glover

Guatemala City. Checked in to our nice hotel. Hotel San Carlos in Zona 10, next to the US embassy on the major Reforma drag. Hotel is a renovated old mansion. An interesting combination of funky Period pieces and modern. Not much English spoken, at least while we were there, but staff could not have been more accommodating and our room and BED were fabulous. When we asked about dinner at Hacienda Real restaurant, staff called and arranged for them to pick us up gratis. We had an excellent dinner at this enormous kind of Argentinian steak house, complete with a little mariachi music. Then were delivered back to our hotel by the restaurant shuttle. Slept like the dead in fab bed. After a nice included breakfast and some internet, We checked out of our room and stored our luggage in closet near lobby. Staff arranged a taxi driver for us. He collected us and drove us down to historic center (Zona 1) talking on his cell phone the entire distance. We walked around the central plaza and down a few blocks to the central market - huge and very busy! As always enjoyed looking at the produce, fish, chicken, beef on display, as well as all the small eateries filled with locals. Wondered through the textile vendors and bought a colorful iPad cover. These textile vendors have wisely begun to create EVERY accessory one could possibly need in beautiful textiles.

Returned to the plaza and saw that they were setting up for an "event". Lots of vendors passing out Guatemala flags, a few groups of demonstrators with signs. Sat down next to two young guys and chatted them up for Spanish practice. The told us that their new president (the former comedian Jimmy Morales) would be speaking at 5 pm. Unfortunately too late for us. The guys were so excited because this would be the first president they had voted for. (They were 20 or so and from the province of Peten.). They were studying tourism at some kind of university. Chatted with them till our taxi guy came to pick us up. Mentioned to him that president was scheduled to speak and then had my usual experience of not being able to understand his extensive, animated, rapid response. Sigh. He mentioned Jimmy's "peliculas" Several times and the lack of housing, education, and basic facilities for the poor, But said so much more that whizzed by me.....��

After a little lunch back at our hotel, our same taxi driver zipped us out to the airport for our 7:30pm flight to Flores, the airport for Tikal. We were there in plenty of time and it was all very relaxing. Bought another textile iPad cover and more chocolate for continuing journey. Our Avianca prop flight was on time. Even a very new plane - and a box dinner and drinks for the less than one hour flight! Cool.

glover

Tikal. We're picked up by private van from our lodging, Tikal Inn. We paid $60 for this ride. Surely a tourist rip off, but there didn't seem to be shared shuttles in the eve and I didn't like stories I had read about some taxis etc. It is, however, an hour and 15 minute drive into middle of park and very dark. Have some nice Spanish conversation with driver. Finally arrive and check in. Are shown first to the room directly next to the restaurant. This immediately seems like a bad idea, so I ask for another and we're given the one next to that one which is larger and will presumably be quieter. I found it very difficult to figure out which level of rooms were where at the Inn. Having now seen the place, I would recommend asking for one among the group on the side of the pool or at the opposite end of pool from the restaurant/reception building. Our room (In the same building as restaurant/reception) worked out fine, but think I'd have chosen the others if it had been clearer.

We dumped our stuff in the room and had a drink in the restaurant as it was closing. Electricity is only on in the 3 park hotels for the first few hours in am and last few in pm. Unwittingly we left all the screened louvered windows in our room open that night, wondering why we were so cold. Duh. We were expecting heat and humidity n Tikal, but didn't get it. Next day dawned gray/misty. Ate hotel breakfast and mist started to lift. Set out at 9 or so walking from hotel to ruins. A nice walk as weather warmed and sun got brighter. Tour groups and day trippers didn't really arrive till 11 or 12' so we had the place to ourselves for awhile. Had thought of hiring famed guide Roxy Ortiz from our lodge, but decided against it as we had already arranged a bird guide for next day. And Mr. Glover will never agree to sunrise tours. Only reluctantly agrees to being rousted early for birding, So we just wandered around on our own with map, guide book pages and read good English descriptions at various building groups. Climbed up and down temples as permitted. Tikal is a very extensive and wonderful site. We got lots and lots of exercise covering the territory and were so glad it wasn't ghastly hot and humid. Since we both had binoculars and occasionally checked out birds, A guide with a group was kind enough to alert us to presence of a special bird at Temple 5 - male and female
Orange breasted falcon. Turned out the guide was Luis Alvearez who would be our guide next day. We'd already climbed that high temple, which has a great view over the main plaza, once, but climbed it again to look for the bird. Had no idea where to begin but saw Luis again way below and waved and said where. He pointed to some high bare branches, so we got a nice view. Spent all day at the ruins, climbing the very highest temple at the end of the day for a beautiful view out over the jungle and fun monkey activity in the trees. A great day. Wrecked by the time we walked back to Inn and collapsed. Had a so so dinner at hotel restaurant and crashed.

Next day we were up at 6' picked up our box breakfast and met our bird guide Luis Alvearez (highly recommended). He grew up at Tikal as his parents worked on excavation. Great energy and speaks fluent English. We stopped for a quick cup of coffee, then birded trails in the park. Luis looked for particular local ones and almost always found them where he expected. He has a great eye and ear. We picked up lots of new species. Favorite was chestnut colored woodpecker - a very large almost orange bird - magnificent! After a few hours around the ruins we returned to hotel and put luggage in Luis' suv. Then we went out and walked the old airstrip near the hotels, was used from 50s to 80s. Lovely path in the forest. Then drove out of the park toward our lodging that night in Flores. Stopped at Luis' house in nearby town of El Remate, parked car, and walked wetland area behind Luis house. Pretty area with lots of white water lilies, jacanas, moorhens, kingfishers etc. Talked to a bicycle tourist on road. A San Franciscan, she was peddling down from east coast all way to Ushuaia in Argentina! Looked to be a contemporary of ours too!

glover

Flores. Luis then drove us on to The small town of Flores, an island in the middle of Peten Itza Lake. We located our lodging: Flores Hotel Boutique. It had a small sign in front but we couldn't quite figure out how to enter. Luis asked at a nearby convenience store, then we opened the designated unlocked iron gate onto a little alleyway. We rang a few of the unmarked buzzers.At this point I was wondering about my proclivity for choosing "interesting" lodging. But within minutes a cheerful guy came to the door and ushered us into a pretty small lobby and then to our apartment "Mayan Princess." Inside was 700 ft square apt, living room, complete kitchen, bath, big bedroom, even a dining table already set with wine glasses and fancy napkins - the perfect place for your next dinner party in Flores. We paid Luis and big him fond farewell. Got ourselves a couple beers from our fridge and went out and up a few stairs to the common porch area looking out on the lake. Lingered there a while watching small boats come and go. Mr. Glover went back in the apt to retrieve something then couldn't get back in again. Locked out. It developed that the door latch was trashed. Fortunately we had no big plans, so just chilled further on porch while it was repaired enough to be usable. Staff brought us both a beautiful frothy grape welcome drink. I had a delightful Spanish conversation with day manager. Took heavenly showers in our upscale bathroom. Then walked several quiet blocks to Restaurant La Villa del Chef, listed as trip advisors number 1 in Flores. It turned out to be a very pleasant little place. We sat at an outside table next to a little malecon area on the lake. The food was good and very cheap. At some point the German owner came over because he noticed I hadn't eaten my salad. He went to great lengths explaining that he disinfects his veggies etc (in fact that's noted on the menu). Nice guy.

Slept like the dead until staffer knocked lightly on our door at 6:00 with our complementary delicious coffee to go. At exactly 6:15 our free taxi to the airport arrived as promised. Great service from this "hotel". (I believe just 4 apts really). And did I mention we had our own stacked washer/dryer so we did laundry and left with clean clothes!

Quiet, easy, small new airport. Return Avianca flight also on time, probably same new prop plane we had on way in. More food. Loved view from plane on sunny day. You could see Small hills for miles around - clearly more Mayan temples yet to be excavated....

Arrived Guatemala City at 8:30. From here we needed to get to Copan Ruinas. Had we known the times of cheaper shared shuttles or big Hedmann Alas bus, we'd have planned these flights differently. Turned out that best cheaper transport leaves the city for Copan very early in the am, before our flight arrived. Seemed taking a public bus to Guat Honduras border and changing to smaller buses was possible, but we weren't confident we could accomplish it all (Including border crossing) in daylight, so we chickened out and researched private driver. We got prices ranging from 200 to 300 US for the 5 hour drive over mountains. Decided to go with driver offered up by our Copan lodging, Don Udo's hotel, since he had a vested interest in getting us there. $220. Yikes. But we were picked up immediately in a comfortable van and enjoyed our friendly driver Victor who pointed out things on the way (enormous fields of watermelon, asparagus, coffee beans drying, etc). Saw one overturned car that had obviously taken one of the many curves too fast. Victor has been driving the route for 10 years and said there were many, many accidents. We were almost to Honduras when we stopped and switched drivers. Victor handed us off to his jefe, a man of few words. We stopped to exit Guatemala, a very minimal 5 minute process and then stopped again to enter Honduras, where we were processed by a Female Nazi. Looked grim and just issued orders. Here we were 5 fingerprinted and snapshot. Didn't take long, but God that woman was grim!

tripplanner001

Still following along with interest... Your hike at Atitlan sounds like something we would enjoy.

volcanogirl

Me too - enjoying hearing about the birding. Wow, fingerprinted?!

glover

Copan Ruinas.. Arrived in Copan Ruinas and liked it immediately. Our lodging at Don Udo's is great. We have a huge room with two double beds, night tables and reading lamps, and a giant bathroom. Probably 20 or so rooms on two floors around a pleasant courtyard, small restaurant and bar space in front. Don Udo is a contemporary of ours, a Dutch expat of many years. A friendly and helpful guy. The hotel is in the center of town, but on kind of a dead end quiet cobblestone street. Tripadvisor told me that Cafe San Rafael was the number 1 restaurant in Copan, so we went there for lunch. Casual outdoor space, great fast service by a very English fluent young Honduran guy. We had wonderful smoothies/milkshakes - pineapple for me, coffee for Mr G. Then pulled chicken jalapeno sandwiches and fab French fries. Yum. Waddled out of there and walked around town plaza ( small, simple but pretty - church, museum, few shops, park benches). Back to hotel for a little rest. Heard ruckus outside our room and discovered they were setting up for a 6 or 7 piece marimba band concert at 6. Turned out the hotel had hosted a group of volunteer eye doctors and dentists for 2 weeks.
So Udo (we think) provided this entertainment as a thank you to them on their last night in town. I spoke to one of the dentists. He said he and a fellow volunteer had seen about 80 patients. The band was wonderful so we just hung around the cozy hotel and enjoyed it. Two marimbas, drums, and a base. They played both traditional and modern stuff. One of them chatted us up on break and told us they were 3 generations of the same family, and that they had made all their instruments! Took lots of pictures and videos. The group is "India Maya". Ate a later "light" dinner at our cozy hotel (split one order of beef filet, green beans, potatoes and carrots) all perfectly cooked.

Next day we were up early (well for us). Ate our included breakfast and set off for the Copan Ruins. Walked the kilometer or so from town (some along a nice stone path adjacent to the road). Paid the expensive "total" entry for ruins, another related separate site, the cultural museum and the archeological museum. $40 us each. Partly sunny in am, sunny and really hot and humid later. Park entry area has some resident scarlet macaws, sacred bird of the Mayas and national bird of Honduras. Lots of feeding areas for them to encourage them to stay. Talked briefly to two young guys from US who were set up with massive photo equipment taking pix of macaws. Just because. If they had some official/commercial purpose, they weren't sayin.

Continued on to ruins, much smaller compact area than Tikal, but much better preserved decoration. Many beautiful and interesting stellae, big inscribed stones providing important historical info. "Hieroglyphic stairs" 33 ft wide with a total of 62 steps, with a large figure sculpted in the centre of every 12th step. These figures are believed to represent the most important rulers in the dynastic history of the site. The stairway takes its name from the 2200 glyphs that together form the longest known Maya hieroglyphic text. The text is still being reconstructed. Spent Several hours wandering through the ruins, climbing up and down as permitted, taking pictures, sweating. Went to the park cafeteria and had a beer and a baleada ( a flour tortilla folded over various ingredients - in this case egg, sausage, avocado. Cheese and cream. Delish. Refreshed and cooler we walked the site's nature path. Nice forest flat easy path. Saw a few common birds and not another soul. Finished off the day by visiting the site's cultural museum which turned out to be the very ugly white and blue concrete unmarked building across from the cafeteria. What a surprise it was inside! Huge open to the sky in center space. Nicely displayed stelae and reconstructed and original pieces Inside. Large centerpiece a colorful reconstructed Mayan temple. A mezzanine with other pieces dispersed around round building. Open and airy and well done we thought. By now it is late afternoon and we are done in. Tried to take tuk tuk back, but didn't see one so walked back to town. Collapsed for a while. Showered. Decided to go to number 2 restaurant in Copan: Sol de Copan- a German brew pub!? Walked several blocks including last one straight uphill. Neighborhood got darker and darker. At top a tall tattooed guy standing outside what was perhaps our place but it looked darkened. "Cerrada?" Mr g asked? "No, no, come on in," the very friendly owner said, ushering us to basement level. So here's a German guy with a passion for beer who married a Honduran woman 18 years ago and decided to start brewing his own beer and open a pub/restaurant. Just another amazing story about what people do!
He now has two teenage sons working in the biz. Very casual few shared tables downstairs. First restaurant we've been in that seemed frequented by both tourists and locals. All very jolly. A fun experience. Every day there are 2 beers on draft. We tried em both. Great. Had some ok German food. All very cheap. Owner was so much fun. A recommended experience, especially if you appreciate good beer. Owner saw us next day. He was in the plaza walking his dogs and waved from a distance as if he'd known us forever.

xyz99

Hi glover,
Glad you finally made it to Hnduras, we'll be there next week, so I hope you'll finish this by then
How are they about credit cards in Honduras, especially the lunch places, the museum cafeteria and the ruins entrance? Do we need cash? US dollars, or should we exchange some money?
Thanks

yestravel

Sounds like you're having another great trip. I'm with Mr G re getting up early to hike or sightsee. And yes, it is amazing what people do. Imagine biking to Ushuaia...incredible! Wonder how long she's plans to take?

Daniel_Williams

I'm still very much enjoying this trip report. I'm planning on doing a border crossing too in Central America this summer, so the details are appreciated--I hope I don't end up with a grim border agent!

glover

Next day in Copan we took a tuk tuk taxi to an extension of the ruins located separately. We were the only ones there save a few Honduran soldier guards. These ruins were the residential areas of the elite. Climbed to the top of some rubble and just sat in a the peaceful silence contemplating life of the Maya. Watched a beautiful mot mot bird in a tree in the parking lot while waiting for same tuk tuk driver to return for us. He then drove us to other side of hill to the privately owned Macaw Mountain Park, a beautiful bird park in midst of coffee/cacao plantation. Owned by a North American, their mission is to rehab injured and captured parrots, toucans, and macaws for release to wild. As the scarlet macaw was the sacred bird of the Maya, they hope to repopulate the Copan valley with the birds. Walked around with a nice young guide, learned a lot about the birds, and finished with some excellent hot chocolate in their cafe.

Next day we had a leisurely final hotel breakfast and were picked up by another private driver for another expensive drive - Copan Ruinas to San Pedro Sula for a flight onward. Again our bad timing. This time cheaper shared transports and bigger direct bus left too LATE to get us to SPS in time for a late afternoon flight. Sigh. Again it appeared possible but hairy to get there via bitty buses, but we had gone soft...... Just as well since the road all the way was a 2 lane mostly unmarked mountainous road in bad condition. Lots of great rural scenery though. Killed a little time in SPS airport while waiting for flight to La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast. Took a 20 seater turbo prop plane. All went well.

Were picked up on the other end by driver from our next (and most upscale) lodging The Lodge at Pico Bonito. It's nestled in jungle on the edge of Pico Bonito National Park, about a 20 min drive from La Ceiba airport. The lodge, cabanas, and grounds are gorgeous. Everything very well done. We really enjoyed it all. Went out very early each of our 3 mornings there: a bird walk nearby with a guide, a van to another nearby private "resort/reserve", and a "train" to another mangrove refuge owned by a very small and very poor community. We spoke briefly to the owner of the private reserve, a grizzled Calgarian who had come to Honduras years before to work on a gold mine. Fell in love, and with a partner, bought 240 acres of fabulous mountainside land. Took a long up hill hike there with our guide from the lodge and a young female employee there, who did the whole slippery rocky hike in a short skirt and flip flops!
Beautiful views from top, great day, could see the Caribbean. Saw a very cool bird: an ornate hawk eagle. Zillions of hummingbirds of 15 or so species at hummingbird feeders. The other refuge was completely different. Drove from the lodge to the nearby very poor rural town of La Union. Dole owns acres and acres of pineapple fields in this area. The major employer. Boarded a rusty old open train car at the "train station" in La Union. Very fun! Rumbled and swayed along iron tracks abandoned in 80s by fruit company across cattle farms for about a half hour to an even poorer and smaller community 0f 200, some indigenous Garifuna. No electricity or indoor plumbing for residences here. Looked around in small dark visitor center WITH plumbing. Got on a small outboard motor boat with guide and local driver. Spent a couple hours cruising round the beautiful river/mangroves. Another gorgeous clear sunny day that made for outstanding reflections of puffy white clouds, mountains, and jungly trees in the still water. Saw a howler monkey, crocodiles, kingfishers, long nosed bats sleeping, raccoon, iguana, and other birds. Beautiful. After the boat ride, we walked by the sad looking school and down a path to an empty beach on the Caribbean, just for a look. Then we rumbled and swayed again on the "train" back to "town". Very interesting to see this little slice of rural Honduran coastal life, however poor.

Enjoyed a fair amount of porch sitting in hot afternoons at our cool cabin at the lodge. Food at lodge restaurant was good but not great, considering how expensive it was (think DC prices).
French chef shooting high, but not quite getting there. The restaurant, like the rest of
The lodge is beautiful. Open air. Extremely kind, friendly, and efficient servers - Belizeans.
Didn't even get around to using the beautiful pool or fancy new spa. Lots of birding groups here. Saw some good birds, capuchin monkeys, and a 7 foot long black and white keel back snake. We saw one of the lodge managers, James Adams, a very good photographer, taking endless photos of this snake on a big rock near the restaurant. A guide had found it and brought it to James for pictures. Obviously they later released it, because Ed and I encountered it on a trail later near the lodge. Having made its acquaintance earlier, and knowing it was a little slow and not poisonous, Mr. G bravely nudged it from the path with a VERY long stick. No way was I stepping over that snake, however nonpoisonous!

Left the lodge reluctantly this am. Fabulous sunny clear day for a few flights in small plane over the Caribbean (la Ceiba to Roatan, Rotan to SPS). Beautiful views of turquoise water and islands.

On to Nicaragua! Where it will mostly be hot, hot, hot. 95 in Leon. Omg

glover

Xyz, have forgotten, were you going to be at Pico Bonito? You could put everything on a credit card there, even tips if you wanted. Re Copan, probably varies. Several ATMS around town to get lempiras easily. Went to one cafe where they told us they'd take whatever we wanted dollars, credit cards, lempiras or even quetzals from Guatemala, Our Don Udo B and B in Copan took credit card. Not sure about ruins entrance because we just paid cash lempiras. No doubt there are some small
Places that would only want local currency.

yestravel

As always enjoying following along on your travels. It all sounds so very nice and intriguing.

hopefulist

I've really enjoyed these posts, glover - looking forward to more!

xyz99

Glover,
Great info (as usual). We're leaving in a few days, with 3 nights in Copan, 5 at Pico Bonito and 6 in Roatan. As you see, we'll mostly follow your steps.

Funny, we had the same luck with transfers. When we land at SPS, bus to Copan leaves in 10 minutes. Not enough time...so need private transfer. Transfer from Copan to Pico Bonito by bus is so long, almost the entire day, that we opted for another car + driver.

Do you remember, the other private "resort/reserve" with the hummingbirds, was it Rio Santiago? And do they offer any night tour at Pico Bonito? Hoping to see some frogs
Enjoy the rest of your trip, we can't wait to get there.

glover

Xyz - yes, the other reserve was Rio Santiago. Worth doing. They have a flat trail as well as the up up one we did. And yes, Pico offers night tours. We just opted not to do one as we'd done others and thought we'd try to save money somewhere! Bring all your dinero!
Try to get Howard as your server in dining room. Just a delight. But the other guys are great too. Check your private messages, I'm going to send you a private message about guides.

glover

Or maybe I won't pm you after all I can't seem to find that feature here any more. Have you had any email communication with PB Aabout guides? Don't know how serious you are about birds etc, but regardless try to get the best guide you can, because you're likely yo have him for all your trips. We thought ours was just ok. A nice guy, so I don't want to dis him. Just a little elementary for us, given how many nature/bird trips we've done. Problem is I think some of their best guides go to birding groups. Some names I recall are Alex, Elmer, Mario. Check tripadvisor reviews for other recs.

glover

Leon, Nicaragua

We had a long day of travel between Honduras and Nicaragua. Best part was the quick small plane flights over beautiful Caribbean and islands from La Ceiba. Killed several hours in the San Pedro Sula airport, a comfortable enough place for the city with 2nd highest per capita violence in the world. Felt like airport any where. Our Copa flight to Managua via Panama City was on time. Another layover in PC. (Wow, back to civilization!). Second leg also on time. Lots of Internet catch up passed the time.

Arrived Managua around 10:30 that night. Very speedy and very efficient immigration. We were through in minutes. Immediately outside saw our driver from La Pyramide Hotel. Drove us down fancy highway (red and green lights in the roadway, surface all smooth and marked) 17 kms or so. Greeted at door and escorted quickly through dark lobby to room, handed key, and given breakfast hours and buenos noches! Had huge interesting room with two beds, a seating area, a small fridge mini bar. Large bathroom a step up. Big open shower a step down. Helped selves to some mini bar beers and then crashed.

Opened door next am into small empty eating area. Very soon staffer showed to offer included breakfast. Ate leisurely breakfast and ended up having a long chat with Hotel owner Manfred, an expat German who has lived in Nica for more than 20 years (married a Nica). Was most interesting to hear his take on socio/politico Nicaragua.
He had come years ago with German Peace corps and had hopes for Nica revolution,
Sandinistas. Has grown disenchanted with passing years. Surprise. Also discussed canal to be built? through Nica by Chinese investor. No transparency. No one really knows what's happening ....

Hotel asst manager Sharon gave us free ride to central Managua bus station "UCA", a fairly chaotic place, and pointed us to shared direct shuttle to Leon which was just about to leave. Meant we took last two middle seats on back bench. Driver shoved our 2 small suitcases in small back space. We kept our small bags with valuables with us. Ride was comfortable enough - took a little less than 2 hours and cost about $2 each. Lots of sugar cane. Everything looks red/brown and very dry! Arrive at what appears to be Leon station. We're immediately approached by taxi driver and agree on cheap price. Fortunately a young woman who had been on our bus jumps in as well, because our driver had no idea where our little hotel was. She was a local recently resettled in Leon working for an NGO. She knew our hotel Paz de Luna from its popular attached cafe. "They have really good food," she said. Great! Had nice chat with her as driver locates her house then ours. Driver apologized for his confusion. But really there aren't any addresses, so confusion abounds.

We're met at Paz de Luna by our congenial host/manager Aaron, a Leon local who speaks fluent English. Discover that the larger room we had reserved via booking is not available because of plumbing issue that he does not expect to be resolved during our five night stay. Shows us 2 other windowless cheaper rooms with private baths. I'm disappointed and consider opting out, but decide to stay on basis of strong recs for customer service, $5O price, and great coffee/cafe attached. Our cell like room turned out to be a comfortable place to "live" for 6 days. Room was completely dark and quiet, ac and fan worked great, bed was comfortable. Cafe is a great little popular place that serves wonderful coffee and other drinks and lunch/breakfast items. Hotel area has 10 rooms and two nice interior courtyards. Aaron is great and also helps run a tour agency called Karmanica tours.

Leon grew on us with every passing day, despite blasting 95 degree heat. A university town, it seems tranquilo and vibrant at same time. Can see why it's a big draw for backpackers- cheap, some nightlife, variety of good restaurants, and lots of active trips and beach nearby, We spent a couple of days just wandering around town. Enjoyed really nice modern art museum, currently with Joan Miro exhibit. Wandered in and out of beautiful old churches. Went to top of the cathedral for great view over town and out to various volcanoes. You get to walk all over the recently painted roof (shoes off please). Being careful not to step on the many domes. Like something out of Arabian nights someone said. Mr.G got the little hair he has and beard cut, as he enjoys doing during our travels. With a generous tip this one cost $3.50. He would have had to pay more for one of the Mohawk like "fades" so popular with the younger guys in Central America.

Did 2 day tours from Leon with Aaron's company, sunset tour to Telica volcano and mangrove tour from beach. Enjoyed both. For sunset tour we were picked up at hotel at 2:30 in heavy duty truck. Several folks already on facing benches in back. Mr. G and I squeeze in front next to driver. Our guide, sitting in back, is local guy Chuchara(?) a genial fellow with dreads, a great smile, and T shirt "today is a volcano day". We drove a few kms on that fancy highway and then turned off onto an amazing rocky rural road. Skilled driver maneuvered truck up, down and around ruts and boulders, occasionally dodging people on horseback and foot. Drive was maybe an hour and half or so. Fabulous white throated magpie jay flew in front of truck. Loved seeing rural Nica life - people on horseback, young and old, some bareback. At last we arrive and start up toward volcano. About an hour hike or less. Only strenuous due to heat, no shade, and volcanic rocks, but a good trail. Our walking sticks were definitely useful. Very windy at the top. This volcano had erupted just 2 months ago and thus filled the crater somewhat and reduced ability to see much lava. Nevertheless peering over the edge of the steaming crater was pretty cool and later we could see just a tiny glimmer of lava down deep. The crater is about 400 ft deep and 2200 feet in diameter these days. Beautiful views all around from up there, including views of other volcanoes. Also nice sunset views later from a nearby ridge.
Just after sunset, we start back down. I was a little leery of this, having the firm goal of not falling down on this trip. But with sticks and headlamps and a slow and careful pace, we survived. One of those telling moments as ALL of the other much younger hikers passed us and ultimately finished at least 20 minutes sooner. We think of ourselves as fast pretty fit walkers - until we're matched against those decades younger. Then we're forced to admit we've obviously slowed down..... The cheerful Chuchara was patient with us though staying close in front all the way. Then we bumped all the way back to town over the amazing non road in the dark. Some locals still out on horseback and on foot with flashlights.

Next day we were picked up at hotel at 7 by driver and driven less than half hour over great road to local Pacific beach Las Penitas. Met by guide Moises Orozco from Servitour Isla Juan Venado (highly recommended!). We like him immediately! He's excited that we want to look at birds. Only speaks some English, but is very articulate in Spanish and an excellent guide in every way. He immediately gets it when I ask him to speak slowly so we won't miss anything. We go down to water's edge and get in small motor boat with driver. Go out into mangrove reserve, beautiful and filled with birds. Tons of herons of several kinds and egrets everywhere. We stay out for about 4 hours. See more unusual things too. Two nightjars, two potoos, white ibis, woodstork, frigate birds, Royal terns, belted, ringed and Pygmy kingfishers, common and great black hawks, osprey, sleeping raccoons. And more. Also stopped in at reserve's turtle project. Cycle for egg laying and release almost over, but we did see some recently laid eggs and less than one day old baby turtles, which are only released at night because of risk. Only 1 in 1000 survive! Moises told us of the education of the locals, redirecting them from turtle and forest consumption to turtle conservation and reforestation. All very interesting. Finally return to shore. Walk over to Oceanside Suyapa Hotel. Obviously popular with local families on Saturday afternoon. We three have a beer and chat more. Moises takes off and Mr G and I linger for long ocean side lunch. The menu has long list of fish filets prepared different ways, mostly red snapper. We order grilled filet with garlic. Waiter says no filets only whole fish. Strange/funny/ok whatever. So we share whole grilled fish with some garnishes. Pretty good. Watch the scene. A few dogs wander through.
Kids roll around on sand floor or dig in sand next to parents' tables. Take a short walk on hot beach toward Playa Roca. Here a few more people were swimming in a slightly more protected area. Mostly rough current. Made sure to get our feet wet. Sand sizzling hot. Driver picks us up and returns us to Leon. A great day! Driver of course wants to know where we'll be going next and if we need transport. I tell him Montibelli Reserve some 30 minutes out of Managua and that we'd be going via a couple buses. He offers to drive us for $90 (already slightly less than reserve has offered up as private driver price) . I say we'll think about it. Meanwhile his wife sitting next to him is looking up Montibelli on her tablet. Mumbled conversation. He announces it's closer than he thought and he'll take us for $70, 2 hour drive, so we go for it. That'll be tomorrow.

Restaurants we enjoyed in Leon:
The great little cafe attached to our lodging Paz de Luna.

The little restaurant exactly next door Imbir, attached to Trailwinds Hostel. This one with a Polish and Sri Lankan menu!? Turns out it's run by a Pole and his British wife of Sri Lankan descent. Hence they are serving up family recipes for pirogues and curries. Super nice couple, great cheap food (we can only vouch for the curries) and a really popular place when they're hosting live music.

Alioli Restaurant. Very basic spot only 7 months old with hot indoor and cooler outdoor street side porch. (Fortunately there was a breeze in Leon and when sun goes down temp is pleasant) Serving up tapas made by a charming young woman originally from Madrid. We had some decent gazpacho, grilled vegetables, and marinated pork kebabs. Nice chat with owner/chef. On a quiet somewhat offbeaten track street. Perhaps why we were almost only customers. That and fact that town was honoring anniversary of death of national hero/poet Rubin Dario in plaza. Sadly we were ignorant of this fact, so missed appearance of President Daniel Ortega the day before. Locals said security was extremely tight. We're 0 for 2 for seeing Central American presidents.....��

Desayunazos Restaurant. Obviously the go to place for Sunday breakfast in Leon.
Nice combo of local and tourist patrons. Our original plan had been to splash out today (ha ha) and pay for breakfast at "our" cafe (instead of the less grand breakfast included with our stay and served in back courtyard). We were disappointed to find them closed this am, so searched out Desayunazos. Great coffee, decent breakfast(lots of choice!) and very friendly and efficient service. The place was jumping! Many other businesses/restaurants closed on Sunday here.

End note: Really, some more folks over 30 need to visit Leon to balance out the tourist Demographics.....

tripplanner001

Still following along... Both the volcano and the mangrove tours sound like activities we would enjoy.

ekscrunchy

Very, very interesting!

glover

Thanks for following along. Our final and fifth night in Leon- Leon sports bar -
Ya Voy. Researched whether there were any beers other than Canned and bottled Tona here in Nicaragua to try. Apparently some burgeoning microbrews - served so far on draft only at sports pub Ya Voy. What better night to go than Super Bowl 50? A fun scene and nice mix of tourists and locals. Several TVs tuned into Desportes game of day. Beer was good and more flavorful than The national beer Tona. Food actually quite good too! Nicely cooked and tender pork and beef, "waffle" fries and nice salad (with beets!) and rice. More pints than necessary. Total bill under $40. As usual a partially roofed space with open to sky courtyard. Night time is perfect temp in Leon, drops down to 70/80 with tropical breezes.

Tomorrow - out of civilization and back to nature: A few nights at Montibelli reserve And then on to very remote reserve in Río San Juan area: Los Guatuzos.

Adios, Leon! Sorta sad to leave you......