After starting the wild journey in the south of El Salvador I am supposed to get picked up by a van on a gas station. Crossing Honduras and entering Nicaragua is quite difficult at the moment due to the current conflicts. It involves a lot of paperwork, an address in the country and a plan where you stay. I have neither of those so I decide to go with a shuttle. I would prefer to take the chicken busses. However after trying to fill in all the forms for an entry into Nicaragua I just gave up. This is worth the 35$. The company offered to do all the paperwork if you drive with them. They also know what to fill in. I wait at the gas station where I am supposed to be picked up. As I wait there I receive an email saying the shuttle is late. I check the drive to León and I think to myself oh 4 hours that’s not too bad. The good part about waiting in El Salvador you can always pass time as locals usually approach you and want to talk. In this case this cool fella came to talk.

After passing time the van finally arrives. They take my surfboard to the roof and we’re off. Sitting crammed into this van we quickly arrive at the border of Honduras. Everything goes smoothly and we’re through after a while. We drive and drive and drive. Landscapes keep changing from Mountains and rivers to swamps. Things fly by as my mind often drifts off and I fall asleep. The sleep is not for long though as the van seems to stop a lot. After dredging long hours we arrive at the border of Nicaragua at around 8:00 p.m. The border seems to close at 8:30 though. As a close call we get there and we get out in the middle of nowhere. A women sitting outside is checking our vaccine status. This is the first time I got checked for my vaccine status Latin America. Checking is a little exaggerated though, because she just took a picture of my QR-Code. Afterwards we get to the real check where we are supposed to get our luggage scanned. And after this the driver just takes off with our passports. We are all sitting there waiting for a long time. My mind goes into panic mode.

Did we just got scammed and did he just left with 10 passports of travelers? I contact the company as I already see my passport sold on the black market. They assure me that everything is fine and this is the normal process. Phew what anxiety can do to your mind is always interesting. So after 12 long hours I arrive in León at around 11:30 p.m. Just 4 times more then the estimated drive on google maps. This made me think how easy we have it in Europe. You can drive 12 Hours and you would probably pass 5 countries with 5 different languages and you wouldn’t need to stop once. At least the mobile data works cross countries here as well!

Somehow I had high expectations about León and I expected something like Antigua in Guatemala. The city is nice though it is just another Latin American city. They had a few car free streets which was a pleasant surprise though. Otherwise I didn’t do much there. I got a haircut, had some damn good coffee and I did my laundry. Oh and I went volcano boarding. If you’re wondering what that is. It is basically going down a volcano on a self-made sledge from the locals. To get there we rode this big truck through the thick bushes to the Cerra Negro, the newest active volcano of Nicaragua. The volcano itself looks out of place and almost man made. Like a big construction side or a mine. It looks out of place because nature hasn’t found a place on it yet.

The hike is easy, even with the sledge. The Papagayo, a strong cold wind from the northeast is definitely felt on the top of the volcano but the view is totally worth it. You can see the whole valleys filled with bushes, trees and the surrounding area and even the pacific from up there. This is truly a whole lot of space. Sometimes you just need to climb on a mountain to see how big the world really is. You suddenly feel small and see so much land.

Once the view was admired it was time to put on the overall. With the overall we all looked straight out of a scene of Breaking Bad. It was quite difficult to put it on in the strong winds. We somehow managed it anyways. Now looking down I was doubting my decision to go. It looks kind of steep to get down again. It is too late to turn back though. Only thing to do is face your fear and go down.

What a cool experience. On he volcano boarding I meet Nick. We hang out for the evening and get some street food. The next day I take the chicken bus from León to El Transitó. To get to the bus I walk down into the quarter of the city where the market is. If you have ever been to a Latin American market you know what you’re getting into. There is usually a lot of things happening at once. Animals being cut, meats being sold, the next stall is selling juices and fruits while the next one is preparing food. Motorbikes are being fixed and every other imaginable stuff is being sold. If you need anything this is the place to be. A lot of smells usually mix up instantly. Usually it smells like fried chicken mixed with cadaver and other smells like food, mechanical oil or sewage. Somehow Nicaragua thought it is a good idea to add the main bus stations to the market tomake it a once in a lifetime chaotic experience . Why not… So I trot down the shallow hallways with my surfboard under my arm, while vendors are praising their products and bus drivers are shouting their location and the people are preparing food.. In this chaos I seem to spot another backpacker. We shortly talk and ask the destination of each other. As luck wants it, it is the same location. What are the chances right? So we search ourselves through the chaos and find the bus we need to take. After an hour we reach the bus station we want to go to. In front of us lies a 12 km long dusty road leads to the village where we want to go. We decide to walk. After 10 minutes a pick up truck is passing and he luckily lets us ride with them. We realize how foolish we were and the walk would have probably took us four hours….

In El Tránsito I noticed that my board has gotten a hole during the transport. Unfortunately the only guy that can fix it is out of town. I carried my surfboard through the whole of EL Salvador and Nicaragua only to rent a board again. Can you imagine how furious I was? What are you going to do, stop surfing? Good joke… The place is located directly at the beach. Here I go surf twice a day and watch the sunset and sunrise again. Get in tune with the tides and the winds. I did not do much else here so I let the pictures speak for me in this case.

I am now three month into this trip and never thought it would be this great. In three month you can see so much. I traveled all the way from Mexico to Nicaragua mostly taking busses. Saw the Carrabean and learnt to improve my surf. This is crazy. In the meantime I broke two t-shirts, one pair of flip-flops, ripped all my pants, lost two caps and a sweatshirt jacket and still I am doing it. The thing I have dreamed of for many years is reality now. The crazy has become normal and normal has become crazy. Home seems far away almost like an parallel universe. The unknown places on the map have become a real places with memories, experience and emotion. The great unknown has become known. I never had this much time on hand to read, cook, do sports, yoga and meditation. Following just what I want to do that day. It is more worth than all the money. You begin to notice how crazy the day to day life at home is timed. Thanks for following my dream here. See you next time! For more hitchhiking and adventures.