León - a city of artists and free spirits

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 24 April 2014. Posted in Nicaragua

Yeah, let’s get some more stamps in our passport and off we go to León. But not before the Border Control cheated us with the exchange rate for the Immigration Fee. Welcome to Nicaragua, haha.

Changing minibuses, tricycles and buses we finally arrived in León. This heat was following us and it felt like the Sahara desert or standing in front of a colossal hair dryer. Sure we were ready for a walk with our 25 kg gear, just 20 minutes’ walk around the city.

Where is the freaking hostel? Oh good, let’s just take this one here, I don’t care since I am melting away. So we found this small, family run hostel with only 5 rooms, only Spanish speaking and the use of a kitchen.

Last one was very important since we were sick of chicken, rice with beans and tortillas. How much of this can a human being possibly eat? Let’s have some salad and pasta tonight. This sounded like a 5 star dish to us and it felt good in the stomach.

In the heat we literally swam through the city. At the park we run into a German woman who sells beautiful jewelry on the street and left Germany already in the 90’s. We invited her for a Cappuccino and had an interesting conversation. Especially when potential customers joined us and the conversation changed into Spanish.

Somehow the Spanish woman had a crush on Michael and when we bumped into them in the Supermarket again she wouldn’t stop talking. We think she tried to invite us for the evening but with our limited Spanish we didn’t understand fully her plans.

León is a great place to see and we enjoyed our time here. We are still adapting to the heat – if sweating tremendously but still moving is an improvement. The city has a lot of old churches, all with wooden ceiling and beautifully decorated.

It is a lively city with the heart at the Parque Central and the Markets with its Artisans. Just make sure you don’t buy the dried Mango. Even fruit can’t stand the heat. Those are times when an Air Con comes handy and we went suspiciously often into the cooled supermarket.

Accommodation: Hostel Nicarago, León

Price: NIO 200, private room, shared bathroom, Wifi

Comment: small family run hostel with kitchen to use. Cheap and friendly people.
Perfect to practice some more Spanish. The kitchen would need some
brushing.

Comayagua and Choluteca

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 22 April 2014. Posted in Honduras

So up and let’s go to Comayagua. Since everyone seemed to head a different way it was no problem to find a place in the bus. In Comayagua we hoped to see some more Easter Celebration.

The former capitol of Honduras had a beautiful, colonial center and we strolled from one parquet to another. Unfortunately the main celebration already took place on Friday so we just had missed it.

Also the colorful, storytelling sawdust was already gone and the city seemed a bit deserted. Still we enjoyed the atmosphere and again run into real nice people where we had some great conversations with. At least we had some smaller processions, a big mess in front of the cathedral and an easter fire.

From the bell tower of the old Cathedral we had a fantastic view over the city and it reminded us on Spain. The old clock is supposed to be over 1000 years old. If this is made in Germany?

And off we went again towards the Nicaraguan border to the town named Choluteca. Had to look it up at least 20 times. Can’t they use easier city names?

This city was really eerie not to mention the hotel we found. Well, we wanted to stay close to the bus station and it was either ugly or unpleasant. What to choose, let’s go for the cheaper one.

And again we seemed to be a curiosity. It’s funny that you just travel a couple of hours and here we have a different dialect again. Not that we have to learn more vocabularies, no we also have to adapt to the different styles. Working on it but it is great fun. Just the heat here is unbearable.

Accommodation: Hotel Miami, Comayagua

Price: HNL 350, private room, own bathroom, TV

Comment: just a couple of blocks away from the Parque Central, around the
corner of the bus stations and the market

Accommodation: Soldimar Hotel , Choluteca

Price: HNL 200, private room, own bathroom, TV

Comment: looks shaggy and room is extremely sticky but suits the purpose. Just
close to the bus stations

Copan Ruinas and Macaws

Written by Nadine Zangerle on 19 April 2014. Posted in Honduras

At the border of Honduras we had to wait a bit on the other side before we could catch a collective. While we waited we had a great conversation with two border controls and two men. Best way to practice Spanish.

One of the man organized us some tourist information and maps of Honduras and even called a hotel in Copan to get us a nice room. In Copan we checked-in and wandered around the beautiful, small, colonial town.

It reminded us a bit on San Cristobal de las Casas in Mexico just smaller. Preparations for the bit Easter Processions where going on. We followed the artistic work where they create a big carpet of colorful bible pictures, made out of saw dust.

The next day we checked out the Copan ruins. Since 2011 they are running a breeding and preservation project (supported by the World Parrot Trust and BOSS Orange in collaboration with Macaw Mountain Bird Park and Nature Reserve) to release Macaws back into the wild. Around 30 beautiful macaws where flying above our heads and we enjoyed watching them just sitting on top of a pyramid.

The interesting hanging nests of the Montezume Oropendola, a black bird with bright yellow tale – where cool to watch. After 6 hours wondering around the ruins, watching the birds and studying the museum we headed back to our hotel.

After such a long, hot hike we treated ourselves on beer and cheese. Yes, you heard right. We found a nice place where they offered jummy cheese platters. There we met a family from San Pedro de Sula and we had a great conversation with them in Spanish.

We have to say, we run in a lot of lovely people here in Honduras. Since we want to catch an early bus to Comayagua tomorrow we decided to go to bed early.

Accommodation: Hotel San Juan, Copan Ruinas

Price: HNL 300, private room, own bathroom, internet

Comment: close to the market, very nice people, clean room (just the shower
head and curtain needs some scrubbing)

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