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Published: December 30th 2008
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San juan del sur
Rin: Rainy days in San Juan del Sur inevitably led to afternoons playing cards and drinking Flor de Cana con Fresca with Adam and Taz! Ahhhh, life is good! Movie marathons and a few sessions of mario kart were also had whilst the bottom floor of the small hostel began to flood... Time to move all our possessions off the floor of our room Nicko!
Unfortunately the rain meant it was difficult to cross the swollen rivers to get to the good surf beaches, so with some knee deep in swolen river car pushing we managed a few days of surfing. Enough though for me to improve my stance and be able to stand up long enough to actually surf along a wave! Yippee! Despite these waves being barely more than froth I quickly became addicted. The warm bathwater temperature of the water meant that I could also stay out for longer than 15 minutes and keep practicing. Which definitely means that I'll have to get the warmest thickest wetsuit if I'm ever to consider surfing in Melbourne again!
The rain also meant that Isla Ometepe and the two Volcanoes were shrouded in cloud
with a limited chance of being able to climb up to the cloud forest there. The beautiful view that we'd had on our border crossing from Costa Rica was enough so we bypassed it and pressed on to Granada.
Granada
Nick: Well you may have guessed that Rin and i love getting out and away from the cities and we have to say that in Granada, we stayed a few days to check out what the town had. But the best place we went was the Monkey Hut at Laguna Apollyo (sic) where you can unwind swiming in perfect crystal clear fresh water, in the caldera of an extinct volcano about 30 mins from town by bus and cunning taxi driver. A day up hear is great to wash that sticky feeling you get from swimming in the sea and then running around in rainy season humidity.
Leon
Rin: With Nick's stomach still grumbling and groaning we thought it prudent to get him checked out again. After numerous tests, and a panicked moment when I realised Nick was being checked for appendicitis, the Columbian doctor pronounced that he had an amoeba lurking in his intestines. Another
San juan del sur - surf beach
Where Rin finally stood up on a surfboard for more than 2 seconds! concoction of drugs and hopefully he'd be right again.... We definitely need that full check up when we get home!
As it was still raining regularly our plans of going 'volcano surfing' - really tobogganing down the 45 degree scree slope of a nearby volcano - were thwarted. The bumpy, bottom numbing drive crammed into the back of a ute to the nearest beach was also spoiled by thunderclouds and rain. A few of the gang did venture out for a surf but the current and swell were pretty strong that everybody came in after half an hour. Oh well, at least it was still warm.
In retrospect we wished we had made the long journey out to the Corn Islands and some of the less traversed areas of Nicaragua but we forged across the border into Honduras instead.
Utila, the Bay Islands
The three day journey to get to Utila, one of the Bay Islands, was pretty exhausting. We saw much of the countryside, stayed overnight in the capital Tegucigalpa where we couldn't get any cash out, and Nick was reprimanded by the bus officials because he had a tank top on (on a private
bus company)! Just ridiculous. We had a beautiful morning when we sailed out to the Island, accompanied by dolphins and the exciting prospect of diving again soon.
And so we landed in the Utila bubble that came to mean diving, partying and chilling out with new friends, with no one able to leave because the ferries weren't running on account of the weather.... Our two weeks at Alton's were spent completing our Advanced course followed by our Rescue Diver course. Rescue Diver high five! We saw so much cool stuff there - beautiful coral heads, delicate arrow crabs, a big red seahorse, green sea turtles, crazy little blennies, manta rays, juvenile drummer fish, green and spotted moray eels and so much more! The marine life was fantastic and whilst we weren't fortunate enough to see a whale shark we really enjoyed being able to identify more of the marine life there.
And so the time came for us to try and escape the Utila bubble. Our first attempt was again stymied by the rain and rough seas. We managed to escape with xxxx the following morning, slightly hungover waving our goodbye's with a cup of Faye's strong coffee
in hand.
"I'm an Emergency First Responder. May I help you?"
Copan Ruins
After a quick change of plans, we found ourselves on a bus to the Copan Ruins on the Honudran border with Guatemala. Whilst it was only an overnight stop for us we really enjoyed strolling around the Copan Ruins in the early morning dew. Having basically the whole place to ourselves it was wonderful to see the scarlet macaws landing on the ruins giving perspective to the size of the temples. The detailed carvings and stone edifices were just beautiful. Whilst not as big as the Tikal ruins in guatemala they are definitely worth a visit - no crowds, a great free museum and its not as exhausting! After 4 hours of wandering around we made it back to our hostel just in time to catch our minivan to Antigua, Guatemala.
Unfortunately our camera was stolen soon after we left Honduras. These photographs are courtesy of Isabella Maynard.
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