Good thing I've got other things to whine over – mainly the Nicaraguan men, who (how would I put this in a nice way...) are uneducated macho bastards. Yeah, that's about it. They seem to treat their own women like shit and foreign women like pieces of meat. Women travelling in pairs or with a male are fine but any female walking on the street alone if game, free to be harassed at least verbally in any way you wish.
After more than hundred daily comments, hissings and whislings (and please don't mistake them for compliments - they mean the guy in question thinks you're easy) in too hot temperatures and too high humidity I told some of them to go fuck their sister like the normally do. Ignoring all the bullshit you hear has its limits too.
Getting to the island of Ometepe goes like this: you take a collective taxi to the San Jorge harbour for 10 cordobas, 0,30€, (not 20, not 60 and not 80 whatever the drivers tell you), then you pay 10 cordobas as an entrance tax and take a boat or a ferry to the island (1h, 30-60cor, 1-2€).
You walk pass the dozens of worn-out hotels offering rooms and dorm beds for 6-10$ (4-7€) and walk to Hospedaje Soma (first 5 minutes up the main road and then 5 minutes to the left) to find the nicest place in town: a German-run garden offering beautiful rooms in cosiest atmosphere spiced up with hard core heavy metal on request. 
If you only get two blocks up the main road from the harbour and feel exhausted by the heat, you can stop at Gary's corner house for some freshly squeezed fruit juices or smoothies and stuff yourself with his world-famous ginger cake – the best cake I've ever tasted. Not kidding. These two places are also the only ones on the island that come with a non-sexual harassment & good laughts guarantee.
I got to beautiful Ometepe known for its two volcanos and sandy beaches at a time when all the beaches were completely flooded (read: only for the fishes to see but still for everyone to enjoy). So I went for a swim on both sides of the island with a basque guy from Vitoria-Gasteiz who I met on my first night at Hotel Aly's (single room 132c, 5€) and got to know Nicaraguan heath care system by getting my new tropical friend, an annoying red rash spreading mainly on my back fixed at the local hospital: after 20 minutes' wait I had seen a nurse, a doctor, received an injection on my thigh, had a box of pills and recipe for a cream – all for free.
I bumped into two girls from Uppsala, Ida&Nina, had a nice Swedish vegetarian sallad dinner with them and got rid of one of the eight Swedish pocket books I had carried with me all through South America (no, I don't know what I was thinking packing them either). The next day I finished another one, but the girls had already left the island so I went to a coffee shop selling used books to ask if they wanted it as a donation. Just as the lady behind the counter was wondering outlaud whether they ever had any Swedish guests, the only couple at the cafe raised their hands, and soon these two travellers from Stockholm - also frequent customers of adlibris.com - had something to read for the next couple of days.
After helping my host Zkini finish the beers left in his bar from the main tourist season, I headed to Granada (bus from Rivas 24c, 1€, 1,5h) in the company of Kacie, an american chick travelling in Central America for three weeks. She felt she could use a translator and I noticed that travelling together we got a lot less unwanted attention, or at least less harassment, than both of us alone.
My CS host Pushpanjali, or Doña Conchi as she is known by ALL locals, has a beautiful home which is also a very successful bar&restaurant right in the centre, conveniently only half a block to the Bearded Monkey hostel where Kacie stayed in. Pushpanjali started off by serenading me in Finnish (a little something she picked up living in Sweden for eight years!) and this added to the fact that this incredibly positive, bubbly and affectionate Spaniard who has travelled for months in India and lived in Central America for quite a few years now made sure we'd never run out of things to talk about.
Against all odds, I fell asleep early on Saturday in spite of the party that went on until 3am right next to my room, and got up early on Sunday to go visit the Apoya lagoon only 30 minutes away from Granada (3$ per direction with Bearded Monkey transport) and enjoyed an amazing day of the sun, tubing and cold beer with Roberto and Kacie at the Monkey Hut (entrance and use of facilities 150c, 6€ - included free if you stay the night).
I walked a bit up the hill waiting for our transport back to the city and found out pretty quickly where the name Monkey hut comes from; wild howler monkeys jumping from a tree to another kept me company all the way .When I got back to Conchi's it was karaoke time! I wasn't planning to participate, but the empty house of the early Sunday night and a few beers did the trick – me and Pushpanjali's friend Tristan warmed up with “Imagine”, raised the bar with “Hotel California” and then did a comical duet “I got you babe” getting the crowd ready with for my grand finali with “Ironic”. It probably didn't sound too great, but we had shitloads of fun.
Next morning it was time to head to Estelí stopping for some handicraft shopping in Masaya and to change buses in Managua (in total about 5h of bus travel at 3€). Whole day was full of summer heat, sweaty backpack carrying and plenty of wrong street directions but having Kacie to share it with made it a lot easier. Masaya market place helped to get my souvenir/christmas present shopping on the roll, crossing Managua made us happy we weren't planning to stay there and Estelí was hmm... nontouristy.
Lonely planet describes Estelí also as an unpretentious and very Nicaraguan town, but I'd just call it an unfriendly town without any type of laundry service but with outrageously expensive hotels, kids that like to bug the hell out of tired tourists and a tourist office that is so well hidden it takes you hours to find it even though you're only a half a block away – I wonder why more tourists don't stop here? Well, for a good reason in my opinion.
The only good parts of Estelí were a cheapish handicrafts shop, a half-decent vegetarian juice bar&restaurant Ananda and a cool waterfall 15km from the centre. Our hospedaje Sacuanjoche was cozy and cheap (100c, 3,5€), but that didn't make up for the unfriendly service by a couple that should've retired years ago.
Other accommodation options, like this garage hotel for couples, wasn't still quite what Kacie and I were looking for either. I know, we're such high maintenance.
On Wednesday I said my, not-so-teary goodbyes to Nicaragua by taking a bus to Ocotal (2h, 1€), then another one to Las Manos border crossing (1h, 0,5€), paying up the Nicaragua exit fee, the municipality fee and the Honduras entrance fee (6$ in total) and missing my bus because a machista at the border didn't think I was friendly enough towards his advances and decided to have my bags checked more thoroughly than ever before.
I was planning to spend the night in Tegucigalpa, but after a bus to El paraiso (30min, 0,5€) and another from there to Danlí (1h, 1€) with good one hour waits for both of them, I was ready to give up for the night. Hotel La Esperanza (single for 168lempiras, 9€) with cable tv showing the end of the 24h rescue process of the Chilean miners and a cold beer by the name of Barena was exactly what I needed.
Getting to Tegucigalpa on a direct bus (2h, 58L, 2,5€) was easy, but getting from the terminal in the outskirts of the city to the other ones in Comayagüela, which I had thought would be the most convenient place to stay in knowing that I'd want to continue to the north the next day, was another travelling nightmare with overcrowded buses and tons of bad advice. A big portion of chinese style vegetables with noodles and another Barena helped to ease to pain. I wondered around San Isidro market and found a cheap room at Hotel San Pedro (140L, 6€), sharing it only with a friendly(?) mouse (a mental note: pay more for accommodation!).
My overall view of Nicaragua and Honduras so far is the exact opposite of the most countries I've visited so far: I hate the country for its people. That's a terrible thing to say (and looks even worse in writing), but I'm really fed up with all the harassment and constant lies. I really should've couchsurfed more here and I'm sure I'd feel different. Or just drink more cold beer...
3 comments:
hei muru, oot paras! siellä näyttää aurinkoiselle ja täällä ihmiset on aivan yhtä mälsiä.
sanoo anni
Mut sie oot siellä <3 Ja kohta mie myös!
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