Archive Page 2
So what have we been doing for the past few days you might ask, and you probably are asking otherwise why would you be checking the website. : ) I’m so cheeky.
Well what we’ve been doing is spending yet more time in paradise. The whole country is paradise as far as I’m concerned. After our travels at the two volcanos near Granada we moved camp to the Isla de Ometepe, an island further south in Lake Nicaragua. There we stayed at the Hotel Villa Paraiso in Playa Santo Domingo. The lake itself is incredibly shallow and boasts the only freshwater sharks in the world, although they don’t affect swimming since they are so rarely seen. The water is warm, soft, and wonderful.
Continue reading ‘Isla de Ometepe: Swimming’
A sweltering half-hour bus ride from Granada, Nicaragua and a pleasant 1.5 km walk up from the carreterra (highway) brought us to the Volcán Mombacho Reserve park entrance. There, a guy from the Canopy Tour company brought us further up the road to their hut, where we promply purchased/consumed cold beverages, and then commenced strapping in for our adventure.
Continue reading ‘Volcán Mombacho Canopy Tour’
Our first day in paradise, well not quite, but close to it. We´re staying in a wonderful hostel called, Hotel Oasis. It´s quiet and charming. There are two indoor patios, one of which is filled with hammocks, wicker couches, and a beautiful garden, the other of which is the main eating area surrounding a small, but wonderfully refreshing, pool. Our breakfast (El tipico) includes the standard nicaraguan gallo pinto (rice and beans), eggs with cheese, and two tortillas.
Today we took it easy and wandered about town. We stopped off in the central plaza for a bit to people watch and were gentley harrassed by the ice cream vendor who tried to convince us that his ice cream would give andrea “strength in her arms”. The town bustles with a surprisingly quiet din. It´s a lot like what I had imagined Salta (in Argentina) would be like, although much less developed. Many people ride bikes or in horse-drawn buggies. Even at night (around 6) when everyone emerges from their slumber the town is at once lively and tranquil, most likely due to the general slow pace of life here in Nicaragua. We thought of trying to attempt a journey to the outlying natural wonders, but we were too tired and decided to take a swimming and napping break midday instead. Continue reading ‘Granada: Primer Día’
Hey all, so we´ve made it to our next exotic destination - Nicaragua. It is incredibly hot. The flight is really easy though, only two and a half hours from houston, Texas. We flew in amid the most amazing lightning I´ve ever seen from a plane. Towering clouds all around us, in giant columns with lightning striking across them in horizontal rays. It´s supposed to be that way the whole week, although so far this morning has blessed us with wonderfully clear blue skies.
We´re staying at a place called hotel Oasis in Granada. We flew into Managua, the capital, but we opted not to stay there since it was not recommended. Granada is actually very reminsicent of our previous trip in the north of Argentina (Salta and Jujuy provinces). Lots of old colonial type buildings in nice colors. A wonderful central plaza where many hang out during the day to do people-watching. At night the whole city is quite dead. A small strip with bars is lit up, and this seems to be the main hang out for those tourists looking to have a drink. The casinos are also open all day and all night as far as we can tell. Well I´m losing steam so I´ll have to fill you all in later when we´ve finally accomplished something other than lying around, eating, and sleeping. : )
Words of the day:
navaja: pocket knife
gacía: safety pin
Sidestep.com and Kayak.com are two search engines that compile results from hundreds of other airefare search sites.
Here’s a travel-oriented social tagging site to add to your list. 43 Places is a new spin on the popular community-driven website 43 Things — instead of revolving around things to accomplish, it’s all about places to go. The places are added by users; they can be as mundane as the local pub or a vast as Russia.
Continue reading ‘43Places.com - The Myspace of Travel?’
If there was a contest for the most beautiful Argentine village, Iruya would certainly be a strong contender for the top spot. What it lacks in architectural beauty it makes up for in location — the setting really is about as dramatic as one could imagine.
As you meander the steep cobblestone streets (the only thing to do anyway, especially during the extended afternoon siesta hours), you´re treated to the spectacle of the valley walls everywhere you look. Every direction brings a unique landscape. As the light changes throughout the day, different colors dance among the rock formations in an endless spectacle of light and texture.
After lunch we set off on the road to Iruya, an inaccesable and picturesque hamlet that has captured the heart of Argentina´s touring class. The road to Iruya is legendary, and involves 50 km of offroading over up to a 4000m high ridge and back down again. The road was a rocky dirt track, and crossed a few running streams, but we didn´t run into any particularly sticky situations and we were left to enjoy the scenery for the two hour drive.
Continue reading ‘The Road to Iruya’
After a long day we hadn´t eaten a whole lot other than some medialunas and some yoghurt and (especially after the digging earlier in the day) was starting to feel the effects. Luckily for him we were dropping in altitude by a couple 100 meters. Even so, by the time we reached Humahuaca he wasn´t doing so well, migraine, nausea, etc. Very unpleasant.
Continue reading ‘Humahuaca’
We tried the first access route to the laguna (which is quite dry at this time of year, since it hasn´t rained much) where a woman told us that this was the only way to get to the laguna. It was dry, we saw a Rhea, had some mate with coca leaves in it, and went through a lot of mud puddles. The woman tried to sell us some strange looking figurines, but I just left her some pesos instead.
Continue reading ‘Laguna de Pozuelos’
