http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/NicaBound/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from NicaBound en-us Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:44:35 BST Sun, 07 Sep 2008 08:44:35 BST Thanks to all of you on the Great Corn Island who made us feel comfortable and at home. Our stay at the Hotel Best View was most pleasant. This was our second time stayiing at this hotel only this time I arrived quite ill with measles. Thank goodness for Pearl who took good care of me when I was sick and then when I was well took me dancing at Nicos what fun we had Thank you Myron Downs o http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Corn-Islands/blog-46115.html Hola Familia y AmigosWe have made it back to the Big Corn Island in the beautiful turquoise caribbean waters. We spent five days here last year and had such a great time we had to return. We got here on Thursday the day of travel was real hard on me as I am still not feeling well. The good news I think is it is not Malaria. I had my blood checked and the result was negative. I was able t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-44936.html Hola Familia y amigosWell we have completed another week of Spanish school in San Juan del Sur and we are still not speaking as well as we had hoped however our comprehension has improved greatly. With old minds like ours I guess it just takes longer. Actually I missed two days of school last week home with a high fever. I had been battling some congestion in my lungs and sinuses for nearly http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-43264.html Hola once againWell I know I just bored you all with a very long posting so I will try to keep this short. We left city Leon for a beautiful beach not too far from the city called Las Penitas there is a tilde over the n I just can't find it on this keyboard. Of course as soon as we arrived at the beach I realized I forgot to email the school in San Juan del Sur to arrange more classes so I http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Leon/blog-41578.html Hola Familia y AmigosWe have been deep in the mountains of northern Nicaragua for the last week. Wow what a great time we have had. We spent a few days in a small ranching and farming town called San Rafael del Norte. It is a very small town with a very grand cathedral. The church was beautiful inside with wonderful statuary and murals. It was quite impressive for a small town. Then above http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Leon/blog-41188.html We arrived in Somoto a sleepy little mountain town near the border of Honduras on Friday. We feel very comfortable in this town the pace is much slower than it has been in many of the other cities and towns we have visited. The locals like to emphasize how safe the town is. Of course we have felt safe everywhere we have been in Nicaragua. I think traveling the United States would be more fr http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-39564.html Hola Familia y AmigosWe have been in the town of Esteli for the last week again studying Spanish. The town is in the northern mountains at an elevation of around 4000 feet. The climate is much cooler and dryer than it is on the Southern Coast. We are wearing long pants and jackets in the evenings as the temperature dips into the 50s. It has been very refreshing to us of course not nearly a http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-38311.html Hola familia and amigosYesterday was Terrys birthday and also the birthday of the woman of the house where we have been staying. Today is the 15th birthday of the daughter Karla so as I wrote before we stayed for the big Quinceao party. The preparations decorations and all were just like a big wedding. The party was great fun music and dancing. About fifty people attended. The kids we http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-37074.html Hello again from San Juan del SurWe were able to watch the playoff games yesterday and Terry is watching again today. How about those Broncos and how about the interception by Champ Bailey. I am not much of a football fan however that play was really fun to watch and then we got to watch it over and over and over again. Everyone at Big Wave Daves the gringo bar we watched from is still t http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-35846.html Well we finally have a break from our Spanish school. What a great time we have been having. we study each morning and have activities in the afternoon. Our knowledge of Spanish is progressing quite rapidly. For our afternoon activities we have been taken on several hikes two excursions to some remote beaches cooking lessons and my personal favorite dance classes. Me gusta bailar I like http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-35725.html Hola Familia y AmigosWe have been in Nicaragua a week now. We arrived in Managua then caught an early morning bus to San Juan del Sur a small beach town on the Pacific coast near the Costa Rica border. It is a tourist town so there are many travelers from all over the world here. We have been taking Spanish lessons everyday hence the reason for no postings until now. We have school each mor http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/San-Juan-Del-Sur/blog-35367.html We enjoyed our trip to Nicaragua so much last year that we are preparing to leave Colorado once again for the warmer climate of Nicaragua. Our departure date January 3rd won't get here soon enough. We will spend 72 days in Nicaragua touring the country on the public buses ferries and taxis. Our first two weeks will be at a Spanish school in San Juan del Sur. Hopefully that will help us le http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Paonia/blog-31804.html Sadly this is most likely my last posting until we return home. The month has gone by so quickly. We are not looking forward to the winter weather. We saw a report on CNN on the recent storms and thought about extending our stay another month. Then of course our sensible side took over and decided that we needed to come home and get back to work. Darnit sometimes I hate that sensible sid http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-3082.html We made it over to the Atlantic Coast on Monday Jan. 3rd. We got up early in Rivas caught a bus to Managua and then a plane to Bluefields. It is maybe 250300 miles from Managua to Bluefields but to get here by land would take about a week. You would drive part way on a really bad road then you would take a boat on a river the rest of the way. By plane it took an hour. They dropped us off http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-2908.html Hey allWe made it off the island yesterday after five beautiful days. We could have spent another week exploring the island hiking more trails and such. We decided to travel on New Years Day which is a holiday here as well so the buses on the island were not running. We hitchhiked some walked a bunch and finally caught a taxi to the port od Moyogalpa. In hind sight a hike to the San Ramon http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-2870.html It is New Years Eve and I just found the first internet connection in awhile. We are on the island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It is a beautiful place with beautiful people. The ride over was not so much fun though. The lake is huge so the waves are like that of an ocean. The boat that transported us was very old and dilapidated by US standards and it appeared to be overloade http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-2831.html Hello AllFeliz NavidadWe moved from Granada onto Laguna de Apoyo on Tuesday and darn the luck we had reserved a standard room at the Norome Resort but when we got there the room we reserved was not available so they upgraded us to a beautiful villa for the same price as a standard. So we got the 200 place for 65. The Narome Resort is a world class resort located on the water. The Laguna http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-2690.html Hello allI tried to post a few days ago and must have done something wrong because I am not able to find the journal. So I will try again. We have been in Nicaragua for a week now. We flew into Managua and we could not believe all the people at the airport. We were relieved to find Oscar the host of the guest house we were to stay at holding a sign saying Kathy Briggs. He loaded us and ou http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-2624.html Molly you are our test pilot. Let me know how this works for you. Send me a message.Love Mom xxoo http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/blog-2307.html We are busy trying to figure out what to pack as we will be living out of our backpacks for a month. It will be interesting to see what we take that we won't need and of course what we will forget. At least it will be warm where we are going so we won't need all the bulky clothing we wear this time of year in Colorado. We leave Denver on Monday December 13th. Fly to Houston then on to Manag http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/blog-2306.html