Aug 12, 2017 - Leon

Leon is the city of Lions. Lions adorn many buildings and many of the 16 Churches. It has narrow cobblestone streets too and quaint colonial buildings but I think Granada is nicer. This morning we have a walking tour of Leon with Franklin who, apart from being a guide is also a salsa dancer and he has the right looks and physique to match! First we visit the mural a across the road from our Hotel. It gives a chronological insight to the turbulent history of Leon. We walk to see the petrol station where petrol was set alight to attack the...

Aug 11, 2017 - Granada to Leon

We leave Granada today to travel to Masaya, then the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, an then Leon. We pass the the old train station of Granada. The railroad went into decline in the 1970's exacerbated by the earthquake in 1972. The President shut the rail lines in 1993 and the rolling stock was sold for scrap. On the highway to Masaya we see a small delivery van has collided with a horse. In Nicaragua stock of all kinds, cattle, pigs and horses roam the verges of roads and eat the grass. Unfortunately, the horse died and the van was a real...

Aug 10, 2017 - Granada

Today we eat breakfast with our group next to the cacao shop. It's a buffet, not our favourite but the others wanted to have waffles. The food is average and of course we don't get our money's worth, as we don't eat that much. Tomorrow for breakfast we will do our own thing. This morning we drive to Lake Nicaragua as we have a boat tour our around Las Isletas, the tiny islands around the perimeter of the lake. Some of these islands are inhabited with quite modern houses, some have local fishermen's houses usually of corrugated iron and some...

Aug 9, 2017 - Ometepe to Granada

We leave Ometepe today by ferry, back across Lake Nicaragua. Hector never did sort out his problem with immigration in Nicaragua so we are met at the ferry by a new driver, Manuel. We drive for an hour or so to reach Granada by noon. We can't check in so we leave our bags at reception and Tomas shows us the beautiful square in the centre of Granada and the street that runs off the square that has all the restaurants. We are to eat lunch and be back at our Hotel at 3pm for a walking tour of the city. We aren't quite ready for lunch so we go...

Aug 8, 2017 - Ometepe

Off on a 5 part tour of Ometepe. First we visit the petroglyphs. These are located in a farmers field and are now protected by the Nicaraguan Government. These petroglyphs could date back to around 1,000BC and are carved into volcanic rock using a flint chisel by native artists. There is much speculation on the reason for the petroglyphs but there is little information known on why they were carved. We then go into Altagracia the original indigenous capital of Ometepe. Here the town has the office of a political party and the paintings on...

Aug 7, 2017 - Rincon de Vieja to Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

We have to leave this beautiful place today to travel to the border to cross into Nicaragua. We travel for and hour and a half and then we must say goodbye to Carlos. He is a lovely man, a great driver and a good snake spotter. We pay the exit tax and get the appropriate stamps in our passport and then walk the 'no mans land' to Nicaragua. Here the authorities take all our passports and process them together, a little money changes hands and we have our luggage scanned but nothing is searched and we enter Nicaragua. We load everything into...

Jan 28, 2017 - Hacienda at Lake Nicaragua San Juan del Sur Nicaragua

Saturday, Jan 28, 2017 Hacienda at Lake Nicaragua San Juan del Sur Nicaragua We had an early tour, so we got up at 7:15. The ship was anchored out and we boarded a tender a little after nine for the 10-minute trip to shore to San Juan Del Sur. The bus headed out at 10:00 and had to stop along the way just at the edge of the town to wait for two people who were late. The road wound around and up hills and quite soon we saw Lake Nicaragua. There are two volcanoes in the lake that formed islands. It is a little smaller than Lake Ontario, but...

Jun 20, 2015 - Back To Managua

Headed back to Managua today. Saw a very impressive group working with school children and adults in Managua. Many adults have not even finished grade school, so they are working to allow them to get a 6th grade certification, as well as vocational training in several areas. We got to meet part of Paola and Jaime's family today, which was a real treat. We had heard so much about them during our week here, that it was a joy to see them. Their mother was clearly so proud of them (and rightfully so). They were so loving and nurturing....

Jun 20, 2015 - El Gigante

More power outages, which made for a very hot night, whew!!! We traveled to El Gigante, a lovely beach area where there is a group founded by the international surfing community to expand health care and water access to the local community. Like Cuba, this area is on the brink of turning into a resort area I fear. Lovely beaches, great surfing (apparently; I did not partake of any surfing...). Fortunately for our little traveling group, this group had to curtail our meeting due to other commitments, so Paola, Jaime, Pamela and I were all...

Jun 18, 2015 - Granada

Today we headed to Granada, a beautiful resort town, which still has incredible levels of poverty in its barrios. There is obviously much wealth here, but also people living in such horrible conditions. We visited Educacion Plus; an NGO run by a Korean born orphan raised by Mid Western parents, who fell in love with Nicaragua while she was here on vacation and has basically stayed. Her group provides kids from the barrios of Pateranal with a banana to start their school day and a balanced nutritious meal, which for at least 30% of these...

Jun 17, 2015 - Matagalpa

Today was rather exciting. Pam and I visited Sister Rebecca; a Catholic nun running a program for families with handicapped children. She is amazing, and probably born to be a business entrepreneur, but instead is a whirlwind of activity developing programs to benefit handicapped children and those who care for them. She has set up a park that is wheelchair accessible so that handicapped kids can play outside, often for the first time. She has gotten ramps built into sidewalks, worked and education, therapies and activities for kids,...

Jun 16, 2015 - First Day on the road

First of all; I am sending this a day late as there was no internet at our last hotel. I was provided with a password and internet was discussed, but no luck. I thought of Peggy and her endless quests for internet in earlier vacations. I will hopefully get a chance to get to today's info later. On our first day of travel we headed out into the countryside. The scenery was often beautiful, mountainous and very green, but there were no photo ops on the way, and the places where we stopped were decidedly not photogenic in the usual sense. We...