We Made it to Nicaragua - Exploring the Capital, Managua

From Honduras we got a bus to the Capital of Nicaragua, Managua. We hadn't heard very many good things about Managua but we decided to stay 3 nights because we had the time and Lonely Planet promised that after a couple of days big bad Managua won't seem so bad after all. 

Our first day we checked out the local shopping mall. Most things were Western prices so we didn't hang around long. A walk around the local Uni lead us to find some pretty cool graffiti though. 

On day 2 we picked up a Dutch guy from our hostel and the three of us went out to see the sights of the town. The first "tourist attraction" was Parque Historico Nacional Loma de Tiscapa. It's basically a lake in the middle of town with a silhouette statue of Sandino (a leader of the rebellion against the US Military occupation of Nicaragua) who was executed along with his men at this spot (there used to be a prison at the top of the hill). 

While the spot does offer pretty good views of the city and the Sandino Silhouette is pretty cool this spot was not as nice as Lonely Planet made it out to be. The lake is polluted with untreated sewerage and you can definitely tell, the stink takes a bit away from the views. What we found hilarious was that you can actually zip-line across the lake! Why!?

The Polluted Lake

Sandino

The Second Site we wanted to see was Parque de la Paz. We told our taxi driver this but he didn't seem to know what we were talking about so he dropped us off at the Port. Lukily this wasn't too far away. In our search for the park we had to walk down a main boulevard that was lined with tens of Nativity Scenes. I'd never seen so many Nativity Scenes all in one place.

We ended up finding Plaza de la Revolucion. It was actually pretty nice, with some never ending flames and pretty structures but we searched on for Parque de la Paz. We wandered into a really nice park full of sports fields and children's playgrounds. After talking to a security guard we learnt the park had only been open for 1 week. We asked him about Parque de la Paz but he also didn't seem to know where it was. We were very confused as this was one of Lonely Planet's listed top sights to see.

One of the Nativity Scenes

Eventually after staring at the maps on our phones we were pretty sure we had found it. It must be this weird quite mound that's right next to this bustling children's park. The bible had advised us to pay a security guard to accompany us through a park, even during the day, but we figured it can't be that bad with this brand new kid's park next door.

We climb up the mound and are a bit surprised but what we find, which is pretty much nothing. There is a bit of an eerie sense of quite, except for two local boys with sling shots, one of which manages to successfully shoot a bird out of a tree. This adds to our confusion, how can this possibly be a top rated site? We start looking for the tank encased in concrete that we read about, while trying to avoid the boys for fear they will turn their sling shots on us.

Early on in the exploring I find a whole snake skeleton, it's only missing it's head. We walk all the way around. realising that the pile of rubble in the middle of this weird open space was supposed to be the light house we had read about. A brilliant excerpt from Lonely Planet "Managua's Peace Park, with its signature lighthouse, is a lasting symbol of the challenges and hopes facing a poor nation emerging from war."

We walked to the other side of the park and while I'm inspecting a plaque Alex calls that's he's finally found the tank we were searching for! Although there's only enough time to snap a quick picture as two security guards approach us from both sides to tell us we have to go. We couldn't quite make out what they were saying apart from that it was dangerous. We asked if we could just quickly go a bit closer to the tank, the security guard considered it but settled on a no. As we were escorted out of the park we spotted a dead possum. 

As we walked away I was sure that it was the creepiest park I've ever been in.

This is what the park looked like when it was first built in 1990, notice the reflection pool and light house.

This is what we found:

Notice there is no reflection pool or light house

The Snake

The Tank!

On the walk back to the hostel we found this big billboard face of Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President who died last year (or maybe 2 years ago by the time you read this). There are also murals of him and Cuban revolutionaries about the city. These guys appear to be heralded here more than the countries we had been in so far. Later we read of how Nicaragua leans towards these countries in their politics and ideology but we still have a lot to learn about it really!

Hugo Chavez's big puss

Utila, Honduras

After Guatemala we headed straight to Utila, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras. However this wasn't as easy as it sounds. It took us an extra day before we made it to the island due to a mix up between airport and port. We had to brave San Pedro Sula, the murder capital of the world, and force our way onto a full bus. But we finally made it!

Once on the island the big decision was to choose which dive center we were going to go with. We ended up with Parrots Dive Center (which we found out later is the party dive center!). We signed up for the Open Water course and started that afternoon! After 3.5 days of diving and theory we aced our final exam and can now dive to 18m around the world! The diving was amazing! The photos below don't really capture it. We saw huge rays, a giant lobster, pretty cool fish and heaps of coral. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to do our Advanced Open Water so we had to be satisfied with our two fun dives. We weren't allowed to take the gopro down with us during our course so all the photos are from our second fun dive. 

Utila is a pretty small island, the town is basically just one street. The culture there is very interesting as they have English heritage. This means as we walked around turn we could hear locals talking with each other in Jamaican accents, which we enjoyed very much.

To get around the Island people use a mixture of 4-wheelers, golf carts and scooters. On a Sunday they are all parked outside the local church. 

These were our digs during our time on the island. Pretty nice for $10 a night each. 

Alex chillin out in a bar over the water

Out the back of Parrots Dive Center 

The Parrots at Parrots. They can sing Happy Birthday and shout Hola! at people

We had a trip to a little "Deserted Island" for an afternoon with the center to relax and snorkel. 

We had to walk from the Boat to the Island

Island Life

There were heaps of Pelicans flying around the island

Snorkeling around the Island we saw heaps more cool stuff.  

Like this adorable puffer fish!

And this huge ray!

The view on the way home from the Island

We left the Island on the 6:20 am ferry during the pouring rain, caught a bus to San Pedro Sula and had to spend two nights there because the bus we wanted to take was booked out. With it being the murder capital of the world we didn't do a lot, just hung out at a nice mall and watched The Hobbit. Then there was a 4:00 am wake up to catch the bus to Nicaragua and after a confusing border crossing and a bus swap due to mechanical issues (of course) we made it into Managua, Nicaragua.

And that was our very quick visit to Honduras over.

Rio Dulce and Livingston

We decided to use Rio Dulce as our gateway to Honduras and the Bay Islands and since we were already there and not quite ready to give up Guatemala yet we spent a few days exploring the area. 

We Stayed at the Kangaroo Hostel, owned by Gary from Noosa. He actually knew where Bilo was. It was a pretty cool place with a bit of a jungle feel, some dogs and local wildlife. It was also the first time we've seen any Bundy Rum on this continent but sadly it was too expensive to have a drink, imported all the way from Australia. 

Some of the local Wildlife - An Iguana 

One of the Dogs we got to hang out with

With our first day in Rio Dulce we decided to take Gary's advice and check out a local waterfall and canyon, he sells the day pretty well. Apparently it's the only hot waterfall in the world and it was pretty damn cool. You swim up to it and the river is pretty cold and then you get under the waterfall and it's hot, finding a rock to chill out on under the falls is amazing (doubly amazing when you go a while without a warm shower). We're pretty sure that it was volcanic activity that made it hot. You can climb up to the top of the waterfall and relax in some hot pools - really hot pools.We were quite red when we got out of them. After the waterfall we caught a collectivo down the road to explore a canyon, where at one point the boat dumps you and if you want to explore any further (which we were told we should) you have to swim/walk up current - a fun, sometimes painful challenge.

The waterfall - you can see the steam

And we saw this cool little pig

The Collectivo we wanted to catch to the canyon was full - no problem, we'll just chuck the guys on the roof

The Canyon

Day 2 was a day trip to Livingston. We were originally planning to try and get to Honduras via Livingston until a cheap option from Rio Dulce presented itself. Gary had also told us that Livingston is a "shithole".We were still curious to check it out though as it's completely different to the rest of Guatemala. It's only accessible via boat and is the only place in Guatemala where the Garifuna people (Descendants of Africans brought to the New World as slaves. Their roots can be traced to Roatan (one of the Bay Islands in Honduras) where the British dumped them. They then spread out on the Caribbean Coast) have settled. To get to Livingston was a 2 hour boat ride where they stopped and showed us a few of the local sites. When we pulled up to the pier in Livingston we were greeted with wide arms, a grin and "Welcome to Africa!". Livingston didn't disappoint on the being different front, being surrounded by Jamaican sounding accents. We didn't do much here and there really wasn't a whole lot to see. We walked around town, got a frozen choco banana, looked at the uninspiring beach and tried a local delicacy - Topado. 

The first stop on the little tour was this funny little castle

Lillie Pads on the River

Livingston

Topado - fish, crab, prawns, plantain and coconut milk. Very fiddly to eat and the fish eat with the burnt out eyes is a little off putting but it was actually delicious!

Antigua

After Lake Atitlan the usual next stop on the back packer trail is Antigua. Antigua was as beautiful as everyone said it was. It's a nice colonial town that used to be the capital of Guatemala but they moved it to Guatemala City after a few earthquakes flattened the city. It's since been rebuilt (in the colonial era) and it very enjoyable but quite expensive.

We had an enjoyable 2 days here walking around the city. I would have loved to have climbed one of the volcanoes that are near by but you know, my feet.

A fountain in Parque Central

This arch is the subject of A LOT of paintings being sold around the city

It doesn't look like much but we ended up at an after party here on a night out because all bars have to officially close by 1am in Guatemala

We visited probably the most beautiful Maccas in the world. 

Christmas Lighting in Parque Central

A view of the city

While we were up here enjoying the view we felt our first earthquake! (Apparently we'd been in at least 2 already while in Guatemala but we'd slept right through them) and my drawing peaked the interest of some local kids who seemed pretty happy when I let them draw in my sketchbook. Having a 6 year old speak really slow Spanish to you so you understand was an interesting experience. 

One of the buildings around town

Local handy craft markets outside one of the many Church ruins that are dotted around the city

Church goers leave one of the churches that are still intact

We were lucky enough to be in Guatemala for this tradition. Once a year, throughout the country devils and garbage are burned. I think it symbolises burning all the "bad" from the previous year in hopes to start fresh again for the next year. We saw this particular devil being doused in petrol and when we was finally set on first we discovered that the base was filled with fireworks.