Nicaragua

We entered Nicaragua on a low…nothing seemed to be going right…but this meant that the only way was up! And luckily upwards we went, metaphorically rather than physically, and Nica became one of our favourite countries to date.

It took us a few days to fix our bodies, bikes and equipment in order to continue, in this time we met the English couple (Lizzie and Ali) who we met in Tulum several months before and spent most of the following week with them. It was so good to spend time with fellow British touring cyclists who seemed to share a lot if the same views and tastes as us, it was also great to tuck in behind strong cyclists on flat windy sections!

The cycling has not been hard and all the Nicaraguan roads have been brilliant…smooth, mostly quiet and often flat. Distances between places of interest have been small and we only had two nights where we stayed somewhere that we wouldn’t otherwise visit. Volcan Masaya was a dramatic interlude to our ride between the capital and Granada…time is limited at the crater because of the gasses that the active volcano emits, but ten minutes was enough time to absorb the glowing and spitting lava at the bottom of the crater, which seemed scarily real and alive at so close a proximity.

In Granada we turned into rather a troop of cycle tourists, four Brits and two Canadian tourers (Andrew and Amanda) were the only guests at the hostel. We are all on very different length and style trips -Lizzie and Ali four months, us a year and Andrew and Amanda potentially ten years around the world…but our day to day lives are very similar, we are discovering cycle tourists are a certain breed. We took a motorised trip to Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake which was an incredible swimming spot. Our choice of taxi back up the steep hill from the lake was questionable…it was doubtful whether we would make it to the top and the black smoke and fumes coughing out the back did nothing for the green credit we have earned with our bikes!

We left Granada as a peloton of six…the boys took it in turns on the front and we whizzed along happily, it is very different travelling as six…you feel even more conspicuous but also much safer, as a bigger object vehicles give you more room and you know you will be spotted. And it was fun…I hardly thought about my legs or bottom…just concentrating on not crashing into the back tyre of the person in front!

We left Andrew and Amanda at Rivas and continued to catch the ferry to Isla de Ometepe, an island made up of two volcanos in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. The ferry was a bit of a farse, we were banished from the small car deck while they manhandled our precious bikes around and backed cars in around them, sometimes into them. But Ometepe was beautiful, we camped beside the lake, swam and hired scooters to explore the island at speed and with very little effort!

We planned to leave the island on the 5.45 ferry from the port about 1km down the road…but it was cancelled, the ferry was sick. So we raced the clock to cycle the 12km to the other terminal by 6.30…this meant cycling as fast as possible for the entire time which is not something we are used to! There was also every imaginable obstacle…herds of cows, chickens, dogs, people, buses and speed bumps. We rolled up in the nick of time panting and sweating and played tug of war with our bikes and an irate ferry man…Sam ended up shouting at him for trying to squeeze me and my bike into a gap that was far too small. The man soon stopped when the tall hairy English man got angry!

We parted ways with Ali and Lizzie as they headed to the border and we turned our wheels to the coast for some surfing. This was supposed to be an easy short day but we hit dirt and the trip took rather longer than expected, I feared for my life as I slipped and skidded down steep gravelly hills and on the uphills we were forced to team up and push two to a bike to make any progress…a different sort of work out.

Nicaragua passed in a in an enjoyable blur and we enjoyed the country a lot…for its beauty, it’s great roads and the company along the way. And as we approached the Costa Rican border we crossed the 5000mile mark…I tinged my bell and carried on going, what’s another mile eh?!