I left Granada (Nicaragua) and headed towards the Honduran border. I was originally going to stay in Estelli, but a woman I met at the Oasis in Granada told me about a canyon north of there that was worth visiting. That's how my planning goes... head in one direction until somebody tells you about something else, then change course!
It was raining when I got to Estelli, so I stopped at Cafe Luna to have lunch and see if I could make arrangements for the canyon. They were able to arrange for me to get a guide the next morning, so I headed off to the town of Somoto for the night. Somoto is one of the truly most boring towns I have been in, only to be matched by the incredible POS (this is not an endearing term) hotel in which I stayed. Then again, what do you expect for $12, even if it was the best in town!
April 23
I spent the morning at Somoto Canyon, and it was worth the detour.
It was a hike of a couple of km to get there, then a hike down into the canyon. It's pretty much just rock and desert this time of year, but interesting.
The fun part was the river. In addition to hiking, it was a couple of miles of just floating through the canyon. Just me, the rock walls, and the river. And of course the guide to make sure I didn't go over the waterfalls!
After about 4 hours they served me lunch and I was off towards Honduras.
I crossed the border at Las Manos without too much hassle (It's all relative... this is central america after all). My biggest problem was that I was out of gas and the gas station at the border was too! I was kind of operating on fumes, but fortunately the 5 miles to the next town was all down hill, so I coasted most of the way.
The first town was El Paraiso. I had been there with my cigar group about a 18 months before when we were guests of the Rocky Patel cigar factory. I decided to stop by their guest house to see if I could make contact with Gustavo, one of the managers I had become friends with on the last trip. As luck would have it the sales manager, Christopher, was there with a group from Florida and invited me to stay for the night. I ended up having a nice dinner, a few cigars, and many drinks with the group. Gustavo also showed up and we had a great time together.
El Pinguino gets a face job:
One of the things I had wanted to do before I left Panama was to get something appropriate painted on El Pinguino, like a penguin (duh!). I just didn't have the time. I asked Gustavo if he knew anyone who could do this and he sent Manuel to meet with me. We agreed on a price, I gave him some money for paint, and Manuel promised to come by in the morning and do the job.
And do the job he did. He had made stencil of the drawing that I had and proceeded to paint.
The final product: El Pinguino with a complete identity. A Penguin with ATTITUDE! Don't ever tell this penguin he can't fly !
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