Island hopping: Volume II

While in paradise, I had a lot of time to think. And what I thought one day was that I would really like to go to Cuba to visit my aunt. So that´s what I decided to do. Now I am skipping like a stone, heading northwards to Mexico to catch planes from Cancun.

First destination was another island, Ometepe, two volcanoes joined by lava in Lago de Nicicaragua. A beautiful place and a beautiful journey out there. I finally seem to be getting Nicaraguan scenery, the volcanoes and the dryness, and am appreciating it a lot more. I only spent two nights there, which was too short really. I swam in the green water which didn´t really make the grade after the clear water in the Carribean. I stayed in the same room as someone from Olympia, who knew a friend of mine; yes, the world really is that small.

Yesterday I journeyed long and hard to make it to Leon. I took a bus, a boat, and three more buses. I shared a bag of very cheap mangoes with a guy from Wisconsin. I now know how to eat them properly! I shall never falter again. It was very warm, and the journey from Rivas to Managua was lined with trees and it felt like summer. Managua, like most Central American capitals, is a bit of a nightmare, particularly if you just want to get out as quickly as possible. You arrive at one bus terminal, and your bus will leave from another bus terminal on the other side of the city. It is too hot, too far and too dangerous to walk. Taxis are expensive. The local bus system is a nightmare; I had to ask five people before I could figure out the number of the bus I needed to take, and then you need to find out where it leaves! And then it is packed to the gills. I could actually feel my ankles sweating. And then, I managed to get on the only bus to Leon that takes the long way around. By this time it was dark. They switched off the lights in the bus. We went down an unpaved road for a hour or so, while most people got off until I was the only one left, trying to hold on to my remaining mangoes and controlling my panic that we weren´t actually going to Leon at all.

Thankfully I am here now, slept like a log last night (although I always sleep well when traveling; all the sights and sounds of the day ease me right off). Found a great panaderia for breakfast, and also a guy I know from Honduras. He is still waiting for his green VW bus to be fixed in La Ceiba (exactly what he was doing when I last saw him four weeks ago). Maybe tomorrow I will go all the way to El Salvador to learn to surf, then Guatemala, then Mexico, moving fast now. But now I must detatch myself from the internet and go and explore Leon. And find a towel. I am ashamed to say I left mine on Little Corn, so relaxed that I forgot that a good traveler always knows where their towel is.