Smoking Cigars and Volcanoes
- Hester van den Berg
- Jan 11, 2019
- 8 min read
When we were still living in New York, before starting this great trip, there was a lot of political unrest in Nicaragua. The Dutch government even gave out a negative travel advice for the country, because it was a little unsafe. Because of that, our initial plan for Nicaragua was to stay 2 days, just because we needed to cross the country to get to Costa Rica. But, getting closer and closer to Nicaragua, we heard some good stories and the country seemed to be calm again. In Honduras we checked out which places we wanted to visit in Nicaragua, and we immediately decided to stay a bit longer. That was a good decision, because this is a beautiful country!
Excited to cross the border to Nicaragua, we stepped in to the waiting line for immigration and customs. First issue we ran into was that we didn’t receive an entry stamp in Timon’s passport for the car, when entering Honduras. So the guy at the Honduras side of the border’s first reaction was “You have to go back to the place you crossed the border, and go and get the stamp”. Obviously, that didn’t make much sense, since that would cost us more than a day! After some discussions, he realized that it was not a good plan, and he provided us with the entry stamp himself. Fixed the Honduras issue, then off to Nicaragua. Our car was approved within no time, especially since we ensured them we didn't bring a drone (drones are apparently illegal in the country). But, at the immigration office they didn’t seem to be happy to let us in the country. A new rule stated that we had to file for a tourist visa, to get in to Nicaragua. We read about it the day before, and we filed the request, but didn’t receive the approval in time. A few people started discussing our situation, some calls were made and we saw our passport cross from one side to the other side of the area. But it worked, and after 2 hours we were approved to enter Nicaragua.
Our first stop was a small town in the north, Esteli. In this area there are a lot of cigar plantations and factories. Even as non smokers, we thought it might be interesting to learn something about the cigar business, and we booked a tour to visit a fermentation plant and a factory. The one thing that I will never forget is the overwhelming smell, which was so strong it brought tears in my eyes. In the fermentation plant - which was, just like the factory, based in a regular house - women were sorting the cigar leaves by strength and color, before going into the fermentation room. The guy in the fermentation room couldn’t do his job without wearing a gas mask, that was how terrible the smell was in that room! And very repetitive work, just spreading out the leaves, sorting them to the right stack. Respect to them, standing in the smell, and doing the same thing the whole day. In the factory we saw how they roll the cigars. Every cigar brand has its own mold, and every single cigar needs to fit the size and weight criteria. Funny, as we were watching the people work on the cigars, the boss was watching them too. With a big fat cigar in his mouth.
Our next stop was Leon, a city we heard a lot of good things about in regards to activities such as volcano boarding. Through recommendations, we booked a room in the Poco a Poco hostel, and while emailing with the staff, we quickly figured out that this hostel was owned by a Dutch couple. They opened the hostel 2,5 years ago, and in 2018 they were awarded with a prize for the best hostel in Nicaragua. During the unrest, they had to close down for a few months, but now they were totally up and running again. Almost fully booked the whole time we were there. They were also starting up a coffee shop in the middle of the city center, so things must have been good in Leon again :).
Leon is known to be the hottest city in Central America, and we think that might be true. Due to the high temperatures, there was not much movement in us to be found, so the first day we took it slow. Lots of hammocks at the hostel, calling our names, so chilling it was. At the end of the day, we explored the city center a little bit. Something we noticed is that some of the buildings were showing the consequences of the latest unrest in this country. Some blocks were burned down, and some of the buildings were missing windows. But, there was no feeling of unrest while walking around. We felt very safe and people were very friendly, everywhere we walked, entered a store, etc.
Something that we wanted to do in this area was the volcano boarding, on the Volcan Cerro Negro. Something that you can’t do anywhere else in the world. But, looking into the prices and other things to do, I got more excited to hike up the Telican Volcano, and camp just below the crater. So we decided to skip the volcano boarding, which felt a little more like a tourist trap to us (even though everyone who did it was very enthusiastic!). We were able to join Quetzaltrekkers on the hike, since we were the only people we could even choose when we wanted to leave. Another consequence of the unrest in Nicaragua; tourism still needs to get back to what it was.
On Friday morning we started the hike from the Quetzaltrekkers office at 8am. From there we walked with Rafael, our guide, to the bus station. There we took the bus to San Jacinto, a small town along the road below the volcano. Going up, it took us 4 hours to get to the lunch spot, where a local family prepared rice, beans and eggs for us. After lunch, we still had a short hike to go. Our guide unfortunately had some issues with his knee, so I offered to take over some of his weight. A short hour later we arrived at the campground just below the crater. Quickly, before we were even able to settle down a bit, a local came to us to collect the camping money. Smart guy as he was, he even brought a cooler with cold beers! Since it was very hot, and we just had walked for 5 hours, a cold beer was very welcome! We tipped the guy a little, and asked him to watch over our camping stuff. We walked up to the crater, to be in time for the sunset. The Telican volcano is one of the active volcanoes in Nicaragua, and you are able to look into the crater. If you’re lucky, you can even see the lava. It’s impressive and at the same time very scary to be at the crater and to look down in it. I’ve never seen something like it before. We walked around the crater a bit to find a good spot to sit down, and from there we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the San Cristobal volcano, the biggest one in Nicaragua. After the sunset we walked back to the crater, and since it was dark now, we were able to see the orange glow of the lava. After setting up our tents, we made a campfire and cooked some pasta. Since there was no shower, we laid down on our mattresses and slept in our clothes. The next morning, we decided to take a shortcut from where we could be picked up by 4x4, since our guide still had some issues with his knee. Instead of 2,5 hours hiking down, we took the 45 minute route. But, it took us 1,5 hour in the end, so happy we didn’t take the long route. Arriving back at the hostel, the first thing we did was take a shower. Ahhh.. Nothing better than a fresh, cold shower when you take off your socks, but you still see the socks on your dirty, volcano sand covered legs…
After the hike we were staying one more night in Leon, and in the afternoon we went into the city center again. Right on the Parque Central, there is the Cathedral-Basilica de la Asunción, and you can enter the rooftop to get a nice view over the city. Since it is all white, and Leon is very hot, we were recommended to go at the end of the day. That was a good tip, because it was still very hot while the sun was already setting. But, it is a must do! The roof is full of domes, and you have a nice view over the city center.
Granada is named the Paris of Central America, and was our next stop in Nicaragua. Like in Leon, you can also see the aftermath of the unrest in Granada. The tourists are also still not really back there, so tour operators are bombarding you with offers and 50% discounts on their tours. They just want people on their tours, no matter what the original costs used to be. We visited the Chocolate museum, where the tour guide told us something about the history and process of chocolate making. It was a fun experience, he even got us singing and dancing. But, he also told us that the hotel they are located in used to have 20 employees. Since the unrest, and tourism shutting down, they had to let go a lot of people, and now they’re left with only 3 employees. For us it seems cool to get 50 % discounts on tours, but it is also very sad to see what these issues have done to the country and its people. Since prices were down to an all-time low, we decided to take a guided boat tour to the Isletas de Granada. The isletas are 365 small islands, which were formed after an eruption of the Mombacho volcano thousands of years ago. Some of the islands are bought by wealthy people, who build big houses on them. One of the islands still has a fort for protection against the pirates in the 18th century, one has a monkey sanctuary on it, and others are still untouched or inhabited by the locals.
Our last days in Nicaragua, before crossing to the more expensive Costa Rica, we spent in San Juan del Sur. We found a nice AirBnB with a pool, close to the beach for a perfect price. We stayed there for 5 days, and we mostly relaxed, took a swim or ate some local fruit. One night we ended up at the local restaurant, which organized a tapas night. Our host told us about it, and it apparently was a meetup moment for all the foreign people living in the area.
Nicaragua was a very nice surprise, and we would definitely recommend everyone to visit. Since there is still a small chance the protests will start again, nothing really changed since the last time, you just need to quickly check what’s going on. But people are just as friendly as we experienced in some other Central American countries, and the cities and nature are just special. Driving through the flat country, seeing all volcanoes popping up everywhere around you, that’s something unique. I’m happy we stayed longer than the intentional 2 days!
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