Blogs from Laguna de Apoyo, Capital Region, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean

I got lost in Nicaragua today because things don't always go as planned. I had information that I could camp at a place called Centro Ecoturistico La Máquina. There was alleged to be a pretty waterfall here with good swimming in a pool below the falls. This sounded like a fine way to beat the heat so I wanted to check it out. I arrived early in the afternoon to find the place mostly deserted. The manager on duty told me that he didn't know if I could camp and that he would have to discuss the matter with the owner. I went swimming in the meanwhile after I paid the nominal entry fee and enjoyed a dip in coolish water. The falls and swimming hole were nice but I've seen better and the water wasn't ... read more

At the crater lake I finished my final two dives of my Open Water certification with my excellent diving instructor Fidel Lopez. He's been a great teacher both with theory and practice. I feel completely confident in diving now and am excited about diving in the future. Check out his website and services at http://www.neptunenicadiving.com/ The bottom of the lake (in an extinct volcano) was very soft and you had to be careful not to stir it up by touching it. Get the buoyancy right! We saw blind fish and many crabs. Not quite as good as my dives in the Pacific off Hermosa Beach in San Juan del Sur. There I saw a spotted eel, a moray eel, a sting ray, lots of lobsters, star fish, schools of fish and it was a great introduction ... read more

Hi everyone! We have been busy getting situated in La Mariposa Ecolodge and have been taking Spanish lessons. Rich has been studying hard, but I have doing my best to just shoot the breeze with my teachers and so am not really utilizing my time well. We arrived late Wednesday and took classes Thursday and Friday. Today we had a field trip to Laguna de Apoya which is quite warm because of the underground warm springs that come up into the lake. The lake was really clean, but Rich noticed that there was a real absence of waterfowl and birds on the lake. It was a very large group of people who came from La Mariposa and this was a little hard for loners like Rich and I. We did swim for quite a while and ... read more

After many months of good intentions we finally got around to organising a short stint of volunteering through an organisation called Proyecto Mosaico, based in Granada, Nicaragua. With one of their partner projects based at an ecological research station by a lake in the middle of an ancient volcanic we just couldn't put it off any longer. Upon arriving at Reserva Natural Laguna de Apoyo we found that our volunteering place, 'Estacion Biologica' also doubles as a Spanish language school, which was fantastic as it meant much more people to socialise with by night and practice our own Spanish with. While we were there, there were two other volunteers - Kelsey and Kimberley from Oregan in the US. With no research work being undertaken at the site during our period of stay the main task at ... read more

Day 2 started with Sarah and I waking up slightly earlier than the other girls and going for a walk down to the water. It wasn't a long walk and there wasn't much to see down there. There was a bit of a beach but nothing exciting. We could tell from our half hour walk though, that it was going to be a HOT day! After breakfast at the hotel, we walked down to the Bearded Monkey where we had signed up for a day trip to The Monkey Hut. On our walk we ran into a local parade in early celebration of independence day (Sept 15). Once at The Bearded Monkey, we paid our money to register for the trip, then went to an internet cafe to catch up on e-mails before heading off for ... read more

woke up way too early and way too tired.had bfast at nice euro cafe. took bus to masaya market and bought a bag, shirt and lil wallet. went to craters edge and spent the afternoon in the sun on a tube. had great dinner and saw a big tarantula that night. went nite swimming too in the warm water.... read more

Well Nicaragua really surprised us in being such an amazing country with so much to do, with the best beer in central america, the most delicious rum (Flor de caña) and an ice-cream brand called Eskimo that Terry got REALLY fond of. If we couldn't find one of their ice-cream shops we could always follow the familiar sound of the Eskimo jingle bells from the guys with their little freezers on wheels and Terry could get his eskimo fix for the day (usually a 'cono doble' with chocolate and dulce de leche flavour). Another thing that we couldn't avoid in Nicaragua was volcanoes. After our 'epic' hike up telica, we arrived in Granada, another very pretty colonial town at the shore of the huge lago de Nicaragua. Spent a few nice days around Granada, and visited ... read more