Day 3: The northern Peninsula to Las Penitas
On day three, we were up with the air raid siren with big plans to climb the Cosigüina Volcano in the northern Peninsula of Nicaragua. We headed out to find a better breakfast than that of the hotel, but this turned into rather a challenge. The first place we tried was a bit too gringo friendly for our taste and in the end they took forever even to bring coffee. Didn't they know we were on a tight schedule that morning?! We ended up leaving and heading to the supermarket area to get money and water. Ivy headed for a panderia and somehow when I came out of the shop, I failed to see her and after three times around the carpark (carrying 3 gallons of water), I decided that Ivy must have missed me and headed back to the hotel. Ivy, on the other hand, was waiting patiently across the road from the carpark (somehow out of sight). It took the best part of an hour for us to find each other again and this delayed the departure for the volcano. We decided we needed a better muster plan, which basically boiled down to: let's not separate again. |
We were going to try and find the Iglesia de San Juan Bautista de Subtiava (the sun church) on the way out of León, but seeing as we were leaving so late we just checked out of the hotel and set off north.
The roads we fine until just past Gaspar Garcia Laviana, where we turned right onto the dirt road. This was no Nica-12 though and it didn't take too long before we reached Potosí, which is where we had hoped to start our hike. We stopped a local restaurant/hostel and grabbed some food while we asked about climbing the volcano. 
The National Park
Our toes thoroughly dipped, we hit the road again and headed south. We decided to stay on the coast just to the west of Leon, in a little beach town called Las Penitas. It got dark before we hit Leon, then we had to navigate through the city to find the road to the coast. By the time we reached Las Penitas, almost all of the little beach hotels were booked up. We settled for a little surfer hostel and forked out $40 for a room with an AC... which didn't work. Common sense told us that the sea breeze would kick in and cool things down, afterall we were ON the Pacific. However, something about the water temperature and topography of the region keeps this place "tranquilo" all night long. With dueling fans on either side of the bed, we were able to cool down enough to sleep.
This was also where Ivy started a tally of amenities for each hotel we stayed at, as the offerings were wildly different from place to place (and price wasn't necessarily an indicator). This hostel had one soap dispenser (anti-bacterial), no hot water, and no towels.
The next morning we took a quick swim and got our first view of the beach. We then hit the road and headed for for Granada.
The resident macaw in the restaurant eating starfruit off the tree
The hotelier agreed that we were a bit late, so we decided to see how close to the end of the road we could get instead. It did get quite a lot narrower and there was a fair bit of logging and general tree pruning going. By pruning, I mean is someone hanging in a tree using a machete to remove branches. We politely waited for the logs to stop falling and gave the logging lorries plenty of space to get by.
There's a guy in the middle of the picture with a machete.
We continued on the bumpy road looking for a nice beach so we could stretch our legs and look at the Pacific. Along the way we met quite a few cowboys and lots and lots of cows.
We finally got to the top right of the peninsula and found a beach to check out. A few local kids were hanging out close to the bizarre pier, and they seemed fairly amused to see us there. We quickly ditched our shoes and went for a walk. From this point we could see El Salvador to the north and Honduras to the east across the bay.
There's a guy in the middle of the picture with a machete.
We continued on the bumpy road looking for a nice beach so we could stretch our legs and look at the Pacific. Along the way we met quite a few cowboys and lots and lots of cows.
Our toes thoroughly dipped, we hit the road again and headed south. We decided to stay on the coast just to the west of Leon, in a little beach town called Las Penitas. It got dark before we hit Leon, then we had to navigate through the city to find the road to the coast. By the time we reached Las Penitas, almost all of the little beach hotels were booked up. We settled for a little surfer hostel and forked out $40 for a room with an AC... which didn't work. Common sense told us that the sea breeze would kick in and cool things down, afterall we were ON the Pacific. However, something about the water temperature and topography of the region keeps this place "tranquilo" all night long. With dueling fans on either side of the bed, we were able to cool down enough to sleep.
This was also where Ivy started a tally of amenities for each hotel we stayed at, as the offerings were wildly different from place to place (and price wasn't necessarily an indicator). This hostel had one soap dispenser (anti-bacterial), no hot water, and no towels.
The next morning we took a quick swim and got our first view of the beach. We then hit the road and headed for for Granada.
