Isla Ometepe…Never Never Land

Posted on May 4, 2013 by bexbatorio

4.30am start; Walk with my backpack portered in a wheel barrow along the beach, boat, taxi, plane, taxi, bus, taxi (properly ripped off!!), boat, chicken bus, walk….travelling in these parts is tiring! Twelve hours later arrived on the volcanic island of Ometepe! Checked in to Little Morgan….rustic party hostel on the shores of the lake, (a lake so big you think it’s a sea!). From the blue Caribbean Sea to the slightly more murky but equally temperate and refreshing water a quick swim to wash the dirt of travel away. The start to three great days on this island.

In my dorm was a 21 year old guy from Norway, Freddy, he’d been travelling for 8 months including the Middle East and Africa. He was near to the end of his trip having bought a motorbike in Texas and journeyed all the way down. I don’t think I was doing anything nearly as impressive as that when I was 21! He’s not telling his mother about the motorbike bit till he gets home safe. Our dorm room was on the bottom of a very open style three tiered bamboo hut, the top being a crows nest that you could watch the sunset with views of both of the island’s volcanos….another pretty memorable spot to watch the sky turn shades of pink and red.

Next day Fredrik and I went horse riding, his first time at that. Within five minutes we were on a three mile beach galloping at full pace. We were only on the horses for and hour and half, and over half over that we were galloping flat out. We were also able to take the horses into the lake, which was all good till mine decided to go swimming and I had to jump off to save my daypack with camera in getting soaked. It’s topped my Ecuador riding day, totally amazing! BUT we both paid a price, me more so than Freddy….I stupidly wore denim shorts over my leggings, and coupled with a different shaped saddle seriously chaffed my bum. Red raw. I’ve thought long and hard and decided not to publish the photo of my wounded rear…it’s just not that pretty! We ended the trek at a natural spring which they’ve made into a huge swimming pool and the guide took the horses back. When we both first got into the water our butts stung like mad! After a long walk back along the beach to the hostal, we had time for a swim in the lake before dark were we met Juliette a Dutch girl who’d checked into our dorm also. She’s bravely hired a moped from other side of the island to get over to the hostal, even though she’s never been on one before! These kids have some guts…I need to start taking some risks and living a little!

The following morning Juliette had to return the moped, so Freddy followed her and bought her back on his motorbike. Meanwhile I’d headed to another hostal up the road with better wifi and met a fellow English lass Jade who has done pretty much the same trip as me in a different order. I took her down to the beach to meet the others, and she’d already met Juliette elsewhere. Us girls swam and soaked up some sun watching the locals cycling bikes and riding and training horses on the beach, whilst Fred fulfilled his dream of riding his motorbike through the lakeside shore (it being freshwater didn’t hurt the bike). It looked too much fun, so all three of us begged him to have ride on the back and screamed like total teenagers as we got soaked through! I want a bike now…..

We’d been told by several people of some great Pizza place, so we walked in the dark with torches to a hippy hostel for the most overpriced and salty pizza ever! None of us were impressed….

Our last full day we returned to the natural water swimming pool, us girls hired the worst bikes I’ve been on in eight months…luckily it was only half hour. We had a few hours mucking around and enjoying some Coco-Locos (fresh coconut with rum) before heading back to the beach for a final time. I made the mistake of splashing some kids with water which they took as full on declaration of war. I spent ten minutes trying to out sprint the three of them before they launched handfuls of wet and dry sand at me….I lost! We decided to cycle back along the shoreline instead of going back upto the road, and for some reason cycling along the lake with a volcano in the distance was really special for all of us. There’s definitely something a bit magic about Ometepe.

Our last supper was a restaurant that all the staff at our hostal seriously raved about, unfortunately it was a forty minute walk along a dark road….fuelled by a bit of rum we set off in an overly hyped mood following the few days of fun we’d had. This time the restaurant did not disappoint! The best curry I’ve had since I left the UK hands down. A few more drinks later we started the return journey in the dark along the road, in even more silly mood attempted to recreate the Beatles album cover, at which point the only vehicle we’d seen all night came round the corner and I had to rescue my camera from the middle of the road. We managed to get a lift with the vehicle, which turned round to drive us back to our hostal and saved us half hour walk. I have to confess both the driver and his passenger were pretty inebriated, the fact that one of them had his three year old kid asleep on the back seat indicated a slight level of responsible driving. I know not my wisest move, but we got back safe….

The following morning we left the island on the Ferry and all parted ways. I had planned on climbing a volcano on the island but after my sore bum incident whimped out and had a blast anyway. That was my last stop in Nicaragua, and was a pretty cool couple days in a beautiful place with great company. Again I wish I’d had more time for Nicaragua, but what is saw of the country was great…just means I have reasons to return.

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.

Caye Caulker Belize…

Posted on March 31, 2013 by bexbatorio

At one point I’d cropped Belize from my list, as I have limited time now to get down to Panama by mid May, and I’d been led to believe that Caye Caulker was really only a divers destination, with not much snorkelling. By chance a dive chap from Tulum told me that the snorkelling is even better than some of the dives and so I reworked a very fast and relatively expensive trip to Caye Caulker in before Guatemala. First was a three hour bus from Tulum to Chetamul (Mexico) nearly missing emigration before hopping onto a two hour water taxi (hot, cramped and not comfortable!) to San Pedro (Belize), and then another water taxi to Caye Caulker. Arrived at seven pm and tried to book my snorkel trip for the following day, but the place I’d been recommended was full for the next two days. So resolved to get up early and jump on a tour.

Of all the places I’ve travelled to and from Belize was the biggest cultural difference, going from Mexico just a few hours across the water….it was very Caribbean with all the local Rastafarians, and English being the main language…it was hard to stop with the hola, por favor, gracias! And the food was totally different to, and not to healthy looking at the average size of the locals either! But a very relaxing vibe indeed and I was gutted I would only have such a short time there.

I had been hoping and waiting to catch up with a British couple that I’d met about six times in Argentina and Chile back in November, who were travelling up through Central America the opposite way to me…and of all places the tiny island of Caye Caulker ended up being our cross over point and we bumped into each other on the seafront. It was great to catch up and swap some tips of places routes etc.

I was a good girl and got up nice and early and booked the tour I wanted, five hours, with lunch, four snorkels, and a little cruise at the end with some rum punch…70$….pricey, but that’s Belize. And for what I got to see I was more than happy! Our first dive near a reef we saw turtle, shark and ray and some huge grouper and other big fish. When our group saw the turtle, a Canadian chap not happy with swimming half a metre away from it grabbed it..it obviously scarpered. I grassed him up to the guide and asked him why he touched it, he said “it was really relaxed”…. seriously….some people!!! Stupid or what. Our second spot was a little contrived, a guy sits on a boat all day feeding conch to a greedy huge turtle and beneath the turtle were about twenty massive rays, including a two metre long beautiful eagle ray! It was a little frightening initially swimming so near these creatures, but breathtaking! Our third quick dive was also a bit contrived “shark alley”. All the tour boats feed a group of sharks, and whilst they are feeding on one side of the boat you get in the other to swim round and watch. For some reason the sharks for me were less scary than the rays, it was fantastic to get so close….even if it was a little like feeding at the zoo! As soon as our boat ran out of food, they moved onto the next. Our final spot was over a reef, and mainly just small fish but I saw a shark again and followed him for a while. After our final snorkel we had a mini cruise with some rum punch and spotted some obliging dolphins who coyly circled the boat for a while. One of the dolphin’s fins looked like it had certainly seen better days…very wonky.

I was stoked with everything I saw, all though the reef is in really bad shape, and they need to be careful with conservation. Our guide didn’t really give us any rules about don’t do this or that, ie don’t touch a turtle. Whilst pretty obvious to me…..not to others. On my boat were two lovely girls from LA, and after meeting up with the English couple for another drink in the evening I then joined them in a group for one of their bday dinner. Had a great time, at a very relaxed restaurant and headed for a few drinks after. The temperature had been steadily rising, and the air pregnant with anticipation….and then the heavens opened! I mistimed my five minute dash back to the hostel in what I thought was a break in the rain, and got fully soaked!!!

Next morning I had to catch the 9am water taxi to Belize city to get a connecting shuttle bus to Flores, Guatemala. The rain had not stopped, and I was glad to have managed to fit my snorkel trip in as I would not have been able to go with that weather. It also made leaving the island after such a short trip a bit more bearable. It was an expensive thirty six hours, but I have no regrets (except not having a waterproof camera!) when am I going to be back in this neck of the woods again? Plus I got to catch up with Vicky and Simon, and the snorkelling was worth it!