Somoto Canyon

Day 429.

Fully refreshed and well and truly near to being socialized out we headed into the Northern Nicaraguan highlands to hopefully experience the real cowboy lifestyle - it was just a bonus most backpackers didn't venture here either.

After a 5 hour journey consisting of 3 buses into the mountains we reached Esteli, the gateway to the north. Re-energising at a great comedor, plenty of bbq'd chicken, rice, beans and plantain - aka the standard now!

Feeling ready for an adventure we got to work with our research, it was at this point limbster might say it all went wrong, however I would beg to differ - and strongly so. Only a few hours away was Somoto canyon, a winding 7km, 500ft canyon. Now a visit here is typically done with an official guide of course. But I decided we would be doing this one solo (for the adventure) the fact we'd save 50 dollars doing so was just a bonus.

We set out first thing, dry bag and picnic ready - we were prepared for whatever this unknown canyon had in store. The bus dropped us off in a local village and we headed straight for the water, it wasn't long before any sign of life had long disapeared and we were surronded only by water and steep cliffs on either side of us. The plan was to make it 4km down stream, scrambling, swimming and jumping our way though.

It's fair to say this isn't Limbsters activity of choice on a good day, throw in a lot of steep edges, a near ''fall'', an unjumpable jump and well - you get the idea, I won't use the word breakdown in so many words but..

Two hours in and we still hadn't come across another person - however there were plenty of looming canyons, bat's & unnervingly large spiders. It was about this point we realized we had only managed about a 3rd of our required distance, spooked with the thought of being stranded here come dark we upped our swimming pace slightly.

Enjoyed a cracking lunch bang in the middle of this impressive canyon, practised our echo skills and recharged our batteries. We nearly topped it off with some fresh honey from a half fallen hive - quickly decided against it given the thousands of bees still swirling around the sweet goodness!

Things only got more impressive it turned out, swimming down the winding canyon which we had all to ourself felt pretty special indeed. That was until we reached a rather steep drop - one we certainly couldn't scramble down. It was jump in or turn back the retrace the agonizing 3.5 hours we just completed there and then. Limbster took a lot of persuading out of the latter - but it was okay, it wasn't like I was fighting an uphill current and mini waterfall while she thought it all over...

Both down and injury free we hit the final non-stop swim, totally exhausted this felt like a life time and although only 300m or so it was tough (given the tour does this section in a rubber ring we felt particularly satisfied swimming ourselves)

To our delight for the final 1km stretch of canyon (which we now certainly didn't fancy swimming) a local boatsman was ready and waiting. We certainly won't be forgetting this adventure for a while albeit for significantly different reasons.Leer más