. The second hostel was really nice and we spend the afternoon kayaking to a smaller island to watch monkeys.
The next day we rented two horses to ride to a waterfall up the side of the volcano. There was no guide so it wasn’t always easy to make the horses do what we wanted… my horse didn’t want to move and Sandra’s horse was always running for the bushes. After almost 3 hours we found the waterfall and then rode another 2 hours back to the hostel.
Saturday we had another early start to get back to the mainland but on the way to the ferry the motor started to overheat. Luckily we found someone who towed us to the ferry. I was really tired of having problems with the motor and was almost on the point of dumping the car and flying home. On the Mainland I tried to fix the alternator and we continued very slowly towards Managua but the motor getting even worser and we ended spending the night in Jinotepe. Sunday Morning I got he driver of a ‘collectivo’ to tow us for the last 60km to Managua and I left the car at a mechanic that somebody in Granada had recommended.
Monday Sandra got the 5am bus to continue her trip to Honduras and I went to the mechanic. We ended up working for almost 2 day fixing various problems. Monday evening I also met Salomon “El Rey”: a very friendly member of a Nicaraguan VW Club that took me to his home to show me his car and then drove me back to the hostel.
Tuesday evening the car was ready and I got out of Managua as fast as I could. I made it to a Motel near Sebaco before it got dark and the rain stopped me. This morning I got up early started driving at sunrise (5:30am). The car is ruuning well and by nightfall I arrived to Siguatepeque in Hondura. Tomorrow I’ll drive to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast and than take a boat to Utila to do some diving and meet up with Sandra.
Posted by Claudio
Posted in Traveling