Buenos Aires to Vegas - The Trek

We arrived in Leon at midday meaning we had a fair amount of time to explore the city. Leon was originally the capital of Nicaragua upon Independence but this was later shifted to Managua. It is a large student town and is most famous for its architecture and being the city where the Sandino revolutionary movement originated. We checked into Lazybones hostel, owned by the same people as Oasis in Granada, which explains why it bore a startling resemblance. We took a walk around town to find food and a laundry to drop off my dirty clothes. Leon seemed to be even quieter than Granada despite it being a bigger city. The architecture was also very similar with many classical colonial churches, although perhaps leaned a bit more towards modern in some areas. Lazybones hostel Awesome wall art at the hostel Just like Granada The ladies posing at the town square A Sandino mural A Sandino mural depicting Uncle Sam getting squashed After spending ages wandering around in vain trying to find ...

Our taxi from San Jorge to Granada got haggled down to $20 which we were happy with. Marie and I were sharing with the Aussies from San Juan del Sur . The only moment of note on the journey was spotting a dude standing on the roof of a large truck which was going full tilt in the opposite direction. Crazy. We met up with Elaine, Irina and Helene at the Oasis Hostel which was full for the evening. We luckily bunked down at Los Amigos Hospedaje which was 3 doors down and provided a great breakfast. Not wanting to waste any time, we walked around town, taking in the attractive main square. The traditional colonial architecture reminded me strongly of Salta in Argentina. There were some very striking churches and municipal designs. Most of the single story buildings were painted in a shade of the primary colours which added a bit of energy to otherwise dull looking structures. We found a place for lunch called Nectar. The girls all got dodgy Greek salads with no feta cheese and I found ...

Upon arrival at San Jorge del Sud, a small town on the banks of Lago Nicaragua, we were greeted by clouds of small insects which bore a remarkable resemblance to mosquitos but luckily did not bite. There were also some chained up monkeys near the ferry office who didn ´t look very happy. Here is what wikipedia has to say about the Isla Ometepe : " Ometepe is an island formed by two volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua in the Republic of Nicaragua. Its name derives from the Nahuatl words ome (two) and tepetl (mountain), meaning two mountains. The two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas , are joined by a low isthmus to form one island in the shape of an hourglass." Concepcion is still regarded as active. It last erupted in the 1950s and bares the scarred slopes from that time. Maderas has been extinct for many years and is covered in cloud forest. The area had once been connected to the Pacific ocean but a land bridge developed which created the independant lake. Slow...