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Published: April 3rd 2009
First sight in Nicaragua
The Concepción volcano rising out of Lake NicaraguaAnd here we are. So I had decided to jump the border and visit Nicaragua, despite some reservations about missing classes. But as it turned out, it was a fantastic decision as it was the best weekend of the trip!
It was a very early start (5am) for our group of about 15, and I was the only non-American! Half were from Missouri as part of a school trip while the others, were scattered all over, including a group of 3 from Boston who I got on best with. It was a 6 hour drive to the border where we waited an hour before crossing without any real hassles. Soon after crossing the Concepción volcano loomed ahead of us, rising up out of Lake Nicaragua, the 10th biggest lake in the world. What a welcome! It was another couple of hours until Granada, our hosts for this weekend.
We got there eventually and in contrast to the poverty and shantytowns we had witnessed since crossing the border, Granada was fairly nice, with a ye olde rustic feel to it. Plus the majority of their houses are built in a fashion I love. As you can see a bit from
Looking over Granada
With the Church in the distance the photos, they are in a square shape with an open air centre with a garden in the middle. Perfect for tropical conditions like these really.
Once we had dropped our bags off, we went out on a city walking tour, led by a guide who liked to throw songs in now and again. A little weird, but the locals were unfazed, especially when she started belting one out in the local church while people were praying! After a local dinner, we relaxed in some hammocks and chatted before crashing for the night.
The next day was another early start as we headed out to Volcan Masaya, and as you can see from the photos, it’s very much still active! Though there hasn’t been a proper eruption in at least 8 years…… A few of us braved the scorching heat and hiked around for an hour or so and were rewarded with some stunning views.
In the afternoon, after I avoided the markets, we had a guided tour of the lake (again by the singing guide) which is home to 365 little islets, some of which have been built upon with houses. It really is a stunning
area, and we even got to see some howler monkeys on one of the islands as well. This night was a much later one as we explored a bit of Granada by night.
The heat over this trip was relentless (near if not actually 40 degrees) so we were all holding out for our 3rd day, when we headed to Laguya de Apuyo for our first swim of the weekend, and we couldn’t have picked a more picturesque spot! We spent an hour or so in the water, had lunch, and then had a couple of hours playing volleyball in the pool. It was one of the funniest games of water volleyball ever. A couple of girls had never played before, one had a fear of water, and two others were having 'wardrobe malfunctions' everytime they dived for the ball. There was a kid swimming at the other end of the pool who would have had a lot of questions for his parents after that! Following that, we searched out and found some more howler monkeys in the trees, including a mother and baby. It was another lateish night, but with a day of driving to follow, we had
Artsy shot
In the Church tower plenty of time to recover.
The day of driving wasn’t that exciting as you would imagine, but the border crossing was strangely a lot quicker, which was a bonus. Halfway back we had to say goodbye to half the group, as they were heading onto Samara, the beach campus. The rest of us made it back fine and went home shattered after another big weekend.
So I have one more week left of my Heredia homestay before a week off for Semana Santa (Easter), where I am heading to Mal Pais and Playa Santa Teresa to learn to surf, before 2 more weeks of classes at the beach campus. Classes are going fantastically well, and I have got to the point where I can understand the football commentaries - the most important part of Spanish!
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