After Honduras comes Nicaragua.... Well, that is if you are heading South :)
I crossed the boarder with minimal effort (by about 2pm) and headed into Nicaragua. I had a couple of choices of destination... Being Granada, or Leon. Both are small colonial cities and both have good reputations for tourisme.
I decided on Granada even though I have been there before, with the reasoning that when I ride back North, Ill probably go through El Salvadore, and Leon is more on the way to there.
So, I made it to Granada and found a hostel for the night with time to spare :)
I only stayed a night and then rode south again along the western edge of the very large lake.
The lake has an island in it called Ometepe and Ive heard good things about it as a nice place to relax for a while.
The lake is quite interesting in that it is freshwater but it drains to the ocean by a river... And over the milennia, assorted ocean fish have made their way up this river and addapted to life in the fresh water lake... Among these freshwater addapted ocean fish there is even a shark... A Bull shark in fact (one of the most common types to attack people!) hmmm
The lake is about 8000Km in area and the island is quite big too. It has not one but two quite large volcanoes (I guess the second one is a spare for if the first one malfunctions or something?)
Anyway, I rode along to the town with the ferries and caught one out to the island. Then I rode around and found a place to stay. The island has two good sized towns on it and a bunch of smaller villages too. There is a paved road between these two towns but all other roads are dirt, and they form a sort of figure-eight perimeter on the island around the two volcanoes.
I headed off the paved road toward a small village and a hostel Id heard good things about.
The road was dry and sollid, but very rough... Again I am reminded how my bike is not designed for off-road :) A dirt bike has long travel suspension with a very "compliant" feel... which means you dont feel any of the little lumps and bumps, but you also get a fairly "soggy" handling characteristic on windy paved roads... But my bike is a road bike and it has far stiffer and shorter travel suspension... Which gives far better windy paved road performance, but it means you get to feel every little lump on a rough road and the bike tries to shake its self to pieces!
It was really rough, so after a couple of Km I stopped and let about half the air pressure out of my tires... This really helps smooth the ride out but I gotta be careful about hitting hard edges now :))
I got to where I was going and settled in for the afternoon and evening. But I have to say I didnt think much of the place... It was "rustic boardering on dingy", and the food and facilites were expensive, limited and very average... There were a few other tourists there but the atmosphere was not particularly inviting.
Im sure it was great when my friend was here but Im also sure that the impressions we get of a place are very dependent on our own state of mind as well as who else is around and the atmosphere they create... This place was not for me!
I stayed one night and then moved on the next day. I rode around on the rough roads a bit more and found the island to be a very tranquil place. Its pretty much all small farms and plantations. Its very simple and rural feeling and the people a friendly too.
One thing I did note was that there did seem to be an over-abundance of "piglets on strings"! They were everywhere along the side of the road. Pigs have no neck to speak of, so when people tie them up, they tend to tie the roap tightly around one foot - or trotter I guess :))
There was plenty of other livestock on the roads too and bullocks seemed to be the most popular "beast of burden" around the place with quite a number to be seen pulling those increddibly "middle ages" looking carts with solid wooden wheels.
The tourist type facilities are only collected together in the two main towns but there are plenty of small hotel/hostel type set-ups scattered around the place... but moving between them would be a pain for the average back-packer... Not so for me cos I have my own bike :))
After riding around a bit, I headed back to the town and caught a ferry back to the mainland.
Its a nice island, but its not where I want to spend my time at present.... On to the next place :)))
