April 8 – April 12, 2018
We left Lago de Apoyo and headed towards the city of Granada, only 20 or so kilometres away. We had planned to camp in the parking lot of the Red Cross in Granada, as we had read that they allowed overlanders to stay there for only 100 Cordoba a night (about $4) and it was close to the city centre and had some facilities.
April 6 – April 8, 2018
We headed towards the capital city of Managua, hoping to avoid the city as much as possible on our way to Volcan Masaya, and active volcano that you can drive to the rim of. We arrived at the gates and they explained that we would only be able to stay at the rim for 5 minutes and that we would not be allowed to do any of the hikes in the park, as the volcano was particularly active right now.
April 3 – April 7, 2018
We got an early start the next day in order to drive towards the Pacific Ocean for a little beach time. Before leaving the town of Somoto, we stopped to get some Rosquillas, a corn flour and cheese baked treat that the area is known for….sweet and savory and really yummy!
After our ATM cave tour, we decided to head to Placencia for a little more beach time. It was late in the day, so we decided to stop for the night in the town of Hopkins where we were able to camp for the night outside of the Jambel Jerk Cafe. We were serenaded by a local band with Bob Marley songs. Across from the restaurant was a laundromat. Clean clothes!
We picked up my niece Randi and her girlfriend Amy from the international airport near Belize City on the 18th of February. Randi and Amy had planned months ago to join us for a couple of weeks travelling around Belize and we were excited to finally have them with us.
We drove to the coast making a quick side trip into the outskirts of Cancun to visit the bank, then headed south towards Puerto Morelos. We had decided to spend a night at Acamaya Reef Hotel & Cabanas, where they let you camp in their sandy parking lot for the night. We knew it was going to be expensive, but we decided to check it out. 660 pesos for the night, about 45 Canadian dollars. It was a cute little place sandwiched between two small all inclusive hotels, and one of the few places along the strip of beach that wasn’t an all inclusive resort. The family that owns it is sitting on a gold mine!
We headed back to the coast for a couple of days of beach time, staying at a place called Balenario Zac-Ha. There were flush toilets and outdoor showers, and we had the place almost to ourselves, save for when a bus of cruise ship people came in for a few hours. The beach was not perfect, there was a lot of sea grass washed up on the beach and a fair bit of plastic litter, but our camping spot was awesome…..We read, we lay in the hammock, we walked on the beach…
We stayed a night in the small town of Punta Arista to break up the drive into the state of Chiapas. Someone had recommended a campground called Jose’s, so we had checked in to the campground and cabanas. The owners’ were nice and welcoming but the campground had probably seen better days…maybe it had been hit hard by recent tropical storms? There was quite a bit of debris everywhere, many of the brick grilling stations were beat up and broken down and the cabins didn’t even come close to enticing us out of our little camper for the evening. The showers and toilets were however well maintained and clean.
The few restaurants that made up the town along the beach at Huatulco are bordered by a national park of the same name. We were able to camp within the gates of a newly built restaurant called El Capi’s, with access to the clean, new washroom throughout the night and slow to average WIFI, all for 150 pesos per night, about $10 Canadian. The food in the restaurant was good, there were hammocks to swing in, and shady palapas if we needed to get out of the sun.
Zipolite Beach is a beach in the town of Puerto Angel of which we had heard mixed reviews. Seems you either love it or hate it. We loved it.