Whistle Stopping the Central West

A weekend spent in the city out of a hotel for the night was a welcome change of pace. We wandered the old city streets, went to a surprisingly nice museum in an old convent and watched the day come to a close from the Bell Tower of the cathedral overlooking the central plaza and sunset over the surrounding town and hills. We had a lovely date night in a bustling pizzeria full of families for graduation and had to find the local night security know as 'the sheriff to watch over Franky on the street parking for the night, then found the strip of bars and some live rock music.

A lazy morning making the most of the included breakfast and showers we wandered again then took in the waterfront on a drive by out of town. All in all, a nice little town with lots of colourful buildings, churches and plazas but one night of luxury and we were back on the road.

Not far away was the access to the waterfront of Lago Apoyo, the volcano crater we overlooked before. The road was fine but the place still had some weekend bustle left over and a lot of mess. We slung a hammock on the waterside and took a swim in the amazing water that was crystal clear and had hot/cold drifts from the thermal activity. But.. as soon as I jumped in monkeys started howling above the hammock a few metres away. Jelly turned to see my shorts being thrown out of my hammock. We laughed thinking it must be a cheeky monkey until a man jumped up and ran off, I

was straight out, fuming and cursing. Lucky I only left my shorts and old pants in there so nothing worth stealing, thieving little bastards! That put a bad note on what was a beautiful swim so we drove round the lake to a very quiet corner all to ourselves to cook, watch the sun down and stars come up in total peace and quiet.

A beautiful night on the lake side and a slow morning making breakfast and dog friends, swimming and cleaning the van out for the next leg. We left to Masaya to check the markets of the smaller town and took some snacks to a viewpoint overlooking the next volcano with its own lake and waterfall. The National Park didn't let us in after lunch as it was a morning or evening entrance policy. Super annoying but we found a other viewpoint to kill a couple of hours then headed back, first in line for an evening viewing of an active volcano mouth!

Masaya volcano was insane and the first lava pool we'd ever seen. We were able to drive right to the top and park on the rim, which felt a bit crazy in itself and maybe slightly stupid as we had recently had starting problems! There were about 5 craters so we hiked for an hour to watch the sunset over this crazy place and waited for darkness to set in. By the time we were back to the rim there were plenty of people about but for good reason, you could see the red centre of the lava pool, smell the sulphur gasses and see why this was known locally as 'the mouth of hell'. A quick whip round the museum on the way out get our nerd on geology style, made some local friends in there then spent the night at the guarded entrance ready to skip on in the morning. Volcanoes are awesome!!

The morning drive took us past the capital and north west up the coast to spend the next few days back on the beach. 2hrs busy drive and another Franky false start later (further battery connection issues at a servo) we turned off the main road via our first police pull over, no problem just a routine check and picked up a hitchhiker for the last 10kms of very rough dirt road. Destination El Transito, a sleepy fishing village and newly recognised backpackers surf spot. We spent two days parked in a local families yard sharing curious conversation, the long drop and a bucket shower, with beach frontage and opposite the surf break we kicked back in what shade we could find. But damn it was hot again!

We surfed the sun down and up again the next day but as before, the wind kicked on and for a sleepy little wave it was a busy lineup. A local hostel owner told us they were 3x busier already than the peak of the previous season, the secret was out! So we kept on moving up the coast.

Another rough coastal road in the heat of the day but in no particular rush we cruised on North to the village of Miramar, another sleepy beauty with some of Nica's best waves. This time the place was empty, of tourist but also waves! We pulled up to a hostel run by a fantastic Italian chap with a well deserved reputation. He backed us in to his tight but gorgeous driveway garden, to a dinner party made up of French surfers, French Canadians and homemade Italian food. Understandably, we liked this place instantly!

A relaxing afternoon socialising then an evening swim, we met the hostel owner Adriano for beers at the beach bar. Sharing stories all evening and walking the streets with him we quickly discovered he was as lovely a guy as we'd heard and obviously well liked in the village too. We took dinner with him at his friend's restaurant and all fell asleep in hammocks back at the veranda. Its was a great 24hr stop with him in this quiet village and let us feeling reenergised but with a flat sea and Franky concerns we moved on before the chaos of the Holy Week celebrations peaked in the next city and put everything on lockdown.

Our concerns were valid... as we joined the main road we pulled up in the crossroads servo to refill our water. Franky spluttered and wouldn't start. Hood popped we could see a battery connector had cracked and popped loose so bodged it back on and drove to town to park outside a mechanic. Through the busy city of Leon, fully set in Saturday afternoon party mode, the mechanic had knocked off for the weekend but as the problem was small he happily sourced a couple of connections and replaced the snapped one, no dramas and a few Cords of beer money for his weekend. Swiftly back out the busy city, a little stressed and hot but still on route for a refreshing afternoon. 40mins in land and some ice creams later we pulled off the road to another awful back lane of pot holes and

rubble so bailed into a farm 2km in, to ditch Franky with some curious but nice country farmers so we could hike the rest of the way up and then down, into another volcanic crater lake. This time perfectly pristine and not a soul around but cows and birds. We hiked down through the jungle, catching glimpses of the place and popped out to an amazing lake. Deep blue waters of the warm lake with rich green forest sides of the crater and next door volcanoes looming over the far side. It felt very Jurassic, like we had entered a pre-human realm of peace and huge beasts hiding somewhere in the bushes.

It was the perfect afternoon reset, the water was amazing with sounds and views to match. After a couple of swims and some time to take it all in, reluctantly we left, hiked back to find Franky was in good hands and drove to the nearest village that was set on the side of another huge lake with a row of waterfront bars overlooking the countries most famous and most perfect volcano, Momatombo, the country emblem. Mandatory sundown beers and chips, we parked behind the bars and had dinner on the roof deck overlooking Momatombo, with Friday night fireworks and shooting stars above... helleva few days!