Our summer trip in Nicaragua

We arrived in Nicaragua on July 29, 2008 after spending a week in Costa Rica.
The border crossing at Penas Blancas was the only time my 9 and 13 year old where not that happy. It turned out okay as we finally figured out where to go and what paperwork to fill out.

We walked through the small wooden door and were finally in Nicaragua. There wasn't much haggling to do with the taxi driver after we told him we were staying at Pelican Eyes in San Juan del Sur. I know everyone has their own opinion and we really thought long and hard about where to stay and were seriously considering Villa Isabella but we decided to go for a splurge after being in the rainforest for a week.

The hotel is the nicest place I have ever stayed and has beautful views of the town and bay.
We settled in and walked around the town a bit. I was actually thinking the town would be much larger after hearing so many comments about how it is like Puerto Vallarta used to be in the 80's. After dinner that night we found a local futsal game going on downtown. It is basically a small, very hard soccer ball played on a small court. It was really exciting and a great bargain as the entrance fee was 3 cordobas a person.

The next day we went to Playa Marseilles. It was a nice swimming beach with not much else happening there. At times we were the only ones on the beach. We met a nice taxi driver, Dennis and he puts up with our very slow Spanish.
Dinner that night was at El Timon right down by the water.
My daughter wanted to watch some surfers so the next day we went to Maderas. The road down to the beach is really steep and rough and it was a great place to spend the day. We rented a boogy board from the surf shop in town but its also possible to rent a surf board or boogy board from the small restaurant/hotel right at the beach. When we were leaving the beach there was a howler monkey right above us in the trees over the road. Once you hear the sound they make you will never forget it.

Dinner that night was Club Bamboo. They were doing movie night. The food was good but it was the most expensive meal of our trip.

Our last full day in SJDS we did a little shopping and went out on the sailing trip with Pelican Eyes. It was nice to be on a boat and see the town from that view. We stopped at a small swimming beach next to a former generals house. We were able to catch another futsal game.

We've met some peace corp workers staying at the hotel and also some volunteers working in Managua for a month.
It was nice talking to them about their experiences.

The next day we packed up and headed for Granada. Dennis drove us to Casa San Francisco. It only took us about 1 1/2 hours to get there. Our room is back in the annex section which is around the corner from the hotel. We had a hard time opening the big wooden door and someone staying there helped us get in. She opens the door and immediately says to my son " I know you from Pelican Eyes." She was at a womens surf camp and all the women were at the restaurant for happy hour and my son got in the middle of their group for a photo. Granda is full of some beautiful colonial building. We basically have lots of room to spread out and a beautiful swimming pool right in the middle of everything. The annex part is the owner's private house- Terry Leary. She tells us to make ourselves at home and we do. The inside of her fridge is great. It reminds me of growing up with lots of misc food items and everything a little messy inside. We head into town to get our bearings and end up at the market. Its Saturday afternoon so its pretty busy down there as this is a popular shopping day. Most Nicaraguans work 6 days a week.

The next day we head out to Laguna de Apoyo. This is a beautiful spot and we spent the day at the monkey hut. They have tubes, kayaks and will run you a tab on the honor system.

We heard about massages given by blind people called Healing Hands. Its inside Cafe Europa which is right off the main square. The massages were great.
This was a good spot for hanging out with a ping pong table, small bookstore and bakery. The food is good also.

The next day we go with one of the bartenders from Casa San Francisco who is also a tour guide to see Coyotepe, Masaya and Catarina. The old fort/prison is pretty creepy and you can just imagine prisoners being crammed in there with no light and very little food and water.

Masaya market is great- we went to the local market and bought a couple hammocks, some paintings, sandals and some really good bread right at the entrance of the market. Marlena our guide said its called Masaya bread and it was like a milk bread.

The Catarina overlook was really beautiful and it was amazing how cool the air was coming off laguna de apoyo. We also stopped at San Juan del Oriente and my husband bought this gigantic ceramic platter that you hang on the wall. They wrapped it up really well for us and put it in a box. I'm happy to say it made it back to FL in one piece.

Granada has tons of really good restaurants and lots to choose from. Some of the ones we went to were Tercer Ojo- really cool interior and good fresh food. Telepizza was a local favorite and I know why- good pizza and salad. We also ate at a mexican restaurant near the San Francisco convent during one of the power outages. It was good also.

We went ziplining with Mombotour the next day. It was a pretty rough ride up the side of Mombacho but it was totally worth it. The zipline ends by rappeling down the biggest tree I have ever seen. We see some howler monkeys on the way back to the jeep and also some cacao plants. It was nice and cool up on the volcano.

We also did the Granada city tour. It was interesting to hear some of the history of the city and see some of the main buildings. The las isletas tour was also good and monkey island was a hit with my children. The one pregnant monkey came on our boat and they were able to feed her some mango.

My husband and children have been playing street soccer with some of the neighbors. Its lots of fun to watch and they often yell "tiempo, tiempo" for a passing caballo, goat, bikerider or occassional car.

We loved Nicaragua and I hope to return someday. We carried our spanish dictionary with us some of the time but we did okay with our spanish skills. Hopefully by the next time we go we will know more.