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...

Jun 16, 2015 - More and more Nicaragua

Today was another busy day. We drove into to see a great program in Camuapo. Teen pregnancy is endemic here, and this program works intensively with very young pregnant girls; ages 10-15. They are often ostracized and the schools will not let them attend as they would provide "a bad influence" on the other children. So they leave school, and start that cycle of poverty and need. The group here works to keep them in school as well as educating them about pregnancy, delivery, and caring for their child from birth to age 5. We were able to...

Jun 14, 2015 - We arrive!

We have made it safe and sound! This morning we left Houston and very nearly missed our flight to Managua due to problems with United Airlines International check-in chaos. For unknown reasons, our line took us over an hour to get through. When we got to the front, we found that people from adjacent lines were taking our available check-in kiosk and being the polite people we are, no one said anything. I very nearly grabbed the women with 4 family members who brazenly stepped ahead of Pam...however, putting her in a hammer lock and dragging...

May 6, 2015 - Ometepe Island

Breakfast at the hotel the we load up a couple van and head off exploring the island, the group divides into a coupe different tours, some do a volcano hike, some to the lake side beach, and a few of us do and island tour, On the island tour we head to a coffee farm where we do a short hike to see the petroglyphs then it is off to join the group at the beach for a swim and lunch. Then back on the van and go to a cool dip in a fresh water natural springs, very nice and refreshing we spend about a hour here and meet the rest of our group and...

May 5, 2015 - more of Granada

This morning after my coffee and breakfast a walk in the city to explore more of Granada before we Head to the Ometepe Island on Lake Nicaragua. Went to Fortaleza La Polvora but it was closed so was only able to walk around it taking some pictures through the splits in the walls, then a walk on the the Granada Cementario (cemetery started in 1876) lots of picturesque tombs including 6 Nicaraguan presidents and the Capilla de Animas (Chapel on Spirits). As I was walking back to the hotel I passed a horse drawn hearse getting ready for trip...

May 3, 2015 - A run for the Nicaragua Border

A very early start on the bus at 5:05 running a bit late was to leave at 5:00, lol rolling out of Comayagua heading to the border crossing of Honduras/Nicaragua this is our longest travel day, on the road 12 hours, a few bathroom stops and about a hour at the border, a stop for some lunch, we get in Nicaragua my 80th country and the last new for the rest of the trip. As this was a Sunday we didn't have big traffic problems and the bus was okay for travel actually had 5 vacate seats, but is was a very long day. We get to Granada at 4:45 so a...

Feb 24, 2015 - Summary of Trip

Tuesday Evening 2.24.15. Atlanta, GA. 9:00 pm . This entry is to try and recapture the events of the last several days as I was not able to keep up with journal over the last several days. . Saturday 2.21.15 . While the team finished their half day at Rios Proven, the medical team went to Santos Furia mainly for the men working there. Several had made it known that they would like to be seen by the male "Doctor". So while I took care of the guys with the help of Aida, Dr. Melba and Joyce took care of the others that came, mostly women and...