Nicaragua

We decided to venture up to Nicaragua because we heard good things from other travelers. First stop was San Juan del Sur, a fishing village on a beautiful horseshoe shaped bay, and stayed for a week. It's close to several good surf spots, so it's loaded with surfers. Actually, I (Melissa) finally started surfing and I loved it! The small waves at the town beach and Playa Remanso were perfect for me. Beside that, there's not much to do which is great because it was so hot. We met some wonderful people there - Shannon and Steve, from Canada who just opened a smoothie place on the beach, which we went to everyday. Michael, a local who worked there was fun to chat with and practice our Spanish, and Tom and Suzie from Vienna that we surfed with a bit.

One day we woke up so itchy and cranky from all our mosquito and sand fly bites that we decided to take a break from the beach and head to the city of Granada. Granada is considered Nicaragua's finest colonial town, and is on Lake Nicaragua (the largest lake in Central America). Lake Nicaragua is the only fresh water lake in the world with sharks (bull sharks). We spent a couple days exploring the town then took the ferry to Isla de Ometepe, a beautful small island formed by two volcanos on Lake Nicaragua. We stayed on the beach at Santo Domingo, and attempted to explore the island by renting bikes one day but got a flat, and renting a motorcycle the next but also got a flat. Lesson learned, don't rent poorly maintained rides in third world countries.

I'll remember Nicaragua for it's scary thunder. One night in particular in Isla de Ometepe, the thunder was so loud I must have jumped two feet out of bed from a sound sleep. It sounded like lightening struck the nighstand! Everyone in the hostel talked about it the next day. I'm glad it wasn't just me that was freaked out.