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.