Nicaragua

Our first two days in Nicaragua were dreamy—we are happy we found Rancho Esperanza. Along with accommodation, they offer yummy vegetarian and carnivorous food, local tours in the area (palm tree climbing, tortilla making, fishing, etc) and volunteer opportunities. The young Canadian Owner Nate and his staff work closely with the community to try to increase the tourism benefits to the local population. They also offer volcano and kayaking tours as well as surf lessons and board rentals to take advantage of the friendly waves.

When we finally managed to tear ourselves away from the palm frond beaches, warm water, and happy tranquilo vibes of Jiquilillo, we headed through Leon towards Cerro Negro. The most popular tour in Northern Nicaragua is volcano boarding at Cerro Negro (look it up, it’s pretty entertaining), but we had a different goal. From the limited information we could gather, it looked like a perfect bald rounded cone that has amazing potential for flying and relatively easy access due to the volcano boarding traffic. We enquired in Leon, and a nice girl at one of the tour companies told us the chalk van would ‘probably’ make it to the Volcano. We set out on the narrow, sandy access road, which turned out to be an awesome hour-long adventure. It winds through pasture and crop fields; past rural houses and through little tree tunnels; and is frequented by a variety of people on horseback or mule carts, wandering cows and horses, and the occasional rooster. We waved at everyone we passed and got lots of big happy smiles in return. When we arrived at the Volcanic Reserve, we found the little trail and headed up the hill with our Fazers. Rok led the way and wasn’t bothered a bit by walking through a volcanic boulder field full of sharp pokiness. On the hike up, we were treated to amazing views of steam vents in the crater of the volcano, the green patchwork fields below, and a fantastic sunset at the summit. Unfortunately the wind was the wrong direction and surprisingly strong on top, but we decided to follow the volcano boarders down and do a little evening volcano running. It’s kind of like running down a big sand dune but with much sharper (and blacker) consequences, and Rok hasn’t been so excited since we left Wyoming. We realized after the fact that we weren’t properly outfitted with the standard volcano attire—overalls, gloves, and goggles. We’re still trying to get all the pieces of volcano out of our shoes. Back at the base of Cerro Negro, we set up camp and settled in to enjoy yet another spectacular campsite all to ourselves. We cooked a sweet pasta dinner complete with fresh-baked French bread and local goat cheese we had stumbled upon in Leon. 

 

 

In the morning, we awoke in the shadow of the big black hill, surrounded by yellow-flowered trees and crazy tropical bird noises. We had hoped to hike and fly, but found more North wind, even stronger than the night before. So we settled for a game of volcano bocci with our coffee. We added Cerro Negro to our ‘places to return to’ list, as we’re sure that with the right conditions, the flying and photographic opportunities here could be awesome.

Our drive through the center of Nicaragua was slow and beautiful. We encountered a few rainstorms, which are always interesting due to the tie-dyed water washing our art away in streams of milky colors. We’ve also been battling our windshield wipers since we left home. Something in the connection is bad, which causes them to stop working at completely random intervals. Cade has replaced the motor, which didn’t fix the problem, so now we just cross our fingers and hope they’ll decide to function while it’s raining. We’ve had some pretty funny moments stopping on the highway in the pouring rain to wiggle the connection point under the hood, which usually makes them kick in just long enough to get back in the car and drive a few hundred more feet. Unfortunately, the farther south we get, the fewer junk yards and Chevy’s, so we may have to wait til we get back North to Guatemala or Mexico to get a replacement.

We also managed to find a 60km section of highway between Leon and Managua that was completely torn apart and deconstructed to the state of a half-washed-out rural dirt road. As is the norm in this part of the world, there was no warning of the massive scale of this construction project, just the typical “hombres trabajando” sign at the start. By the time we realized just how long the section was, it was way too late to turn around and reroute. We’ve learned this lesson over and over again on the journey: don’t trust google maps and when in doubt, always ask the locals which way is best. One of the most interesting parts of traveling in Central America is the complete lack of signage and random placement of necessary locations. It forces you to slow down, pay attention, ask LOTS of questions and directions, and sometimes just follow your gut feeling and hope for the best.

Our good friends Clint and Juniper passed on a book to us before we left Jackson called “The People’s Guide to Mexico.” If you ever get the inkling to drive through Mexico, it’s a must-read. But really it doesn’t just apply to Mexico. It presents a philosophy that applies to travel anywhere. When in doubt, we often refer to Carl for sage advice. For example, in the section about purifying water in Mexico, he lays out the different options: iodine, filters, buying bottled water, etc. He finishes the section by saying that if you’re ever in a pinch and forced to drink water from a dubious source, just chant “Pure Pure Pure” before you gulp it down for good measure. We’ve adopted the Pure chant as our mantra and have used it in many questionable situations and found it to be quite useful well beyond the scope of water. We said our Pure Pure Pure chant as we drove down the long dirt road and everything turned out ok. Thanks Carl!

 

Even with the construction delays, we covered most of central Nicaragua in a day, driving through fertile cropland and passing many a field of greenest green sugar cane. We stopped on the shore of Laguna de Apoyo for lunch overlooking the little crater lake and watched lots of tourists getting pelted by a fast-moving gust front at the mirador below. We cruised by the shore of Lago de Nicaragua, a massive lake with volcanic islands and constant wind.

We were preparing to cross the only land border with Costa Rica at Peñas Blancas the following day, so we got as far south as we could and headed for the coast again. There are some nice camping options on the beaches North of San Juan del Sur—we rallied the van over the steep dirt approach road and pulled up to the gorgeous little Playa Madeira, our home for the night. There are three beachfront restaurants, one of them offering camping and yoga, and lots of surfers that take the shuttle up from the tourist hotspot of San Juan del Sur. We walked on the beach at sunset, played ball with Rok, and chilled out as the last of the day-trippers deserted. We ordered a veggie pizza and yucca fries and met Abe, the manager of the restaurant and campground, who happens to be from Sheridan, Wyoming. It’s a very small world.

The sunrise at Playa Madeira was impressive—the big billowy clouds reflected on the wet sand and waves. We drank our coffee and enjoyed our last morning in Nicaragua on the empty beach, soaking up the solitude before another hectic border crossing. And hectic it was. We had read some info that warned us of the busy crossing between Nicaragua and Costa Rica, but we were still a bit surprised by the long lines, hoards of tourists and migrant workers, surprisingly thorough vehicle search, and extra-random placement of customs, insurance, and photocopy offices.

We made our way through all the formalities eventually, and enjoyed the thought of no more border crossings for a while. We even pulled up to Caldera in time for a sunset soaring session at Nemacly’s, a popular flying site owned and operated by a friendly French Canadian pilot named Jean-Claude. We were immediately welcomed and broke out the Delta and Alpina. As we cruised over the jungly ridge, we were both blown away to look down and see monkeys jumping from tree to tree below us. We chased vultures around the sky as the sun set over the ocean. When we landed, we met Guissepe and Thomas, who led us back to Grampa Ninja’s. Fred (the Ninja himself) welcomed us to his flying B&B. Grampa Ninja’s offers accommodation and guide service to visiting pilots. We spent a few more days with the crew, flying at Caldera and Jacó, trying to absorb some of Fred and crew’s extensive knowledge of the country’s flying potential. They’ve been flying in Costa Rica for 10+ years and chase the wind to the best site every day. If you’re interested in exploring Costa Rica’s paragliding potential, we highly recommend Grampa’s for great accommodation and lots of friendly knowledge.

We’re settling down in Costa Rica for a bit, looking forward to emptying out the van, dropping the trailer, and exploring the for a little while!