Latinoamérica 2017

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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Copan Ruinas
February 1, 2017 in Honduras ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
According to Lonely Planet Honduras is still known as the "Bad Boy" in the Central American hood. A lot of travelers skip it completely but I at least wanted to catch a glimpse of it.
I was meeting a friend from Germany here who should join me for the next two weeks to travel El Salvador.
I arrived in Copan on Tuesday and knew I was staying here for 4 nights as Sebastian would not arrive before Thursday and we wanted to visit the ruins together on Friday before heading to El Salvador on Saturday.
I was really hoping Copan and the hostel I was staying would be nice. Otherwise it would have been a long stay there. But luckily I did like it a lot.
I actually felt even more safe here than in Antigua walking the streets by night.
People were really friendly and lots of the guys hanging around the Parque Central were wearing Cowboy Hats with Jeans and a proper Shirt - it made them look pretty dressed up to protect the city.
I did go on a horseback ride around the area. It was really nice and as it was just me and my guide I could decide where to go and how fast - he even gave me his horse because it was faster :)
We went to a small indigenous village and some smaller ruins. I the end we went to a fancy hotel which had amazing views over the area.
I spend the rest of my days here exploring the little town and hanging out with some nice people from the hostel. There were a few nice places like "The tea and chocolate place" which sold homemade chocolates and other stuff. The hot chocolate was amazing!
Thursday Sebastian showed up and Friday afternoon Sandy (who I had met before in San Ignacio, Belize and Livingston, Guatemala) joined us to travel to El Salvador together.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Copan Archaeological Site
February 3, 2017 in Honduras ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
The ruins of Copan were probably not as big and impressive as Tikal or some of the ruins in Mexico but what was really nice was that there were not that many people around. You could just walk to the ruins from town with 10 minutes and then it was a nice stroll through trees filled with macaws.
Also the ruins had a lot more sculptures and hieroglyphic carvings. Unfortunately a lot was reconstructed and the originals are in the museum at the visitor center (which we skipped).

There were some more ruins of residential buildings a bit further down the road. On my map it looked like you could take the "nature trail" to get there. So we took this trail till we ended at a wired fence. But as it should be the right way we just found a hole in the fence and kept on walking. We followed a path along the river through high grass. Probably not the best idea in a country with a reputation like Honduras but the map still showed we were on the right way. We climbed through two more fences and crossed some fields till we finally made it to the final fence protecting the ruins. But this ruins were part of our ticket and as we had made it that far we decided not to look for a proper entrance but just slide under another fence to get inside. The ruins were nice but the bigger adventure was really probably how we got there. We never figured out if the was a proper way connecting the two sites and on the way back we sticked to the road instead of trying again.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Bordercrossing to El Salvador
February 4, 2017 in Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
We wanted to start our trip through El Salvador in Santa Ana as this was supposed to be a good starting point for Ruta de las Flores. There was a tourist shuttle running from Copan to El Salvador which would stop in Santa Ana, San Salvador and at the beach in El Tunco. But the shuttle was $40 even if you would get of at the first stop in Santa Ana. And as we were the three of us traveling together we decided to make our way there by public busses. The shortest way to get to Santa Ana was through Guatemala and as we are all happy to collect more stamps in our passport anyway we decided to take that route.
The first bus we took was a really crowded minivan from Copan Ruinas back to the border of Guatemala. Here we went back over the border the same way I came just a few days ago (but this time everybody was sober ;)). From here we took another minivan to Chiquimula in Guatemala where we were dropped at a bus station in the center. Chiquimula was a pretty crowded city with street venders everywhere but people were really friendly and showed us how to walk the few blocks to the other bus station where our next bus to Anguiatú at the Border to El Salvador would leave. In Chiquimula there was some Motorcycle Festival happening.
In Anguiatú the bordercrossing was a little confusing. We got our stamp for leaving Guatemala like we were used to but when we went to the office of El Salvador the refused to give us a stamp. We were a little scared to enter the country without a proper proof that we did this the official way. And like I said before it's always a nice memory to carry in your passport. I knew that Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have one 90-day-visa for all four countries but so far the others still gave us a new stamp everytime we crossed the border anyway. But the officer explained to us that in El Salvador you only get the stamp if you enter from or leave to a country other than theses 4 (by boat or plane).
Behind the border there was already the next bus waiting which would bring us to Metapán where we changed one last time for our final bus to Santa Ana. All together it took us almost 8 hours compared to maybe 5-6 on the tourist shuttle but we also paid less than $10 and saw a lot of different cities and landscapes and people along our way in 3 different countries.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Santa Ana
February 4, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Santa Ana was somehow a weird place. We stayed at Casa Verde which was definitely one of the best places I've stayed so far. The owner Carlos took really good care of everybody and over the years he collected ideas from travelers how to improve the hostel. Every dorm bed had it's own fan, reading light & socket. At the foot of the bed there was a furniture to store your backpack with different hangers for towels and all kinds of things. As a courtesy to other people in the room there was also a plastic box for smelly footwear. Additionally everybody got it's own locker with another socket and 2 USB-plugs inside.
The common areas were really nice and clean. There were 2 kitchens with lots of spices and herbs to use. Also free coffee beans to grind yourself and make fresh coffee. The place was really inviting to stay longer.
But somehow Santa Ana itself wasn't really. The hostel was in the commercial area and after we went out for dinner everything on the 5 minute walk from the restaurant (which was the only nice place around) to the hostel was closed and dark. There were a lot of homeless people in one street but otherwise we didn't meet anybody.
The next morning we had a great breakfast and after a stroll over the busy market we got back on the bus to get to the "Rutas de las Flores".Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Juayúa
February 5, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Juayúa was our first stop along the Rutas de las Flores.
I never quite figured why it's called Rutas de las Flores. Other than expected there are not a lot of flowers. It's just a few brightly colored colonial towns along a winding road - but maybe these picturesque towns are supposed to be the flowers.
Juayúa was the biggest of the 3 towns we visited with a population of 10,000. It is famous for it's weekend "feria gastronomica" with a lot of stands selling lots of good food. We spend the afternoon there trying different things. I had mashed yuca with some toppings and a whole pineapple filled with fresh juice and rum. ☺
The next morning we took a little hike up to "Los Chorros de Calera" - a series of waterfalls. The fascinating thing here was that the water just seemed to be coming out of the fractured cliff wall and not from a river or something.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Ataco
February 6, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Ataco was even smaller than Juayúa but still a little nicer with lots of murals on the exterior walls of the houses. We explored the town and went up to Mirador de la Cruz de Ataco from where we had a good view over the town and the surrounding mountains and volcanoes. We also saw a professional "documentary" been shot up there - a guy was holding a picture of different beer bottles and on the count of three he let it fly away with the wind. Luckily it was attached to a nylon string so it wouldn't really fly away as they had to shoot this part a few times 😅.
Later Sebastian and I went for dinner and ordered some specialty and were pretty excited about that. When the food arrived and it was a big soup with some vegetables and fruits and a whole chicken leg in it we were a little disappointed first. But even though it wasn't what we expected it still tasted really good.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Apaneca
February 7, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C
Apaneca was our last stop along Rutas de las Flores. We went here to go ziplining. The tour was a lot of fun. It was only the three of us so we never had to wait long and did just go from one line to the next. Some were really high and long and we had amazing views over the landscape. We walked around town after the tour but there wasn't much to see which we hadn't seen in the two other stops before. So we jumped back on the bus to head for the beach.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Sonsonate vs. San Miguel
February 8, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C
The whole idea started with Andrew who wanted to watch a soccer match in Sonsonate. The game was at night but as there wouldn't be any bus to go back to Los Cobanos from Sonsonate he tried to find someone to take him there. That's how he met Charly the owner of a Tienda/Comedor close to our hostel. Charly offered to take him there and when we all suddenly got really excited and wanted to join he got his friend driving all of us in his mini van.
The game was Sonsonate vs. San Miguel and apparently it was a really big game for the country.
The stadium was pretty small but everybody there got really excited about us. Some guy showed up and kept on buying us drinks and all kind of food they were selling in the stadium. He made sure we didn't feel bad about him spending money on us by showing us a huge stack of dollars from his pocket.
He asked us lots of questions about germany and if we could help him go there. When he asked Sebastian to take something for him to Germany we figured it's best to not speak spanish anymore.
The first half of the game we watched from our "seats" on the steps close to Charly and our other new friend. But when the second half started we decided we want some more action and joined the crowed singing and dancing right behind the goalpost.
We had a lot of fun there and I guess we made our way in a lot of selfies by the local soccer fans.
Unfortunately Sonsonate lost and this made people leave even before the game was over. But we stayed till the very end.
After the game our new friend asked us to join everybody for one beer in a bar close by. We decided one beer couldn't hurt and followed these guys out of the stadium. This is when it got a little weird. To enter the bar you had to knock on the door. Before they would open they always checked the street. People in the bar were really friendly (when I almost used the wrong bathroom the whole bar started pointing me to the female bathroom - which was in the kitchen). But when our new friend invited us to his home and we declined everybody became really pushy about us going with him. Only Freddy said that it was probably better to go home. So we decided not to push our luck and just get out of there. Now they all got really pushy. People followed us out of the bar and even tried to convince our driver to take us to the house of our new friend. So we were pretty happy when we were all sitting in the van heading back to Los Cobanos. We asked Charly about the guy but the only thing he said was that he is a friend but it's not a good idea to go with this people when everybody is really drunk.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Los Cobanos
February 8, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
After over 3 weeks I was finally back at the beach!
Los Cobanos was a really quiet place with not a lot of tourists. It was one of these places that might fill up with locals heading from the city to the beaches on weekends but as we got there during the week we kind of had it to ourselves. We stayed at Casa Garrobo which seemed to be the only place that had guests at all. It was right at the beach and except for hanging out there and wander along the beach to watch the locals prepare freshly caught fish or check out one of the many empty restaurants there was not much more to do.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
El Tunco
February 9, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
El Tunco is the Surf & Party Spot in El Salvador.
I was really looking forward to finally getting back on the board. Sandy and I got us boards for one day but ufortunately it was a lot harder to get back into surfing than I expected and as the waves were pretty crazy the first two hours I only got washed all the time and only managed to stand up a few short rides in the white water. We went back into the water later and after a few nicer waves I paddled out into the ocean to watch the sunset from there - at least a good exercise for my arms.
The next morning I got up early to meet my personal surf guide at 6:30. But as the waves were unsurfable for me (probably due to the full moon) I didn't even get into the water but returned my board and decided to spend that money on yoga instead. There was a pretty fancy yoga studio in El Tunco and the session was pretty nice.
Except for Yoga and Surfing we spend our days relaxing and went out every night for "Ladies Night" - I don't even know the name of the place but every night between 8 and 9 girls would drink for free. That's the way to fill up a bar ;)Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
El Zonte
February 12, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
El Zonte is one of the more quiet surf beaches close to El Tunco. I went there for one night with Kajal who I had met before in Copan Ruinas and now again in El Tunco. Sebastian and Sandy only came to visit for a few hours.
I think El Zonte could have been a place to stay longer if I would have been better in surfing already. I think a lot of people get stuck there. We hang out on the terrace of our hostel watching other people surf and enjoyed a nice dinner watching the sunset.
After I was woken up the next morning by sunrise visible from our dorm I got on another long chicken bus adventure to go to El Cuco.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Playa el Cuco
February 13, 2017 in El Salvador ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
"La Tortuga Verde" on Playa el Cuco was a weird little paradise. It was a resort for the rich local people who would come on the weekends and a backpackers hang out at the same time. We were afraid our stay there could become a little expensive but it turned out not to be like that at all - especially as the staff forgot to put lots of things on our tab.
They had daily free Yoga Sessions, you could go rent boards by the hour and every night there was a boat going out to watch the sunset.
The place also took care of hurt pelicans and collected turtle eggs from the beach to protect them from any kind of harm and released the turtles into the ocean after they were born. So there was always something to do or to watch if just hanging out in a hammock got to boring.
It was a 45 minutes walk from the resort along the beach to town which I took one day to check out the coastline here. It was the first beach you could actually walk for that long and it was pretty beautiful.
It was my last stop with Sebastian before he would go back to Germany and I would continue to Nicaragua. It was nice traveling with him and Sandy for a while but now I'm also looking forward to be by myself again...Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Leon
February 16, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Leon didn't really convince me on the first view. I had expected it to be smaller and a bit more obviously beautiful. I had to walk around a while to catch it's charme.
I really liked the main cathedral with the lively plaza in front of it. And most impressive was definitely the roof of the cathedral which you could go up to. I had just missed opening hours on the first day so I came back the next morning really early. This meant I got to be up there all by myself for most of the time.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Volcano Bording Cerro Negro
February 17, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
The real reason why most backpackers come to Leon are probably the surrounding volcanoes and the fact that you can slide down Volcano Cerro Negro on a wooden board.
I was pretty freaked out about this activity as I thought people were standing on the board and I had no idea how to do that. But as I didn't wanna miss out I signed up anyway and was pretty happy to find out we were actually sitting on the boards.
I booked the tour with Big Foot Hostel which I figured later was probably one of the most expensive operators. But they claim to have the fastest boards and included in the price was a T-shirt, a beer, a mojito and a dry and hard cookie :) Oh, and we had music on the truck ride to the volcano. I guess it was the Party Tour operated by the biggest Party Hostel in town but I actually enjoyed the vibe of the tour a lot - this was an activity to not be taken to serious so the whole party atmosphere just worked pretty well with it.
So after a truck ride with the mentioned music we were dropped of at the foot of the volcano and got out equipment which we had to carry up there. The board is really just a wooden board with a sheet of metal on the back and another special sheet of some material on the backside approximately where you put weight on the board. This is supposed to be the secret that makes you faster. Additionally to the board everybody gets a backpack with the jumpsuit you gonna wear on the way down.
They made it sound to be a pretty steep walk up the volcano and try to convince you to pay a guide to carry up your board. But after Acatenango the climb up was a fairly easy walk and it took us less than an hour.
Once up on the volcano you catch a look into the main crater before getting ready to rush down again. The crater was pretty impressive and the earth up here was so hot - not from the sun but from the inside.
No it was time to go down. We put on our jumpsuits which are one size so I felt like I was wearing one of these "blow-up-sumo-suits".
We got a short introduction on how to use the boards. The main advice was to not try to brake once you are really fast. It's just gonna throw you over. You could try to just not become to fast by leaving your feet on the ground on both sides next to the board but once you have made the decision to lift your feet you kind have to keep going till the end. You gonna stop there anyway.
We were over 30 people and even though I didn't wanna be first I knew I wanted to get down there without waiting to long. So I took my space as third in my row and that proofed to be the right decision.
I hadn't seen anybody crash when I got on my board so I was pretty confident and just went without to much fear. It was probably one of the craziest things I've done so far. As soon as I was on the straight part I just tried to lift my feed and from there it didn't feel like I had a lot of control over what was happening. I rushed down the volcano kind of jumping and sliding and even though I couldn't keep my feet in the air it didn't slow me down that my feet were bouncing to the ground all the time. I even managed to let go with one hand to wave at the camera half way down :)
I loved it and according to the guy with the speed gun I had 55km/h at the foot of the volcano. Knowing that the record is 95km/h and the record of our group was 71km/h it sounds pretty lame but it definitely didn't feel slow and thinking about a car with 55km/h and then seeing the wooden board and the volcano it was probably fast enough.
Once I was down there it was great fun to watch the others coming down. Actually a lot of people crashed (but noone got really hurt) or went really slow because something wasn't working for them. So I was pretty happy I went down as one of the firsts because after seeing all this I would have probably thought about it a lot more. And of course it's a far better view from down there to watch people :)Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Surfing Turtle Lodge
February 18, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 33 °C
Surfing Turtle Lodge is a paradise at the beach just down to the coast from Leon. To get here you have to take a short boat to get to a 8km long island. Once there you walk for about 15 minutes before you get to the hostel right on the beach with nothing else around.
It was my first stop being alone again so I was actually looking forward to a chilled day and night on the beach - but as they were having a beach party that night it turned out to be a little different ;)
I met some cool people and after starting with a round of flunky ball at the beach we kept on playing drinking games for a while. The hostel enforced the party meed with lots of glitter for everybody. Later we moved to a bonfire at the beach and watched the stars with our feed in the water.
The next morning we found a porcupine under one of the wooden umbrellas. It's fluorescent yellow colored spines made it look like it joined the party the night before...Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Granada
February 19, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C
After my quiet night at the beach turned into a party I choose my hostel in Granada looking for a place with a nice kitchen and not a lot of people - I was really looking forward to a uneventful night with inexpensive home cooked food. Hostal Mochila was perfect for this. They even had a little pool to chill out in the back.
Already when I went to by some groceries I figured Granada has two faces. There is the beautiful area with nice architecture and some fancy tourist spots. But just two blocks down you are suddenly on a crowded street with a lot of strange and drunk people coming a little to close for my taste - but even though it did not make me feel unsafe.
The next day I walked around exploring the city and I liked the architecture here a lot.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Masaya
February 20, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
I only stoped in Masaya for about an hour on my way to the volcano. The bus station was in a huge market with all kind of stuff. The Parque Central was a colorful playground and there was an Artesanian Market with lots of nice souvenirs for tourists.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Volcano Masaya
February 20, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
After Fuego had not given us any Lava when I was up on Acatenango I finally wanted to see some Lava. Masaya was a one hour busride from Granada and supposed to be easy to get to without booking a tour or anything. I took the chicken bus and got of at the main entrance. As the volcano is pretty active and might erupt anytime you are not allowed to walk in the park and up to the crater. But a guide who drives you up is included in the price. So when I got there my personal pick up truck was already waiting for me. The guide drove me to the visitor center first where they had a museum about Masaya and volcanoes in general. After I got back in the car we drove up to the summit. It's pretty strange as it's just a paved road through dry landscape and it doesn't feel like a volcano at all. The road ends on a parking lot from where you look over a stone barrier right into the crater!
At the bottom I finally saw some Lava bubbling and the sound coming from down there was impressive. Sulfurous gases rise above and leave a nice smell.
After my 10 minutes here were up (you are not supposed to stay any longer) I asked my driver if I could ride down on the back of the pick up truck and he actually took this as a reason to go down a lot faster than we came up - which made the drive a lot more fun.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Laguna de Apoyo
February 21, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
Getting to Laguna de Apoyo I had to take a chicken bus to the turn of from the main road from Granada to Masaya. From here it was still 7km and I was hoping to catch the one daily bus to the laguna. But while I was waiting for the bus a guy with his pick up truck stoped and offered to take me - another fun ride on the back of a pick up and he didn't even want money for this.
I stayed at Paradiso Hostel and met a nice crowd of people as soon as I walked in as they were just heading out to see some monkeys that were supposed to hang out in a tree on the street just outside the hostel. There were at least 10 in that one tree!
We spend the rest of the day hanging out in and on and by the Laguna.
The night turned into one of this unexpected spontaneous partys I like so much. We started with the 3 for 2 happy hour and our group became bigger and bigger. After I had already started my second round of 3 Nica Libres I ordered a Burger with fries - I was really craving fries. After a while I realized that everybody else had already gotten his food. When I asked about my burger they told me that they must have forgotten it and that they are just about to close the kitchen. The only thing they were still able to prepare was a curry. If you already had 4 Nica Libre and you really crave fries a curry is just not what you want. But as I had to eat something and they offered it to me for free I went for it. It was great. But still no fries. The guy from the bar felt so bad about it that he gave me another free cocktail. Probably not what I needed but of course I went for it ;)
One guy of our group had prepared a half english half spanish rap song for the open mic night 2 days later in another hostel and asked us to be his pre-audience. I woke up the next morning with the refrain still stuck in my head - I guess this is a good sign for his song?
I felt kind of hang over when I woke up the next morning but after another swim in the lagoon and a hearty breakfast by the water I was ready to get back on the road.Read more
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Playa Gigante
February 22, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
Playa Gigante was again one of these places with one daily bus and I couldn't really believe my luck when I came to the bus station in Rivas and saw that bus turning into the station when I had just gotten there.
Gigante Bay is a really laid back place right at the beach and I went here after Katherine, who I had met at Surfing Turtle Lodge, had recommended it to me as they take volunteers and I was still looking for a place where I could spend some time working and savin some money in Nica.
When I got there I met some guys from Hamburg and we talked a bit about home. Later we wanted to find a spot for a sunset beer and as the rock separating our beach from the next was supposed to be the best spot we started climbing up. I guess I would have turned around at some point as it didn't look like it was possible to get up there but after a little climbing up the rocks we actually managed to get all the way up. The view was amazing and a perfect spot for some nice pictures (I figured I got lazy on taking pictures and only post pictures of sunsets a I try to do better).
The next morning started with an early yoga session which is mandatory for volunteers. I went there and talked to Jon (the owner) about volunteering here later - he told me to just come back after my surfcamp and talk then.
I spend the rest of the day by the beach reading and finally catching up on my footsteps on the blogg ;)
For dinner I went to the Monkey House. A hostel on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Some of the guys from my hostel had moved here because our hostel didn't have a kitchen and the wanted to do a fish bbq. They invited me and a few others for a delicious meal - I was quite impressed what they managed in the small kitchen. After dinner we stayed around sitting at the bonfire till after 2. I was happy I didn't have to walk home alone along the beach. It was a really special night. The next morning I left early to catch the only bus going back from here towards Ometepe Island.Read more
Jutta StratmannWenn man viele deiner Fotos sieht,weiß man, wo der Liebe Gott das Paradies geplant hat.
3/1/17Reply
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Isla de Ometepe
February 24, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
My way to Isla de Ometepe started with a real chicken bus experience - backpackers call them chicken bus for a reason ;)
There are always people that come on the bus selling all kind of stuff. Mostly food but I had people on the bus selling toothbrushes, phone charger or medical cream. Mostly people just walk through the bus but some of them also stand in the front on the bus talking to everybody praising their products or sometimes also their beliefs trying to raise money for something. On the first bus one of this guys was talking about something like a priest trying to raise some money for a good cause by selling some sweets. At the same time there was another guy outside putting a pig in a sack. The pig was screaming heartrendingly but the owner showed no mercy. He closed the sack and fixed it hanging on the back of the bus. So when the bus started moving the priest was still talking non stop and the pig in the bag doesn't stop screaming. It was kind of an absurd situation especially as all the locals didn't react at all and the few backpackers on the bus kept looking at each other trying neither to show compassion nor to start laughing. Later on the island I had to take another bus and for some reason (I guess there was a market that day) there were 5 people on the bus with boxes full of little chicks! They made a lot of noice so I guess that was the most authentic chicken bus I took so far 😅
Isla de Ometepe was really beautiful. After I hiked up Volcano Maderas on my first full day we got bikes the next day to go to the other side of the island where we got us canoes and paddled into a river between the two volcanoes to watch some wildlife. We didn't see any crocodiles but some monkeys and turtles. So after 2 full workout days I spend my last day on the island mostly relaxing at the beach. I was planning on going on a sunset horseback ride but somehow someone forgot about it and in the end it didn't happen.
I really liked the Lazy Crab Hostel where I stayed but the stuff was always a bit confused - so they forgot about horseback rides or other stuff. But somehow this matched with the relaxed atmosphere there so I didn't really mind.Read more
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Volcano Maderas
February 25, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
There are 2 volcanoes on Isla de Ometepe. The higher one is Concepción. Maderas is a bit smaller but completely covered with forest and has a lake inside the crater. As I had done the high volcano with Acatenango I decided to go for Maderas. Also "swimming in a crater lake" would be a new thing to add to my list of things to do on a volcano (after sliding down on a wooden board and driving up on the back of a pick up truck).
When I got to my hostel I met a group of people who wanted to climb up the next day and were happy to let me join them. Malin and Sofia from Sweden and Jon and Stuart from England. We weren't sure if it was necessary to take a guide as everybody said something different. But when I went for dinner I ran into 3 french canadian friends I had met at Laguna de Apoyo and the told me they did it by themselves and it was totally fine. So the next morning we left early around 7:30 and after getting some more snacks along the road started our hike up the volcano. At the entrance we figured that we at least needed a guide on paper and choose Jon to be our guide from now on.

I quite liked the hike up the volcano. We were walking in the woods most of the way and the vegetation would change from dry forest to rain forest to cloud forest the higher we got. Also the climate changed (obviously). It was pretty dry and hot when we started and got more and more humid. It went uphill almost all the way and sometimes we had to climb over roots of fallen trees but there was always something to hold onto and it made the walk more versatile.
The other 4 were a little slower climbing so I walked by myself most of the time but it was fine as you can't really talk much walking uphill all the time anyway and it only gave me longer breaks every now and then when I waited for them to catch up. It also led to me being the only one seeing a snake on the way up.
Besides that we saw monkeys and lots of frogs.

Halfway up there was a look out point from where you had a nice view over to Concepción. We took a longer break here fueling up on bananas and Cheetos (my new favorite super artificial snack).

It was really easy to find the right way up and whenever there was a fork our guide Jon would say "If there is a fallen tree, make a left!". I thought it was just a joke and always took the one looking more used. Usually the to paths would join together at some point anyway. But almost all the way up there was really a fallen tree where the path would split. I learned someone had told Jon about this being the only point where you could go wrong - the path coming from the right was another path joining from another entrance. So if you take that one you gonna go down again ;)
We used this point for another break and the others took out their food: pizza from the night before. What a great idea. Luckily they gave me a slice to share.

Just after this we met a guy who said it was just about 40 more minutes to go. The others fell back again but I decided to just keep ob going and make my way to the top. In the end you had to climb quite a lot and it got a bit muddy but still fine to achieve.
When I stepped out of the forest onto the open stone surface of the final lookout point I was first a little disappointed. I didn't know we would not be able to look over the lake and the other volcano. The look out point was within the crater and you couldn't get any higher from here (and as the rim was covered with woods I didn't realize I had climbed over it and couldn't look far because of the trees). But after I had realized that I was amazed by the view of the inside of the crater covered with forest and the lake in the middle.

We had some more pizza and bananas up here before climbing down towards the lake. Lots of people coming up here only do one of the two. The lookout or the lake. Why? After you have climbed all the way up there? I mean you are not coming back the next day to do the other one, right? But it's also due to the guides spreading the rumor it's really steep to climb down to the lake straight from the lookout point. I guess they are just too lazy to do both as they probably climb up there every other day. We went straight down and it was fine. It was actually less steep then the way we took climbing back up later that led back to the path to go down.

The lake was different than expected :)
The water was supposed to be freezing cold (I think another myth probably spread by guides that don't wanna go down there). So we walked towards the lake carefully to figure the water wasn't that cold. But after a few steps I was suddenly half a meter shorter - I stuck kneedeep in mud! We started laughing but laughing the loudest was a guide who was there with another group. After that she told us it's easier to go in from another point. We tried there but it was still pretty muddy. So as soon as the water was waistdeep we started swimming to escape the mud. But we never did! Even in the middle of the lake you couldn't swim free letting your feet go down. You would always touch a soft and muddy surface. We were quite disgusted by it but also couldn't stop laughing about this weird experience.

After the swim we chilled in the sun for a while and started our walk back when we realized we could get close to sunset if we don't go now.
The way down was of course faster but not much easier as you really had to watch where to place your feet. But it was nothing compared to Acatenango.
Going down Jon kept up with me which was nice as going down makes talking a lot easier. After the halfway Lookout point we told the others we wouldn't be waiting at the entrance but at the first shop that sold beer :)
And that's what we did. Nothing is as refreshing and rewarding as a ice cold beer after a hike like this.Read more
A SSchön wieder von dir zu lesen. Hast du zugenommen? Liegt wohl am ice cold beer?
3/22/17Reply
About a girl who travelsVielleicht? So charmant kann aber auch nur mein Lieblingsonkel sein ☺
3/31/17Reply
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
San Juan del Sur
February 28, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C
As I needed a "convenient stop" to wash my close and buy toothpaste and sunscreen after a few more secluded stops like Playa Gigante and Isla Ometepe I decided to spend one night in the party & surf spot of Nicaragua before heading to my Surf Camp.
I actually quite liked the vibe. You have a lot of nice and hipster shops and restaurants here. It's quite pricey but for one night it's fine.
I also met a lot of people here again. First I ran into my french canadian friends and Kathryn and Matthew who I had also met at Laguna de Apoyo again. They were actually staying in my room!
Later I wanted to buy a beer to go up to the Jesus de Mercer statue for sunset when I ran into Tina I had met in the Surfing Turtle Lodge. We went up there together and got an irritated view from the guy at the entrance. Apparently you are not supposed to bring alcohol to a holy place. Up there we also met Patrick from the Surfing Turtle.
Later we had the best burrito in town for dinner - probably not really authentic but for a change really light and fresh with lots of vegetables and a nice salsa instead of the typical rice and beans (sometimes you have to cheat with the local food).
The next morning I said a final goodbye to my french canadian friends and jumped on the shuttle to Playa Maderas for my Surf Camp.Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
Rapture Surf Camp
March 1, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
After my first try of getting back into surfing in El Tunco felt like I've never done this before I figured I should probably look for a place to start over again.
I had been to other Surf Camps before in Bali & Sri Lanka and I always love the vibe. Usually everybody is in the same mood and just wants to surf and and chill out with nice people. This place was the same. When I walked in they all introduced themselves and immediately started talking to me. 80% of the people were blond, german speaking girls so I fit in perfectly 😅

The first girl I met was Kim from Switzerland. As she told me she had just arrived the night before on a flight from London I assumed she was British and we had been talking for quite a while till someone walked by saying "You do know that you both speak german?". Kim saved me in the end by selling me her neopren swimsuit. Hard to believe but the water around Playa Maderas was freezing cold what always shortened the surf sessions quite a lot. I spend a lot of time with Kim but usually we would always be hanging out at the camp all together anyway. That's what made it such a nice experience. Even though people would leave and new people would show up it always felt like one happy surf family.
Except maybe for one person that just didn't really fit in. She just seemed to live in another atmosphere. Someone assumed she might have fallen in a pot of acid when she was a kid. But she was a fun person and she always gave us something to laugh about. Also she was the inspiration for our group picture in the pool.

But most importantly: the surf!
After my first surf lesson I was pretty upset. Deny and Alvaro had just ignored me telling them that I wanna start easy and stay in the white water. They made me paddle out with everybody else and I was just completely overwhelmed. But in the end their approach was right. It took me two days but then I got the hang of it again. And on monday morning after a day without surfing but partying instead at SUNDAY FUNDAY I suddenly knew how to surf again. As a lot of people had left and the new ones weren't taking lessons I had private lessons with Alvaro for the next 3 days. It was perfect. On my last day I was able to catch my own green waves, stand up and surf them without looking like an idiot. I felt ready to surf by myself now!Read more
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Latinoamérica 2017 About a girl who travels
SUNDAY FUNDAY
March 5, 2017 in Nicaragua ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
When I went to Costa Rica 3 years ago I saw all these people wearing T-shirts saying SUNDAY FUNDAY. I figured out they had all been to the same party in Nicaragua. A pool crawl from hostel to hostel in San Juan del Sur. At that time I imagined it to be a lot less professional but when I came back to Central America 3 years later and still lots of people were wearing these T-shirts I realized it's quite a big party with sometimes even kind of famous DJs happening every week in the same 4 hostels. When I got to the Surf Camp I was quite happy to hear that there was a group of people going to SUNDAY FUNDAY (sundays is surf free anyway) because something like this is always more fun in a group.
We all agreed you can only do SUNDAY FUNDAY if you go all in. Which means I mixed a bottle of Rum with Fresca to take it with me when we jumped on a shuttle to SJDS around 11am.
Once we got into town we went straight to Pacha Mama, the first of the 4 hostels, to buy our tickets and choose our T-shirts. The T-shirts still look like 3 years ago when I saw them first in Costa Rica. The only thing changing is the color. Turns out every size has a different color. So there are 2 ways to choose your T-shirt: by size (and I guess a lot of people choose the smallest size they can make fit as everybody knows which size you wear because of the color) or by color. Of course I went for color (dark pink with neon print, yeah). Parts of our group left again afterwards to get food or other stuff but me and Izzy, Nicole and Laura just stuck around till the DJ started playing. From that point on it was all just a funny party which kept on going. The pool at Pacha Mama was pretty small so not a lot of people jumped in. But it was a nice party location as it was quite small and got crowded quickly. At some point the music just turned of and everybody walked over to the second place which was right at the beach. You were welcomed at the door by people pouring rum shots straight into your mouth. But like we said, we go for the whole experience, right?
The pool here was quite nice so I jumped straight in. After a while a shuttle brought people from here to the third place which was up on a hill and supposed to have a nice view for sunset. But as we were still fouling around and didn't wanna get in line for the shuttle we watched the sunset down at the beach and actually took the last shuttle to get up there.
I remember being on a slack line here practicing my balance - which is not the easiest thing after a day of Nica Libre. After the shuttles took us down to the last place we figured it was almost 9pm and we had asked at the surfcamp for a pick up at this time. We weren't quite ready to leave but in the end Izzy and I took that chance to get back to the camp before things got to crazy. But going to bed was not an option. So we ordered another Nica Libre there and suddenly realized we hadn't had any food since breakfast - I've never been this happy to have a bag of chips!
It was hard to get out of bed the next morning at 8 to get ready to surf but it was one of my best sessions and the cold water was the best hang over cure ever!Read more
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