Vivir es aprender (to live is to learn). That's my thoughts as I finished another four hours of Spanish school. Partly as two of the verbs that keep running through my head and partly as it is almost time to move on. After three days of grueling exersizes I am almost done with this school. I think for next week we will head off or find a different school to try. Although the school is alright, we need some more teachers that speak English at this point in our learning. After finishing the school this morning, we headed to a pool to just swim and relax. I am Spanished out for the day so no homework for me. A few ducks are swimming around the pool so I just followed them around for awhile then fell ... read more

Today is the mix up point and the big change in our travels. Justin, James, and Jeff headed off to Ometepe while Matt and I began Spanish school. Because they don't have as long, they wanted to see more and get surfing. Justin wasn't planning on doing school so he headed ahead with the others and will rejoin us when we catch up. Starting at 9am we headed out to One on One tutoring. It was a great way to start the day, four hours of pure Spanish. Being very intense we were pretty burned out afterwords. Both of us had four different teachers each and mine happen to give me a ton of homework. After a late lunch we headed back to the hostel where we socialized for a bit, then began studying. After an ... read more

When people arrive in Granada it's a pleasant city with multicolored adobe houses and clean streets. It is very similar to Leon (Nicaragua) and Antigua (Guatamala). The main attractions being the cathedrals and volcanos. The churches are a dominanting feature here, with their domed tops and majestic looks. Matt and I decided to wander through the streets and find a place to do Spanish school for the next few weeks. We found one for 110usd per week with 4 hours of study a day and 4 different instructors per day. It also offers home stays which we will do after a bit of one on one learning. Monday morning at 9am is when we start and for the week we will be doing interactive activities to learn Spanish. Today we figured we would just relax so we ... read more

I failed to mention this in the last blog but when we returned from the volcano, James was at our hostel. He had taken a number of buses through the border and got into Leon at mid-day. Today the plan was to make it to a huge beach on the Pacific coast an hour away. We all got our shorts and water and jumped on a chicken bus. Just for those that don't know what a chicken bus is, it is an old school bus like the ones in Canada. The main different is they are painted all different colours and look a little run down. Well this would be an interesting ride as I shared my little seat with a young girl and an older woman. We were packed like sardines with the aisle full ... read more

Today we woke up early and decided to go around the city and see what Leon was all about. It was early morning but already we were sweating. First we grabbed a bite to eat; Jeff and I eating leftovers, before heading of to the central plaza. Dominating the main square is the large cathedral which we entered and quietly walked through. Many of the alters and paintings were spectacular. The Main alter with the Tabernacle (hope I spelled that right) was in the middle with seating in front of it. Large statues, bells, and lion figurines surrounded he cathedral in the roof and around the outside. From there we wandered around the market and again I went looking for a soccer jersey. To my surprise I found out that soccer/football isn't popular at all in ... read more