After 3 great months in Costa Rica, Matt and I took a mini vacation to renew our tourist visa in Nicaragua. Technically you have to be out of the country for 72 hours but we decided to make it an even week and visit both Granada and Isla de Ometepe set in Lake Nicaragua.
Getting to the border from our little Ranch couldn't have been easier. We took a bus from el Tanque straight for 6 hours to Penas Blancas where we walked across the border to Sapoa in Nicaragua. From there we jumped a couple more buses to arrive in Granada just as the sun was starting to set. I loved that the local Nica buses were the same old Bluebird school buses from my childhood; they were made in the US and Canada and outfitted with racks inside and on roof. Even some of the old stickers remain warning you to keep your arms in the bus.
Granada is famous for its colonial style buildings, old churches, and delicious street food served on palm leaves. As described in the Lonely Planet, Granada is great for strolling and that's what I aimed to do . Although Nicaragua is not nearly as popular a tourist destination as Costa Rica, you'd never believe it if you went to Granada with all its hotels, cafes and restaurants serving waffles, thai chicken curry, and smoothies. We particularly enjoyed stopping in for happy hour and trying various cocktails with the tasty local rum, Flor de Cana or one of the local beers.
While in Granada, we took in various sights including its many churches, a fort, the Convent of San Francisco, and the ceramic museum. We also tried the local must have cuisine called viguron which is made with yuca, lime and cabbage salad, and chichurron (fried pig fat) all served on a bright green leaf. Pretty tasty though I opted to skip the chichurron. We spent one morning in search of new cheap flip flops and a pair of sunglasses for Matt. This led us to the old market streets in Granada and even an indoor market served by Nicaraguan trannies.
It being the last week of summer, Granada was incredibly hot and humid. By 8 am, we were already considering spending the day in some shady corner sipping iced coffee or macua, the national adult beverage. However we powered through it and managed a two and half hour midday kayak trip through the numerous islands formed by volcanic rock nearby the dock in Granada. This was of course after we walked for two hours in the sun searching for the kayak tour company. The Isletas are actually some 300 small islands inhabited by countless birds, and where you can find both mansions and shacks. It was a surprisingly great birding day in which we saw Purple galinules, Northern jacanas, Tri colored herons, a limpkin, and the Ringed kingfisher By the end of that day, were were in some state of sun shock which left us reaching for the closest hammock and cold drink.
After 3 days in Granada, we boarded the local ferry for Isla de Ometepe, the island made up of two volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. Yup it's as amazing at it sounds. All over the island are paintings, maps, and 3D models of the bra like shape of Ometepe island, complete with one side being slightly larger than the other. Concepcion is the larger of the two and she is probably the most beautiful volcano I've ever seen. She's been rumbling and spitting out smoke recently so treks to the top and back, which normally takes 12 hours, have been scaled back so you can only go midway up. Usually at the top it gets very difficult with steep hot volcanic soil, cold air from the elevation, and fiery winds from the volcano. We decided to enjoy the volcanoes from afar, as seen from the ferry and atop a super cute dirt bike. Maderas is the sleeping sister volcano that is popular for its lake at the top of the crater. My favorite place was the spring fed pool at Ojo del Agua. It was the most refreshing place in all of Nicaragua and we saw two birds we've never seen before: Black headed Trogon and a Rose throated becard. My second favorite spot was swimming at Playa Santo Domingo where the strong winds have created a wide sandy beach. From the water, you have perfect views of both volcanoes.
Our last night on Ometepe, we were in Myogalpa and caught a free boxing match held in the town basketball court. The whole town showed up to watch something like 16 Nicaraguan featherweights fight and then join the dance party following the match.
My last day in Nicaragua, I was still recovering from all the heat and the sun and felt nauseous the whole day. For two hours at the border crossing, I sat in immigration because it was the only air conditioned space around while Matt figured out where our bus was leaving from. After vomiting twice, taking an anti nausea pill, and doing a couple rounds of acupuncture, we boarded the bus back to El Tanque. I slept most of the way back and was so relieved when we got back home to our own beds. I am now 100% healthy and back to work. No worries, pura vida!
BTW, more photos of our trip can be viewed at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mattcweaver/Nicaragua?feat=directlink
On our way back from the beach, we took a little detour to the campus of EARTH University. EARTH stands for Escuela de Agricultura de la Region Tropical Humeda and is a private, non for profit university that educates and does research on sustainable agriculture in the tropics. We have had several graduates from the school at the Ranch and I thought it might be interesting to check out the campus. It is 3300 hectare property that was started partly by US aid and the Kellogg foundation, and contributions fro
m the Costa Rica government. Their student population is primarily made up of people from Central and South America, Carribean islands, and Africa and much of their tuition is paid for through grants and other funding sources within the university. If you've ever bought bananas at Whole Foods, you may have heard of EARTH because they are one of their suppliers of organically grown bananas. Bananas are a fragile fruit and transporting them can be very tricky. At EARTH, there is a monorail of sorts that transports the not yet ripened fruit from point A to point B. In the photo, the banana train is crossing a main road. Although there is plenty to see at EARTH, we could only stay the afternoon because there were no dorms available.
The next day we headed to San Jose for a little city walking. My main interest was to see the Mercado Central where there is purported to be stalls filled with dry herbs for sale. Also because there is tasty cheap seafood there. What we found was a very organized indoor market with all sorts of souvenirs, leather goods, housewares, butcher shops, vegetable stands, fish stalls, natural health and supplement counters, an
d of 
course the herb guys. I was excited at how much of the dried herbs I recognized. I thought about purchasing herbs to prepare decoctions with at the Ranch but they don't really want outside material coming in if they don't know how it was grown.
Breakfast consisted of cafe con leche (milk coffee), sh
rimp rice, bee
troot salad, french fries, and the world cup match between Switzerland and Spain. Yum! 
observed the josefinos (San Jose inhabitants) going about their day. Of course, these days, the whole country is Copa Mundial crazy! People stop to watch the game where ever they can, even in front of the electronics store.
