After arriving in San Jorge (the name brought fond memories of my best friend after the same name) we quickly boarded the ferry to the island. The trip took about 45 minutes and surprisingly a lot of people were sea-sick, but I enjoyed the ride with the breeze and waves. Arriving in Moyagalpa you realized how small the town was and it’s the largest town on the island. We quickly found a place to stay called the Hospedaje Ali, checked in and got comfortable in the room. It was late so we just relaxed that evening.
The next morning we walked around town enjoyed breakfast at the American Café and Hotel. We had met Simone and her husband, Robert, the day before while walking into town. They have only been open for 7 weeks, but it’s a great place with great food. After sending her a lot of business for breakfast and lunch she offered us a room at a reduced rate, which we took that night. It was the first time in some while that I enjoyed a nice long hot shower. You see most places in Central America don’t have hot water.
The next day we rented a local jeep to tour the island, but it was made fun because I arranged for 9 others to go in with me to rent it. Thus we had 10 people and 5 backpacks in the jeep. We visited El Ojo de Aqua (the eye of the water), a natural mineral spring with crystal clear, cool, and refreshing water. We drove on to other parts of the island including doing some four wheeling to get up to Mirador del Diablo, a look out point that allowed for incredible views of the island. We wanted to go see Isle de Congo where the monkeys are, but soon found out that there were only 5 monkeys on the island, not native but imported by a local hostel to attract business; thus we didn’t kayak out but continued on after eating lunch at a local establishment.
The next bit of travel was down some very rough roads to get to various beaches, such as Charco Verde and Santo Domingo, some other locations and finally to Finca Magdelana. We left 5 of the people there so the return trip to town was very comfortable. We spent the night again at the American Café and Hotel but were on the ferry the next morning to catch a bus to San Juan del Sur. Robert, the husband of Simone, was also on the ferry and offered to take us in his taxi to Rivas so we could catch our bus. We caught the bus and were off to San Juan del Sur.
My first impression of San Juan del Sur was that of new developments which were driving up local real estate prices. The town is small and is set on a beautiful beach, however, we decided to stay up the beach a bit in Maderas. The trip to Maderas was via 4-wheel drive trucks with seats in the back and it was a rough trip where I bounced most of the way. Playa Maderas was incredible and one of the places I enjoyed the most and will consider returning to at some point. The contrast between the two towns was remarkable in that Maderas only had two places to stay and one restaurant. Thus in the evenings we enjoyed a bonfire on the beach while drinking Flor de Cana, the official rum of Nicaragua.
Although the place was incredible there seemed to be some drama amongst the many campers because things were being stolen so I decided to cut my stay short and head to San Jose via a Tica Bus. After 4 days in Maderas I managed to get quickly and smoothly into Costa Rica and San Jose. This is where I am now. I’m resting and preparing myself to return to Austin for a bit to take care of things.
