The caves in Honduras
Back in the routine
Martin and Jeremy playing some Swedish tunes
The sweet sweet van
Our Flip-Cup tournament in San Juan del Sur
Anna, Marit, Martin, and Karin at the Costa Rican Border
The Swedish welcoming party
Jakes first ride in the van, look at his smile
A deluctable Swedish made Thai meal
Sunsets on the lake in Isla de Ometepe
Cloud forrest on top of Volcano de Madera
Lee, Nima, Rachel, Chino, Rebecca, and Jeremy
Our live-in Swedish cooks
Honduras caves, Scandinavian women, and good ol’ road-tripping. Life on the open road has never been better. We have become professional lazyasses here in Central America, exploring as we wish and relaxing in the sun. I’m afraid we may never come home.
Since we last wrote we were on our way to the Cuevas de Tualebe, an extensive cave system in Honduras thought to be the longest in Central America. So far 14 kms have been explored with no end in site. Jeremy and I were up for the challenge. The first few hundred yards of the cave were lit up by colored lamps and filled with the most beautiful stalagtites we’ve ever seen. Some glittered from all the minerals while others were vaguely transparent, taking on a glow from the lights. It was truly beautiful, almost like stumbling into a pirates cave full of riches. It made us wonder how many other amazing places lie just under the surface of our world filled with such treasures. Equipped with board shorts, sandals, and our headlamps, we pushed on past the end of the illuminated walkway and into the deep darkness. As we figured, the cave continued to go and go. The majority of the cavern looked like a metro tunnel after an earthquake, filled with huge boulders and plenty of darkness to steal our puny little flashlight beams. We explored till we came to a fork in the tunnel, both of which disappeared into bottomless chutes. We decided that our lack of equipment was reason enough to turn back.
Honduras by far is the most beautiful country I’ve seen so far on the trip. It is the first place driving south where the people start to look more Latin compared to the more indigenous look of the people in Mexico and Guatemala. Immediately past the border we saw taller people with light brown hair, and blue eyes. Then towards the east coast there is the Caribbean side which consists of every cultural mix you can imagine. The country is completely covered by mountains and has a clean feel to it. We found the roads to be in great condition easy to navigate, even in the dark. It is a country I’ll be eager to spend more time exploring in the future.
We drove into the night with hopes of a leisurely border crossing into Nicaragua. On the way we stopped in Tegucigalpa to pick up a Norwegian girl named Marit whom we had met in the Bay Islands. By now as you may imagine Jer and I are professional ‘Central American big city night navigators’ and had no trouble finding the right bus station. Marit arrived along with two German guys, Klouse and Sebastion, both of whom we had also met diving on the island. Together the five of us loaded up and set sail for the border. When we arrived at 1:30am the gate was closed and the border was completely dead. Luckily, our good fortune came through and all the border guards were just sleeping in their offices. Within 20 minutes we were stamped and officially in Nicaragua. The moon was full, illuminating the open road and the surrounding mountains. We found a simple little pullout along the river and let the sound of the water carry us to sleep.
First stop in Nicaragua, the historical lakeside town of Granada. Here we took up residence in the local fire station parking lot, and enjoyed all the facilities in the hippy hostel next door. Our days here were spent walking the relaxed streets of the town and hanging out with backpackers from all over the world, especially the Swedes, of whom I was convinced had a secret plan to take over the hostel. Although Granada sits along side Lake Nicaragua, the best way to experience the lake we were told is from the island of Ometepe. The island consists of two volcanoes joined together by a narrow strip of land. It took our five person crew an hour in the ferry and close to two hours in the chicken bus to make our way around the island to the Hacienda Merida. Here we were excited to find the most tranquilo hostel ever. The place was littered with hammocks, served an amazing communal buffet style dinner, and had a long dock to experience the sunsets. Everyone here was great, the locals were way too nice and all the backpackers were talkative, non of that ‘I’m more hardcore than you’ attitude we seem to see at every hostel we come across. Here we would all lie around the hammocks and chat, or pile up on the dock in awe of the ridiculous sunsets. We even went swimming in the lake, which you’ll be interested to know is inhabited by fresh water Bull Sharks. On the third day a whole slue of us began our expedition to the top of Volcan Madera. The top half of this volcano is covered by a cloud forest. What is a cloud forest you may ask? Picture a dense jungle mountain filled with snakes, Tarzan vines, monkeys, and the whole lot. Then imagine everything completely wet, the trees dripping with long hairy moss, and an eternal dark cloud covering the whole expanse. It was by far one of the most amazing ecosystems I’ve ever been in. At the top, instead of being met with a panoramic view we hiked down to an eerie crater lake half hidden in the fog. I sat there soaked to the bone watching the lake, waiting for a mysterious glimpse of an old pirate ship. It really had that feel. Four hours later we were back to the base and eager for another night of good cooking.
The following day we departed from the island with a whole new group of friends. This time we had Chino form Puerto Rico, Rebecca from Sweden, Rachel from England, and Lee from B.C., in all six of us. The destination: San Juan del Sur, a popular Nicaraguan surf town that sits on a bay surrounded by green hills in the southern corner of the country. Here we had a possie, everyone I mentioned earlier plus three more Swedes, Martin, Anna, Karin, and an awesome Irish couple, Simon and Mary. We would pack up in the van everyday and take a dirt road up to Playa Madera. We made an amazing squeeze record of nine passengers on these dirt roads, but nothing our sweet van couldn’t handle. Here life was good, we had a hidden little beach, good surf, and plenty of sun. People would gather around the van with the typical: “wow you guys drove from SLC, isn’t that dangerous.” Then we would have to go on and enlighten them on how generous and hospitable the people and highways of Central America really are.
I’m not sure if it is our media in the states or our general view of the third world, but it is still astonishing how many American travelers we meet down here that think we are complete idiots for driving around and camping out. I swear they think it is there duty to tell us something completely morbid about a place and then follow it by the famous: “be extremely careful!” (which is always done with a little bit of a head tilt and a deep stare into our eyes). The best was an older guy from Florida who told us to make sure to stay away from El Salvador: even though he hadn’t been there: “Don’t go to there, its D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S!” But don’t worry every now and then we meet a cool guy that says: Hell Yeah, Nicaragua, have fun you’ll love it!”
Anyway back to life on the beach. The following day was much the same, lazy and in the sun. Our plans were to catch the sunset and then head for the Costa Rican border. This time were going to take four Scandinavians: Martin, Marit, Anna, and Karin. It was going to be a multinational race to San Jose, Costa Rica to pick up our friend Jake from the airport and deliver our little sweet surprise to him (I’ll explain this in detail a little later). But as is the nature of traveling, you meet amazing people and plans change. In this case we met a few doctors from L.A., Jason and Aaron, who were staying in the Five-Star resort just up the hill in San Juan del Sur and thought it would be great fun if we all went to hang out on the hill for a swim and a drink. Soon after we arrived up at the resort it was decided that us Americans were going to teach the Irish, Swedish and Norwegian the art of Flip-Cup (a widely played game all across America's university campuses). Within an hour we were set up with 20 liters of Toña, a huge table, regulation size plastic cups, and a great selection of music on the stereo. As you can imagine the night was wild; new friends, laughter, and pillow fights, everything one would want from an unanticipated get together. After hours of great entertaining it was time to move out and go get Jake. We all said our good byes and packed up the van. Sadly, when we got back to the van we found that someone managed to run off with Jeremy’s most favorite, and only board shorts. Days later he still hasn’t gotten over the loss, so if anyone feels his pain and can offer some help, ie a sweet new pair, I’m sure he’d be forever grateful.
The Costa Rican border was much more official than the Nicaragua border and they refused to let us across at night. I guess 2:00am doesn’t jive with these people. Thus we parked right in front of the huge blue metal gates and somehow slept six of us in the van. Sleep is an over exaggeration, we laid in earnest till 6:00am would come. This border was super easy but extremely spread out. All the official buildings were spread across a 2km road. Jer did all the dirty work, the Swedes kicked back and watched the van, Marit bought hammocks, and I prepared myself for the Six hour drive to the capital. In all the border took us close to three hours and cost roughly $16 for passport stamps and vehicle paper work. Then we took of in excitement to pick up Jake. Four months of Latin driving has fine tuned us into van driving machines. We made the six hour drive in just over four, it was great, passing cars left and sometimes right. The van just never ceases to amaze us, even with six passengers.
Jakes plane was a little late and Martin and Marit were eager to head to the Caribbean coast. We all said our good-byes, big hugs and memories of good times. Although they were leaving, we were sure we’d bump back into them all in the next week or so, just like we have been over the last few weeks.
Now it was time for Jakes ‘welcome to Costa Rica present:’ Two Sedish girls jumping up and down, screaming his name, waving a huge banner that read “Välkomeen Jake” and rambling off in Swedish. It was priceless; he didn’t even know how to react. Jer and I were hiding with the video cameras, all the other people near the arrival gate joined in, “Jake Jake Jake.” Good times. The five of us, Anna, Karin, and Jake, drove down to the coast towards Jacó in the cool Central American rain. We immediately found our own little spot on the beach and set up camp. Jacó is just the place we needed, one long strip along the beach, great restaurants and night life, and more beach than we can surf in a day. But don’t think we won’t try. I’m still horrible at surfing, but seem to find something new to work on with everyday we go out. Jake is loving life and can’t believe he’s actually in the Pacific catching waves just days after skiing, and Jer, well Jer just kicks ass at surfing.
Our plans for the next few days are to enjoy more Swedish made meals, make our way down the coast to Domincal, and surf as much as possible. We’ll be on our way to San Jose by the 24th to first pick up sweet sweet Marian, and then Bo (even though we still don’t know how he’ll fit in the van).”
We hope the snow back home is horrible and in short supply. Except for Christmas, we feel then it would be appropriate to have a little fresh snow. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and that New Years rocks! We’ll let you all know how it goes down here in a few weeks.
Much love,
Nima
