To Merida

Two days ago we decided to leave Altagracia, and head for the San Ramon/Merida area to hike one of the volcanoes here on the island. About 2 hours up the volcano is apparently a beautiful waterfall. We will hike to it today. To get here we were stuffed in a chicken bus (which is basically a old bus, with a bunch of people squeezed in like sardines, and no ac).

We took a dirt road and were dropped off in the middle of no where where no one spoke english. We know how to ask questions in Spanish, but dont yet know alot of times how to understand the answer, as the people assume we speak fluently. So the power of a finger point goes along way : ). We headed down the road a bit, found some fellow travelers, and they directed us to a place called Hacienda Merida, which is along the beach. It is beautiful here!! We camped last night along the beach in a tent (bedding was provided). Joshua said it was the best night of sleep he has had so far! It was so nice to wake up this morning to the water (which is so big, and has waves so it feels like a ocean), and it has mountains in the background! 

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Also, there are chickens everywhere!!! Joshua says they are a jungle animal, and yesterday I found out, they sleep in trees at night. It was interesting on our walk last night, which was nearing dusk to look up in a tree and find a herd of chickens!!

Beach day!!

We are on Ometepe!  And on the beach! Our friend German friend Paula has introduced us to her friend German friend Luisa and we met another German guy named Helmut.  We had dinner and drinks together last night at the Hotel Castillo, and today we all are hanging out again.  The bus ride to the beach cost about 50 US cents, and was packed with locals.  I am going to get off my phone and enjoy the beach now.  Cheers :-)

Onward to Ometepe!

I am on a boat!  Oh the joy!  This is awesome!  We are currently enroute to Ometepe.  It is scheduled the be a four hour ride.  We have started a little after 2pm, so we'll get to experience the sunset on the water.  I am having the time of my life.  I had some tuna and crackers, and an Oreo.  Maybe in an hour or two I'll have some of wine, and get this party started.  There was a friendly hotel "sales guy" named Willy at the dock and on the boat, who we made a deal and got a private room with bath for 10 USD .  The hotel is called Hotel Castillo in altagracia.  

Ashley on the other hand is feeling a bit seasick.  Interesting thing is the boat ride was Ashley's idea.  She just gave me a thumbs up that she is feeling better.  I'm glad about that.  The boat is a two story large ferry, maybe 75 souls on board.  It cost 4 USD, and you can get an outdoor soft chair for an extra buck.  We opted for the cheap route. Some really prepared or just lucky folks brought some hammocks and hung them up.  If I could get one of those for a dollar I totally would.  I love being on the water, and this makes me want a sailboat soo bad.  Maybe we will see some cheap ones for sale! 

Chilling in La Libertad in Granada

Ashley and I are just chilling away in hammocks while another guy in a hammock strums his guitar.  We are really enjoying this place!  La Libertad is not only a real chill place, it also is super cheap 12 USD for a private room!!  I could probably stay here for quite a while.  However the plan is to check out tomorrow, and head to Ometepe.  It is an island in lake Nicaragua.  The island is actually two volcanoes.  We have made friends with a German girl named Paula, she is really nice, and speaks four languages (English, Spanish, French, and German). We three are going to head toward the island together.  There is a 4 hour ferry ride that costs 3 USD, we are gonna head to the port early tomorrow so we can purchase our tickets for 2pm. 

Today Ashley and I really just walked and walked, checking out the city, the super market, and even the oldest cathedral in Central America, San Francisco.  I didn't get many pictures, but here is picture of the school, and of Ashley with a puppy at the gelato shop.

Buenos Dias

Good morning to all! Joshua and I have suprisingly enjoyed our current hostel, la Libertad! Interesting parts of our stay here are as follows.  The showers are a pipe coming out of the wall, with a rather cold, small stream of water coming down. We were told by a local that sometimes they won't have running water for a couple hours or a day. This morning the water stopped on me twice, I was both times planning how to get dressed and live my day with shampoo and conditioner still in my hair when the water would come back on. Quite humorous I do belive, as I would not have necessarily imagined myself in a Nicaruguan hostel, in what i think used to be a barn, taking a shower, with the water going off and on trying to hurry up before it actually stays off. Another thing that is different is for me  is drinking  black coffee, and they dont serve milk..so this for me is definitely new. (I could walk to the store to get milk if I really wanted to).  Also all of the rooms have shared screens to the commmon area, and to each other. We sometimes feel like we are living in a dorm. I never did live in a dorm, but I got an idea of what is was like, when I visited my brother, Justin in college. We share the bathrooms and la cocina (the kitchen) with all the other people staying here. People in the hostel are nice, and considerate, and everyone has a story to tell. There are people (mostly young) here from all over the world. 

The mornings here are especially beautiful, and we love the hammocks with the warm breeze here in the courtyard. The  people working here only speak Spanish, so we have had some fun practicing and learning new words in order to find out information, and just talk with them. I plan to take some Spanish lessons from a local soon. Until next time!

Fear... and stuff

I played a good game of excited confidence right up to the Sunday evening goodbye dinner.  After that I started to get more and more shaken, and it is only now starting to (thankfully) recede.  I've been scared as hell, but refused to even allow myself to accept the full truth until now.  I was scared of leaving my home, I was scared of quitting my job, I was scared of going to poor non-English speaking countries.  And I'm still a little scared, but I believe my "exposure therapy" is beginning to take hold. 

      (This evening's sunset in downtown Granada)

Day by day, I can actually feel myself becoming less afraid.  It actually feels almost like I'm getting stronger in some weird way, and I really like that.  I told Ashley many times, that I believe this adventure will empower us psychologically, and I still believe that. 

The old saying "one in the hand is worth two in the bush", (even though we are wired this way psychologically) it always bothered me because it means that we would rather settle with our current situation than taking risks for an even greater reward.  I'm so tired of living in fear, and it's actually been intensely exciting to "release the one", and begin to jump in to the bush after those other two.

It is fascinating to me, how I could desire a thing so much, but also be so frightened of actually doing it.  I am so blessed (and certainly I don't deserve) to have my beautiful and wonderful bride and her constant encouragement and support.  If it weren't for her, perhaps this whole adventure would have just continued to be day dreams swimming in my often times spastic head.  

No ragrets... not even one letter.  ;-)  

Oh and this was dinner tonight:  A little less than $2 USD.  It fed us both, and was delicious!!  

Granada first day

We made it to Granada, and immediately had some lunch.  Fried chicken strips, and rice and beans.  It was delicious and for $3 USD it was a bargain!  

With our bellies filled we went to find a place to stay.  We checked out about 5 spots, and decided on Hostel La Libertad.  It isn't this most "private" of private rooms, due to the screens with the adjoining rooms and the screened window and door to the common areas, but for $12 USD it was also a bargain.  Honestly I was a little concerned with the possibility of bed bugs in a place so cheap, but when I woke up this morning, I hadn't had a bite on me!!  Yippee!  I actually ended up staying up till 5:30AM, just watching breaking bad, and surfing the web.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay another night here, but Ashley thought we should, so we are. I am little tired this morning, but that will help me sleep well tonight.  

Ashley really wanted to walk down to lake Nicaragua, so before the sun went down we made the 15-20 minute trek down to the water.  It was very pretty, but the shores were rather poluted, and it didn't look like a place to sunbath.  On the way down to the water, Ashley said, "One day we will tell our kids about this."   At the moment I was still getting my bearings, and probably being a bit over cautious do I didn't think about it too much at the time, but I do agree and am very grateful for such an experience, and a good wife who reminds me of how blessed we are.

I found another lizard lying about, and I would have really been surprised or given it a real second look, had it not been pink!!  

Back to Mangua, then Granada

Today we awoke with plans of heading to Las Peñitas, which is a small beach town about 25 minutes drive from Léon, but after doing some quick research we decided that we would skip Las Peñitas and just head to Granada. 

We checked out of our first hostel, and hit the street.  First stop breakfast.  We ate a traditional Nicaraguan breakfast pinto guillo, it was more than enough to split, and it cost less than $2 USD, we also both had a coffee with milk which cost us each a buck.  Total cost with tip 110 Córdobas, (the conversion rate at the time of writing this is 26.667 Córdobas per dollar.)

We headed back to the bus terminal, this time by walking.  I highly recommend walking to the hostels (as long as it is during the day) we felt totally safe, an it was a fascinating adventure just walking the 15 minutes or so.  

We took another express inter local mini-bus, back to Managua, which is where I am writing this.  We are about to get out as get on another bus to Granada, should be a much shorter ride, we shal see.

Along the way to Managua this gorgeous volcano momombo was in view.

Hanging at the Big Foot in Léon

I found a little lizard friend hanging out in our room.  He scurried away as soon as the flash went off. 

We met some friendly Austailians Joshua, ad Hannah who introduced us to some more Austrailians, and we played a really cool drinking game.  Which I have modified slightly and now calling it, "The Kentucky Derby".  Basically you act like the four aces are horses and they have to  "run" to the finish line.  Each person places their "bet" on a "horse" by drinking a certain number of seconds.  If their horse wins, they can give out double  their bet in second of drinks to the other players.  After all bets are placed, the dealer then starts to turn over cards, whichever suit comes up that horse's matching suit will move forward one move.  The modification I am making is that there will continue to be additional races as long as their are cards remaining in the deck.  This way you will be able to guess better with each progressive round.  Anyways.  It was a blast and I typically hate drinking games.

Thursday morning Ashley and I awoke to a beautiful morning.  We decided to do the budget thing, and go to the super market only two blocks away and buy bananas and peanut butter.  The peanut cost about $4 USD and the bananas were less than $1 USD for 7 big ones.  Of course we didn't eat it all in one go so we still had bananas for snacks and plenty of peanut butter left.  Which is cool because Ashley loves peanut butter.

We ate our breakfast sitting next to the pool under neath these beautiful trees and flowers.

The hostel had a little kitty, named Bigfoot.  He really enjoyed my sandals.   My feet must smell like catnip something.  Because our cats also love to rub on my sandals.

All of Thursday we just chilled out.  And got a little acclimated a bit.  Good thing too, because I was starting to feel a bit of a cold come on.  I began to drink a to. If water and started eating vitamin c like candy.  When I awoke this morning I could tell the illness was receding.  Ashley had no problems, maybe it is because her immune system is a bit more used to fighting bugs since she is around sick people all the time. 

The day : )

Joshua has been doing such a great job posting things, so I suppose it is my turn. : ) We woke up this morning on the fringes of adventure. It was such a exciting morning. It seems like we've been gone for a few days already. We have had so many new adventures. today we arrived to the hostel early afternoon, and then walked around leon, ate some fruit, read a book, took a nap, got some comida locales (local food), and now are relaxing in our private room, which is dark yellow with drawings, and  a matress with only sheets. we dont have any ac, just fans which will intermittently blow our way. It is comfortable, and relaxing. The place we are staying  has many people like us, who are traveling the world.  Tomorrow we plan to go to the beach, and I am looking forward to settling in a bit, drinking coffee, reading a book, and looking forward to meeting some fellow travelers. Until next time!

First day in Léon

After the micro-bus (aka minivan). We were let out at a very busy outdoor bus station. I had read online in the minivan that people would take the "ruta bus" and save a bunch to get to the big foot hostel. Ashley and I debated on walking, but since we didn't know what we were heading into we decided we would see the lay of the land from the local bus first. The bus cost us 4 Córdoba a piece (I think we might have been gringo taxed an extra Córdoba a piece as I had read that it was only 3, but oh well.). The bus was actually pretty awesome, and it only took us about 5 minutes. Next time we head to the bus station, we will probably walk.

After we got off the bus we got a quick tour of the big foot hostel, the private dorm with no a/c , and shared bathrooms was $22 USD. The dorm bed with a/c ad 10 people in a room was $9.50 USD a piece. We opted for the private room as the fans were good enough, and the extra few dollars is certainly worth the highly increased privacy. The hostel is a pretty cool place, and is very well suited for a traveler looking for a place to stay, relax, eat, drink, and serve as a jump off point. Of course this hostel is very well known for its volcano boarding tours, and we will certainly become patrons of this tour.

Once we got settled in we went for a walk and checked out the local scenery. Too say the least, it is pretty intense!! Ashley and I are loving it, and being forced to speak Spanish with the locals is super duper!

Tomorrow we are planning on checking out the beach, there is a shuttle that the hostel has so we will use that.