June 13, 2016
Forrest Gump and Jenny were like peas and carrots…and letsridebikes.ca + Liz/Ali = what exactly?
Cycling Stats
Start Point: Chinandega, Nicaragua
Destination: Leon, Nicaragua
40.75 km trip, 2:07 time, 31.4 km/h maximum speed, 19.2 km/h average speed
Route Description:
This was a shorter day. The road has a nice shoulder and it is mostly flat with slight undulating hills. There are lots of stores and hotels in the town of Leon.
Accommodations:
There are loads of hotels and hostels to choose from in Leon. We stayed at a hostel for $16 USD for a private room with a private bathroom. The hostel had a kitchen for us to use and good wifi.
What happened…
Andrew writes: Ali and Liz like to start early. Early for us is like, 0700hrs. Early for them is 0530hrs. Fortunately for us, they ‘slept late’ today and so the four of us set off down the pista, absolutely smashing it. I rode in front a lot of time, chatting with Ali about this and that and before I knew it, wham, we were in Leon! Along the way there were a couple of volcanoes that we passed, and the rest was mostly farmland. Speaking of volcanoes, there was talk of hiring a car and driver to check out nearby Volcan Telica, which involves 90-min drive and 40-min hike to check out a truly active volcano, and you can walk right up to the edge of the caldera crater. In the end, we all decided to save ourselves $50USD and check out a different volcano near Granada that you can just drive right to the top of.
The Brits were at some super-ritzy, popular with the tourist hostel called Tortuga Booluda. I swear, everyone in there, including Ali was sporting at least a month-old beard. It was a little rich for our crap budget, but fortunately the hostel across the street was able to take us in right away. Later on in the day, the owner at our hostel hosted a birthday party for her daughter and so we were fed and offered drinks and cake and whatnot, and it was a huge party, just for a two-year old! There was a lot of piñata bashing.
We also checked out some of the sights around Leon today, and I found myself a little unimpressed with the cathedral which is supposed to be this world-class UNESCO heritage sight and what not. I expected something really grand and over the top in true Catholic church fashion. Maybe something like the Templo Santo Domingo (Oaxaca) except bigger and bolder. There was just a lot of plainness about the whole thing, and everything was white. And it turns out that we missed out on getting up to the roof somehow, maybe because of the funeral we were crashing while tromping around, taking photos and ooh’ing and aah’ing.
In case I forgot to mention it, I really enjoy riding as a big group, especially because Amanda is a super-star who can draft like a champ and crank high-wattage like the rest of us.
Amanda writes:Today was pretty uneventful. Our ride was nice and fast partly because of the shorter distance and also because of our kick ass pace. Traveling with Lizzie and Ali has been awesome because I’ve been able to keep up. I’ve really enjoyed covering so much ground quickly.