So this is our second, and last, post from Nicaragua. We left Granada for Isla Ometepe which is in Lake Nicaragua and accessible by ferry. The island has some paved roads! The island is actually two volcanoes, one active and one dormant. With respect to the volcanoes we can't work out which came first, the lake or the volcanoes? Apparently the lake contains sharks, turtles and swordfish which accessed the lake from the Caribbean along the river next to San Carlos, where we stayed a few nights ago.
The ferry takes about an hour to get to the island. We had thought it would be a bigger ferry than it actually was. The ferry captain was not impressed with how Paul was manoeuvring the bike into the position the captain wanted it. It's not that easy on a smooth steel plate deck with no reverse gear; the captain also didn't understand what was required to put the side stand down. A verbal altercation in Spanish followed with the captain ordering us off the ferry - and us ignoring him. We stayed on board, the captain scowled; otherwise the ferry timetable would have been blown... There was no assistance on leaving the ferry!
When we think about where we actually are; on an active volcano which is an island in the middle of a gigantic lake in a Central American Republic it really does bring home to us what we are doing. Isla Ometepe was quite relaxing. Aside from Holy Week there are very few tourists in the whole of Nicaragua. This is probably due to it not being that long ago since the last round of troubles here in addition to the political leanings of the current President. Anti-Americanism is not new here. We visited some viewing points of the active volcano; it had the better shape. One was in the middle of the airstrip. We also visited a deserted beach and had a shared lunch at another beach on the other side of the island with some pretty urraca birds, who are really just Central American magpies.
Nicaragua supposedly has thirteen geologically confirmed volcanoes, of which five have been active within the last twenty years. Things going pop happens quite often.
Our accommodation was seeing big and was in the process of building a swimming pool. The muck-away contractor was local... it's actually a common feature here in Nicaragua. That and the chicken buses...
We then moved on to Leon, yet another Spanish doppelganger. We must say that the roads we have chosen have been pretty boring in the majority since the mountains of Peru. It might be us choosing easier routes - quality of the road surface or easier due to the climate. It was 38°C air temperature when we arrived in Leon with a very warm wind blowing in our faces. We struggle to do much mileage in this sort of heat. Leon is said to be the hottest city in Nicaragua and we are here in the hottest month of the year during a heat wave... Even the locals are struggling. And in a few weeks we will have the rain. Planning?
Leon and Granada vied for the right to be the capital of Nicaragua. Leon had a liberal outlook whereas Granada had a more conservative approach. To avoid endless discussions, Managua was chosen, which is roughly halfway between the two. It is not really that surprising that with its liberal outlook Leon is said to be the educated, university city. And perhaps equally unsurprisingly that it was also where student demonstrations started which led to countrywide unrest. Leon claims to have the oldest University in Central America but it makes a lot of claims about things like that. It claims to have over 40 churches, far more than Granada. However we reckon that the market in Granada was better...
The current President of Nicaragua is Daniel Ortega of the Sandanista party or as it is more properly called, the FSLN. There are photos lining a couple of streets here in Leon with mini biographies of Sandanista heroes of the revolution. Next to the Basilica in the central square is a lovely art deco building with the words, ' Capital de la Revolution' written on it. Do we feel any tension? - categorically 'No!' Are there police everywhere - not one to be seen. Do we feel safe?- Absolutely. As an observion there are a number of oldish - at our age we have to be careful with the use of this descriptor - men sat on chairs outside the market and banks counting wads of money in the open - money changers. Not sure we would have that in Central London?
