I crossed the border into Nicaragua around midday on the 20.01.06. Believe it or not, this (picture on the left) is the main road leading into Nicaragua after crossing the border. The bad road condition has an advantage: the trucks and cars drive slowly. Plenty of goats, horse pulled carts and cows are to be seen on the road as well. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere (Haiti is poorer). 70% of the people live below the poverty line and many Nicaraguans struggle to get food on the table!
Most of the washing is done down at the rivers. Hot water or a hot shower is non existent in Central America. (well at least I have not seen a hot shower). I have not had a hot shower ever since I left Mexico. On the other hand it is so tropically hot and humid that there is nothing better than a cold shower after a day of riding. My first day of riding in Nicaragua was burdened with heavy wind which made the cycling hard at times. Most of the bridges in this area were washed away in the terrible 1998 floods which killed thousands of people. Hurricane 'Mitch' was probably one of the worst hurricanes which has ever hit Central America. The country has still not recovered from all the losses but the bridges have been rebuilt thanks to foreign investment (many bridges have a Japanese flag on them because the Japanese helped out with huge sums of money). Many of the roads are also in a good shape, but not all of them!
left: (20.01.06), cycling through Nicaragua is quite different. A lot of subsistance farming and sugarcane fields (the smoke in the back is from sugarcane which is being burnt. This is always done before cutting).
right: (21.01.06). I only cycled for 1/2 day so that I would have time to see the beautiful city of Leòn and to service my bike. The cathedral in Leòn is the biggest cathedral in Central America. Construction began in 1747 and went on for over 100 years. In Leòn I joined some locals to watch a 'cock fighting' match. Basically it is something that the Nicaraguan men (nica's) like to do on a Sunday. Place a bet on a cock and see if it wins. It was not my kind of scene. Basically the cocks fight against each other picking at each others skull until the one collapses and dies! horrible! No photos of this on my website!!
After leaving Leòn, I cycled down to lake Nicaragua where I took the ferry across to the island of Ometepe. A fantastic volcanic island made up of 2 huge volcanoes. I had always planned to stay on the island for a few days before returning back to the mainland and cycle on to Costa Rica.
right: Petroglyphs can be seen on the hiking trails on the island. These petroglyphs show that the island has been inhabited for hundreds of years.
The island is the most beautiful island that I have ever visited. The island is rich with different tropical fruits such as mangos, bananas, oranges, coffee, cacao, melons etc etc. The island has beautiful beaches, great hiking trails, thick tropical forests with monkeys jumping around and very friendly local people. The island has not yet been developed for tourism, making it an oasis for me, well away from touristic buses and expensive hotels! To get around you need to jump onto a so called 'chicken' bus, hire a horse, ride a bike or hike! Just my style!!
left: A 'Nica' woman doing her washing in Lake Nicaragua. There is no laundry on the island and everyone still does it the old hard way! Well I just watch how they do it and then I do it the same way! I hired a horse and took off with a Canadian for a day of horse riding. A great way to see the island but my 'ass' was sore that evening!
right: 4 of us hired a guide to take us up the tropical volcano of Maderas. We got up at 4 am to catch the 4:20 am 'chicken' bus to the other side of the island from where we started our ascent. It was a rough and very muddy walk through the forest, monkeys swinging in the trees above us and an odd looking snake crawling across the path. The summit is in a cloud layer for most of the year, so for the last 700m of ascent we did not see much except for the mud under our feet. The summit photo was not too spectacular!
right: 27.01.06 Coming down from the tropical volcano Maderas, looking across to volcano Concepciòn, on the way passing banana plantations, coffee plantations and many other different fruits and plants grown on the warm, tropical slope.
right: I grew very fond of the 'Nica' people. Many of them are very very poor, living in houses made of sticks, wood and leaves, however they are so very friendly, always ready to smile! Yes, I love Nicaragua!
28.01.2006: It was time to leave the island and head towards Costa Rica. Tomoya, a Japanese long distance cyclist (he had also climbed the volcano with us the day before) and I set off after a 'close to sea-sick' ferry ride back to the mainland. We cycled the last few kilometres down to the Costa Rican border, passing many bridges which were constructed thanks to donations by the Japanese.
right: Tomoya, fixing his tube after a puncture. After this incident we rode another 10km and we were at the border to Costa Rica. I will not forget the impressions in Nicaragua! It is a lovely place!
I crossed the border into Nicaragua around midday on the 20.01.06. Believe it or not, this (picture on the left) is the main road leading into Nicaragua after crossing the border. The bad road condition has an advantage: the trucks and cars drive slowly. Plenty of goats, horse pulled carts and cows are to be seen on the road as well. Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere (Haiti is poorer). 70% of the people live below the poverty line and many Nicaraguans struggle to get food on the table! 
Most of the washing is done down at the rivers. Hot water or a hot shower is non existent in Central America. (well at least I have not seen a hot shower). I have not had a hot shower ever since I left Mexico. On the other hand it is so tropically hot and humid that there is nothing better than a cold shower after a day of riding. My first day of riding in Nicaragua was burdened with heavy wind which made the cycling hard at times. Most of the bridges in this area were washed away in the terrible 1998 floods which killed thousands of people. Hurricane 'Mitch' was probably one of the worst hurricanes which has ever hit Central America. The country has still not recovered from all the losses but the bridges have been rebuilt thanks to foreign investment (many bridges have a Japanese flag on them because the Japanese helped out with huge sums of money). Many of the roads are also in a good shape, but not all of them!
left: (20.01.06), cycling through Nicaragua is quite different. A lot of subsistance farming and sugarcane fields (the smoke in the back is from sugarcane which is being burnt. This is always done before cutting). 
right: (21.01.06). I only cycled for 1/2 day so that I would have time to see the beautiful city of Leòn and to service my bike. The cathedral in Leòn is the biggest cathedral in Central America. Construction began in 1747 and went on for over 100 years. In Leòn I joined some locals to watch a 'cock fighting' match. Basically it is something that the Nicaraguan men (nica's) like to do on a Sunday. Place a bet on a cock and see if it wins. It was not my kind of scene. Basically the cocks fight against each other picking at each others skull until the one collapses and dies! horrible! No photos of this on my website!!
After leaving Leòn, I cycled down to lake Nicaragua where I took the ferry across to the island of Ometepe. A fantastic volcanic island made up of 2 huge volcanoes. I had always planned to stay on the island for a few days before returning back to the mainland and cycle on to Costa Rica.
right: Petroglyphs can be seen on the hiking trails on the island. These petroglyphs show that the island has been inhabited for hundreds of years.
The island is the most beautiful island that I have ever visited. The island is rich with different tropical fruits such as mangos, bananas, oranges, coffee, cacao, melons etc etc. The island has beautiful beaches, great hiking trails, thick tropical forests with monkeys jumping around and very friendly local people. The island has not yet been developed for tourism, making it an oasis for me, well away from touristic buses and expensive hotels! To get around you need to jump onto a so called 'chicken' bus, hire a horse, ride a bike or hike! Just my style!!
left: A 'Nica' woman doing her washing in Lake Nicaragua. There is no laundry on the island and everyone still does it the old hard way! Well I just watch how they do it and then I do it the same way! I hired a horse and took off with a Canadian for a day of horse riding. A great way to see the island but my 'ass' was sore that evening!
right: 4 of us hired a guide to take us up the tropical volcano of Maderas. We got up at 4 am to catch the 4:20 am 'chicken' bus to the other side of the island from where we started our ascent. It was a rough and very muddy walk through the forest, monkeys swinging in the trees above us and an odd looking snake crawling across the path. The summit is in a cloud layer for most of the year, so for the last 700m of ascent we did not see much except for the mud under our feet. The summit photo was not too spectacular!
right: 27.01.06 Coming down from the tropical volcano Maderas, looking across to volcano Concepciòn, on the way passing banana plantations, coffee plantations and many other different fruits and plants grown on the warm, tropical slope.
right: I grew very fond of the 'Nica' people. Many of them are very very poor, living in houses made of sticks, wood and leaves, however they are so very friendly, always ready to smile! Yes, I love Nicaragua!
28.01.2006: It was time to leave the island and head towards Costa Rica. Tomoya, a Japanese long distance cyclist (he had also climbed the volcano with us the day before) and I set off after a 'close to sea-sick' ferry ride back to the mainland. We cycled the last few kilometres down to the Costa Rican border, passing many bridges which were constructed thanks to donations by the Japanese.
right: Tomoya, fixing his tube after a puncture. After this incident we rode another 10km and we were at the border to Costa Rica. I will not forget the impressions in Nicaragua! It is a lovely place!