Chinandega: 27th - 29th September
27th September – Saturday
Couldn’t have asked for a worse night if I tried. Just after I got into bed a storm began and it raged all night, thunder claps continually jolting me from my sleep and the sound of the rain was more than dramatic. I woke at 4:30 and added an extra 15 minutes to my alarm but didn’t get back to sleep. By the time I was ready to leave it was still raining. I put my laptop bag in my day-bag and covered that with my rucksack rain cover. I then wrapped my purple rain mac over my rucksack, and wearing my smugglers outfit and plastic shoes headed off to the immigration office. I had to leave one bottle of vape juice behind as I don’t have back pockets in my black shorts and the front ones bulged suspiciously with two bottles, not that I needed worry!
Immigration was only a 6-minute walk and it stopped raining shortly after I got there. They took a good 45 minutes processing our passports which was tedious, however I got talking with a lovely ‘older’ couple from New Zealand, Sue and Al, and a younger couple from the UK, I didn’t get their names. So the waiting around was well spent. A huge tour group of young Canadians turned up and for a while I thought we were getting a bigger boat with them, but they had a fancy high speed boat booked and ours, with about 10 people on board, was the standard boat. The journey was very fast, one and half hours, and the Gulf of Fonseca was very scenic with several small island that we went between. At one point Honduras was on the left of us, El Salvador behind and Nicaragua in front, it was quite spectacular. As we neared the coast of Nicaragua we got stopped by the Honduras sea police, they told us to wait while the speed off to the high speed boat which wasn’t actually that far ahead of us (we left for sail before them), then they returned to us, tethered themselves to out boat, looked at each of us with stern intense stares while checking the skipper had all our papers in check. After a head count they left. Al informed me that a drugs cartel guy is on the run and he thought they were probably checking all boats for him, it certainly wasn’t, from the look on the captain’s face, something that usually happens.
Anyway, it wasn’t long before we were hugging the coast line of Nicaragua, with Honduras just about visible, through the clouds, across the water. There is no landing dock at Potosi, so we had to wade through the water, which was beautifully warm and not even knee deep. We had a of waiting time while the Canadian’s filled in their paper work and had their bags searched. Finally it was our turn and I was feeling a little anxious, not that I had seen them search anything but bags. My guy was quite young and I whittled on to him in English as he first looked in my computer bag. Then he came to my rucksack, first he did my toiletries bag them he pulled out my pants and bras pack. I made a silly comment about him being naughty search in my underwear, I know he understood because his face flushed and he didn’t finish looking through the rest of my stuff – he sent me on my way – lol. I was so happy to get my vape, a bottle of juice and 5 coils through customs.
Sue and I went off for a walk to find food, our mission failed, although I did get a bag of plantain crisps with coleslaw, but it was quite fun and I made a lot of people smile and laugh with my awful Spanish. On returning everyone bar me jumped in the shuttle bus for Chinandega, $15 dollars each, I decided that waiting for two hours for the bus was the better, and certainly the cheaper, option. There was a lady there selling drinks and I am she tried to short change me. She was actually very nice and we attempted a conversation, during which she said she would give me the right change for the bus, so I gave her a 100 corboda note and she gave me 80 back in change – uhm. It got very complicated after that and she even got her calculator out – lol. Eventually I took my 100 back and gave her her 80 back. Soon after she left, then the immigration police locked up the shed and they all left. I was literally left sitting there all on my own, so I got my vape out and enjoyed blowing smoke at the immigration building – lol.
At five to one a guy came round the corner and informed me that the bus was waiting for me. It had been behind the building I was in front of the whole time! The journey was long, 2 and a half hours long, but for just over £1 it was more than worth it. I had no data so when we pulled into the stop in Chinandega I had very little idea of the route to the hotel. They have cycle taxis here so, the guy wanted 200c for the journey but I got him down to 150c – the hotel wasn’t that far and I know he severely overcharged me, but such is life, and I’m not going to cry over £3 – lol.
The hotel is ok, they are doing some work to it so I expect it will be noisy with builders on Monday. I went for a little walk to the main square, it is only a couple of blocks away. One side of the square was lined with tables and cafes selling mainly junk food, so I had an enormous burger and the biggest glass (jug) of fruit salad juice, which was very refreshing and full of fresh fruit. By the time I had finished it was getting dark, I followed a loud musical banging sound to see the
end of a group of young dancers doing a performance. From there I found a super market and life became complicated again. My two drinks came to 100c, I gave the guy $10 and he gave me change in corboda. $1 = 36c. I couldn’t work it all out, not sure what the guy thought of me, but he makes these calculations all the time, I don’t. I explained that I was from the UK and had only arrived this evening, I think he forgave me.
Nicaragua is very different for El Salvador, for starters the landscape on the journey was very flat and arable and they don’t seem as fixated on growing corn/maze. I could see dense jungle in the distance, but the foreground was not dense with it, and they have many houses and shelters with straw thatch like roofs, which I didn’t see at all in ES. The people also seem a lot louder and happier. There was a lot of laughter and music on the bus and at one point the driver, conductor and luggage handler (who spent a lot of the journey on the roof of the bus!) got off and bought lunch – it was just so amusing. Even when I was eating my burger at the square they were playing loud music and some of the café workers were dancing in the street. However, the main thing that stood out to me was seeing so many young men. I hadn’t noticed not seeing so many of them in ES until now; I think most of them are locked up, for life, in ES high security prison, CECOT, for being in gangs. In fact, while I was in San Salvador I witnessed a young guy being stopped by armed police, they searched his bag and then lifted his T-shirt, back and front, checking for gang tattoos, he didn’t have any and they let him go. Tattoos are really frowned upon in ES, but here I have seen many. My first impressions are very positive, however I will say that the people in ES seemed to smile and greet me as they passed me in the street, whereas here that has not happened yet.
28th September – Sunday
I woke this morning to a parade going past the hotel. I managed to see some of it while I was waiting for my breakfast. There were a couple of floats, marching bands and dancers, it was very loud but not very spectacular. I have researched and tried asking at reception but cannot find any information about it, so I going to presume it was related to a church or a school?
After breakfast I did a little research and decided I’d go to the Flor de Cana tomorrow, which is a rum distillery/factory. I decided that, as I was going to bus it there, I should find out where the bus leaves from in advance. So off I marched with no data, just a screen print of the route. Me being me, not only did I leave the hotel and go in the completely wrong direction, I also diverted from the route several times. In doing this I came across a beautiful light blue church with quite spectacular white columns and a bell tower, the Parroquia Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe Emperatriz de America, unfortunately it was closed so I didn’t get to see inside. I then found myself in this amazing, but very dirty, market. The stalls lined both sides of the streets making it very cramped especially with the bicitaxis (bicycle taxis) zooming up and down it. There was so much delicious looking fresh fruit and vegetables on sale, as well as clothes, meat, car parts and reams of products made from plastic. Finally, I found myself on a road in front of the bus station lined with mobile phone stalls and shops. I bought a SIM card for £5, and with mobile data 
I easily located the entrance to the bus station and noted where my bus was located, without getting lost!
On my return trip I was so saddened to came across a horse attached to a cart outside a loud and rowdy bar, where his owner must have been. It was so thin and had its head lowered and such a sad expression on its face, it was standing in full sun with 42-degree heat beaming down on it. The poor thing. They seem to have little regard for animals here, nearly every dog I have seen has been covered in so many fleas that you can see them jumping about – it’s really sad, and they are so skinny and usually look so sad. I won’t even mention the cats 
When I got back, I went to buy my rum factory ticket only to find out that they are not open tomorrow, so much for that plan. I spent the afternoon researching what to do tomorrow, and now it’s evening time I still don’t have a clue, all there seems to be in this town are churches, of which I have now seen two, and museums. All the exciting tours seem to start from Leon or Granada; I’ve been looking for hours. I even thought about going to the Cristobel Volcano Nature Reserve, which is really near here, but to get to it you
have to go via Leon – FFS. We had a thunder storm this afternoon, so I was actually quite happy researching and ended up booking my next accommodation … in Leon, I go on Tuesday. I also plotted my route to Rivas, where I am due to get the bus to Costa Rica on the 20th October. OMG, there is so much I want to do and see that I will only have 2 full days in any one place. I need longer, so I have emailed Tica Buses to see if they will change the date of departure to the 30th. I feel hopeful as on their site they state that if, for some reason, you miss your bus they will give you a voucher to use within the following year. So, it’s not a company that just takes your money and run. I should see if the operate in S America, if they do and won’t change my date, I could just miss my bus, get a voucher and use it there.
However, while researching I did find out some interesting facts. Chinandega is also known as the Orange Town, and is famous for its factories, including a sugar factory and the rum factory, which produces one of the best rums in the world (?) The district of Chinandega is renowned for its fertile soils, arable land and agriculture. However, there are 50 volcanoes in Nicaragua, many of which are still active and you can climb most of them, you can also go volcano boarding down Volcano Cero Negro, which is live and a ‘new’ volcano. They say it erupts every 10 years, the last time being in 1999, so it is well overdue! I watched a video with a couple of bloggers doing the boarding, it looks a bit scary but I might just give it go.
29th September – Monday
I had a lovely long chat with Rita this morning. I had planned on going out earlier, but when a friend calls ….
Over breakfast and perusing G maps I decided to go to two places, one was successful the other not. It was overcast when I left so walking was quite pleasant and rain was predicted for the afternoon so it wasn’t as hot as the last two days. For my first stop I went to the La Antigua Estacion del Ferrocarri, which is the old rail station. They now use it for community events and I read that it is about to get a well needed facelift. It was actually quite pretty with many raised beds, which looked like they were where the old tracks may have been, plenty of seating areas, a stage and a rundown skate board park. There was also a one roomed Museum de la Revolution, which was very interesting and made me realise that I don’t actually know anything about Nicaragua. So, when I got back did some research and learnt a lot about this country and its history, landscape, people and culture. For example, it is the only Central American country that was colonised by the Americans and British. It is also the poorest country in Central America and also has a large young population, which I noticed last night. This is for several reasons, one of them being high fertility rates and another regardless of age, rape etc, they banned abortions in the early 21st century. By 2010 more than three tenths of the population was under the age of 15!
After the railway station I did a 45-minute walk to the Museo Casa de Cultura Chinamithlan, which was closed! That actually pissed me off as I was hot, sweaty and tired and was so looking forward to some air conditioning – lol. However, the walk was quite interesting as I found myself strolling through a market and then through the bus station and finally through a poorer part of town, which was quite run down and had very cheap cafes. I saw one with breakfast for 80 Corbado and another with at least a dozen bicitaxi drivers eating at, whilst nearly every other shop was a car mechanics of some sort or another.
The walk back was 35 minutes, and just one long road. I passed through another market which sold mainly materials and clothes. Had a look in a second-hand shop but didn’t buy anything and bought my dinner from a local food shop; rice, chicken fillet covered in a cream sauce, salad, fried plantain and a fat vegetable patty that had cheese in it – very delicious.
Overall, I was walking for two hours and totally exhausted after I got back, so much so that I had a very refreshing half an hour cat nap. Since then I have done absolutely nothing except scroll on my bloody phone and play cards! I’m looking forward to going to Leon tomorrow, the hotel has a pool so I can whittle away the hours that I am not busy at the pool side instead of in a room with no windows, although I must say, it is a large room well lit room so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic. Actually, I did do something, for the second day in a row I actually did some exercise, only 20 minutes, but that’s 20 minutes more than nothing It’s now pouring with rain and has been for the last couple of hours so I will spend the evening up-dating my website, at least that is more productive than playing cards.