BubblesandBugs.com - Travel and Scuba

Nicaragua…my first time…

…this is Cindi’s 2nd time. We barely made it however….more on this in a bit.

So at the time of last update, we were in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. A beautiful little town with cobblestone streets. We stayed at a small place call Hotel Guest House for 2 nights. It was ok…but we didnt’ have water. Bastards…I know they had water in the sistern…but they were playing games turning it on and off to our room. Not sure when they thought the ideal time for a shower was…but we obviously didn’t agree on this matter. For 16$ a night…you think water would be included.

The Ruins were spectacular. Below are a few pictures. We spent about 4 hours walking around the structures and taking pictures. It was a great first time Ruin experience. Cindi said she appreciated it more the 2nd time around…but maybe only because she had been to 6 or 7 sets of ruins the last time she came to Central America. Mom, I think you would have loved this place.

We tried to find a place to take tortilla making lessons, but failed miserably…so we just decided to get on a bus towards southern Honduras and make a pit stop at the highly recommended Pulaphanzak Waterfalls. We were also told about a cool Hostel/Brewery called D and D. American owned…this place was supposed to serve great Home Brewed beers and offer good tour service. It was ok…I got a cot for 2 nights and Cindi was sleeping on a couch….for 2$ a night. There were no other hostels or hotels anywhere clost. The owner was kinda rude at first…but they said he was relapsing on Dengue fever…guess that could piss anyone off. The food was great…and after the first day the owner offered to show me his collection of handmade honduran guitars and Mayan pottery. He took me into is Marijuana hot boxing room…i could only tell because I couldn’t see him 2 feet away…but he did play slide guitar amazingly. I had to get out of there quickly. The beer was extremely tasty..but after 7 or 8 home brews you should be singing to the birds…we weren’t. I guess it was really weak.

He set up a bird tour for us on Lake Yojoa. It blew. Don’t ever take a bird tour here. Birds are boring enough…without the shitty boat, non-english speaking tour guide, …for 4 hours? Who does that? Maybe this is why he smokes so much pot. Cindi got a good picture of the boat all 5 of us sat in…

So by this time, we are frustrated with the place and these waterfalls better be worth it. Holy Shit they were. I would say this is one of the top 10 things I have ever done in my life…a few slots behind running with the bulls in pamplona. They are about 160 feet tall…and roaring. Looking is an experience in its own. They a young guy on a bike asked us if we wanted to see the cave behind the falls. Only 5$ per person. People…this is by far the best 5$ I have ever spent in my life….It was 30 minutes of crazy, chaotic, scary, insane, and fun. He takes us to the bottom of the falls…only in swimming trunks and strap on sandals…and climbs over a few rocks…then gone. Where is he? Oh just jumped down 20 feet into the falls…and now he is smiling and waiting for us. Oh yeah…for about 30 minutes we made our way through the falls amidst the pounding water, crazy mist in your face (i lost a contact lens), and rocks you can’t see. We then powered our way under the main stream (all while making sure you don’t go over the edge to your death) to a small cave. Cave was lame…but getting there and back was awesome. If you are ever within 3, 6, 9 hours of this place…come…enjoy, you won’t reget it. Here are a few pics:

From the falls, we took 4 cabs, 5 buses, spent some time in Tegicigalpa, and a night in Managua…we are now in Granada, Nicaragua. Crossing the border by bus showed us some beautiful scenery and Hillary Duff in Cinderela story.

And yeah…we almost didn’t make it across the border. They were claiming we overstayed our Honduras Visas…I know we didn’t. The guy at the airport in San Pedro Sula wrote that we had 60 days on our passports and visas…we stayed about 50 days in Honduras. The guys at the Nicaragua border wrote over the 60 days and made it 30 days. And now they are telling us we might be stuck here…and maybe we have to pay more money. After some help from some Miami based americans…we were allowed through the border into Nicaragua. The entire bus had to wait for us for about 30-40 minutes. Hopefully we will be ok when we go to leave Nicaragua…who knows.

Ok…off to explore Granada.

later jason