From Leon to Ometepe Island.

Our journey from Leon to Ometepe Island in Nicaragua was an epic one. Not because of the distance (although we traveled a major part of the length of the country), but more because we changed so many forms of transportation throughout the day carrying all of our gear.

We left Leon early. At around 8, we hailed a taxi in the street outside our hostel, which took us straight to the bus terminal. I have to mention here that we had taken a pickup (which is like a colectivo, but a bit crazier) to go to the bus station a week earlier in Leon, and after the experience of almost falling off the back of it while carrying our backpacks, we decided the next time we should just take a taxi. We got to the bus station and stood in line to wait for the vans that shuttle people along the Leon/Managua route. The trip took us 2 hours and cost us 51 Cordobas.

Once we arrived in Managua, we took a total of 4 public buses to navigate through the capital city of Nicaragua, stopping off at the central immigration office to pick up our passports. We had met a girl in Campeche, Mexico months earlier, who had been robbed at gunpoint in a taxi in Managua, so the last thing we were going to do was hail a taxi. One word of advice to share here is make sure you ask more than one person for directions when navigating Managua by bus, as we received the wrong information from people who looked like they knew what they were talking about.

When we had our passports back with us, we made our way to the main bus terminal to catch a chicken bus south to Rivas. The trip took us over two hours, and since we were cutting it thin to make it onto the last ferry to Ometepe Island, the jewel of Lake Nicaragua (or Lago Cocibolca, as it is also known), we took another taxi to the dock at San Jorge. We were literally running out of the taxi with all our gear to make it onto the ferry. But we made it! Once we had found a place on the outdoor seating area of the ferry, we could finally breathe easy and relax. We had come a long way and were exhausted, but watching the sunset, knowing we had come so far in one day, was a good feeling.

Rushing to catch the last ferry from San Jorge to Moyogalpa, Ometepe Island.

Our first view of the beautiful Conception Volcano on Ometepe Island from the dock at San Jorge.

León

The second largest city in Nicaragua after Managua, León is a vibrant colonial city and an intellectual center, with its university founded in 1813. León is located along the Río Chiquito (Chiquito River), 90 km northwest of Managua and 18 km east of the Pacific Ocean coast. There are two main beaches near to León namely, Las Penyitas and Poneloya. León was moved to its present location after the ancient city of  León ( León Viejo) was partially buried by eruptions of the Momotombo Volcano, most of which occurred in 1610.

A smiling lion (and the namesake of León) outside the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Another lion, in the fierce pose we are more used to seeing.

León is renowned as a leftist center, and is the cradle of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), the leftist side during the Nicaraguan civil war. There are many monuments and artwork paying homage to the ‘heroes and martyrs’ who lost their lives fighting for equality and for the oppressed as well as political slogans and imagery.

A mural depicting ‘heroes and martyrs’ who lost their lives during a massacre by the Somoza ruling government.

Augusto Cesar Sandino, General of Free Men.

Carlos Fonseca Amador, leader of the Nicaraguan revolution.

Edgar Munguia, “The Cat”.

Another tribute to the heroes of the FSLN.

A huge mural in central Leon.

War imagery.

Modern political imagery.

Anti-American slogans scrawled on a wall near the Central Plaza.

Images of Augusto Cesar Sandino are common in Leon.

We decided that  León would be our first stop in Nicaragua due to its proximity to the border with Honduras, as well as the information that we had obtained from the border officials, namely that we could apply for and obtain our CA-4 visa extension there. We arrived at night, so we asked the taxi driver to take us to a budget hostel. He took us to a place called La Clinica, one mentioned in the guidebook, which is where we spent our first two nights in this vibrant colonial city. The people there were really friendly, but the place was run down and after looking around town, we decided to move to a more economical place called La Siesta Perdida, owned by a friendly Dutch lady. We later found out why our room was so cheap… it was situated in the same street as all the main discos in town!

Our first hostel in Leon, La Clinica.

León was sweltering-ly hot. It was so hot that Rick and i both had difficulty sleeping. Well, the noise from our neighbours on the street didn’t help either. We managed to find the immigration office and apply for our CA-4 extensions easily enough. The immigration personnel were very helpful and efficient, but our passports had to be sent to Managua for processing, which we were told would take a total of 8 days.

We took long walks around the city and enjoyed all it has to offer, from its huge Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption (one of the largest cathedrals in Central America) on the Central Park to the numerous university buildings and FSLN monuments. It is an interesting city, rich in nationalistic history and a good introduction to Nicaragua.

The Central Plaza and the huge Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

Leon’s Central Plaza is a popular place to hang out.

El Calvario church.

One of the beautiful old colonial buildings now used as part of the university.

Another old university building.

Intricate detailing on the facade of one of the old colonial buildings.

Well maintained colonial architecture.

A very old-looking house with traditional mud walls.

You can still see horses hard at work in Leon.

After a few days, we decided to head up north to Matagalpa to try to escape the heat for a while. The idea was to stay there (for a sort of getaway) and return in time to pick up our passports, then head onwards down south.

CA-4 Visa Extension in Nicaragua

I thought that it would be useful for me to write a post about extending the CA-4 visa, necessary if staying in Central America for over 3 months.

As a recap, once you enter one of the CA-4 Central American countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador or  Nicaragua, you will receive a stamp on your passport, and a visa that is valid for a total of 3 months. While we have been moving around these 4 countries, we noticed that only Guatemala and Honduras actually stamp your passport (Honduras immigration officials claimed that their country was no longer part of the CA-4 group), so it is quite confusing to really know what the actual situation is. It is therefore useful to note down entry/exit dates, especially if there is no stamp in your passport.

Stamp for our arrival in Guatemala, and our first point of entry into the CA-4 group of Central American countries. The initial 3 months ran from this date.

Stamp upon leaving Guatemala.

Stamps in and out of Honduras.

Before the expiration of the 3 months, you can apply for an extension (if i am not mistaken this can only be done once), or you need to cross out of the group of countries to either Mexico, Belize or Costa Rica and reenter. In our case, we had only 3 days left on our CA-4 visa once we had crossed over to Nicaragua, and as a Malaysian passport holder, i needed a visa before arrival to enter Costa Rica – the closest border to do a visa run (this was also unclear as i also hold a residency card for Spain, so we were unsure if i actually did need the visa). We eventually decided that the best option for us was to get the visa extension done in Leon, as we did not like the prospect of entering into Managua.

The process was simple. We filled in the necessary forms at the immigration office and paid a total of 1050 Cordobas (over USD $40) for 2 months extension (the maximum extension is for 3 months). Our passports were then sent to Managua for processing and we were told we had to wait a total of 8 days then return to pick them up. In our case, we arrived at the immigration office in Leon at the appointed date, only to find that our passports were still in Managua. In the end, we decided to make our way to the main immigration office in Managua and pick up our passports ourselves since we were traveling southwards anyway.

Our 2-month visa extension obtained in Managua, Nicaragua.

The immigration officials in Nicaragua were fairly efficient and although our visas were not in Leon at the time they should have been, they did not lose any of our paperwork, and could tell us exactly where our passports were at any given time. We met an American girl in Matagalpa who had gone directly to Managua to get her visa extension and she told us that she managed to get it done within an hour! So our advice would be to do just what she did, and save yourself the hassle, time and worry.