Honduras and Nicaragua

Hello from lovely Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. The last few weeks have been such a whirlwind! Since I last wrote I have been so busy, it's hard to put it into words here. I was able to visit the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras. They are beautiful old ruins and I liked them better than I liked Tikal, but at this point I am probably done seeing ruins - there are just so many down here! I did think this site was preserved really well. 

After Copan we transferred over to Roatan Island. Roatan is famous for diving, so of course I loved it! I went for a couple dives the first day and they were incredible. Every time I dive I get more comfortable in the water, I feel so lucky to be there, and I just want to stop traveling and keep diving. This was the last opportunity for a while and I’m so sad about that! The second day I went for an island tour, where we travelled all around the island, including some beautiful beaches, great snorkeling and swimming opportunities. We also took a small boat through the mangrove trees (they are the only trees that can grow in salt water).

The coolest part was probably meeting this guy from California…he had been sailing around the world and on one of the bays of Roatan, his boat sank. Instead of freaking out and getting home as quickly as possible, he built a bar on top of his sunken sailboat. To this day, 20 years later, you can look down and see the boat. He said it was fate that put him there, so he just went with it. If that isn’t a sign of following your destiny, I don’t know what is!

After this we moved to Nicaragua. Our first stop was Granada, which I really enjoyed. The city had a really laid back feel and I just enjoyed walking around and seeing the city itself. However, we had a couple of uncomfortable moments. I had a massage from the blind guy, and it was probably the most uncomfortable massage I’ve ever had in my life. Why on earth do I need to have my inner thigh massaged? It was so odd! Also, one of the women from Australia had her camera stolen when we were on our way home from dinner. She was taking a photo of a church and someone grabbed the camera from her hand. She had the wrist strap on and tried to grab it back but eventually the strap broke and he got the camera. I know that’s why we have travelers insurance, but I hate it when people resort to stealing instead of having an honest job! We also went for a sunset cruise to some of the little islands and we also ran across an island that had some howler monkeys living on it.  I think we’ve been on a boat every single day of this tour and I couldn’t be happier!

We’ve spent the last 2 days on Ometepe Island in Nicaragua. When I say that I spend 2 days in one place, I should probably mention that we spend most of the first day traveling. The travel consists of everything you could think of….taxi, chicken bus, truck, boat, ferry, I’m fairly certain they would use horses if we had no other options! So a travel day that would take 2 hours in a car might take 8 hours using public transportation. So we arrive at maybe 4 in the afternoon, so we generally spend the first night taking a quick tour and having some really good food. Anyhow, we arrived last night and had some good food. Today I hiked up a volcano with some of the others on my tour (2 Swiss and 1 German girl). The volcano is dormant, but it is still really large. We climbed from sea level up to 1394 meters (4200 feet). It kicked my butt yet it was so rewarding! I love seeing the different parts of the world and everything that they have to offer...I’m excited to see Costa Rica and all that it has to offerJ

Sorry for the lack of pictures in this post but the internet here is SO SLOW that it is impossible to upload them! I will post some when I am home next week.