About bexbatorio

Early mini mid life crisis and time for a change!

Little piece of Paradise, Little Corn

Posted on May 2, 2013 by bexbatorio

Taxi, bus, very small plane and the most bumpy Panga (boat) ride I arrived on the tiny island of Little Corn of the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. Twenty minutes walk through to the other side of the island and along a beach to find a very basic cabin for 20$ a night. (No dorm rooms..just cabins, traveling solo can be expensive!) I just had time to have a swim in the balmy ocean before darkness….a just reward for another hot day of travel! And after a quick shower and change I headed back along the deserted beach under the moonlight before cutting back through the island on its only paved path to meet a friend who was all ready on the island for dinner. There are no cars, motorbikes, scooters or golf carts on the island….the place is chilled to the max! My friend had advised me stay on the other side of the island which receives the breeze, and all though not stifling hot after dinner and heading back to my side of the island the cooling breeze was a welcome relief!

I was more than a little stupid that night, as to get the breeze bowing into my cabin/shack I slept with the door open, at three in the morning awake blowing my nose I had an unwelcome visit from a passing very wasted local who tried to start chatting and sat on my bed, after getting him to leave I obviously locked my door and promptly changed dwellings the next morning. Plus it was quite a bit nicer, with better ablution facilities and cheaper, and literally twenty metres from the turquoise ocean. Floating out at sea looking back at the shore line…..I just kept saying to myself “this is ridiculous! When am I ever going to be anywhere like this again?!” I spent the afternoon exploring the northern side of the island with my friend, just a few tracks through the Island and round the coast, some of the most beautiful and remote beaches I’ve ever seen. Her last night, three of us shared the local dish of lobster, fish, plantain and coconut….fairly nice but pretty heavy. Little corn is pretty famous for its lobster, but I was there out of season so anything we had was coming out of the freezer!

That night I didn’t have any unwelcome guests….aside from ants! I was woken all the time with them nibbling and biting…a little distracting!

The following day I risked a dive with my pesky cold at a decent level of decline. I was a bit nervous heading out for the first time since leaving Utila, and I still had a bit of trouble equalising with snot problems, but luckily it was a pretty shallow dive. We saw so many nurse sharks amongst other things and it was great to be diving for fun so soon after getting the certificate. That evening I ate a great place up the beach from my hut, it was getting to full moon and walking back in the breaking waves under the light is up on there on my perfectly happy and content moments of my trip!

That day I mentioned the ant problem and they really sprayed the room and bed…..but somehow they all came back in the night!

I dived again the following day and this site was called locally “caves and tunnels”…. For my second real dive it was technically somewhat challenging navigating through fairly narrow spaces, but exhilarating and was unlike anything I could see or do snorkelling. That night it was another friend’s final night and we watched the sunset from very basic tiki bar full of locals. We then enjoyed the best ceviche I’ve had since I left Peru!

That day I asked for a mosquito net and I was protected from the ants that night…yippee!!

My final day I couldn’t dive as I flew the next day, so it was a full day of R&R! Sun, sand, sea, swimming, sleeping……ending with another great dinner at the joint up the beach and the BEST EVER piña coladas I’ve had…huge chunks of toasted coconut on top, and just the right amount of loads of rum! That night the moon was at its brightest, and walking back on the beach dodging huge crabs I was so glad I decided on the splurge and effort of coming.

Of the four Caribbean islands I’ve been to…Isla Mujeres, Caye Caulker, Utila and Little Corn…this was hands down the winner! I hope they can keep the traffic off the island, as that’s really an important part of what makes it so special. On speaking with quite a few locals they seem adamant on that remaining the case. The people are very friendly and rightly proud of their paradise. If you are round about that neck of the wood….in my book its more than worth it.

Leon heat and Miraflor fincas

Posted on April 28, 2013 by bexbatorio

Like most travellers other than Utila I was pretty much sweeping through Honduras. If I had more time I would have liked to stay in a few places before crossing over to Nicaragua.

“According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Honduras has the highest rate of intentional homicide in the world, with 6,239 intentional homicides, or 82.1 per 100,000 of population in 2010. This is significantly higher than the rate in El Salvador, which at 66.0 per 100,000 in 2010, has the second highest rate of intentional homicide in the world.”

Whilst the cities are notoriously dangerous with mostly gang drug related problems the rest of the country is fairly safe, with very friendly people, and with so few tourists some really exciting opportunities. As it was I was crossing from San Pedro through to Leon in Nicaragua in one day. Boarding a bus at 5am and arriving about twelve hours later. My cold had notched up a gear and I was a disgusting ball of snot sat at the back of the bus, luckily no one had to sit by me. Passport control at both border crossings was taken care of by the bus steward, we just handed our passports over. The only thing we had to do was take our bags off the bus at the Nicaraguan side to go through a half hearted security check, they just passed me straight through, and then reload the bus. The border crossing was incredibly hot, but I found on my arrival as was Leon!

Leon is one of two colonial towns in Nicaragua, the other being Granada. I’d decided only to visit one as I have seen so many towns now, and I had also planned on going volcano boarding. However my garden variety cold struck me pretty viciously, and the two nights and one full day I spent there pretty much in bed lying under a pathetic fan trying to not to sweat. A kind Dutch girl I met on the first night even went and bought me a sandwich and juice for my breakfast so I didn’t have to get out of bed. I had a very half hearted wander about town, but didn’t even take any photos. I did meet up with another girl I’d met in Ecuador for dinner briefly, but other than that was a hermit for me two days.

With the heat I’d decided to get out of the town and up into the countryside. This meant getting another super early minibus at 5am which arrived at the city of Estelli by 7. I then had a few hours to kill before my midday bus out to Miraflor natural reserve which is area of traditional coffee growing communities. Again I tried to do a bit of sight seeing but still felt like crap so actually checked into a hostel for three hours sleep. Headed back up to the bus station for my 12pm bus only to discover that the 12pm bus ran everyday of the week but Wednesday! This meant I could have got up much later to catch the actual bus I did get out to Miraflor at 3pm! Sitting round the bus station feeling rubbish was testing my sense of humour. The reserve was only 40km away so I assumed about an hour in the bus….wrong again! It was steep twisty track and the crammed chicken bus barely seemed to move at times…two and half hours later (and one driver change as the first was too drunk) I finally arrived at the Finca (farm). Also getting off the bus with me were three Finns.

The place was beautiful and within half an hour after a shower and sat down to an early dinner the unenjoyable day gradually dispersed. It was heavenly going to bed that night, as the temperature all though hot in the day there really dropped at night. Snuggled up under a heavy duvet with the sounds of crickets and frogs, and my windows and doors to the cabin wided open….I think I was asleep by 8! I was awoken by a very confident chicken who jumped up on my bedroom window….I shooed him out and shut that window, two minutes later he was in the bathroom, shooed and chased him off, two minutes later he was in the door and jumping all over my bed….I gave in and got up. The mist was rising up from the fields, and the workers were out cutting down sugar cane. Kids were going to the local school on the back of motorbikes and horses…it was such a relaxing place to be.

I had a very lazy morning between breakfast and lunch and then mid afternoon with the three Fins set off for walk to a waterfall with a swimming hole. We probably set off a bit too late, and the guy at the Finca made it sound much nearer than it was. After an hour walking and asking a few locals we were getting a bit frustrated so played the “what am I” game to pass the time…..the Finish guy went first, we’d established he was a American, a singer over fifty, famous for ballads, homosexual and black….after we couldn’t guess who he was he revealed it was Tom Jones……???!!!!WTF. At least it passed twenty minutes and we found the waterfall swimming pool, it was a nice cold dip. But we didn’t have long as we had to get back before dark. Literally ten minutes after we got back to the Finca it was pitch black!

The following morning we headed off on horses for a trek, it was definitely a stroll. My horse was pretty small and I felt a bit chunky for him. The landscape was beautiful, and after an hour we started to descend into a valley at which point my horse decided I was definitely too fat and stopped walking. The guide tried to drag him, but he was a stubborn youngster. So I dismounted and walked the steepest bit. We arrived at some jungle and carried on foot without the horses. It was a short steep hike up to another waterfall, but as it was dry season it wasn’t overly impressive and we couldn’t swim there. My horse was better behaved on the upward journey thankfully, the sun had really come out and after the five hour round trip we were all ready for some shade, water an lunch! I had to leave that afternoon, and needed to walk a mile to the bus stop which I was dreading with my backpack. I managed to hitch a ride on the back of a pickup to the bus stop…but better than that they were actually going all the way to Esteli. Stood up in the back of a pickup truck with a bunch of farm workers, the journey only took an hour instead of two and half on the chicken bus and it was free…What a result for Jacko!

Back in Esteli which is quite a bit lower than Miraflor it was pretty warm again and getting to sleep that night was hard work again. I was really glad I’d gone up to the farm area, it was really good to get out of towns and cities for a few days. It’s a beautiful part of the country with very friendly people, lots of animals and good food!

Utila diving!

Posted on April 25, 2013 by bexbatorio

A very long day travelling of a boat, one bus, another bus stopping at Guatemala and Honduras borders, and hour wait at San Pedro (most dangerous city in the world’s tenth most dangerous country) for another bus followed by a short taxi ride and twelve hours later I was in the coastal town of La Ceiba Honduras and without question the worst hostal of my eight month trip. My room was more a corridor, and the place stank….but maybe a tad better than the brothel my folks had accidentally checked into in the same time town thirty-three years ago!

By ten the following morning following a fairly bouncy ferry ride I was in another island paradise of Utila. I was here like most other people for one reason….diving. Utila is one of, if not the cheapest place in the world to dive and do dive courses. I was here to do my PADI open water, which I starred that afternoon with some video watching at the dive centre. There was just two other Dutch girls on my course, and it was great to be small group. That night we went to the dive centre for the weekly pub quiz, the girls had been talking about malaria and tetanus and were worried about some if the aspects diving so our called our team the hypochondriacs, we did a little bit better than the worst. The second day we were in the water by the afternoon in the shallows for the first of the skills. It was pretty nice being able to go straight into effectively open water without having to use a swimming pool. In theory the first day was all the hard stuff off getting used to breathing with the regulator, taking your mask off and on and clearing it under water etc. I found all of this stuff dead easy, and was the best student of three of us. The next day we finished the skills in the water and the other video and theory. We finished a bit early and had pretty much the only free few hours that day to hit the beach. After which I stopped by the dive centre to complete the theory exam which we had the option of doing whenever.

That evening was a BBQ at the dive centre, and as we didn’t have to start till midday the next day we had geared ourselves up for a bit of a night. But we were all totally useless and after a few drinks, some food and watching the newly graduated dive masters have to compete in a drinking game involving snorkel and mask we ashamedly left early by 10pm! Day four we were just due to do the first two of four open water dives. The first dive went fine for me, Leonie had some equalising problems, and then unfortunately Lisa got really sea sick between the two dives so we had to call it a day. This just meant jigging our itinerary a bit for the next days. Day five we then completed the last three open water dives of the course, again I had no problems at all, and we were beginning so see some pretty cool fish and reefs on these dives. Lisa who’d suffered with seasickness had woken with a very strange rash and funny pains in her hands and feet but battled through it. Leonie had more troubles with equalising and couldn’t complete the final dive. So at the end of day five Lisa and I had passed the course, and were just planning our two free fun dives the following morning, and Leonie would finish the fourth dive to pass the course. My first night I was in a dorm room on my own, but the second night I moved into a twin with AC and bathroom to share with one if the girls I’d met in rio dulce who was a day behind me. That AC I’d enjoyed so much I blame for a cold which I awoke with on day six. Lisa and I headed out for our two free fun dives and immediately I knew I was going to have problems with equalising from my cold and we couldn’t go to the full intended depth. It was still a really cool dive and we saw a turtle among other things, but having enjoyed zero problems all week diving with the cold was not so fun. The second dive I opted out as I felt I’d already tried to blow my nose to hard tying to clear my ears, also if we went down and then I wanted to come out that would stop the dive for Lisa too. But I still got to snorkel over the same area and that was brilliant anyway. We returned to the dive centre and Leonie had managed to complete her course. Somehow with all our minor maladies after aptly pub quiz team the hypochondriacs we all three passed! Our instructor did tell me afterwards that he thought I was a natural and in the top five percent of students of come through. I think I’m just happy mucking about in water whatever that is. I’m hopeful I’ll be able to get some more diving done over the next few months of my trip….think this could be a new favourite hobby!

So we’d had five nights and six days on the island, but other than a few hours at the beach and couple of drinks on the dock watching the sun go down we’d really not had a chance to explore, we’d walked the same street about twenty times and that was it. We had an hour to quickly pack to get the 2pm ferry to the mainland before taking a bus back San Pedro. Luckily all of us were staying a night there, so we shared a taxi to a hostal. It was so unbelievably hot there, no breeze! It was Sunday night and coming up to nine pm. The hostal said there was only one restaurant that would be open, they walked us there, (150metres) and after dinner the owner drove us back! This was in a fairly residential area, it didn’t appear to be that dangerous to me, but I guess the locals know best. When we got back they had turned the AC on in the dorm room which I was so relieved of, but as soon as we were all in bed they turned it off! I woke up at 1am…stifling wasn’t the word. I was glad to have to check out at 4am to get a 13 hour bus across Honduras to Nicaragua!…..