Stranded in the Jungle on our First Day?

Our first day was to be spent mostly in airports and planes.  Nashville to Miami, 4 hour layover then Miami to Managua, Nicaragua.  Arriving around 7:00pm.  Upon boarding our first flight and getting settled in our seat, I was surprised to look up and see a familiar face walking up the aisle.  Ulf, my neighbor across the street and 3 houses down came walking up the aisle.  He is an American Airlines pilot, and happened to be on our flight on his way to a flight he was piloting to South America.  We told him where we were going and wished each other well on the upcoming travels.

After uneventful flights, we arrived in Managua only about 15 minutes late.  Outside awaiting us we could see a see of humanity of taxi and other hired drivers awaiting their customers pressed up against the glass of the secure area like American teenagers awaiting the current top band’s stadium concert.  As we exited we were getting barraged with requested of “do you need a taxi?”  Our hotel had arranged a driver for us, so we attempted to ignore the offers.  One more aggressive individual approached us directly and got somewhat in front of us, and asked if we needed a taxi.  We said no thank you.  He persisted “do you have a car?” In my experience, the more aggressive the pitch, the more likely it is a scam, or at least a higher cost, less pleasant experience ahead.  I became a bit more direct and irritated, and stated firmly, “we have a driver.” At this point he then responded, “the drivers are not here, they are out here. Follow me.”  As we hesitated, he insisted.  I quickly glanced around, but saw that there didn’t appear to be many people holding signs with names on them, looked at Aimee, shrugged and we followed, hoping he was correct.  Sure enough once we got outside our driver stood there with our name.  At this point, I did feel bad for being curt, and was going to tip the taxi driver that helped, but then realized I didn’t have any bills appropriate for tipping at the moment.

Managua is a fairly high crime city.  While it is the lowest crime city of any Central American capital, (the competition makes that pretty easy to achieve) it still is considered not a safe place generally to wander too much especially at night.  However, traveling at night in Nicaragua anywhere presents dangers, so we had planned to stay the night in the city.  It was about a 20-25 minute drive to get to the airport.  For part of the drive, we were on the Pan-American Highway.  On this road and another major route, Managua has erected flat decorative trees about 35-40 feet high, each of a different single color, with both sides of the face completely colored with lights.   Every hundred feet or so would be another one of these trees on both sides of the road, lighting the path through the city.

Hotel El Conquistador (taken the next morning)

Room at Hotel El Conquistador

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel El Conquistador, and checked in.  We had found a popular restaurant with live music which was only a block away from our hotel, called La Casa de Los Mejia Godoy.  We asked the woman at the desk if it was safe to walk from here, and she insisted yes, its very safe, as there is a big bank next to it, and there are guards all over the place.  She actually walked a quarter of the way with us, and directed us how to get there from the point where she bid us farewell.


The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived, but began to fill up quite a bit an hour later as the music was about to start.  The band began playing traditional Nicaraguan music, as well as stories in between each of the songs.  It would have been neat to be more fluent in Spanish.  Aimee and I could figure out the topic of each story, and got bits and peaces, but we certainly missed many of the details underscored by his dramatic flair.

House Band at La Casa de Los Mejia Godoy

Dinner in Managua!

After awhile Aimee noticed that there were a few security guards strategically placed throughout the restaurant.  Later the singer announced that a President Sanchez was present (upon researching, it appears it was likely President Sanchez of El Salvador accompanied by former Nicaraguan president Arnoldo Alaman as these look like the two finely dressed gentleman that were at the tables not far from us). 

After a delicious dinner of tostones (green plantain “croutons“, although more like fried mini cakes of plantain), chicken soup, and  steak chimichurri, we walked back to our hotel and turned in.

Friday was our first full day, and was primarily intended to drive to the southwest coast of the country to the resort we’d be staying in for the next couple days.  We decided to take a quick walk around Nicaragua first, to see some of the local sites.  We were near Laguna de Tiscapa, a lake in a volcanic crater in the middle of the city, which has a historical park and monuments around it.  As we walked up to the park at the lip of the crater, we saw some bright white stairs that led up to a monument.  I had my cell phone in my hand, when suddenly I thought I heard someone say “hey where you going.”  I turned to look and see if it was the

The Monument Picture that Almost Got us Shot

gentleman with the high powered rifle standing on the street corner talking to me (we were right next to some sort of military installation as well).  It didn’t look like he had said it, so I turned around and we continued walking up the steps.    We heard the voice call again, turned around, and realized he was up in a guard tower over the gentleman on the street.  The guard in the tower was clearly calling us.  The soldier on the ground now came over and demonstrated that we could take pictures at the bottom looking up, but were not allowed to climb it and take pictures.  Fortunately, he decided he didn’t need to utilize his weapon to enforce the point.

After this encounter, we climbed the winding road that led to the top of the crater, and took some pictures of the lake, a monument, and an old prison, which stated in Spanish that you could arrange a tour of the prison entitled “Nights of Torture.”  We didn’t look into this, but may be taking a similar one later in Masaya.

Monument of Sandino in Parque Historico Tiscapa 

Managua!

Abandoned Prison in Mangua

Laguna de Tiscapa

After our short walking trip in Managua, we returned to our car, stopped at a store for some bottled water for the week, and got on the road towards Tola.

Monument to Cesar Chavez in a Roundabout

Our drive took us through a few cities and villages, including Masaya, (which we’d be visiting more in depth

Old Church in Diriomo

later in our trip).  When we began getting hungry we were in the area of Los Pueblos Blancos.  Several small villages outside of Grenada and Masaya that had lots of arts and crafts for purchase.  Our guidebook recommended that in Diriama, there were several restaurants overlooking Laguna de Apoyo.  We took the slight detour to head to “el mirador” (the lookout), and found a stunning spot to sit and eat lunch.

View from Lunch: Laguna de Apoyo

After taking in the sites, we got back on the road towards our destination.  Up until this point, the road had been paved.  We were following the directions on our iPhones, and realized we just missed a turnoff.  We still had about 50 miles left, but this turn off brought us on to a dirt road.  As soon as we turned, we realized it would be a rough drive.  Some stretches were nice and smooth, some were very full of potholes.  As we got closer to our destination there were a few places we had to maneuver around very deep ruts.  As I was avoiding a pothole, Aimee let out a slight scream, and said “ohh watch that one.”  As we passed she said part of the side of the road had caved in and had at least a 10 foot drop verticle drop of into a ravine.  I had entirely missed this as I was looking at other holes.  Thirty minutes later, we approached a point where a similar cave-in which went from the edge of the road to the center of the road.  This also was at least 8 feet deep,  and 6 feet across.  Easily could have swallowed our car completely.

Small Church on the Dirt Road to Punta Teonoste

Finally at about 3:45pm, we reached our destination and checked in to Punto Teonoste.  While I was getting the bags, the

Our Cabana: Canela

young Nicaraguan man that greeted us set Aimee up at the bar with a complimentary rum punch of some sort.  After I got the bags, I saw one was waiting for me too.  We finished our drinks, and he then showed us to our house. It was stunning.  Thatch roofed hut, with a living room and master bedroom on the first floor, and a loft bedroom with 2 twin beds on the second floor.  The second floor was open to the outside via a balcony with a bamboo floor that overlooked the ocean.  There was also a very small bathroom with just a toilet and a tiny sink on the second floor.  Back on the first floor, off of the master bedroom was a courtyard that acted as an open air bathroom.  A small but lush garden had a path to the wall of the courtyard, where you turned on the shower, which then poured a waterfall of water through the trees and over your head.  In the corner of the courtyard you pushed aside a couple palm branches and behind it was the toilet, also open to the courtyard, but privacy offered by the tropical foliage.  Just amazing. 

Master Bedroom

Living Room

Outdoor Shower

View From the Commode

Loft Bedroom

View from Loft Bedroom Balcony

As this was all open air, you of course have the precautions against mosquitos, such as fans and mosquito nets, and the warning not to leave the shutters open with the lights on at night. 

We spent an hour or so exploring the entirely deserted huge stretch of pristine white sand beach along the Pacific Ocean, in awe of the beautiful solitude we had, and wondered why we didn’t just spend the entire 10 days here.  After awhile though we decided to head back to the lodge, eat dinner, and prepare for our evening plans.

One of the key activities we had been looking forward to was planned for tonight.  Currently thousands of turtles are coming to the coast in flotillas to lay their eggs on the beach in an event known as las Arrivadas.  Very nearby is a nature reserve known as Chacocente, which sees a lot of this activity.  We rearranged our trip entirely to try and arrive at the resort when the turtles would be coming.  The resort had been calling the center throughout the afternoon to determine when was best to go see them.  Ultimately they said we should head over at 8:00pm.  (Note, sundown is early here, as they are Central Standard Time.  The sun was down completely by 7:00. 

We ate dinner at the resort, and had several drinks while talking to the bartender, Gary.  When 8:00 came,

1/2 lb Lobster tail for $24!! (Aimee had chicken)

he informed us that he was the one going with us to the reserve.  They said that he would join us, and we’d drive our car into the reserve.  After a beautiful day with clear skies, we were ready for a drive, a brief walk and a unique chance to see turtles laying eggs. 

We began driving, and I asked our bartender/tour guide, (who spoke the best English - though still fairly broken-  of anyone we’ve met yet) if the road condition was decent on the way to Chacocente.  Without hesitation, or any attempt to sugar coat it, he said plainly “no.”

We drove for a few miles, and then turned into the entrance for the reserve.  Immediately, the road condition went from fair to terrible.  Potholes, ruts 6-12 inches deep, ravines carved through the dirt roadway from running water down the very hilly “road”.  The deeper we got, the worse the conditions got. 

I saw a small critter walk towards the car under the headlights as I was driving, but couldn’t tell what that was.  Aimee said “did you see that?”  “What was it?” I asked back.  Our guide answered calmly “a spider”.

I though for a moment, and said naively, “like a tarantula?” Gary said “We call them horse killers.  Yes.”

We continued for somewhere between 3-5 miles and about 30 minutes down the road across dry river and creek beds, watching the conditino of the road get worse and worse.  Several times I had to stop the car and assess the multiple 12-18 inch ruts, to decide where to try and place the wheels of our 2 wheel drive Suzuki Vitera.  Gary would assist and suggest going to one side, but then cutting across the ruts where the gap was a bit narrower and less deep.  Several times I though for sure we’d get stuck, or not be able to get up a steep incline.   

Amazingly we made it to the ranger station, and I thought to myself, “Good God, I need to do that again to get out.”  I also mused on how having to do that in the rain would be impossible.

When we got out of the car, it was complete darkness.  We looked up at the sky to see more stars all around than I’ve ever seen in my life. We used our cell phone flashlights (we forgot to pack regular flashlights, though we had planned to for this part of the trip) to guide our way to the very rudimentary ranger station.  Far off in the distance a couple times we saw flashes of lightning light up the sky.  We walked up to the station where we were met with some of the live-in employees/biologists. 

I heard the rangers say something about rain as we were getting ready to head out.  A few minutes later, we began walking down a narrow path through the jungle towards the ocean. I heard the roar of the ocean ahead of us, the roar of howler monkeys in the jungle. But I also noticed I started hearing the roar of thunder as well.  Aimee asked Gary if he thought it was going to rain.  He said “the sky looks clear, we can see the stars.  Looking up, we certainly could.  We walked for another 10 minutes, and the thunder got louder, and the flashes of light were much brighter.  We also occasionally felt drops of water.  I looked up again.  The stars were gone.  All of them.  The sky was completely black.  We were now 10 minutes out from the ranger station.  Aimee expressed concern at the weather.  However our guide kept walking.  By now there was a drizzle and we were careful to keep our iphones dry while we continued walking.  We finally got to the beach about 15-20 minutes into the walk, and began walking south along the beach at a brisk pace.  The thunder and lightening was getting closer, and louder.  Several times the entire beach lit up with a loud clap.  The rain began falling harder.  Aimee said, “maybe we should go back.”  The guide said, its not much further.  So we walked, it began raining.  Not drizzling but raining.  We walked another 10-15 minutes from where we had entered the beach.  A deafening thunderclap, and retina-scorching lightning struck somewhere nearby.  It was now raining hard.  Aimee said definitively “no turtles, its not worth it.” The guide stopped and looked at us with the look of  “are you sure?”  I agreed, “yes, lets head back.” As we turned and started trudging very quickly through the sand, it began raining fairly hard.  The lightning continued every 20-45 seconds.  We got back to the path into the jungle, and the skies opened up.  All 3 of us had only our cell phones to light the path.  I was convinced one by one they’d get water logged and leave us in the dark.  We began ascending the path as a full on downpour began soaking us.  I was concerned about the lights/phones.  Aimee was concerned about the phones and the roads, and was very angry that our guide had taken us this far in the rain (and that they didn’t warn us how poor the roads were.  The next day she admitted that at that point, “I was so mad, I kicked a frog that got in my way.”  Ever the animal lover, this truly explains the depth of her iritation at that point.

We were soaked when we got to the station, but our phones were still working.  Our guide looked at me and said, urgently, “We must leave here, now.”  We ran in almost complete darkness to the car and got in, soaked as if we’d been swimming in our clothes.  I asked with concern “do you think will make it back on that road?”  Gary asked me if I wanted him to drive.  I asked him if he thought he could do it, and he said confidently, “yes, I can do it.”

As we began heading back to the road in the torrential downpour, he explained that he was from the Caribbean coast.  He lives at the resort while he works there. To drive home is an 8-10 hour drive on similar roads, some even worse, and that he’s done it many times.  As we began the perilous drive, all of the ruts were now running rivers of water, masking which ones were one inch deep and which were 18 inches deep.  I had a rising sense of panic, and half a kilometer in to the trip I asked if he really thought we can make, it and whether we should go back (of course there would be no possible way to turn around anyway.)  He ignored me and navigated the road almost with ease, slowly but surely choosing which section to drive across, and criss-crossing the running rivers of water through the road.  Twice we hit steep inclines, and the vehicle got half way up, and got stuck.  He’d throw it in reverse, and try again, two times, three times, and success.  For the few straight sections he’d get us up to almost 30 miles an hour, and bats with 12 inch wing spans could be seen flying back and forth and sometimes seeming to race us.  After the first 20 minutes in the torrential downpour, the rain lightened up a bit.  Fortunately as we crossed the two riverbeds, they were only a little bit wet, and not running rapids.  After about 45 minutes of white knuckled riding, and Aimee fuming in the back seat, we emerged onto the main road.  I was honestly amazed that we made it.  I had begun convincing myself that it wouldn’t be terrible to sleep in the car on a high section of road in the jungle for the night when we got stuck.  We didn’t need to do that though.  I began laughing in hysteria when we reached the road.  I really couldn’t believe we made it.

On the way back to the resort, we had to stop to clear a section of road where huge branches had fallen and washed down rivers that used to be streets through villages into the main roads.  We also saw a very nice pick up truck that had within the last hour split the engine in two around a utility pole. 

We arrived back at the resort, and I told our bartender/guide, that I really needed him to pour us some strong drinks at this point. 

We had a cocktail, and then returned to our thatch roofed hut, and fell asleep to the sound of one of the strongest storms I’ve heard in ages, that lasted until just before dawn.