"Gallo pinto" is rice and beans mixed together. Nicaraguans eat it 3 times a day although sometimes for variety, they keep the rice and beans separated. My latest spanish blunder involves ordering some gallo pinto at a food stand. However, I reversed it and called it "pinto gallo", which means "I paint rooster". Fortunately, I was with Miguel, the guide from Guatemala, and after he was done laughing his ass off, he got my order straightened out for me. Speaking o...

Well, I am still in Leon. I liked hiking the volcano so much the other week, I decided I would hang out here for a couple more weeks and volunteer to help out Quetzaltrekkers, the organization that leads the hikes. As an assistant guide, the hikes are free for me and it´s just plain fun. It´s a good cause too as their profits go to another org that helps street kids and children at risk here in Leon. I am amazed at the number of kids prowling the stre...

After leaving Esteli´, I took a bus to Leon, Nicaragua; a small colonial town with no less than 19 cathedrals including the largest in Central America and home to many of Nicaragua´s universities. An organization that I was familiar with from Xela, Guatemala called "Quetzaltrekkers" is also based here and guides hikes to 4 of Nicaragua´s volcanoes. Their profits go to help street kids in Guate and Nic. This weekend´s hike is to Volcan Momoto...

Yesterday, it took me all day using 5 buses to get to Esteli´ Nicaragua but Wow, what a cool little town. Nicaraguans, in general, seem a lot more friendly than Hondurans, however, they could use some spanish lessons from the Guatemalans! They eliminate the letter S in their words and it really throws me off ... especially when they speak 100 miles an hour. The border crossing up at Los Manos was really easy and the border officials were the friendliest so f...

After a 10 hour overnight bus from Trujillo, I arrived in Tegucigalpa, the busy capital city of Honduras. There really isn´t all that much to see or do here but I wasn´t ready to ride any more buses today to get to Nicaragua. So I just had a look around downtown and in the evening I saw Spiderman 2 .. all dubbed in Spanish ... let´s just say I´m glad it wasn´t radio. It only costs 22 lempiras which is about $1.25 US. Clearly, we are getti...