NOTA #4: From Maya ruins and a faded Carribean paradise (HONDURAS) to splendid Spanish Colonial towns (NICARAGUA)

Before starting to wrote this blog entry I found myself lying in a perfectly comfortable hammock within the courtyard of a Granada-based hostel called "Bearded Monkey", finishing Alex Garland's second novel "The Tesseract" which started out as a pretty dull read and ended rather engrossing, exciting, well-done.

Apart from much reading and less relaxing I am still traveling, though, and am about to head on to quite a famous double-vulcano island called Ometepe tomorrow - by ferry (which only leaves two times a week) plus I am having free internet tonight, so that's when I figured it's time for a little update. I arrived in Granada just last night and spent all day long discovering the grand Andalusian namesake, still having enough time for a short, but interesting daytrip to another Nicaraguan city called Masaya (famed for its artesanía/handicraft). However, I will remember that town in particular for it's very weird-tasting wannabe-peach/syrup-juice.

Let me tell you about Honduras first, though: at the time of NOTA #3, I have just visited the Maya ruins of Copán (near the Guatemalan boarder), about to catch a bus to the Carribean Island of Utila (within the Islas de la Bahía some 60+ km off the coast). Utila had been, well, somehow dull and not exactly what I imagined of a dream-ridden paradise. This said, I was not diving there. In fact, I found myself to be very likely the only one person on the entire island that had no what-so-ever interest in diving - that made it dull; plus the utterly disturbing traffic, noise and the practical absence of (close-enough) fine beaches to swim and snorkel in. I managed to rent a kayak, however, and after one hour navigation through wild, smelly and crab-filled mangrove jungle I ended up on the wild and beautiful open ocean. A superb and Robinson-Crusoe-like moment! Also, I got a decent teint now, yippie.

I decided to leave after two nights (August 27) and while standing at the ferry pier towards the mainland I made the acquaintance with Ian from Seattle, Washington, who ended up being my companion for (almost) the next 24 hours. His next target had been San Salvador, I simply wanted to go to any place in Nicaragua - the big departure bus terminal in San Pedro Sula (Honduras' 2nd largest and fairly dodgy city, also - sadly - known as Central America's AIDS capital) had been our connecting point. We hoped to still catch a bus in the early afternoon - and were both endlessly frustrated after figuring we wouldn't. One can certainly imagine happier places to get stuck in over night. Berlin-Marzahn, e.g. Or maybe Wladiwostok (Владивосто́к). However, we pretty quickly found a way to turn our downbeat mood into something purely fun and dopamine-ridden. Vegetable shopping in a nice market, not far away from our expensive, jail-like, but otherwise colourful hostel - the eternal highly-praised ceremony of cooking - a delicious, rewarding meal - watching a Spanish-subbed Nathalie-Portman-film - cold beer.
Perfect.
And then we met a French girl who asked for a cigarette, thus telling about how she had been knocked down and robbed earlier this morning while standing at the exact same bus station we were about to take our buses from the next day. Her passport, credit card and cash all gone. Luckily she had friends in El Salvador who would now come and support her with money. Five o'clock in the dark and sweaty morning, waiting for a San-Salvador-bound bus, kicked in the face and robbed.
We were getting up at three a.m., taking a cab to the station half an hour later (not without a small breakfast) and finding ourselves waiting with our backpacks, feeling sleep-drunken and not quite as helpless due to better company.
My León-bound bus came first, and off I went. Ever since I'm in Nicaragua, I feel a dozen times more secure and relieved - even though it might just be a pretty subjective estimation. I like it here a lot!

Okay, time for some pictures, eh? Not quite.
Sorry. Your talk of hell threw me. I could have given you better answers.
This is the way it is. Galaxies drift away fro each other like painted dots on an expanding balloon, and hydrogen atoms have a single proton. There are hundreds of millions of hydrogen atoms in a single drop of water. Galaxies contain hundreds of millions of stars. [...]
Take six cubes and arrange them into the shape of a crucifix. Take two more cubes and stick them either side of the crucifix, at the point where the cross is made. Now you have a tesseract. A tesseract is a three-dimensional object. A tesseract is also a four-dimensional object - a hypercube - unravelled. A hypercube is a thing you are not equipped to understand. You can only understand the tesseract.
This means something.


GALERÍA DE IMÁGENES

I

Yummie breakfast in a Copán comedor. Hostel rules (look closer).


II

On the way to the Maya ruins at Copán.


III

Hidden temples.


IV

The one place where their king used to sacrifice himself for the deity (that sometimes meant, cutting off his penis).


V

Parque Central, Copán.


VI

En la noche.


VII

Sunset in Utila (Bay Islands).


VIII

A nightly visitor.


IX

Some swimming and good-bye.


X

Pepsi commercials are virtually ubiquitous!


XI

Cooking dinner at Tamarindo hostel, San Pedro Sula (Honduras).


XII

Discovering León, Nicaragua.


XIII

Revolutionary art.


XIV

At the theatre.


XV

The central and minor church.


XVI

Hostel life.


XVII

The city's namesake.


XVIII

Sunset cathedral.


XIX

Pacific beaches; at Las Pañetas.


XX

For cosy moments.


XXI

Insomnia, literally.


XXII

In Granada. At Lago Nicaragua.


XXIII

More cathedrals (I know, but they simply have heaps of them! And these ones here are by far the country's most impressive, they say).


XXIV

View from... you guessed it.


XXV

Public bus parade at Masaya market/bus station.


XXVI

Masaya oddities.


XXVII

No further comment.


XXVIII

Granada and Masaya. That's it! Off we go.



Daytrip to the the Pacific Coast at Las Peñetas, a little village close to León, Nicaragua.



This piece of popcorn seems to quickly move along the sidewalk, but is merely carried away by an eager group of hungry ants. Granada, Nicaragua.