OK...so I had the best week of vacation. It was just what I needed to boost my spirits and make me happy for the next three weeks (side note: I only have three more weeks of work left - isn´t that crazy!!?? Then San Juan Del Sur for a week and after home sweet home!) Let me break it down for you because we all had a fantastic time! There were 5 of us in total - me, Jess, Siobhan and two new people, Sara and Austin. Sara is the girlfriend of Jorge, who we know here in Nicaragua and Austin is her friend. They´re here for 6 and 2 months respectively. And they´re really nice.

Sunday

We left for Granada early Sunday morning and arrived, after 2 buses, a taxi ride,and 4 hours or so of travelling, in the early afternoon in Granada. It is gorgeous. The buildings are all so well maintained and everything is so colorful and clean. It is a more touristy part of Nicaragua but I wouldn´t say it was swarming with tourists. You could tell that a lot of work was put into maintaining a good image. We checked into our hostel, managing to score a private bedroom for 5 people, and went about walking throughout the city. We ate lunch at this little cafe (grilled vegetable and hummus panini with pitaya fruit drink...delish!) and walked down to the Lake Colcibolca to check out the largest fresh water lake. It was awesome because you can see across the lake to Ometepe where we were going the next day. When we got back to the central park we took a carriage ride around the city to see all the historical parts of Granada. We got to see some of the oldest churches in Granada and the house of the guy who own Tona, Victoria and Flor de Cana (all the alcohols in Nicaragua). It was really interesting and we even got to go inside a fort and up a tower to get a gorgeous view of the city. On our way back we randomly met up with two friends of Sara´s who had been backpacking through Central America since May. They stayed at the same hostel as us and came to Ometepe with us as well. They are very...interesting. They both basically run on no sleep and somehow cram in a million things to one day. Don´t know how. But we went to dinner that night at the Bearded Monkey, another hostel right beside ours. Got a huge bean burrito that was really filling. Slept early because (a) we were wiped from travelling and (b) we were getting up early to go to Ometepe.

Monday

Catch a really early bus to Rivas, and from there we caught this sketchy little ferry boat over to the Island. The ferry was really small and downstairs where we sat there were bags of defrosting chicken on the floor, piled ontop of one another, leaking juices. So sanitary. But it was a short 1 hour ferry ride and before we knew it we were on Ometepe! The two guys who we met the day before, Juan and Justin, somehow met this guy named William who told us to stay at his hotel in Altagracia. This was not our original plan (we wanted to go to Playa Santo Domingo) but we went with the flow and took another bus to Altagracia where we checked into Hotel Castillo for the night. It wasn´t really the best hotel - the food wasn´t great but expensive and the town had no life. Our beds were hard and Siobhan´s had bed bugs. But we did manage to visit the Ojo de Agua, the Eye of the Water, while there. Its this beautiful natural spring of water that is so clear you can see the bottom perfectly. We swam in there for a couple hours and then caught a bus back to the hotel, showered and went for a small night time tour of Altagracia. We walked around and saw the museum (though closed) and walked through a cemetery at night. Verys cary but we did it! Then dinner and bed. Eventful day again.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning was hot, bright and sunny! We checked out of the hotel after enjoying a wonderful breakfast that we bought of peanut butter, bread, bananas and juice. We took a bus to Playa Santo Domingo and spent the entire morning there, swimming and lying on the beach. I´m proud to say I got my first bikini tan/ burn ever! We did get a bit burned, though in really weird places i.e. a strip across my stomach but no where else; dido for Jess but it was on her back. Whatever. We got sun! We ate lunch at the beach and then took another bus to Merida. It was actually 2 buses we had to take and while waiting for the second bus we met other backpackers, from Montreal and Holland. They were going to the same place as us and so we ended up eating dinner together the next couple of nights and hanging out. It was really nice...I love the people you meet while travelling! When we get to the hostel its this really lovely oasis. A bit more expensive than the other hostels but well worth it. We got a room and then rented kayaks to go visit Monkey Island. There are two islands about 20 min from our hotel that you kayak to. One has Capuchin monkeys and the other Spider monkeys. Apparently these monkeys were rescued from being chained up and were freed onto this island. It was really neat to see them walking around and coming to the shores. When we returned we went swimming and cooled off. We wanted to watch the sunset and drink milkshakes but unfortunately our milkshakes took too long to make so we missed the actual sunset but still went out onto the dock of the hotel until it was dark. So lovely. You have a clear view of the Volcano Conception from the dock and it was surrounded by clouds but with a background of the setting sun. The sky was blue and yellow and purple and...fantastic. I can´t describe it. Nice breeze, just relaxing and drinking our milkshakes. We then ate dinner with our new friends (a good hearty dinner of pastas and bread because...) in preparation for the volcano hike we had booked for the next day. The plan was to hike the second volcano on the islan, Volcano Maderas. That was the plan anyway.

Wednesday

So when the early time of 5:30am came around the next day, we were getting up to go hike a volcano. However, after breakfast, Sara and Jess kind of backed out because the day before they had burt their feet on a rock hidden in the water at the beach (I tripped over it many times as well). They didn´t think hiking the volcano would be a good idea so they told the guides they wanted to see the Cascada Ramon instead. Unfortunately the guides interpreted this as we all wanted to see the cascada instead of the volcano and so took us the 3km hike to the entrance of the cascada just to find out that no, 2 people wanted to do the volcano. So Austin and I trekked back the 3 km to the entrance of the volcano which was right beside our hotel, and then began our hike. At this point, our guide was pissed at us because he didn´t want to hike it, we were 2 hours late starting, and so he said he would only take us half way up. Volcano Maderas is about 1,400m high. We wanted to go to the top. So then that meant we had to hurry to make it back to the hotel before dark because the average time up in 4 hours, 4 hours down. The guide starts RUNNING basically up the path to the volcano. There is probably a good 3 km path to the base of the volcano which you walk before even starting the volcano climb. Its uphill as well. So I´m already tired after the first 6km, then the next 3km uphill. The climb up the volcano is INSANE: it is so steep; at points I was climbing up 3 ft. high steps of dirt and roots and over fallen trees..OMG. I thought I was in shape but I died a little on that climb. I couldn´t make it to the top. I barely made it half way but I pushed myself to get there. It took us two hours to make it to the halfway point and I was spent. My thighs were jelly and I was so sore. I felt really bad because I was the one who pushed for the top but I just could not make it. If our guide hadn´t been going so fast and we had those extra 2 hours then I think I could have done it. But we were basically running up the volcano. So we rested and then climbed back down, which was just as dangerous as climbing up. Its muddy and slippery and I slipped so many times that at points I was clinging off trees for support. I did a matrix back bend at one point because I slipped and tried to right myself. But were made it back by 12:30pm, about the same time as the three girls got back from hiking the cascada. All of us so sweaty, literally dripping, we change into our bathing suits and jump into the lake. I was so muddy and sweaty and tired; treading water was difficult. We lay in the hammocks the rest of the afternoon and ate coconut ice cream with chocolate sauce as a reward while watching sunset (unfortunately it was cloudy but it was still lovely and breezy). Dinner was fantastic - 3 bean enchiladas pile high with fresh vegetables and avocado slices on the side. GREAT! As you can guess, we were in bed early because we were so tired and were getting up early again to catch a bus off the island. Super day though, a nice ending to the Isla de Ometepe.

Thursday

Early breakfast, pay and then catch an 8:30 bus to Moyogalpa, the port where we catch the ferry. Thre hours later, we arrive. Take the sketchy ferry home (it was really wavey and the boat rocked so much from side to side) but we made it to Rivas and then tired of buses, paid a taxi $25 to drive us to Granada. He was so scared the entire drive because if the police caught him with 5 people in the car he would get fined. We had to at one point hide Sara as we drove by police. But it was all good and we made it to Granada safe and sound. We arrived in Central Park so we went to this bracelet stand we found the other day and all the girls got a piece of hair wrapped really colorfully. Its really nice and a good memory of our time there. We checked into our last hostel and met this really nice couple, Dan and Audrey who had been travelling for 2.5 years. We ate dinner with them at this nice restaurant called Nectar. We ate outside on this strip set aside for just walking along and enjoyed the cool night air. I got a curried vegetable crepe and fresh lemonade. One last dinner to mark the end of our vacations. It was such a nice night of story telling and making new friends. Dan and Audrey were really cool and had so many stories to tell of their travels. Very nice people. We were in bed by 11pm because guess what...we had an early day the next day!

Friday

Wake up at 5:30am, eat breakfast and catch a 6:45am bus to Managua. We were back in Esteli by 10:30am and have since washed laundry (OMG...our laundry STUNK so bad from sweat and wet clothes...it was digusting. We were all a mess at this point), ate lunch and showered....oh so nice. Tonight we´re going out to celebrate the final night of Priti, a girl living in our house, because she leaves tomorrow.

Our friends from Canada came in today (they had a horrible 1 day delay in the Miami airport) and so we get to see them tonight! I´m so excited to see them and have a bit of home. Only 3 more weeks until San Juan Del Sur and then I´m home! So excited and I know that I will give these last three weeks my all..they´ll go by so fast.

That´s all for now. Its a lot of information. Its not even that detailed. If you can, google the places I went to see the wonderful pictures. I´ll try and upload photos soon.

Hasta luego!