Nicaragua

We have been in Nicaragua a little over two weeks now, and once again I am faced with the overwhelming feeling of leaving somewhere familiar and entering a new country where there are new ways of living, and new places to know.

After our border crossing from Honduras into Nicaragua we made a bee-line to Isla de Ometepe. I made my first trip in a "chicken bus", and an old Nicaraguan ferry. Isla de Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua, a massive fresh water lake. The island is made up of two volcanoes and a narrow stretch of land between them. We stayed three nights on the western side of the island, where the lake stretches as far as the eye can see, and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it wasn't the ocean.

On the second day on the Island I was innocently walking along the path from our Bungalow when two squirrels fell from a coconut tree onto my head and shoulder, the very last thing I was expecting. After my screaming ceased Nyall had to reassure me that I didn't have rabies (I had two bleeding marks on my shoulder!), and coax me to once again walk under trees.

That was about the most exciting thing that happened on the island, we were a little surprised to find it so underdeveloped, and I guess were a little disappointed that there wasn't more to do than finish our books and swim in the murky water. By the end of three days we were a little bored of eating at the one restaurant in the town we were in, and made plans to spend 2 weeks nearby to better organise the remainder of our travels.

I think that other travellers we have met find it a bit strange that we would settle in San Juan del Sur for two weeks, as there isn't a lot to do here, and there are many nicer places that we have skimmed past with only a few hours. Our reasons for staying here are more to do with the need for us to organise further travel, and due to the length of our trip we often feel that we need to just settle in one place for a bit longer than usual to take in some of what we have experienced and get prepared and excited for the next chapter of our travels.

Having said that, San Juan del Sur has been a beautiful town to stay in for the past two weeks. Our small one-bedroom apartment is perched high up on a hill above the town, and we have the most stunning view of the town and it's bay. The heat has kept us indoors and forced us to plan, plan and plan the next leg of our journey towards Panama, and the approaching rainy season is driving all sorts of bugs indoors; preparing us for the bug-infestation we are expecting in Costa Rica.

I will miss San Juan del Sur when we leave tomorrow, as once again we have set up in home in a country we will probably never return to.