Blogs from Northern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 7

Hello family and friends, We finally made it into Costa Rica and set up camp in San Jose while we waited for Jess and Chris to fly in. After reuniting with J and C and catching up on all the goss from the past year, we jumped on a chicken bus and made our way up to La Fortuna, which is a town at the base of an active volcano. We spent a couple of days checking out the volcano, jungle and natural hot springs but soon realised that Costa was an expensive country and Nicaragua was the place to be! Chicken buses, bumpy dirt roads and a three hour border crossing mission took its toll but we finally made it and decided to hang out in the coastal village of San Juan Del Sur. Nicaragua ... read more

After leaving Ataco our plans developed quickly... Once we arrived in San Salvador we decided to head straight for Nicaragua, overall it took 11 different modes of transport over the course of 2 days to finally reach Somoto, our destination in Nicaragua. The journey was long but amusing, especially in Honduras, where we became the center of attation everywhere we went. People wanted to take pictures with us, everyone was very chatty and High-School-Kids wanted to add us on Facebook. We felt like celebrities :) What we found most interesting were the borders between the countries: to reach "El Amatillo", the border between El Salvador and Honduras, we had to take a "tuk-tuk", which went off the high road and through fields, to finally reach the migration office. From there we had to walk over the ... read more

First Volunteer Work - The Shed - Jeff While volunteering at Surfing Turtle, I was tasked to build a shed with Yairo, a local staff member of the hotel. I didn’t think much of it but it ended up being a great experience. We needed to build the shed to replace an old shed that as blown over in a storm during the off season. They use it to store the trash cans, tools, and horse equipment. Our first task was to break down the remains of the first shed and salvage any materials that could be reused. During that time, I was asked to clear out an area for our new building site. Yairo handed me his machete, gave me a 10 second crash course on how to use it, and had me go to ... read more

My 3 hour journey from Granada to Leon, Nicaragua cost me $3.00. It was a 13 seater bus with 24 people in it. Everyone but the driver and I had a baby in their lap. I have never seen happier people. If you thought money brings happiness, visit Nicaragua. More smiles here than any "first" world country. Love can and does exist over decades and some don’t fully appreciate the significance until it has historical context. A very good friend of mine’s lover passed away over the holidays. It was a passionate on and off love affair that lasted decades. They found love letters he never sent her that expressed his true feelings. Life is too short friends, speak your mind. ... read more

Well I wanted beach, hot, sun and all alone. Ask and you shall receive. I can't describe how beautiful this country is so far. Landed in Managua the capital city. Nicaragua is the safest country in central America. However they say the roads are dangerous. Yes I can see why, not because of speed and congestion like I thought. It was slow driving, dogs, bikes, cows, horse drawn wagons with loads of all sorts of thing, trucks with people piled up on top, and even horses roaming randomly about. I can't believe all the horses roaming everywhere like they belong to no one. So strange. Eden's mouth would drop open. Saw Mombotombo from the air as we came in as well as on the way to Poneloya, however you can't really not see it. It's huge ... read more