We had all heard raving reviews of Isla de Ometepe so a few of us made the journey to the island after a couple of nights in San Juan Del Sur. A very easy journey in all although the 2 english girls I was travelling with were very concious of their bags thus wanting to take a taxi everywhere rather than the local buses which made it quite expensive in total but a little quicker. Upon arriving in Santo Domingo we found a nice cheap hostel and stayed for 2 nights. Theres really not much to see or do here. Very [View Full Entry]

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Thursday morning Mo joined us for breakfast at Betty's. Again, Betty cooked a traditional Latinoamerican breakfast with lots of fruit, avocado, tomato salad, fried plantains (!!), and rice & beans. At 9am we left for San Jorge where we boarded a one-hour ferry to the island. The island is made from the eruptions of two volcanoes. The lava from both volcanoes has connected to form one island. The natural sites are amazing but the people on the island seem unhappy and the service we received at Hotel Paraiso was extremely poor. The place (not much different than mainland Nicaragua) is evidently [View Full Entry]

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isla de ometepe, island constituated of two active volcanoes that have joined. a little piece of paradise, very relaxed, very calm, hammock life! a little too calm for natasha. we stayed in a farm, where we had to autostop a pick up truck (an american kid on a christianisation mission on the island, really colonialism), then walk for 30 minutes with our huge backpacks up a steep hill to finally arrive to this farm reputated for its coffe production. i think the place where i met the most french people in such a small place. during the day we went hiking [View Full Entry]

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Hello again everyone! I hope you're all feeling suitably festive and are not having to return to work for a few days. The sun is beating down fiercely here and I've never felt less Christmassy! (But in a good way). We had a lovely second week at La Mariposa with more Spanish grammar-based fun, and a host of other afternoon activities including a trip to the Pacific coast, swimming in a lagoon in the crater of a volcano, visiting local artisans who make amazing toys out of old bottles, and ornaments out of tree seeds. And (you'll never guess), a trip [View Full Entry]

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Estamos de vuelta en España y no me lo puedo creer. Qué rápidos que han pasado los últimos 4 meses. Pues la ultima Blog era por allí en Costa Rica. Despidiendo mis amigos fue algo extraño. Nunca he hecho uno de estas despedidas grandes desde una parada de bus. Donde estaban los aviones, las largas colas, los oficiales de aduana, la puerta de facturación?! - Ninguno a la vista, y así mientras que el bus arrancaba, me sentía que la situación no hacía justicia al momento. Yo no iba a ver unos de los mejores amigos que tengo en mucho [View Full Entry]

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The next morning we went to Granada, Nicaragua after waking up early to catch the bus in Managua. What a great thing to have Michelle by my side now to do all of the things I was accustomed to doing solo for so long- waiting for buses, looking for places to stay, discovering a new city etc. Michelle got her first taste of Latin America unpredictability when an old lady about 80 years old in front of us on the bus started reading everyone verses from the bible at the top of her lungs. As she proceeded to pass out her [View Full Entry]

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Deciding to come to Nicaragua was a literallly a coin toss. After the girls left for home and me alone to travel in San Jose I couldn´t decide on going to the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica or coming up to another country. The border crossing between Nicaragua and Costa Rica is famous for being confusing and after the Panama fiasco, I was kind of hoping the coin would land heads for the Osa. Tails won and so I headed north. After a couple of relaxing and quiet days in La Cruz, I caught the early bus to the border [View Full Entry]

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I left Granada and headed to Rivas to take the bus the next day into Costa Rica to re-up my time. I was told that I would have to be there for 72 hours and made some plans of things to do there. When I got into Costa Rica they told me I didn't need to stay so I had breakfast and went back to Nicaragua and decided to go to Isla De Ometepe. It is an island in Lago Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America AND the only fresh water lake to contain bull sharks! It's only about [View Full Entry]

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We have lived the past couple of weeks very Americanized, living in Best Westerns, Marriotts, Four Seasons, eating fast food, and best of all, being visited by Americans. Neil, Graham´s brother, joined us in Panama. Have you ever wondered how the Panama Canal functions? Well we know, so if you want to know too then ask us. We hiked in a national park outside of Panama City, not the one beside Destin, and swam in a waterfallito and ate sandwiches. We then took a cold 17 hr. bus ride into Costa Rica. There we met Gordo's dad and step-mom and [View Full Entry]

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So from what i had read ometepe was supposed to be an amazing island. If you can picture 2 volcanoes in your mind that had created an island and smack inbetween them was where we were staying. Sure the island was full of crazy birds that attacked your food at the table, and monkeys that would swing around you trying to take you food, and anorexic cows and horses. But it was super hot and dusty and dry! We spent the day on the 'beach', the only beach on the whole island and our hotel happened to be on it. I [View Full Entry]

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