Last Stop Leon

I loved Leon!  I mean really loved it.  On our next trip we will definitely spend more time here.  We didn't even get to see the beaches near Leon and it was still my favorite stay of our trip.  Everything just seemed easier there.  There were fewer people hassling tourists and there were fewer annoying tourists (ie the Americans that really didn't mean to leave the US, so they try their best to only be around other people from the US as opposed to experiencing the country they paid all that money to get to).  I felt comfortable walking around after dark alone.  The souvenirs and food were cheaper.  The churches were beautiful and the museums were affordable and interesting.  

On our first day we arrived in the late afternoon and I was reluctant to go out, but our host assured us it would be safe to walk back after dark.  We ventured out to the central park area and checked out the outside of the Cathedral.  We also checked out the souvenir kiosks and realized we had overpaid for everything.  Live and learn!  While strolling around we ran into Carlos and Sofia who after dropping us off had headed straight to the Cathedral roof.  Once we strolled around a bit we headed our for groceries and back to cook dinner in the most awesome kitchen I'd seen in months (including home since mine was pretty torn up when we left).  

We went straight to the top of the Cathedral the next morning.  We'd been warned to go early because it gets hot and wear socks because you have to take off your shoes.  We also wanted to go while it was clear.  What we didn't do was bring sunglasses for all of us.  Lottie took mine because the rule of the trip became give her whatever she wants to keep her from whining.  Gabby was miserable because she was blinded.  I was nearly in tears because of the brightness.  We got our pictures and headed back down to see the inside of the church.  

Later in the day we checked out the Museo de Arte Fundacion Ortiz-Gurdian. It was a pretty impressive collection.  The girls were excited to see artists they'd heard of like Warhol and Picasso.  The museum included two buildings across the street from each other.  It was definitely worth the $3 admission and they didn't charge me for the kids.  We weren't allowed to take pictures because it is part of a private collection.  

The next day we wandered aimlessly around looking for the best souvenirs.  I found my mug and trivets, so it was a victory.  We also went for a tour of the Museum of the Revolution.  The tour guides are all revolutionaries who were involved in the war.  The museum is basically a large number of framed newspapers and then the guide gives a basic outline and tells about their experience.  I was tasked with translating for my kids and trying to give a child friendly explanation of the conflict.  After viewing all the papers downstairs we were taken upstairs to check out the views of the city, which were incredible.  We were then led out onto the roof.  There is no way anyone should be walking around on this roof and the girls were terrified.  Luckily I at least got some good pictures of the views.  Again I didn't really realize what was happening quickly enough to decline this part of the experience and our guide had already dragged one of my kids out, so there was no going back.  Our airbnb host was horrified that they were still taking anyone much less kids out on the roof.  

The rest of our time was devoted to strolling about, shopping and eating and fabulous places.  The cakes at Pan y Paz were such an awesome treat.  Our dinner at Del Norte was AMAZING!!!!  Breakfast at El Desayunazo was also delicious and we met a lovely Canadian woman who we chatted with.  For the girls the highlight was probably spending the last of the cordobas picking out cheap candies from a woman we passed on the street after breakfast.  She was probably not as delighted that we spent an eternity picking stuff out and she had to tell us prices about a million times.  After we got our candy the girls got to spend their final couple hours in the car with Sofia playing games and coloring.  Then we hung out in the hotel in Managua all afternoon.  The next day we had to be up at 400am to get to the airport ridiculously early for our flight to SJO.  We got through quickly and had our scissors confiscated much to Lottie's dismay.  Finally we were off to Costa Rica!  We made it a month reasonably sane and healthy :)       

This AirBNB was awesome!!!  Best kitchen ever.  I just feel bad for the couples who were staying in the single rooms downstairs who probably weren't counting on my two kids and me.  

Lottie stole my sunglasses.  Gabby and I were totally blinded.  Epic fail on that part :(

View from the top of the cathedral was pretty awesome even if we were almost in tears from the blinding morning sun.

Beautiful statue for Ruben Dario.

They wanted to sit on it but there were police nearby and we weren't real clear if that was permissible.  

Pan y Paz was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!  

Pretty pleased with the smoothie she made.  Our host had lots of frozen fruits for us to use.

Street corn!!!!!  We are ready for the fair when we get back ;p

Beautiful church right down the street.

Doesn't she look penitent?  She's staring at the painters working on the ceiling.  She should be asking for forgiveness for how she treated her mother.

Revolutionaries in training.

Awesome view of the cathedral from the revolutionary "museum."

So this was TOTALLY unsafe.  Though our tour guide assured us it wasn't a problem.  

Not a problem my foot.  Check out that hole in the roof.  

I wish we'd eater here earlier because I'd have gone every night!

Empanadas to die for!!!  We could've fed 6 people with our meal that cost $11.

Street candy is even better than street corn!

Thank goodness for skiball in the lobby so we didn't have to spend hours watching cartoons in Spanish at our airport hotel.

Ometepe Island

 So I was maybe having a small amount of anxiety thinking about getting my two kids and our million pieces of luggage on and off a ferry boat that I was certain was going to make me sick.  Thankfully my fears were completely irrational.  The boat ride was reasonably calm.  We managed all of our luggage pretty well.  We made it everywhere we were supposed to be in a timely fashion.  The reward was that after an awful search for an late lunch/early dinner in brutal heat and humidity, we then planted our behinds in our room and fully abused the privilege of A/C and TV.  Pitiful to say the least, but I just couldn't care.  It was equally pitiful that we ate pizza for dinner AGAIN, and that my kids were unbelievably excited about some chocolate milk in a bag.  We were clearly going a little crazy by this point.

The next morning we went on a tour that was pitched to us as the "lazy" tour by the Nicaragua Tourism guy who was waiting for us at the hotel.  I had declined such a tour prior to boarding the ferry because I was unnecessarily suspicious of paying in advance for something to some random guy at a boat dock.  When the man in the hotel gave the same pitch I figured it was maybe legit.  I was also slightly more comfortable with the fact that I didn't have to pay upfront.  We were picked up the next morning and shuttled around to some of the islands attractions.  Sadly we didn't hike any volcanoes on this trip, but you gotta save something for the next visit right?  Also I was just too tired and probably a tad dehydrated, so hiking sounded like a horrible idea.  I am really bad at drinking lots of water.  We did end up seeing Charco Verde, Ojo de Agua, and Punta Jesus Maria.  Our tour ended a little early, but that just meant more time wasting electricity and more bagged milk.  Woohoo!
The next day we were the tour salesman said a driver would give us a ride to catch our 10:00 ferry as part of our tour price.  Sadly he didn't realize that our ferry was cancelled until we reached the ferry terminal.  I was in a panic trying to call our ride, who I finally got a hold of and sort of explained in super incorrect Spanish that we were stuck until the next ferry.  We had the pleasure of hanging out waiting for about 1.5 hours for the next ferry.  When we arrived on the other side I was sooooo excited to see familiar faces of our driver, Carlos, and his daughter who my girls adored.  

Here we are with all our bags.  Only really smart travelers pick the front row right by the bathroom where water sometimes comes seeping out from under the door.  At least we had the extra leg room?

Pretty killer view coming up on Ometepe.

A/C and TV!!!!  We are sad sad people.  

The photographer at work.

I promise I didn't try to catch it.  They were just drawn to me.  Lottie was pretty jealous.

Finally she stood still enough that some landed on her too.

We never get sick of seeing monkeys!  I spotted them before our guide so I was pretty pleased with myself.  

So I maybe thought that these two were dead and tried to tell Gabby to just go ahead and wash her hands.  Then while yelling at her to quit being ridiculous I turned on the water and they started moving.  Oops!  Parenting win!!!!

So I wasn't expected a pool advertised as being filled with volcanic waters to be so stinking cold.  

The girls had fun torturing minnows and tadpoles in Ojo de Agua.

Not quite what she was expecting when she ordered fish soup.  The people at the restaurant got a good laugh out of our reaction.  

We were maybe a little tired.

Punta Jesus Maria where we spent most of our time agonizing over souvenir purchased.

I could not get a photo to do this volcano justice.  The variety of greens was simply incredible.

When frozen for just the right amount of time this takes on an amazing slushy quality that made me think of a frosty.  Mmmmmm....

And because no one looks up from their phones anymore no one even noticed this weirdness.

  

San Juan del Sur: A Week at the Beach

So from the city we journeyed out to the beach.  San Juan del Sur was about a 1.5 hour trip from Granada.  It was nice to get out of the city, although San Juan del Sur is about as touristy as it gets.  It felt like there were more expats than Nicaraguans.  Also, there is just something about surf towns that I find slightly annoying (I promise I eventually quit bitching about the areas we stay on this trip), however the sound of the ocean is one of my favorite things in the world.  I have no love for sand and I am terrified of swimming in the ocean, but the sound of waves makes up for everything.  We could hear the water from out apartment, but it was thankfully outside of town enough to feel kind of cut off from the party scene.  We could also hear the sounds of the aquacate man, the roosters, the cats and the fascinating neighbors.  The people next to us would start off the evening with evangelical services with a little kid who was belting out hymms and then it was a crowd of young guys who sounded like they were maybe enjoying a couple drinks.  It was truly confusing.
We spent the majority of our time this week digging in the sand.  The sand which by the way gets totally imbedded in every piece of fabric it comes in contact with.  This bothers my offspring not in the slightest.  They basically bathed in it.
We were supposed to have done a homestay and more school at this location, however there was a small snag with the allocations of funds that I took as a sign to cancel the home stay and school.  We instead set up a two hour a day program for Gabby and I with a school we could walk to from our airbnb. Lottie opted out of this week.  The school was awesome.  I think if we'd started with this one and the girls had separate teachers we'd have made a lot more progress.  This school was a little more structured and there was more direct instruction.  I think if I had started with this type of school and then transitioned to the school in Granada where it was more conversation based I'd have picked up more.  Oh well!  Live and learn.  I think Gabby learned a lot.  She learned a lot of Spanish and lots of interesting life lessons from her young teacher that may have been of questionable content.  Lottie seemed to enjoy just hanging out.  She definitely enjoyed our school outing to the super pricey restaurant on the beach where we got to see a variety of traditional dances.  All the teachers at the school new us by name and would say hi when we saw them out.  I am truly grateful to them for their kindness!!!!
On our last day we finally hiked up to the Cristo de la Misericordia .  The view was pretty incredible and worth the unbelievably hot climb.  Naturally we spent a couple hours at the beach afterwords.

We reused out trash to play with in the absence of "real" beach toys.

There's Jesus off in the distance.

So this seemed like a fun set up, but I maybe had a small nervous breakdown over all the bugs and lack of light in this basement rental.  The very kind owner was accommodating and let us move upstairs.  This is where I realized I am more high maintenance than I sometimes want to admit. 

Team work.  Everyone gets along at the beach!

The ice cream men everywhere were one of my favorite parts of Nicaragua.  They were EVERYWHERE!!!!  And ice cream was like $.50.

No clue what this was celebrating, but it was fascinating and had something to do with Mary.

Awesome playgrounds in every city we visited.

Lottie chilling in the rocking chair while we were in class.  Highly recommend LASS (Latin American Spanish School)!!

An evening of traditional dance at El Timon.

My kids stole most of my ceviche.  TOTALLY not ok :(

Lottie tearing up the dance floor with my teacher.  Gabby and I politely declined.

This is the neighborhood right next to the property where we stayed.

This was the second of three places we stayed.  This was the upstairs to the awful basement we started off in.

Central American churches have the creepiest statues.

We were big fans of the town panaderia.

Almost to Jesus.

They really didn't need to tell me not to run here.

We made it!!!!!

Looks totally different once you've made the trek up.

Watching this gecko try to get a moth that was on the other side of the glass was pretty entertaining.