Leave Only Footprints: January 2016

I forgot how much we loved Nicaragua until we went back through the pictures. It`s such a beautiful country and the people there were some of the nicest we encountered in Central America. Unfortunately, what makes Nicaragua so different from neighboring countries is its extreme poverty. 80% of people in Nicaragua live on less than $2 a day. Obviously that money goes a lot further in Central America than it would in Canada or Australia, but it`s still ridiculously low. We noticed that change almost immediately after crossing the boarder from Honduras. The roads went from being reasonably well maintained to being littered with potholes. Our van was stopped by the police 4 times in just a couple of hours for passport checks and bribes. Like most impoverished countries we've visited, though, the people were happy and extremely helpful.

Our first stop was the city of Leon which had a reputation for being a bit of a party spot. We arrived on the evening of Halloween and purposely avoided all bars. Drunk tourists are the worst, especially young drunk tourist. We had a quick supper and retreated to the safety of our quiet hostel. The next day we were desperate to escape the heat and luckily found a museum to hide in for a couple hours. We were surprised to find a huge collection of artwork from around the world.

A church in Leon getting some much needed maintenance.

Artwork by Central American artists on display inside the museum.

Trying to cool down with an ice-coffee.

Aaran getting a $2 haircut in Leon.

Before going to Nicaragua we had a look at our budget and decided that we had just enough money to treat ourselves to a little vacation. From the capital, Managua, it was just a short plane ride to the beautiful paradise of Big Corn Island, a breathtaking Caribbean island that hasn't been overrun by tourists just yet. From there, we took a short boat ride to Little Corn Island, an even more secluded and wonderful location. The boat only leaves twice a day which limits the amount of tourists on the island at one time. Besides the deserted beaches and crystal clear waters, our main reason for visiting Little Corn was the super cheap diving. Aaran was able to get an 8 dive package for less than $25 a dive. Most places will give 2 dives for about $100. We decided to spend almost a week there, relaxing, eating seafood and swimming with entire stretches of beach to ourselves.

Walking through the forest to find secluded beaches on the island.

No other humans around on our little stretch of paradise.

Our Caribbean rundown fish stew made with fish straight off the boat.

$7 lobster and coconut rice. So delicious we had it for lunch and dinner.

Waiting for a flight back to the mainland on the beach.

Our next stop in Nicaragua was the island of volcanic island of Ometepe. We stayed on an organic farm for the first 2 nights and moved to a small house on the lake for our last night. The farm was nice but it was a bit too crowded for us. We were paying about $6 each for accommodation so obviously there were no fans or air-conditioning. To cool down we spent almost every day at the Ojo de Agua, a big man-made hole, naturally filled with cold water trickling down from the volcano. It was a 7km walk each way to the pool but it was definitely worth the trouble.

Walking to the Ojo de Agua.

Beautifully cold and clear water at the Ojo de Agua.

We spent entire days just reading and swimming at the pool.

We really loved the everyday routine of being in Nicaragua. People are very laid-back and don't seem to be in much of a rush, but most importantly no one is trying to take advantage of you. In a lot of places bus or taxi drivers are constantly trying to rip you off. We didn't find that here. Transportation was cheap and very easy understand. When you're travelling long term you come to really appreciate it when a country is easy. You can leave a city and not have to stress too much about how to get to your next location. We also loved that Nicaragua had simple food. We could never really afford tourist restaurants so we would just go to the local small kitchen and order the meal of the day. It was always the same thing so we knew what to expect. Rice, beans and eggs for breakfast or rice, beans and chicken for lunch.