Bulgaria – Sofia, A gem nestled in the Balkans

“Bulgaria! Why are you going on holiday to Bulgaria?” That was the questioning exclamation that everyone posed us when we said we were planning a trip there for 11 days. And our answer was: “That is exactly WHY we are going to Bulgaria!”

It’s not on anyone’s bucket list; it’s an off-the-radar-kind of destination. Bulgaria is relatively undiscovered…well until now. So now that the cat’s out of the bag, we’ll divulge our secrets.

Colombia – Bogotá, gold and gloom.

This blog is dedicated to the god of procrastination. We have had trouble ending the blog update of our journey that ends in Bogotá. Could it be the fear of the finality…we have to surrender to the fact that our 9 month journey is actually ending? Well finally here (with a 2 month's delay) is our final post for Latin America.

Yes, we made it unscathed to the end of the road. No mishaps of any consequence. No encounters with robbers, no major health issues, and all our gear is still working – at least hanging in there, like our scratched up camera lens, sunglasses, etc.

The only "surprise" on our journey was that we discovered we actually felt homesick.
Being travelers, it’s tough to admit that we are homesick… But keep reading.
We are both longing to return to a country/region that is not reflected in either of our passport origins. Yes, we missed Asia: the food, lifestyle, safety, climate, scent, chaos… We realized how much we bonded with the Asian culture. Now we are ready for our Latin America segment to end. We reached Latin lethargy. We need some change again!

And why end in Bogotá? It just happens to be a city with good flight connections to Europe and US… more on that later.

Colombia – San Agustín Rocks, but not really

Stonehenge, Easter Island and now San Agustín...these are legacies of the "big rock" cultures. We haven't been to Easter Island to compare these stones carved into human likenesses, but there are a lot of them here.

Colombia – Tierradentro, Tomb raiders

Burial places seem to be the recent theme. No, we haven't turned into vampires or werewolves haunting "haunted grounds." Strangely though, we've gone from Maya to Inca ruins in the beginning of our trip to now cemeteries and burial caves. What an ending to 9 month's on the road.

Follow us now on a rough and rugged journey from the colonial city of Popayán to San Andrés where the site Tierradentro is nestled.

Our lovely guesthouse owners in Popayán informed us that there is only one bus per day reaching this far outreach in the jungle. Otherwise we could walk the last 2 kms and take another couple buses. Still not many buses reach this remote area. We read on the internet that it can take 5-10 hours from previous travelers. In the rainy season, this road is a nightmare...well, all year this road is a nightmare, but the only difference is that it can be your worst nightmare. So we decide to store our big backpacks at the guesthouse and bring just the bare necessities, just in case we need to the walk some part of this trip.

Colombia – Popayán, A ghost town

Okay, we arrived on a Sunday night, and once again as South America seems to prove, there’s barely a soul in sight. It’s a ghost town dressed in white. The stark whiteness makes it seem even more lonely but this whiteness is also what makes the city famous. It’s known for the white washed colonial buildings.

It is dark and we’ve been on buses all day. Our supply of sandwiches and pastries has run empty and our bellies are growling. We quickly check in at "Hosteltrail.com", the closest Guesthouse to the terminal and head straight out to find a nice meal. We read that Popayán is famous for its culinary dishes so off we go.

Ecuador doesn't want to let us go

Are they praying that we stay
longer in Ecuador?

It's time for yet another dreaded long border crossing...from Otavalo in Ecuador to
Popayán in Colombia. Although it's not involving as many transport change-overs as our last crossing it will still take two days to reach Popayán.

Thankfully, we will be able to break our journey in Tulcán, a mid-sized city with plenty of hotels, food choices and even a famous tourist attraction: the cemetery! First we need to find a decent place to stay which is usually challenging in a negligible border town, but to our surprise, Tulcán is not a dingy, hell hole. It's got a decent vibe and plenty of nice hostel choices. Julane had ransacked the internet for recommendations on where to stay. Yes a few people have chosen to stay and write about Tulcán, but too few people ever tell if they find decent accommodation. So let us be the first now to help out our fellow border hoppers. We choose "Hostal Frailejon" smack in the center and $1 taxi ride (2kms?) from the bus terminal. It's got all the amenities including large clean room, paint that isn't peeling off the walls, a large TV and decent bathroom, plus a Buena vista.

Ecuador – Otavalo, the market stampede

We decided to continue traveling like the locals do and using Quito's fantastic local transportation to get to the Northern bus terminal seemed like a good idea since it was simple from the southern terminal. Well, not this time. There should have been a direct bus but we ended up at the town with the same name (Carcelén) as the terminal. Actually in the end, we think we should have gotten off the bus earlier at the end terminal for the trolley bus, but everything is obvious in hindsight.

So now it's a 20 minute walk uphill to backtrack towards the Carcelén terminal. We go through a neighborhood that we have no idea about... heading towards an unknown bus terminal. Yes, in one of the most dangerous cities in Ecuador. Not a smart idea, at all (but it is mid-day, if that is a good excuse). Sure, we broke all the cardinal rules of safety in a short period of time. Verdict: $8 taxi versus 50 cents is perhaps worth the investment. Or ask better questions. Locals are always helpful.

Ecuador – Quito, charmingly dangerous

Welcome to Quito

Quito is one of the most beautiful colonial cities in South America and the second highest capital on the continent after La Paz. This UNESCO world heritage site attracts a lot of tourists, be it as entry/exit point to Ecuador, transit point to Galapagos or as a base to learn Spanish.

We came to Quito to explore the beautiful cobblestone streets and colonial architecture in Old Quito. After reading several warnings about robberies and theft from hotels, we decided to stay in a "safe house" in the new part of Quito (although it seems that the new town is even more dangerous after dark). After researching for way too much time, Julane selected Casa Helbling. It is Swiss/German owned and run. We figure if you can't trust the Swiss and Germans in protecting your valuables and money, then you might as well go home.

Ecuador – Exotic fruit tasting

What can we do on a rainy Sunday in Baños? Why not go to the market and buy all the exotic fruit that we've never tasted before? This definitely sounds much better than walking in the rain, watching TV, or reading a book.

So off we go to the famous weekly Sunday market and stroll up and down the aisles spotting fruit we want to sink our teeth into. We haggle a bit with the local women, ask them to help us choose the fruit that is ripe enough to eat immediately. We end up with a big bag full of the juicy mysterious goodies.

Back at our guesthouse, we grab a cutting board, sharp knife, our camera, and request the expertise of the father of the house in order to complete our mission at hand: Photographing, dissecting, tasting, and asking questions about their use and names.

Ecuador – Baños! or Ducha?

The Baños theme: rubber
duckies & palm trees

Baños means bathroom in English, but don't worry... we didn't spend 4 nights in a bathroom. Although,we spent much more time indoors than we wanted to. More about that story a bit later.

Baños also stands for thermal baths - hot springs! The town is well known by locals as a place to soak tired bones in the various hot springs facilities. Admittedly, it's Gringolandia too, but we've been on the Gringo trail ever since crossing over from Peru. Since we have less than 3 weeks time to explore Ecuador this means we need to focus on the highlight which also means the more touristic places. :-(

Ecuador – Alausí & Riobamba: a waste of time

The big debate: To stop
 in Alausí,or not to stop?

Our 3rd stop in Ecuador is the tiny village of Alausí, that is only on the tourist map because of the famous
Devil's Nose train ride. Alausí is the only place to board this train that climbs down this engineering marvel. At one point in time, the train continued all the way from Quito to Guayaquil until a El Niño storm washed out the tracks and now only a short tourist train segment remains.

The Devil's Nose made it to the top of Ecuador's tourist attractions during the time when people could ride on the train's roof to get an exhilarating view of the Devil's Nose steep drop off. But these days are gone. Now trains run on a 3x per day schedule (Tues-Sun), and includes a tour guide, a sandwich, and a dance performance. Oh and the price for a ticket has jumped from $6.50 to $20, but as the price climbed, the ride shortened (from 6 hours to 2½) as they eliminated the option to board the train in Riobamba.

Ecuador – Cuenca, sleeping beauty

Cuenca is famous for
its illuminated churches

"Cuenca is supposed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Ecuador", Sam said. But we never heard of Cuenca before, which doesn't mean much as we hardly read anything about Ecuador's sights until now. Honestly, so far ,we only bothered to read the paragraph called "highlights of Ecuador" in our guide book.

Based on our "South America on a shortcut" guide, we decided to move from Vilcabamba straight to Riobamba. Looks like we are on the "bamba trip" baby! But after Sam's enthusiasm to visit Cuenca, we did a bit of research and discovered that it's at least a 10 hour bus ride to Riobamba. Plus the Devils Nose train now starts in a town 2 hours south of Riobamba (closer to us) called Alausí. Plus, Cuenca seems like it will be a cool town.

Ecuador – Vilcabamba, we could grow old here

Life in the slow lane...
Welcome to Ecuador

Entering Ecuador is as easy as it gets, a small form, a bit of small talk with the bored immigration officer and here we are – the 10th country on this trip

We are arriving in Ecuador from one of the more remote entries. It's quite off the beaten track as we arrive in La Balsa/Peru (see previous post) and walk over the bridge into La Balsa/Ecuador. A river separates the countries but they seem to share the same name?!

This is the official immigration
office in La Balsa, seriously!

There is only one other foreigner crossing over this morning and we need to wait for the first Ranchera (a quite unusual form of transport that is apparently common in the very remote rural areas here).

There is absolutely nothing to do on the Ecuadorian side of the border only a couple of Tiendas (shops), but most of them are closed. This is quiet at its quietest.

Peru – Border jumping, taking the road less traveled

This must be the quietest border
crossing in all of South America

All good things must come to an end. Our ways separate after exactly 50 days. We never thought that we would spend this much time in the country of the Incas. Our stay was longer due to some hiccup's in Cusco with our aborted, then rescheduled Salkantay trek and then the miner's strike and border blockades in Puno that delayed our travel into Bolivia. Then once back in Peru we stopped in Arequipa for longer than planned to re-charge our batteries that had run dangerously low in Bolivia.

We enjoyed traveling in Peru, especially Cusco (before the high season madness) and the few stops north of Lima. We didn't get to see the Peruvian jungle either and maybe should have focused more on Northern Peru? But after weighing our travel lust scale, Peru is not on the Must-Return-To list. Peru has become rather touristic and lacks the charm of some other countries on this trip; and seeing Machu Picchu once is certainly enough. We leave having enjoyed the visit but not longing to return.

Peru – Kuélap, the next Machu Picchu

You probably never heard of Kuélap; neither did we until we met Alfredo, a fellow traveler back in Nicaragua, who said it was nearly as nice as Machu Picchu and much less touristic. After his tip, we started the research and found a mixed basket of reviews from "nice" to "way better than Machu Picchu". Anyway our decision was made that we want to see with our own eyes what this Kuélap is all about.

Peru – Cajamarca to Chachapoyas: so near, yet so far

Cajamarca at night

We're back in the Andes after our short beach stop in Trujillo. To our pleasant surprise, it isn't cold at all. We made a lot of headway towards the equator and although it's still not shorts 'n' t-shirt time we can leave our gloves and hat buried deep inside the backpack.

The 6 hours bus ride to Cajamarca leads through beautiful canyon land with fertile valleys full of palm trees and rice paddies. As we are drive more inland, the Garúa haze is also finally giving way to sunshine and bright colors. Gee this coastal weather could be depressing if we stay much longer.

Peru – Trujillo, slowly melting away

The City of Trujillo, Peru's 3rd largest, is not much visited by Western tourists. Actually, the entire country north of Lima sees only a fraction of the tourist headcount compared to what we experienced in the south on the "Gringo Inca trail."

Trujillo is in Peru best known for its beer of the same name, but tourists don't seem to come here for a brewery tour (note: we don't know if there is any brewery tour either). They come to the nearby beach and surfing town of Huanchaco and the famous Chan Chan Ruins.

Peru – Lima, back-tracking... briefly

Now we're talking. Finally, a
comfortable overnight bus!

Arriving in a luxury overnight bus (Cruz del Sur, Cruzero Suite) makes a world of a difference, we were comfortably warm, slept well, and are fit enough to spend the day exploring, sin siesta.
Although our "program" is not too strenuous as it mainly revolves around one critical theme: food.

We were looking forward to go to this Italian restaurant called Blue Moon, which we had pegged in June (on our initial arrival) as our all important must-do. We also had wanted to visit Astrid & Gastón's famous restaurant but getting a reservation is tough and it's already been found by foreign visitors. Blue Moon is truly an insider tip that we are now sharing with you all!

Peru – Arequipa and the condor republic

It's nice to be back in Peru, or should we say the Republic of Arequipa? The second largest city of Peru likes to be different and there is an underlying tone among the people that they want to be independent from Lima. When we jokingly asked a taxi driver where he's from, he promptly replied: "La Republica!" Strangely this city is also the most colonial looking of all places in Peru.

Being back in Peru is like being on a vacation from traveling. We are not as much in culture shock as we were a month ago in Lima, but after a month in Bolivia, we do enjoy the luxuries of a more developed country.

Bolivia – Copacabana...where it all began

This is where it all began:
Chincana, Isla del Sol

We are on the way to Copacabana – take number 2.
It would be a bit of a cheat to say that we are heading back to Copacabana because we loved this place on our first visit, we are also not really coming back to give it a second chance. The honest reason is that we have to cross through Copacabana to get back to Peru.

Copacabana is also the jumping-off point for the famous Isla de Sol, where the world started – according to Inca mythology. So we are back where it all started: our Bolivia trip and the world. Follow us for attempt number 2.

Bolivia – La Paz, Our home base

A typical sight in La Paz

La Paz is a mesmerizing city and is the country's seat of government and treasury. Yet, it shares some of its clout with Sucre which is the country's judicial/constitutional capital. It sits in a basin where the houses climb up the sides until they reach the flat antiplano level above: this is the city of El Alto. From El Alto, our bus steeply descends in what looks like a sink hole, or old quarry, or crater. It is a very monochromatic city. The cuboid houses all look unfinished in either red-orange exposed brick or just plain mud brick construction. It lacks color but has lots of texture and lots and lots of smoke!

The higher up the house,
the poorer the neighborhood

Since it winter and cold now, and nothing is really flat inside this basin, the car exhaust comes out in thick black clouds. We are also at 3660m which means thin air... maybe the cars struggle with this as much as the people do? Luckily for us, our lungs have gotten used to high altitude and we barely feel any difference.

Bolivia – Uyuni, salt is all we got

The Salar the Uyuni is inarguably the most famous tourist attraction in Bolivia.If it wasn't for this gigantic salt flat, there would be no single reason on earth to ever come to Uyuni.
We initially planed to take a 4 day jeep tour from Tupiza to the salt flats (entirely avoiding having to stay in Uyuni). But unusual amounts of snow and ice shut down most of the national park and the Tupiza tour agencies were offering a rather underwhelming alternative 4 day program instead of cutting the trip down to 2 or 3 days. We bite the bullet and go to Uyuni as it's not worth taking again a freezing night bus to Tupiza just to join a tour that isn't what we really want. At this point one of our primary goals is to get out of Bolivia as quickly as possible. We feel that we've overstayed our welcome and are ready to leave.

Bolivia – Potosí, the real deal

Danger!
Enter at your own risk

Have you heard of Potosí before? If not, you fall into 99.9% of the world's population with the same lack of knowledge; but we will now help enlighten you a bit. If you are familiar with this name you are likely to be Bolivian, Spanish, a tourist to Bolivia, or a miner. This town is famous for its mining of minerals. There is also a Spanish saying: "valer un potosí", "To be worth a potosí" (a fortune).

Potosí is said to be the highest city in the world – at 4,090 meters (13,480 ft). Although, we are not too certain about that: Somehow the entire Tibet region seems higher and many other cities in the Altiplano region.

Bolivia – Sucre, time to relax

We desperately need a recharge.

We arrived in Sucre with a single goal: Recover from numerous weeks of freezing cold combined with one week of night bus torture. In other words, we just needed to relax.

Beautiful Sucre

It's time to recharge...
and that's what we did.

Bolivia – Sleepless nights and wild west wine

♫ I'm a lonesome cowboy... ♫

We've been complaining about being cold for a while now. But what we experienced in the last week was beyond our wildest (or worst) imagination!
No words can do justice to the ice box contraptions in this country that parade around as buses. All the transport is cramped and we are not especially big people.
But let's begin at the beginning of this uncomfortable tale: It all started with our intention to visit the famous Uyuni salt plains.

Bolivia – Cycling on the world's most dangerous road

The title says it all: we are going to be dare devils and race down the world's most dangerous road (WMDR) on a simple bicycle! Good news is that we survived it (hence a Blog post about it)! We are not yet using "ghost writers" for our Webpage.

No joking, this is for real! The road from La Cumbre to Coroico has been declared by the Inter-American Development Bank in 1995 as the most dangerous road on earth. On average 200-300 people lost their lives on this narrow unpaved road which was the only roadway connecting La Paz to Yungas, northern Bolivian Amazon rainforest region.

Bolivia – Thawing out in the Pampas

Enough of this cold weather! We have been frozen like Popsicles ever since arriving in Cusco back in mid June. La Paz is even colder (more about our La Paz impressions later in the month).
We are fed up with wearing layers of shirts under two jackets and sleeping under at least 3 thick wool blankets (the weight of these almost presses us flat by the morning). And taking a hot shower is dreaded as it feels like icicles form immediately after stepping out of the shower. Another byproduct is that all the shivering seems to also remove that last little layer of fat left on our bodies. Yikes, our protection against the cold is gone now too.

Fortunately nearly two thirds of Bolivia lies in the tropical Amazon basin... and that's where we are heading!

Welcome to Bolivia, Here comes the marching band

What a welcome!

Our tourist bus from Puno to Copacabana... If you now think about Ipanema beach, suntanned girls in skimpy swimsuits and Caipirinhas. Sorry! That's another Copacabana.

Copacabana / Bolivia is about as far from its Brazilian sister as it can be. The sand on the beach is brown mud, it sits on a lake, and the temperature resembles that of the Caipirinha. There is none of the "heat or fire" that you would get in Ipanema.

The temperature in our bus also feels like we are on a safari...in Antarctica. Somehow, we missed the Information Alert that tourist buses in Peru don't necessarily have heating.
We arrive nicely chilled at the Peru/Bolivia border and thankfully none of the buildings are heated either – that way we don't need to thaw out and risk losing a body part in the de-icing process!

Peru – Puno, A big strikeout

We spent much more time in Cusco than we originally anticipated. One reason being our delayed start to the Salkantay Trek, the other pertains to the border crossing complication from Peru to Bolivia. Yes, they like to strike in South America and we encountered a rather lengthy one near Puno where miners blocked the border crossing for almost two months (with a minor reprieve during the National Election where they stopped striking for a few days in order to let everyone vote!).

The government finally gave in and the Canadian owners of the mines were kicked out of the country – conflict-resolution Peruvian style.
For us this means that the road blockages were lifted and that we could finally cross to Bolivia on the direct route via Puno and Lake Titicaca. The alternative would have been a 2 day detour via Chile.

Peru – Machu Picchu: Magical, mesmerizing, yet so touristic

We both talked for years about wanting to visit Machu Picchu, the once lost Inca town in the high Andes, spared from discovery and destruction by the Spanish conquerors of Latin America.We both had Machu Picchu high up on our bucket list – who hasn't? (Confession: Here are a few of the remaining bucket list items that are not yet crossed off: Galapagos Islands, Palau (in the Pacific), Prague).

Today is the day we finally fulfill this long lasting wish to step foot on this archeological treasure... A highlight in our six month Central/South American travels.

Peru – Salkantay Trek

Salkantay Mountain

Finally! We are on our long anticipated trek. It's been somewhat of an adventure just to get to the starting line. You may recall our Blog post about our last minute cancellation with Mely tours. But that is long forgotten now. It's 6am and we are sitting in a mini-bus heading to the trailhead just above a little town called Marcocasa.

The Salkantay trek has gained a lot in popularity over the past few years, now being the second most popular trek in the Cusco area – after the "Inca Trail". Over the next 4 days, we would be walking for 6-9 hours a day across two mountain passes towards the town of Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu.

Peru – Vilcamayo, A once sacred valley?

Vilcamayo, El Valle Sagrado de los Incas, Valle Urubamba, Sacred Valley... These are some of the names of the valley that hosts one of the world's most famous archeological sites near its winding end.
These days the valley seems to have traded in some of its holiness in exchange for tourist blessings. Although it's not nearly as overrun by vacationers as Cusco... With the exception of that famous site at the end of the road.

We ventured on two overnight trips to the sacred valley to get away from the Gringo crowds in Cusco. It all started very pleasant on our first trip to the town of Pisac. As soon as we boarded the minibus in Cusco's Tullumayo terminal we immediately felt that we had been trans-beamed into the real Peru again. Sharing the crowded bus with locals in their colorful traditional dresses and their loads of baggage was a good sign that the Sacred Valley would be a Sanctuary to cure our overdose of package tour vacationers.

Peru – Cusco, Inca Capital and Tourist Mekka

Cusco is the gateway to the Inca world, the Peruvian Andean Mountains and of course the starting point to get to Machu Picchu – South America's ultimate tourist magnet. Not surprisingly, you are likely to see as many tourists as locals in the streets near Cusco's central square (Plaza de Armas) where the town revolves around tourists and establishments that cater to their every desire. Most places seem to focus on collecting as much tourist money as possible while they stay in Cusco. Yet, there is also a bright and charming side to Cusco that makes it a "must see" destination in Peru.
Cusco is rich in culture and ancient sites all woven together by stone alleyways along rolling hills.

Peru – Chasing Aliens in Nasca

Beam me up, I'm ready.

Have you ever heard of Nasca? No, this is no typo; it has nothing to do with Nascar, although the Nasca lines may be some kind of ancient race track. We are pretty certain that you have seen the Nasca lines before on TV or in a magazine. There is much debate about their origins and purpose. We personally like to go with the interpretation of Erich von Däniken who believes that they are landing strips for alien spacecraft.... Let's go chase some aliens!

Ica – Dunes, boards, and palm trees

Time to explore the real Peru! Our first stop is Ica 300km (186 miles) south of Lima. The drive there put us right back into culture shock...in a number of ways. First the bus ride: it all starts with a check-in counter for our luggage and a metal detector before boarding. Then comes a security guard taking pictures of all passengers with a digital camera – security measure, we think?

Talking about security: the buses location is GPS monitored; any deviation from the route, or unscheduled stop, and the police get alerted! Wow, not sure if we should be relieved or worried?

The bus itself is very modern: it has well functioning shock absorbers, air conditioning, and an upper and lower toilet. The seats are clean, have no torn upholstery and recline comfortably. There are seatbelts (which have to be used by law) and a hostess serves complementary sandwiches and drinks. The bus has a motor that purrs like a kitten and two drivers that take turns every 4 hours.

Peru – Lima, Two Travelers in shock

Inca sun disk

We are in South America at last!
For many years, we've wanted to travel to this part of the world – it is a new continent for both of us.

We arrived in the comfort of a Copa Airlines jet. We boarded in Managua for a short hop to Panama City where we connected to a longer 3 hour flight to Lima. We have to admit that this form of travel is definitely more comfortable than the mini buses and chicken buses that we used over the past 3 months and Copa served us a nice snack and lunch including wine and beer. Not too shabby.

We arrived in Lima at a time when the airport was quiet, as most transcontinental flights probably arrive at night. Within just 30 minutes after touchdown, we cleared immigration and customs... Wow this almost beats the highly awarded Changi Airport in Singapore!

Riding the yellow rooster – chicken bus tales from Central America

What in the world is a chicken bus? This question is answered as soon as you step foot into a Central American country, they are everywhere!

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who has
the fanciest chicken bus of all?"

If you are reading this post from the comfort of your home in another part of the world, then please continue reading our "Guide to the chicken buses of Central America" to understand what we have learned in 3 months of wild rides. If you are a fellow traveler you may want to read our guide to get a few déjá-vue moments and chuckles.
A good question for this Blog post would be: "What comes first, the chicken bus or the school bus?" read on for the answer.

Nicaragua – Matagalpa, Pearl of the North

 San Pedro Cathedral 

Our time in Nicaragua is running short. We only have 5 days left to explore more of the highlands. After a brief one night stopover in Estelí, we arrived in Matagalpa. And this lovely town greeted us with plenty of liquid sunshine. Yep rainy season is definitely here; our daily activities will now be dictated by the weather.

Matagalpa is a very affluent city nested among beautiful mountain ranges. It's sometimes called the San Francisco of Nicaragua, in tribute to the ups and down of the streets over the rolling hills.
We fell in love with this town from the beginning, even livelier than Estelí, the houses and shops show that the people in Matagalpa are having a comfortable middle class life. For the first time since leaving Dalat/Vietnam we see plenty of coffee shops that cater to locals, not just tourists. We found a Nicaraguan equivalent of a Frappuccino tastes very good, better than the original actually.

Nicaragua – Miraflor, A humbling experience

We wanted to explore a bit more of Nicaragua's countryside and Estelí offered a good choice of options using it as a base to leave our big packs and travel "free and easy". There are many coffee plantations and nature reserves in the area. The information on the internet was more confusing than helpful, but our guidebook mentioned an English woman named Jane (or Juanita, as she's know to the locals) who owns a hostal and café in Estelí. And runs a tourism office called TreeHuggers, no kidding!

She was a valuable source of knowledge about the city and entire region. She let us read from a couple of comprehensive binders and soon we decided to visit Miraflor. It is a campesino-owned nature reserve which became protected in 1990 and covers 206 sq km. Miraflor's eco-systems vary with altitude, from tropical savannah through dry and pine forests to cloud forest It is a haven for exotic flora and fauna including 250 species of birds and about 300 types of orchids – giving us a bit of a feeling of being back in our old home country: Singapore. There are a lot of organic, shade grown coffee plantations and vegetable crops. Their aim: sustainable livelihoods. Visitors can choose to stay among the five communities that spread out over three microclimates that exist within the park.

Nicaragua – Estelí, A graffiti paradise

Nicaragua or Japan?

Before traveling to Estelí and Miraflor we did the usual research: reading guide books, travel sites and Blogs. The opinions varied greatly: from boring and not worth stopping by, to must see typical Nicaraguan town. That much for helping us to decide whether to visit Estelí or not. Julane actually later found a really informative website for the area that also seems to include the entire region of Central America called Viva Guides

We were drawn to come to Estelí because we wanted to see a less touristy side of Nicaragua and also desperately longed for a place that is cooler than the sweltering low lands. It is in a nice basin with an elevation of 850m or 2790ft surrounded by rolling, fertile hills.

Nicaragua – León, a surfer's paradise

Our guide giving a demonstration
on Cerro Negro

León is the place on the planet to surf: Three distinct surfing choices await every visitor, one is exclusive to León... We actively participated in two of them. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though, more about the surf in a while.

We arrived in León in luxury, after quite a trip: 6am ferry from Moyogalpa, Express chicken bus to Managua, which got pulled over twice by the police. Then a sardine can shuttle-van to UCA (terminal in central Managua) and finally from there an unexpected air conditioned mini bus to León. Yep, you read correctly: Air Conditioned! This was the first A/C mini bus in our Central American adventure that is catering to locals and not tourists – Matter of fact; we were the only Gringos on board. It gets even better: the bus left once every seat was full. Full by western standards means: one person per seat, not the usual minibus squeeze of 1½ person per seat...

Nicaragua – Ometepe, life in slow motion

Ometepe beach walk

The island of Ometepe is often called Nicaragua's premier candidate for the eighth wonder of the world. Shaped like the outline of a large number 8, this makes it an especially good choice! Ometepe was formed by two volcanoes that rose from beneath the surface of Lake Nicaragua. Ometepe is the largest volcanic fresh water island in the western hemisphere and only second to Samosir in Sumatra worldwide (read here about our trip to Lake Toba and Samosir in 2001).

The island landscape is dominated by the two volcanoes Concepción and Maderas. The perfect cone shape of Concepción makes it a great subject to quickly fill your camera's memory card. If you are really "lucky" you might even get a shot when it erupts ;-).

Nicaragua – Rockin it in Granada

The Granada cathedral

We left Managua early in the morning for Granada, happy to get out of yet another Central America capital without any security incidents. Although we were even hesitant about taking a taxi to the bus terminal from that area, as it's mentioned to be careful about the taxis that look for gringo prey. So we didn't get into a parked taxi opposite the Tica bus terminal but flagged a moving one on the main street. One also without a passenger already in it, as they often operate more like a private bus and you pay per person not per ride, so they will stop and add a passengers along the route.

Arriving in Granada was a huge relief: the city looked nice from the very first moment and thankfully we have been informed that it's considered pretty safe for foreigners.
Granada has a long history of construction and deconstruction. It was built in 1524 by the Spanish invaders as an example for the newly conquered lands of Central America to observe the superiority of Spanish architecture and construction skills. It suffered many setbacks by earthquakes and fires (including arson by a crazy American called William Walker who also wanted to take over Central America), but has always been rebuilt and restored. Today, Granada has some of the finest colonial buildings in all of Central America. We actually liked the architecture better than Antigua Guatemala. It is also bigger than Antigua and despite the many tourists still retains somewhat of a local flair – especially once you walk the streets south of parque central. It feels more lived in than touristic.

Nicaragua – just around the corner… another border

The most comfortable bus ride yet
(in Central America)

We survived our last night in Tegucigalpa - Honduras without any security incidents. Probably we were a bit too concerned but we really wanted rather to be more safe than sorry.
We departed Tegucigalpa and Honduras in a very comfortable long distance bus operated by a company called Tica Bus. The ride took us directly from the capital of Honduras to the capital of Nicaragua – or from one dangerous city to the next… but more on that a bit later.

After about 3 hours of a super comfortable air conditioned bus ride, we arrived at the Nicaraguan border town of Guasaule (near Somotillo in Nicaragua), the crossing was a breeze. Tica Bus offers a full service border crossing this means that as a passenger all you have to do is get off the bus at the border while the Tica bus "facilitator" takes care of all the formalities.
This is how it works: As soon as the bus starts rolling a bilingual Tica employee collects all the passports from the passengers along with $15 for the fees. This is actually $3 over what we could account for according to the official border crossing fees and friends who have crossed on foot… who knows where the difference goes, probably it is split among the border officials and the Tica guys as service fee ;-)

Honduras – Gone Fishin'

Hey we got something to tell you! We managed to stay out of the ocean for exactly 107 days. That's not bad considering that we traveled in countries with nice beaches ever since our trip started. For the past 2½ month we even could have had access to two different oceans (Pacific and Atlantic / Caribbean) but resisted. In Guatemala, we didn't even get close to the ocean... But here in Honduras we broke down. We are heading to the beach... Utila to be precise and it's time to go fishin'.

What? If you know us well, you wouldn't look for us at a sandy beach and especially not fishing.
OK, so what is this fishin' then? No, it's also not "phising"! We are strapping on some tanks and going to get up and close with the marine life... Scuba Diving is a kind of fishin', isn't it?

Utila is part of the Bay Islands in the Caribbean; and, it couldn't be any more different from the rest of Honduras. Literally, only the fact that you can still use the same currency (Lempira) and that you don't need to show a passport when arriving, let's you believe that you are still in Honduras. Though you do have to show your passport to get on the ferry – we guess that this is mainly to make it easier to count casualties in case this shoebox sinks. But more about the ferry later.

Honduras – From the highest to lowest... Altitude, that is!

Our fondest memory of this
part in our trip... food!

When we left Copán, we had one primary goal: visit the Highlands to see the "real" Honduras and escape the upcoming Semana Santa (Easter week) madness – This week is (besides Christmas) the biggest holiday in Central America. During this time, everybody travels either to their hometown or to the popular tourist resorts, especially it seems: the beach. We were warned that whole towns shut down or become mega crowded (e.g. Antigua in Guatemala).

Our first stop on Monday was the town of Santa Rosa de Copán. According to our guidebook this is also a popular place to visit on Good Friday, but we should be fine as long as we leave before Thursday. Santa Rosa is a big junction town on the way from San Pedro Sula (the 2nd largest City) to the Capital Tegucigalpa and also the road that leads to both the Guatemala and El Salvador border crossings. The town has a strong colonial influence with a legacy of buildings from the time it was a major center for the colonists, who established it for the cultivation of coffee and tobacco which it still continues to produce.