Page 72 - Phonebox Magazine October 2008

Only a third of the way up our hike! The view of Concepcion from Madera, Ometepe
Mark and Emma’s Central American Journey
Guatemala, across the Hondurian border into Nicaragua and then Costa Rica
Since our last article we have moved on from Antigua, Guatemala and across the Honduran border into the colonial highland town of Copan, famous for its Mayan ruins (another world heritage site). Having visited way too many ruins in the past month, we opted to stay and write our last blog instead!
The next day we caught a bus and then a boat over to the small 13 by 5km Caribbean island of Utila, one of the Bay Islands. Once the home of British pirates, a unique culture developed when the British moved a population of slaves from the Caribbean Island of San Vincent to nearby Roatan in 1795, which then grew and spread a large Garifuna culture; most people speak English in Caribbeans accents.
Utila is also next to the second biggest reef in the world similar to Caye Caulker, Belize. We decided not to do any snorkeling, one reason being money and the second being that we didn’t think it would compete with the
vibes and small community feel. Aside from relaxing we also went out partying, firstly with some of our group at our hostel before moving on to the bars and clubs and finally at an American guys house party (a diver on the island).
After a few days on Utila, we spent 12 hours on boats and buses getting to the capital city Tegucigalpa where we only spent the night in this noisy, chaotic city before enduring another 12 hours of buses making our way over the border to Granada, Nicaragua.
Nicaragua has flourished in recent years and has some incredible, impressive natural beauty. In Granada itself active volcanoes and beautiful lakes that surround the area further compliment the city’s colonial charm. The hotel we stayed in was average and would have been nicer if it weren’t for a storm causing the city’s water and electricity shutting down for the day – when we happened to hand our laundry in, meaning that the majority of us were not smelling too pleasant in the intense heat.
With the day over and after a really sticky nights sleep, it was like Christmas in the morning when we saw our laundry returned and water was back on in the shower! The next day continued with an organised trip to a local pottery workshop where we watched in amazement the skills and talent of these guys, producing beautiful, sometimes incredibly intricate pieces.
Moving on we visited the lake that lies in Granada’s region which offers beautiful views as far as the eye can see. Afterwards, we moved onto a local market that turned out to be very touristy and way too overpriced with all sellers refusing to budge and barter on their prices. There must be a lot of naive tourists or simply tourists who can afford to pay their prices as usually visitors will find themselves bombarded with offers (in Central America in general). After a good hearty meal we moved onto a Volcano a couple of hours before dark and, as we arrived at the crater, we could see smoke belching out from a combination of activity and light rain reacting with the sulphur, meaning that this light rain was in fact acid rain. Occasionally a drop of rain would fall into our eyes, a painful experience that shouldn’t be repeated too many times. One girl even saw her yellow t-shirt turn pink where the rain drops fell. Because of the sulphuric smoke that was making us cough we all had to wear masks to filter out the dangerous fumes as we sat about 100 meters from the edge, forced to move away from the edge itself as it became too dangerous. We continued on and hiked a
small hill to view the volcano and the surrounding area which involved a lake, mountainous hills and a beautiful skyline. Once darkness fell we donned hard hats and explored deep into some bat caves, old lava tubes, the caves really were pitch black. To finish our trip we returned to the now safe crater and sat close to the edge to try and see the lava glowing below, unfortunately obscured by the remaining smoke.
After Granada we made our way to Ometepe, a five hour drive away, so firstly we caught a bus and then another ferry to the
Cahuita National Park, Costa Rica
island Ometepe on Lake Nicaragua, dominated by 2 massive volcanoes. The first and the bigger volcano “Conception” stands at 5281ft and the smaller “Madera” at 4395ft. The lake itself is the largest in Central America and due to the 45 rivers that flow into it, is the only lake in the world home to the unique lake
Leaf-cutter ants in Costa Rica
shark. The lake shark originates from the mighty Great White shark that would swim up the rivers from sea and that over time evolved into freshwater conditions.
Ometepe island was created in the middle of the lake when the volcanoes erupted and turned out to be a bit of a culture shock again. All the roads were dirt tracks and some people
Pottery Workshop in Nicaragua
trip in Caye Caulker (it turned out from friends that we were right). Instead we relaxed by the pool and on the small beach that Utila had to offer and wandered on the white sand roads around the island, taking in the Caribbean
Chicken Bus in Nicaragua
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