Too busy to write (Nicaragua)

Sorry we haven't posted in a bit.  We have been busy bees.  Corn islands was amazing.  Super fun at night, great meals, and gorgeous beaches.  Tough life.  We came home on Sunday, spent one night relaxing, unpacking, and doing laundry, to wake up early the next day, finish everyone's schooling and head to...THE BEACH!  Eliza, Jared, Nicole, and I went to Gigante, a great surf spot on the pacific coast, and Eliza's favorite place in the world.

We arrived just in time for sunset, met some gringo locals, had a yummy dinner and hung out at the hostel bar for a few hours.  The next day, slightly hungover, we headed to the beach.  I finally bit the bullet and got surf lessons, which were much-needed.  The surf was great; I caught the white wash and farther out Jared was able to catch the big waves.   After, we grabbed a couple beers eight the surf instructor and went back to the hostel for naps, lunch and playing in the water.  As the sun started approaching the horizon, we again grabbed some
beers (there is a theme in Nicaragua that we did not have in other places), threw them into my backpack, and had a pretty vigorous hike up Pie de Gigante for, debatably (between Jared and us girls), the best sunset we've seen this entire trip.  It was pretty stunning and the cliff drop and water below we're stunning.  We spent about 1 minute soaking in the colors after the sun dropped below the horizon, before booking it back down as we would run out of light and have to navigate through the woods, and poorly marked paths in the dark.

When we got back, we washed up and had dinner.  Jared went to bed early and us girls planned on a nice glass of wine and steppe until...the owner showed up (a friend of Eliza's) and the night ended up extending slightly longer than expected.  The next morning, we closed out a pretty complicated bill, and headed back to Managua for afternoon classes.
That was Wednesday, the next Thursday, and the 4th of  July.  Everybody had a half day of class, and we spent the day prepping for a party at Eliza's house.  We had pool time and games, sausages, hamburgers, and shrimp tacos, and met all of Eliza's friends, and shared some good drinks and laughs.  Big moment of the night came when Nicole won the water balloon toss, later followed by some fireworks.  The whole night was lots of fun and Americano festive.

Friday was the last day of class for Jared and Nicole.  I sent the car to the mechanic shop the day before so they cabbed it there and walked back.  Then, you'll never guess, we packed up again to head to Leon.  We arrived last night and unpacked, before heading to a super yummy Cuban dinner.  After dinner, Nicole, Jared and I were officially pooped, almost falling asleep at dinner.  We headed back to our hostel and passed out nicely.

Today, we woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and Jared, Eliza, Nicole, and I went to Volcan Cerro Negro for volcano boarding.  Our guide was super nice, and brought his kick-butt 4 year old, who apparently can hike every volcano around.  We hiked up the side of the volcano, which was pretty tough as the rocks are not stable at all, and our boards we strapped to our backs, so the heavy wind caused us to nearly fall off the narrow path at the top a couple times.  When we got to the top, we saw the crater and the sulfur rising from the very active volcano mouth. Apparently, the volcano averages an eruption every 15 years, and is due to erupt again...right about now.  Once we got to the top, we got our knee and elbow pads on, gloves, goggles, and jumpsuits.  The way down was pretty steep, but very cool to slide down on our sleds.  We actually caught a collision on our camera as we were taking pictures at the bottom, and our guide told us, pretty serious injuries (including a girl whose face had basically been shaved off by the volcano rocks) are somewhat common.

Tonight, Eliza and Bryan have gone to a wedding.  Jared is hanging out at the hostel, and Nicole and I are currently giving ourselves an avocado hair mask.  Dinner and bed in the next couple hours.  Tomorrow, we are heading out to Costa Rica after running back to Managua to pack up the car.


Nicaragua has been amazing.  It has been a dream to see my best friend for so long.  As you can see though, there hasn't been much downtime for blogging, but our time has been great fun!

Back to the Beach! (Nicaragua)

Thursday morning, we woke up super early to catch our 6am flight. We were packed up and ready to go...about 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave. Thankfully, the Nicaraguan domestic airline, La Costeña, is pretty relaxed, and the last of us was able to check in about 30 minutes before take-off. The flight was easy, a touch over an hour, and stopped on the Atlantic coast in Bluefields, before soaring over the ocean to Big Corn Island. We grabbed lunch at the port there, and jumped into a small, overly-crowded boat bound for Little Corn Island. Once we arrived, there were actually two people waiting for us to take us to our hostel.

We walked across the island, to our hostel, Grace's, and settles in for some beach time. The hostel was nice, right on the beach, but from the minute we sat down, locals started coming up trying to sign us up for snorkeling and diving and parties etc. We kept trying to politely tell them we were pooped from waking up early, but they kept coming, which was a bit annoying, along with the drums people kept playing at the bar. After a couple hours, we headed over to meet Jay who was staying at a hostel down the beach a bit. His place was great; much more secluded and a huge room with lots of space and futons.

We had a couple drinks in the room, and made the decision to switch hostels and all pack into the room at the other hostel, La Iguana, before heading out to dinner for yummy seafood. While at dinner, one of the locals that was hanging around at our hostel with a bottle of tequila since 10am, stormed the restaurant trying to fight some other local, effectively solidifying our decision to change hostels.

 On our way home, Nicole was pooped from a food coma, so she went straight back to the hostel, while the rest of us went back to Jay's room at La Iguana, to play Cards Against Humanity, which we had become obsessed with from 2 nights before. Jared went home before the rest of us, and Eliza and I went to sleep on the futon, while Bryan and Jay hung out. We finally all headed home pretty late and slept pretty well.
 The next morning, we woke up when the electricity went off at about 7 am, cutting off our fan, and turning our rooms into sweatboxes. Also, the walls were paper thin, so we could literally hear every conversation going on at that hour, making sleep impossible. No worries, we packed up our stuff, checked out of Grace's, and moved into La Iguana. Jay was still sort of sleeping sleeping, so we left our bags on the porch, overlooking the ocean, and went to grab some yummy breakfast. Some of us got eggs and gallo pinto, while Jared discovered potentially the world's best french toast with roasted coconut shavings. They knocked everybody's socks off!

 Afterward, we walked down to the beach, and lounged around soaking up the sun and playing in the water. Unlike the last hostel, no one was around and we really got to enjoy our secluded beach time. The food on the island was phenomenal, so we were very strict about eating three meals a day, no matter how full you still were from your last delicious meal. We grabbed a yummy lunch of ceviche and fish at the hostel before heading back out to the beach. Later, we showered up and headed to dinner, still stuffed from lunch, to have the local dish, called rondon, a stew of seafood and veggies in a coconut broth. After dinner, we were completely stuffed, but siked to play more Cards Against Humanity, with a pictionary twist. Lots of rum and fake tattoos later, we headed to bed.

Pretty Chill Study Days (Nicaragua)

Yesterday, we woke up and everyone got ready for their classes. Eliza is taking math class for grad school from 10-12pm. I dropped off Jared and Nicole, and came back to hang out in the back yard. When Eliza was done with her classes, we dropped Jay off at the airport as he was going to the Corn Islands with a friend. We are going as well, but not till the weekend. We all had a yummy lunch together, and then headed back for a few to-dos before picking up Jared and Nicole. The two of them were pretty starving, so we went to a wing joint called Woodys that Kris (from wayyy back in Tampico, Mexico has recommended to us. Dinner was very good and we were stuffed!

 We quick stopped into the grocery store in the way home, so we don't eat Eliza out of house and home. Once back, we drank some wine, the kiddies did their homework, and watched a movie before bed. Pretty chill day, but exactly what we are looking for after some pretty arduous travel days.
 The next day, I again dropped off Jared and Nicole while Eliza took math class. After Eliza finished work, the two of us headed to the embassy, because I apparently need new notaries for my Australian nursing registration, which is a huge pain, and exactly what I wanted to avoid. After about 2 hours and $50 dollars for one piece of paper to be notarized, we headed out. Made a quick stop at the grocery store and headed back home, to pick up Jared and Nicole. Not as productive a day as I had hoped, since the embassy took so long, but fine. When we got home, Bryan, Eliza's boyfriend had arrived; he normally lives and works several days a week outside of Managua, so we hadn't gotten to see him yet. That night we made a huge Indian food feast, and had some friends over. We went to bed pretty early, as we had to wake up at 4am for a flight to the Corn Islands.

Managua (Nicaragua)

After out wretched day with border nonsense, I think we were all a bit excited to park it for a bit in one place. Nicole and Jared had scheduled Spanish classes in Managua at 10am, so we woke up in Somoto at almost 5am, and header out for our drive. The drive was speedy, as the road conditions were above average. Small glitch came when we were just outside of Managua. Unlike every other country, where people take the driving laws more as guidelines that actual rules, Nicaraguan police officers will in fact pull you over for an infraction. Jared was cruising along, and passed a person on the highway. As we approached a hill, an officer came out from under a tree and flagged us down. He said he had seen us pass the car on a double yellow line, and was going to give Jared a ticket, which would require the officer to keep his license until we picked it up the next day in that district. We were pretty bummed, and I explained to the officer that it was difficult to know all the driving laws in every country, but was resigned to the ticket. Just as he was writing down our information, with Jared's license in hand, he started asking about our roof equipment, the trip, surfing and no joke...I talked us out of the ticket!! I wasn't even attempting to do that, but he finally said that he didn't want this to ruin our time in Nicaragua and would let us off with a warning! Obviously, my powers of persuasion are much stronger in Central America than they are in the US! We thanked the officer, and I took over driving for the last leg of the trip.
We cruised into Managua in good time, and went to my best friend, Eliza's house. Jared and Nicole quick showered, and we headed out to their Spanish classes, which are only about a 5-10 minute drive from her place. The rest of the day, I relaxed in Eliza's awesome backyard. We went to lunch with some of her friends and at 5pm went to pick up our students. They looked pretty pooped after an intense 7 hour Spanish session, but optimistic. The ladies went off to a salon for some much needed grooming, while Jared stayed at the house (accidentally locked out for about 15 minutes) and hung out with Eliza's roommate Dave and Jay, whom we had met in El Zunte. That night, we went to dinner at a local Nicaraguan eatery and then played cards and drank a bit back at the house until we headed to bed.