Riding to Patagonia

[1.21GW]

Next up: Lake Atitlan, a lake surrounded by dormant volcanoes and lively lakeside villages.


In Panajachel, I met the kind of person that reminds me why I take these kind of trips.  A gringo who is all energy and no regret.  In the 80s he was on the very same solo moto adventure through the Americas when an accident in Honduras left him paralyzed for six months.  Upon recovery, he had to be air-lifted out by US Military due to civil war (Remember the Reagan/Contras eighties?  Central America wasn't exactly ADV-friendly). When he informed the Marines that he wanted to be taken to Nicaragua instead of be flown home, they thought he was nuts.  But on he went.  Had a business in Peru for years until regime change basically wiped him out, hitchhiked/walked from Cape Town to Kenya, almost dying of malaria on the way, and recently woke up to a 30' boulder crashing into his house from the mountain above, stopping against a now v-shaped support column 3 feet from him and his wife snoozing in bed.  A true adventurer that believes life is best lived beyond your porch with the throttle wide open and bugs caught in the teeth of your ear-to-ear smile.  If you ever end up in Panajachel, stop by and order a cup o' joe and listen to him tell a tale.

I ended up spending christmas at the lake.  For some reason, central americans (especially Mexicans) love the kind of fireworks that are all thunder and no lightning.  From 8p til 2a it was christmas in Aleppo.  As can be seen below, no helicopter parenting here.  Children are encouraged to play with fire.




















After I went to Antigua, where nights were spent drinking mezcal and mingling with a salad of locals, ex-pats, and backpackers passing through.  Days were spent in the twin activity of recover and regret.  Not many pictures, since I was too social to bother much with my camera.










Outside Antigua is a resort called Hobbitenango, where the proprietor of a local comic book store build a Shire-style property, complete with round doors and guest rooms build into the hillside.  The views of the surrounding valleys and volcanoes alone are worth the trip.














I returned to the lake for New Year's for a hippy-style party that is best left for a DIMBY recount, but if your imaginations can construct a narrative from the following, by all means give it a go: fire magicians, dancing robots, flying acrobats, vicarious birth rituals, a menstrual blood shrine, butterflies and pixies, literal tree huggers, DJs in skulls, fireworks (the good kind), a sultan's bed of near naked bodies, sunrise yoga, and snoring hobos embedded in fields of frosted worms.  Ok, give that a try.

[Monsterlover]

[GregP]

 

[1.21GW]

From the party to end all parties, I crossed into El Salvador for some much needed peace and solitude.  My first stop was Ruta de las Flores, a series of small villages in the mountains near the border.  The road along the route was filled with all sorts of flowers (hence the name) and each village had its own unique traits.  In Ataco, murals decorate the shops and single story buildings along the main drag.  In Juayua, a Cristo Negro attracts visitors to the main church.  I managed to hire a local guide, Elmer, who brought along a pair of dogs ("junior guides") as we hiked through the surrounding coffee plantations and mountain forests as we toured a half dozen waterfalls.  The trail appeared and disappeared in the dense jungle, with Elmer clearing brush with his impressive machete skills.
























After Ruta de las Flores, I headed to a lake resort and then to a few beach towns, before ending up at a paradise by the sea near the Nicaraguan border called Playa Esteron.  Thronged with city folk down for the day when I arrived, the place cleared out on Monday leaving behind an eden of empty caramel beaches, cool offshore breezes, a army of drowsy hammocks, two resident pelicans (one-winged rescues), endless cadence of surfable waves, shaded palm groves, and painted sunsets.  Nothing to do but sway in a hammock and listen to your beard grow.

[Monsterlover]

Sounds like that beard's growin' just fine.

[DucRS]

 

[Speedbag]

Those sunset pics are awesome. 

[1.21GW]

Well, to be fair, those sunsets were awesome.

 

[1.21GW]

Saw this today at the beach.  Hubba hubba. 

[greenmonster]

Really cool, form follows function.

Again, great thread!

[1.21GW]

Nicaragua was next.  I had heard good things, so I was looking forward to discovering its bounty.  As the second poorest country in Latin America, I expected it to be cheap.  Well, it wasn't all that cheap.  And the bounty was a mixed bag of struggling cities and beautiful natural forests and beaches.

First stop was León, the formal capital.  The city wears a patina of fading colors and pealing paint that reminds you its golden age is much forgotten.  But a handful of restaurants and trendy hostels have popped up, suggesting that this is the next Central American city to be a top destination.  I could definitely see it becoming another Antigua (Guatemala, not the island nation) ten years from now.  The tall statue in the photo below is La Gigantona, a derisive depiction of a Spanish woman (tall, effete) that is part of fall holiday celebrations.  Not shown is Pepe, El Enano Cabezon (the Big Headed Dwarf), who always accompanies her and is meant to represent the smarter, but shorter, indigenous people.












León is (allegedly) the only place in the world where you can try "volcano boarding", which is another attempt by mankind to sublimate nature by the most humiliating means possible.  On the scale of ridiculous, it lies somewhere between fish pedicures and riding an emu.  The victim here is Cerro Negro, the youngest volcano in Central America and a pile of dusty black gravel that looks more like the staging area for highway construction materials than a boiling pit to the bowels of the earth.

The truth is, volcano boarding sounds more exciting than it is.  Like most downward adventures---skiing, BASE jumping, surfing---the bulk of the challenge is getting to the top.  The launch is all gravity.  In the case of Cerro Negro, a half-hour shuttle ride from León is followed by a forty-minute hike up the mountain.  The subsequent 700m trip down is not much different from winter sledding, except that instead of the gentle tickle of melting snowflakes on your cheek you get a face full of pebbles pelting you at 70 kph that will remain in your teeth long after the thrill of the ride remains in your memory.  Still, the views from the top alone are worth the price of entry!

[TWDucfan]

Follow this thread with envy...


 

[1.21GW]

From León I headed to Granada, a four-block band aid of colorful shops, lively restaurants, and colonial churches laid over an otherwise featureless and forgettable city.  Located on the northwestern edge of Lake Nicaragua, one of the more popular activities is to tour by boat the 300+ small islands (Las Isletas) that spill out from the shore.  Most of the islands a small, less than an acre or so, and are owned by wealthy individuals as vacation property or perhaps just for bragging rights.  However, some host singular hotels, one is occupied by a family of spider monkeys, many are for sale (the islands, not the monkeys), and most are empty.  Another popular activity in Granada is to visit Volcán Masaya at night.  This active volcano is straight out of a Bond flick: it was the first volcano of probably a dozen active volcanoes I’ve visited in my life where I could stand at the rim, look down into an open crater, and see flowing magna.



























In the middle of the lake rise a pair of volcanoes that have formed a barbell-shaped island, Ometepe.  The local populations circumscribe the island, with plantations of coffee, plantains, and other fruits occupying the sloped fields inland at the base of the volcanoes.  The atmosphere is pure island---laid back and slow--and much of my time was spent swaying in hammocks and reading.  I did hire a guide to lead me via horseback to a remote waterfall one day and kayaked along to a gator filled stream another.  But no matter how I started the day I ended up on the dock by 5:30p, beer in hand, watching the sun set over the edge of the lake and set the sky ablaze.  As if that majesty weren't enough, when darkness fell a swarm of fireflies would appear in the tall grass around the shoreline.  Fireflies where I grew up in the Northeast are less populous but more active, like will-o-wisps, flying around and glowing intermittently.  In contrast, these would remain in the same spot and glow consistently, like some alien species signaling to distant ancestors across the night sky.























I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the inspired and opinionated dueño of the hostel where I stayed: Alvaro.  Alvaro is a man dedicated to improving the lives and community of the locales and has a number of projects in the works.  First, he hosts a bilingual school that teaches the local children English, a skill he recognizes as essential to increasing their career opportunities as they get older.   Additionally, he's created a solution for handling the mounds of trash piling up across the island: stuff non-organic garbage inside of empty water bottles and use them in the construction of his school.  I had images of the process but unfortunately gave that SD card to my dad a few weeks ago without downloading on my laptop.  All I have at hand is a picture of the man himself, but if you’re curious about the process I put a link to a video about him at the end of this post.

[1.21GW]

Next up was Costa Rica, a country that reminded me a lot of Hawai'i in its mix of sunny beaches and cool tropical mountains full of wildlife and vegetation.  Outdoor activities reign in Costa Rica, from hiking to kayaking to ziplining to bird watching to surfing to canyoning etc etc.  My father came down for five days and we explored the coast around Tamarindo as well as some mountain hikes inland.  After four months of traveling, it was nice to see a familiar face.  Nice to stay in a real resort, too.  I had forgotten what a hot water shower was like.

Nature is so abundant, and is now the primary income source (having displaced bananas for the top spot), that the government and the people seem in concert on protecting and promoting CR's eco-bounty.  The following are photos from Rincon de la Vieja and Monteverde, two great places to see nature in its abundance.










































Orosi is a beautiful valley east of San Jose.  The route along 224 and then 225 to the Caribbean coast is one of the best roads I've ridden on my trip and one any motorcyclist passing through should take.


















My father and went to thermal springs and took a mud bath during the process.  Left that place limber as a bowl of jello.

[Monsterlover]

Great photos and write-up as usual!!