Especially in India, I grease before each meal and after every visit to the toilet a thick layer on my hands

The title of this message alone raises questions ;-). India and hygiene. Hm. Difficult. I have a love-hate relationship with this amazing country. Also, because of the gross. For what it may be telling dirty in India. Streets are used as garbage dumps, meat is delicious discoloring in 40 ° C and hanging over a squat toilet you have to be careful that you do not get an ammonia poisoning. Not even to mention the personal hygiene ... In short, if you have fears of contamination, India is not your destination ;-). Yet India is for me one of the most fascinating countries and I wouldn t recommend it! It's just handy to take some 'action':

Avoid anything with water.

Seriously. Do not drink tap water, do not use ice cubes in your diet, skip the raw moment over and let unpeeled fruit even stand. Water is one of the greatest sources of contamination. Rather buy individual bottles of mineral water and always check whether t, however, a new bottle. Those bastards would sometimes fill an old bottle with dirty water and sell it for bottled water. Bit timers so.

Personal hygiene.

When traveling, I actually always have a bottle desinfectiegel with me. Especially in India, I grease before each meal and after every visit to the toilet a thick layer on my hands. You are then guaranteed in any event reasonably clean hands. Especially if you have shaken hands for example, or somewhere in dirty cages are you need to do, this stuff is really indispensable. Also note stabbing in your mouth with your fingers :-). I tend to bite fingernails and would sometimes out of habit, stabbing a finger in my mouth. Not smart. Bah. Finally, I would definitely take a sheet bag with you when you go to India. The most beautiful small hotels can be found in India, but also the most nasty, dirty things. I have been several times but what was glad I could crawl into my sleeping bag liner.

Luck.

It is also just a matter of luck. During my last trip to India, I, despite everything, on any parasite home where I still had equally affected. Probably one of the cooks his hands are not washed properly ... Well. Can you further yourself doing so well; You're talking not always in their own hands.


I wonder if you have been like once in India? What did you think of it? And if you have not been yet, would you like to go or scares you off the dirt?

When I first made last year introduced to Central America I was right all the way. What a lovely part of the world! Relaxed atmosphere, rich culture, beautiful jungle, lots of wildlife and beautiful beaches. Really enjoy! Nicaragua is my favorite, just because this is still a tad less by tourism has been discovered for example neighboring Costa Rica. Nicaragua seems you something? Maybe you have something on the route we have taken.

Crossing the border by boat.

By far the most relaxed border crossing outside Europe that I have ever made it ;-). If you want to travel in Costa Rica from Nicaragua, I would definitely recommend the border crossing at Los Chiles! 2x a day goes by boat from the river village to the town of San Carlos; which in turn is located in Nicaragua. About halfway there comes a time border police on the boat and that was it! Buenvenidos Nicaragua 8-)!

 Route map Sabalos

From San Carlos we immediately took a second boat to Boca de Sabalos, on the Rio San Juan. If you choose the fast boat, you're in a tight hour. Boca de Sabalos is superbly located and very authentic. Definitely worth to stay a day or three here at Yaro's lodge , to visit the village of El Castillo and make a trek through the nearby Indio Maiz reserve. From Boca de Sabalos we took the boat back to San Carlos, from where to explore the Solentiname Islands. I wrote recently been a blog about, not recommended for me. After a short break we took the bus to Managua.

 Granada route map

City time.

The bus ride to Managua takes about 8 hours. Although the roads are very good, you have all around the great lake of Nicaragua. Hence those 8 hours. Managua's just a noisy, smelly and at times not so safe feeling capital. I would not stay too long. From Managua, we took a minibus to take you to the crazy Granada in 40 minutes. Although a big city, the lake has the atmosphere of an old colonial large village. Ultimately, we are stuck here about 4 days, super cute! From Granada you can make all kinds of day trips to eg Masaya volcano.

Nature.

From Granada we decided to go a bit to the north, where you certainly hardly come at a tourist. We took a direct bus to Estelí; the base for treks in Miraflor. In Miraflor we walked over two days, one of the highlights of our trip through Nicaragua. I definitely recommend it! And when it was unfortunately time to drop to redeem the South and Nicaragua off to Costa Rica