Nicaraguan Passport thieves

I’m nearing the end of my time in Central America which i’m feeling quite sad about, as this has been such a great place to explore. Despite a few hiccups – breaking camera, damaging iphone and the copious amounts of rain, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua have been fabulous. They are all such different, diverse and interesting countries. Mexico with its vast array of tacos and fried food, Belize with beautiful island paradises full of caribbean men who love cocaine and the Queen. Guatemala with its friendly traditionaly-dressed people crowded onto chicken buses careering around stunning volcanoes and mountain scenery. Honduras with its bland western high-heeled culture, Hurricanes and big guns. And finally, Nicaragua with its street dining wide boulevards and passport thieving hoteliers.

We are currently on the island of Ometepe in Nicaragua waiting for news on one of our group, an Irish girl Aoifer (hope I spelt that correctly), who as mentioned above had her passport taken in the most cruel of ways. If she’d been drunk and lost it or capsized a canoe (who would ever do such a stupid thing…!) and watched it sail down the river, one could be forgiven for thinking, bad luck, on we go, but to have a passport taken from a locked hotel room has made us all feel angry and upset for her – so much so that one of our group, Paul, has stayed behind to help her get a new one. The hotel claimed total ignorance, but obviously the finger must point at a hotel employee, as whoever took it clearly had access to a key. The situation at the moment is that, as the nearest Irish embassy is in Mexico, poor Aoifer will have to remain in Nicaragua until the passport is couriered in, which could take weeks. Tomorrow we are due to travel to our final Central American country Costa Rica, so it remains to be seen whether she can cross the border with the rest of the group.

So in 7 days i’ll be in the southern hemisphere once more, in Peru heading for Maccu Piccu. Despite the tour with Intrepid feeling a bit like big brother or first year of university at times, with heavy drinking and politics galore, I’ve made some great friends, and seen some fantastic things. The highlight perhaps has to be climbing an active volcano in Guatemala and toasting marshmallows on the molten lava. Lowlight (Camera incident aside) – our trip to Roatan in Honduras which promised so much diving, snorkeling and beach fun but delivered us the tail of a hurricane and 3 days of ridiculous rain.