You double the number of people travelling and apparently you double the fun. The last few weeks have been brilliant.Nicaragua is my favorite country so far and the same is probably true for Ela.
Sorry for the pics not all being in chronological order but let´s assume that it is the fault of google.
The easiest way to update you all is by giving short explanations of the pictures we have posted. Unfortunately this will not provide you with the all the interesting and crazy things we have experienced
but don´t worry we are keeping together an illustrated diary which is probably Influenced by a couple of Tona´s ( local beer) or flor de Cana (local rum), but will ensure that we do not forget anything…..
After our surfing adventure at the pacific coast we took a very old boat to Isla de Ometepe, according to Robin this name is coming from the original understanding that the island looks like an omelet, but probably it has more to do with the two huge volcanos that created the island in the biggest lake of Central America. We spend our time in a relaxing ecolodge at the lakeside from where we climbed one of the volcanos. Due to some physical minor issues the hike was not as comfortable as we expected it to be but it was definitely an adventure. Through cloud forest we had to force ourselves over and under trees a way up, while occasionally a howler monkey was shouting at us from the trees above. The way down was even more spectacular due to the slippery mud.
Dane; you would have been very proud if you would have seen your sister battling through this jungle….at least that is what she told me
Being very exhausted from the hike we decided to take it a bit easier the next day. One of the activities was a short hike along the lake shore to finally have a swim with some of the locals. And that is what makes Nicaragua so nice, you only have to do a bit of an effort to go to places where no other tourists are and it is just there where you have the greatest moments interacting with the local people. See how proud the girl is of the fish that her father just caught with a fishing net!
Yep it is rainy season. Don´t worry we get enough sunshine, just need to hide so now and then in a church or in a cigar shop!
From Isla de Ometepe we made our way to Granada. Definitely a place where a lot of tourists go but once you have seen the sheer beauty of this colonial gem, you understand why. Beyond
just enjoying the beauty and tranquility of this place we kept ourselves busy with many other things and activities Below some pics of that.
Even the old buildings in Granada are nice. This is an old hospital where drugdealers hang out these days. Still we felt safe, simply because this very strong and impressive looking policeman was guarding the premises
People like beautiful menus over here!
Robin needed a haircut. It was "kaal of kammen" so we choose for the first option. Ela did not know where to look when the hairdresser thought he was finished after just cutting the sides and putting lots of gel on top in order to have
the few hears
on that part stuck to robin´s skull.. But what can you expect for 1 euro
Smoking is bad, robin used to have asthma, we both do not smoke etc...... but how can you visit and experience a country if you don´t try one of their major export products. We dropped by a family cigar factory where we had a short tour and waited, while enjoying a cigar and a beer, for the rain to stop
From Granada we continued to Leon. One of the major attractions there is volcano boarding. Sliding 500 meters down an active volcano...a guaranteed adrenaline kick, Yes Nienke we managed to stay on our board. Unfortunately we also had rain just as we started our decend, which made making pics more difficult. Ela has got some that we might upload at a later moment
Original plan was to go surfing from Leon as well but the weather conditions did not allow us rookies to go into the waves. But the alternative program was even a bigger adventure, a cooking course where the meal was iguana soup. We will not say too much about it but just to let you know that you can not buy premade iguanas in a can so we had to find an alternative solution.......
Even though we managed to impress the locals before with our dancing moves, we decided to take a salsa lesson since that is the way they do it over here. Still waiting for the moment to demonstrate in real what we have learned but at least we had fun..and we discovered that ela .......yeah well, is better than Robin
Reason for not using our salsa skills directly is that we travelled to the more reggae oriented Corn Islands... Two beautiful islands in the Carribean. And see below what we saw there... a designed by Marielle Ensink t'shirt......unique!!!!!! Marielle you are our hero!!!!
A bit of rain, no worries, we both kept ourselves busy with studying. Ela did her open water diving course and Robin his advanced diving course
Not sure whether the Coca Cola company can appreciate this but at least you can recognize the brand
The diving school!
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Our private cabin at the sea........
How often do you see somebody catching your meal...the lobster season just started!!!
