New Itinerary

Commencing week 3 of my trip to Nicaragua. I have been in Spanish classes for 2 weeks and can now conjugate verbs in present, past AND future. Watch out now. I also know body parts, food and Nicaraguan popular expressions. We decided to cut our time short at Spanish school to have more time out and about exploring. While there are some good activities with the place we are staying, they are too few and we are getting somewhat antsy and bored. Shea and I are leaving next Saturday to head to Isla de Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua (the second largest lake in S. America). Its supposed to be a gorgeous place with toucans, monkeys and hopefully (keeping our fingers crossed) some sloths. The first place we will go for 5 days to bunk in a dorm at a hacienda right on the water for hiking, kayaking, napping in hammocks and waterfalls. After that we are heading to the other side of the Maderas Volcano to stay at Finca Magdelena. Its an old farmhouse built in the early 1900s that operates as a coffee farm now. We are bunking in the dorm there too and plan on hiking up the volcano with a guide and drinking lots of delicious coffee and again napping in hammocks. We will travel around by bus and have to take a vomit-inducing ferry ride across the lake to get there. After that we will head to Granada for a few days- do some shopping and kayaking around small isletas. Our last few days will be spent at Laguna de Apoyo, a salt water filled gigantic volcanic crater. We got a room at the Best Western across from the airport in Managua for our last night for easy access for our 730 am flight back to NYC on Sunday, Dec 14.