Land of Nicas

After some epic rides coming into Nicaragua and dealing with the low ballers around the boarder crossing I finally set foot into the land of Volcanos and lakes and put myself and the bike down to rest for 4 days. I studied spanish, my bike collected dust but soon enough it was game time again and we were off to the colonial city of Granada. Riding around Nica land is alot different from Costa Rica as this is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere and over half the population lives well below poverty. In Costa Rica people generally live like we do in Canada, working to improve there social status and increase there ease of living. In Nicaragua the people work to live, often earning around one dollar a day for 10 hrs of back breaking work in the sweltering sun or trying to work there marketing skills down in the mercado central. People struggle to live here, the kids are constantly begging for money and food, garbage is everywhere and urine flows down the streets as bathrooms are hard to come by. Nicaragua also has some spectacular sites though and is slowly becoming a tourist haven as the cheap prices (1.5 meals, 4 dollar beds), dozens of volcanos, colonial churches and natural reserves is slowly making tourism the second greatest contributor to the economy. Riding a full suspension carbon bike down here gets some looks to say the least and somedays I figure Im in hollywood with all the attention. Today though my ego was taken down a level as a taxi driver swerved in front of me then slammed on his breaks as he tried to make a right hand turn. With no time to react I road into him pretty hard but still managing to stay up right. Pretty choked I went up to the window and said a few words till I realized the guy was over 250 lbs and undoing his seatbelt getting ready to get out. Being a better biker then Sumo wrestler I hopped back on my bike and began riding up the shoulder against the traffic to a more peaceful setting while the large taxi man yelled some unknown spanish words in my direction. Apparently not everyone is friendly in this country and I must try to remeber to and roll within the path of least resistance if I want to stay safe. As for the rest of the ride it was the best ever in Nicaragua. Leaving Granada at 7am I climbed slightly up an old volcano and then decended into the crater lake of Lago Apoyo where I spent the afternoon floating around on tubes and jumping off docks at the Monkey Hut lodge. In the evening I hopped back on the bike and road up Volcan Masaya in the dusk to look into the depths of hell as smoke plummed from its crater. After a false eruption a few years back in which one rock shot out of the Volcano and landed on an Italians car it is now mandatory to back into the parking spaces so people are ready to roll if things heat up. Decending back into Masaya for a nights rest I am preparing for whatever tommorow might bring.