Vacation!

August 24, 2010              11pm

Greetings from the beach town of San Juan del Sur!

I have had the good fortune over the last two weeks to enjoy some well-deserved vacation! Nicaragua is a great place to travel- a lot of beautiful wonders of nature to enjoy, as well as the warm and welcoming people I have met.

I started my trip in Granada, which along with Leon is one of the prominant colonial cities. The architecture is lovely and it has some great restaurants! Things kicked off with a hike up a hill just out of town which offers a nice view of the city, then I toured some of the prominent churches and museums. Granada is on the shore of Lake Nicaragua and (like every other Nicaraguan city) lies in the shadow of a volcano, this one called Volcan Mombacho. Due to the spewing of eruptions long ago, Lake Managua has isletas, basically mini-islands from maybe a half acre to several acres in size each. They are rumored to be 365 in number and a boat tour of the area is one of the big tourist attractions in the area. Some are owned by (very rich) families, some are basically home to squatters and are undeveloped as of yet, and there is one in particular that is home to some very friendly monkeys that have really gotten used to the boat tours (and the snacks they provide). Below I have a couple of pics, one from the top of the belltower of La Merced church and one of a monkey visiting with tourists:

By the way, an interesting tidbit on Granada was that it was burned to the ground in 1856 by troops under the command of an American from Tennesee who had briefly declared himself president of Nicaragua. Oh yeah, US meddling in Latin America has a nice long history. Anyhow, if you want to know more about this piece of Nicaraguan history just follow this link for the Wikipedia article on William Walker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(filibuster)

Next I headed to the Island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua, a decent sized island formed by 2 large volcanoes. There are some very impressive natural wonders there, and it is a real haven for outdoor activities of every kind. Sadly, the infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. In such a natural environment the spotty cell phone coverage and limited access to internet really aren’t a big deal, but the roads! Oh my goodness, let’s just say if you don’t have a 4 wheel drive you ain’t going anywhere, and even in a 4×4 I don’t think I could drive it- this requires experience and skill! I did a couple of hikes (about halfway up Volcan Maderas to a lookout point and up to an awesome waterfall called San Ramon), as well as a morning of kayaking and an afternoon of horseback riding! Let’s just say that by the time I got off the island I was sore just about everywhere and had precious few items of clean clothing! Pics below are of me on Volcan Maderas (that’s Volcan Concepcion in the background) and of the San Ramon waterfall. The only bummer was that on all of these excursions I didn’t see any darned monkeys! I could hear them but they never showed themselves

After that I came here to San Juan del Sur, a very tourist-heavy beach town with lovely sunsets and a serious surfing culture, not to mention some great spas! I’ve been mostly chilling out and reading, but yesterday I took an hour long surfing lesson that ended up being 3 hours! I had a great time and managed not to get too sunburnt- I even rode a couple of decent sized waves all the way to the beach without falling down! Too bad I don’t have a pic of that, but I do have a nice sunset shot from this evening:

Tomorrow I am going to do a night tour of Volcan Masaya (yes, another volcano!), then Thursday I am heading back to Leon. Back to work Monday! I’ll post more pics soon!

Buenas noches- Dra MV

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