Stranded on the road to Masaya
I tried to find the sailing ferry boat from Ometepe to Granada but after repeated denials of its existence by locals and faced with an oven-like hike of 3km down to the dock at Altagracia just to see if they were wrong, I decided to cut my losses and take the same ferry I came on back to San Jorge and Rivas for the bus to Granada.
Granada was rather spectacular after seeing nothing but mud huts and crummy concrete block houses in most of Nicaragua. Many of the old colonial buildings have been taken care of pretty well, and the Oasis hostel where I stayed was gorgeous.
In the morning I did a little walking tour of the cathedral and the main plaza and sat down for a haircut at one of the many salons off the plaza. I thought I had asked for just 'un poco' taken off, but before I knew what was happening she had taken a good inch off in one swipe with here sheep shearers and in about 3 minutes the job was complete. At least this haircut is cooler in this heat. Immediately afterwards there was a huge bang behind me and flames and smoke erupted from next to the seat on the other side of the room as one of the electric cables shorted out. I paid my $1.25 and left to pack.
I was heading to Managua next to catch the bus to Honduras but I wanted to stop on the way to see the Volcan Masaya with its famous steep crater. I got dropped off by the expreso bus on the highway and just as I crossed the road into the national park a taxi honked at me and turned off the highway. We negotiated a price for the 3km ride up to the crater and were happily on our way for a while when the taxi shuddered and then stopped. We had run out of fuel. My taxi driver apologised profusely and managed to get his taxi pointed downhill again and then after assuring me that the crater was 'muy cerca' rolled back down the hill leaving me to hike up the rest of the way with my full backpack on surrounded my a desolate field of lava rock in the midday sun.
It wasn't too obvious how much further it was going to be, but fortunately after about half an hour I crested a hill to find an impressive crater and several groups of tourists who I might be able to get a ride down with (in the end a nice german tourist let me share her taxi down).
Back on the main highway I played a game for a while where I tried to figure out the destionation of the expreso buses and then flag one down before it whizzed past (which was pretty hard). Eventually another taxi came along and I think I got a pretty good deal for the trip all the way to the bus station in Managua.
Granada was rather spectacular after seeing nothing but mud huts and crummy concrete block houses in most of Nicaragua. Many of the old colonial buildings have been taken care of pretty well, and the Oasis hostel where I stayed was gorgeous.
In the morning I did a little walking tour of the cathedral and the main plaza and sat down for a haircut at one of the many salons off the plaza. I thought I had asked for just 'un poco' taken off, but before I knew what was happening she had taken a good inch off in one swipe with here sheep shearers and in about 3 minutes the job was complete. At least this haircut is cooler in this heat. Immediately afterwards there was a huge bang behind me and flames and smoke erupted from next to the seat on the other side of the room as one of the electric cables shorted out. I paid my $1.25 and left to pack.
I was heading to Managua next to catch the bus to Honduras but I wanted to stop on the way to see the Volcan Masaya with its famous steep crater. I got dropped off by the expreso bus on the highway and just as I crossed the road into the national park a taxi honked at me and turned off the highway. We negotiated a price for the 3km ride up to the crater and were happily on our way for a while when the taxi shuddered and then stopped. We had run out of fuel. My taxi driver apologised profusely and managed to get his taxi pointed downhill again and then after assuring me that the crater was 'muy cerca' rolled back down the hill leaving me to hike up the rest of the way with my full backpack on surrounded my a desolate field of lava rock in the midday sun.
It wasn't too obvious how much further it was going to be, but fortunately after about half an hour I crested a hill to find an impressive crater and several groups of tourists who I might be able to get a ride down with (in the end a nice german tourist let me share her taxi down).
Back on the main highway I played a game for a while where I tried to figure out the destionation of the expreso buses and then flag one down before it whizzed past (which was pretty hard). Eventually another taxi came along and I think I got a pretty good deal for the trip all the way to the bus station in Managua.
1 Comments:
Hi Mike, I've finally caught up with your travels, now that I'm back in Paris. (Was in London, Pyrenees, London for the past 4 weeks). Can report Farmor much improved. I'm thinking of asking Suzy to print some of your stories for Farmor to read, or have read to her. She, like all us Agerbaks love adventure, and I love your reports and photo's. Pity Tim can't use internet.Bon courage Gullan
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