Volcano Hike

Finca Magdalena

Petroglyphs

Guanacasta Tree

Only picture I could get of a monkey

 

Thursday, April 5 2012

We woke up early and had an excellent breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans) for me and honey butter banana bread (Mmmmm) for Marcie.  When our guided hike up the extinct Volcan Madras was getting ready to start at 7:30 am this Scottish guy asked if we would wait until he had breakfast so he could go.  We said no. 

The hike was great.  It was a rare cloudy day so the usually blazing sun was not pounding us.  We went up and up and up thru the tropical rainforest.  The farther up it went the muddier it got until about 3 hours later we arrived at the rim of the volcano.  From there we descended a very steep slope with the use of ropes into the crater of the volcano where there’s now a lagoon.  We’d heard that you can swim there but after we saw this Dutch guy try it and come out muddy up to his knees we decided against it.  The Scottish guy eventually did catch up with us and ended up being interesting to talk to.  Especially when he took out his tv type phone and showed us a video of a turtle getting butchered by a Japanese knife chef ninja master and then the Scottish guy doing shots of the turtles blood mixed with sake.

So we were hanging out around this volcano crater lake eating our lunch with the rest of the hikers and guides when someone’s phone started playing Bryan Adams’ “Please Forgive Me (I know not what I do)”.  Marcie made the comment that Senor Adams is Canadian.  Our Nicaraguan guide slides in; Vancouver.  How did he know this?  So you're a big fan I ask him?  Oh yeah, he says in all seriousness.  So is Bryan Adams very popular in Nicaragua I ask?  No.  Suddenly we see our guide in a new light.

In case you’re wondering, Yes.

Yes he also likes John Cougar Mellencamp.

That was all well and good but now we had to get back down the volcano.  As every hiker knows it’s counter-intuitively harder to go down than it is to go up.  Both Marcie and I slipped and fell on our butts multiple times on muddy rocks.  We started to see lots of howler monkeys swinging from the trees above us as we got back closer to the coffee plantation where we were staying.  I was slightly worried that they would try to fling poop at us as I’ve read they’re known to do.

We were both waaaay tired when we got back so we cleaned up and crashed out for a couple then headed out riding double on the moped down the steep rocky dirt mountain road.  We had a great meal at someplace that I have no idea what it’s called but they have the best salads in Nicaragua. 

Friday, April 6 2012

Today was the start of the peak weekend for the holiest of holy Nicaraguan holidays.  Good Friday is when the Semana Santa (Holy Week) partying really gets going for the local Latinos.  Marcie and I drove our moped from the base of Volcan Maderas where we were staying at Finca Magdelana to the main town on Volcan Conception.  It was cloudy and relatively cool on the bike.  We got it up to 80 kilometers an hour and the scooter could have gone faster but I thot that Marcie’d freak out on the back if I pushed ‘er furthur. 

We dropped off the bike at da rental place and hoped they’d not be able to tell that we’d crashed it yesterday.  They could not and we got our full 1163 Cordobas ($50 US) refund back.  The boat ride back to the Nicaraguan mainland was really relaxing.  There was hardly anyone on the boat so we got to sit up on the top (3^rd) deck with a bunch of seats to ourselves. 

It was not long after that when Marcie, New Beige, Joey and I hit the Costa Rican border.  This was a very confusing but relatively inexpensive 2 hours where we were sent back and forth multiple times between different agencies in separate buildings to get stamps that they neglected to tell us we needed the first time we talked to them.  It still ended up being one of the cheapest border crossings on this trips so far.  At the end tho the manager of customs on the Costa Rican side gave us his personal phone number and email and told us that if we ever had any trouble we could call him.  He’s been to New York and kept telling us how much he loved it.  I didn’t want to break his heart and tell him that Yankees Suck!

The northern part of the Guanacaste state of Costa Rica looks a lot like Nicaragua with flat dry cow valleys, giant volcanoes rising up to the east and Pacific beaches to the west, just out of site of the hi-way.  We passed thru the town of La Cruz and New Beige, Joey, Marcie and I started looking for a place to stay in the state capital of Liberia.  We kind of got cot up with this hustler who was “helping” us find a room.  It turned out alrite and we got a decent, clean, hot water, strong wifi signal room for 1600 colones ($32 US) and only a 2000 colone commission for our “friend”.

~Jon