Getting into Nicaragua was interesting. We decided to fly to Liberia in Costa Rica as we found a cheap flight from Cartagena to Liberia. Liberia is about 1 hour south of the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border. So upon landing at the airport we took a taxi to the border. This border crossing has to be one of the most confusing land borders we have crossed - no signs, no structure and a 1.5km walk in the heat between the two borders. During this walk you have to stop by a random man sitting at a small unmarked desk who gives you a slip of paper. If you arrive at the Nicaraguan entry point without this piece of paper you have to walk 1km back to get it! Something we saw a few people have to do. Touts wait at each end of the crossing and offer to act as a guide between the borders and show you where to go and in what order - we used a guide and its well worth doing for the sake of a few dollars.
We arrived at the accommodation in Popoyo in Nicaragua and to be fair it was not quite what we expected. We were expecting lush coastline with jungle, palm trees etc and were instead met by a very dry and arid landscape. The area has been in drought for a few years and cactuses, burnt fields and thorns make up the landscape. The beaches however are beautiful and I understand the southern coastline of Nicaragua is greener. Anyway we hired a motorbike and did a few fun trips and and down the coastline. The Nicaraguan people are very reserved and are not particularly welcoming to foreigners - compared to what we had experienced elsewhere in Latin America. This resentment and attitude to foreigners was summed up when Jen was robbed while I was out surfing. The bastards stole our good Camera and GoPro. It seemed everyone in the small town knew the culprits along with the police (who wanted petrol money to come see us to prepare a police report). The police then said the incident occurred 200m out of their jurisdiction and therefore could not do anything, an absolute cop out. However Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America (only behind Haiti) so we couldn’t exactly expect a top notch police force!
Anyway we tried to move on from that disappointment and enjoy the rest of our time in Nicaragua. We met a really cool English couple (Tommy and Emma) who we got on with like a house on fire and subsequently spent the next three weeks traveling with. Jens birthday turned into a two day long party, one day of which was spent in the pool all day drinking in the sun listening to good music. A classic Canadian we meet along the way gave Jen a T shirt of her favorite band (The Flatliners) for her birthday and fair to say she was stoked! The last few days in Popoyo turned on some good surf at the local reef break a short walk from our accommodation.
From Popoyo we headed to Granada for a night which is a nice colonial town worth a look and then onto Leon for volcano boarding. Jen was really keen to do volcano boarding up until the point when she was sitting at the top of a very step volcano about to go down. I have never seen her so scared haha! People can reach speeds of close to 100km hour going down the side of the volcano and from the top it looks incredibly steep, luckily Jen, Tommy, Emma and I managed to make it to the bottom with no serious injuries.
Our time in Nicaragua was a mixed bag, some nice beaches, good parties and a few new experiences. However we did certainly leave with mixed emotions. The people are not very friendly and their resentment/attitude to tourists is the worst we experienced in Latin America. The country does have a lot of potential but for us it was a bit overrated. Hopefully next time we go we have a better experience in different parts of the country.