Asia-Europe 2012

The Masaya Volcano is located inside the park with the same name. We took the night tour, that was supposed to show as the glow of the lava. Unfortunately, too much gas prevented that from happening. Some caves and the fauna were extra.

Leon Viejo is the old capital of Nicaragua, from the Spanish times. It was preserved after a volcanic eruption covered everything with ash some 400 years ago. It was rediscovered some 30 years ago and it is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

We entered Nicaragua on a stormy day. There we saw very long trucks, similar to the ones they have in Australia. Then we met Rob and Mike, retired gold miners from British Columbia. They were travelling to Panama, so we rode together for few hours.

Well, it wasn’t exactly the Kwai river, but I really liked that movie! So, we entered Nicaragua with a full tank of gas but only 0.25 USD plus 4 Cordobas in our pocket. The plan was to get more Cordobas once we get to the next town with an ATM. But shortly after the border there was a bridge and we were supposed to pay 1 USD as a crossing fee. At this point we were 0.65 USD short on the money and the only ATM we were aware of was located some 70kms in Nicaragua, East of the bridge. And that guy at the toll did not want to let us cross the bridge without paying his fee. So eventualy we had to cross the river without using the bridge. We got back, went through a village, crash in a pile of trash while trying to reach the water, get the bike up again on it’s wheels, cross the river, ride some 1km through the river bed looking for a way out, go through a forest, a village, and finally after 1.5 hours we managed to get back on the Panamerican highway 750m after the bridge. But we saved 1 dollar!