Breakfast with some Swiss gents (they were on a one month speedy trip from Guatemala to Costa Rica), light but with fantastic home-made jam (tasted like quince marmalade). Set off for 7 am boat trip from Le Castillo to San Carlos. Up-stream took a bit longer than down, but by 10.30 we had arrived in San Carlos’ madness just to refuel our stomachs, pockets (exchange money in the bank ) and jump on the ferry to the well-advertised Ometepe island. The tickets for foreign tourists were only available in first class (only 25 US dollars including the bikes!). Lots of lost tourists on the top deck and “Nica`s” on the bottom - a bit of a divide like a class system on the Titanic… Our beer bottles were confiscated for the duration of the cruise (sounded like other travellers must have been irresponsible with drinks, hence the ban).
We made two stops in little towns picking up mainly cargo goods. Very pretty trip and jumped off in one of the towns for a 20 min walk. We could see locals playing cards and sleeping on the deck and followed their example to find comfortable deck space in 1st class. 10 hours later at about 1 o`clock at night, we arrived at Altagracia - our destination - and took another 30 min to wait for the bikes to be off loaded. Cycled 2km north in the dark to hit the centre of town to find (not easy at stupid o`clock) a lovely Hotel Central - an old colonial building with courtyard, plenty of space and great bedrooms. Lots of Nicas stayed on the main square not bothering with accommodation at all – it’s easily warm enough to do so!
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We made two stops in little towns picking up mainly cargo goods. Very pretty trip and jumped off in one of the towns for a 20 min walk. We could see locals playing cards and sleeping on the deck and followed their example to find comfortable deck space in 1st class. 10 hours later at about 1 o`clock at night, we arrived at Altagracia - our destination - and took another 30 min to wait for the bikes to be off loaded. Cycled 2km north in the dark to hit the centre of town to find (not easy at stupid o`clock) a lovely Hotel Central - an old colonial building with courtyard, plenty of space and great bedrooms. Lots of Nicas stayed on the main square not bothering with accommodation at all – it’s easily warm enough to do so!
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