Blog 8 5/05/11

"You didn´t miss the death of Osama Bin Laden did you?"
We find ourselves in Granada, after having just exited the isolated island of Ometepe, where no, there is no internet and yes, we may have missed out on a few things. However lets start at the beginning.
After leaving Tonala we made our way to Leon, where we spent Semana Santa. The weeks activities included, volcano boarding, riding down a 50 degree volcano  on a precarious wooden sledge, yet another activtity that would not be permitted in Britain. We elicited a  certain amount of food envy as  we were finally able to cook our own meals after a couple of weeks of eating rice and beans 3 times a day. We visited what is supposedly Central Americas  best art gallery, attended our very first beach party and painted our volcano boarding instructor´s wall after  he discovered our mural painting skills. For Semana Santa the "Leonistas" create a walkway of brightly coloured sawdust carpets, which they then proceed to stamp over in a procession, carrying religious floats that are followed by a massive generator that keep the fairylights alive. And, of course, we relaxed in hammocks, read and engaged in many a card game with our new Dutch, American and Canadian companions.
Our next stop was San Juan del Sur, where we learnt to surf with our Brazilian instructor Alfredo, who pronounced  every word beginning with an "S" with an "E"... "esurfing". He is reknowned for being a brilliant teacher, and we both stood up many a time, if thats  what you wanted to know. Also got stung by a jellyfish, very glad we didn´t know they were there before we got in.
From San Juan we moved to Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua. We stayed in a hostel on an organic eco finca, slept the first night in hammocks, and then migrated uphill to a rustic cabin. Undoubtedly this would have been paradise had it not been filled with uptight and antisocial hippies , who sat around making friendship bracelets all day and got irate everytime we asked them to borrow "fuego para cocinar". We were also joined by our Dutch ally Marieka who we met in San Juan del Sur and Colin from the US who entertained us with stories from his teaching time in South Korea. We climbed our 3rd volcano, Volcan Madera, which took us in total a full 8.5 hours, definitely the hardest by far, but was so rewarding we treated ourselves to a comedor meal afterwards, including absolutely everything they could offer us on the menu.
In Granada  we are back in real beds, under a bugless roof, with no ants to attack us ferociously. We visited a crumbling, derelict but photogenic hospital yesterday, where not many tourists find themselves. Just our cup of tea.
If we leave it this long again I´m sure we will have plenty more stories to fill you in on,
Hasta leugo. 

Blog 7 15/04/11

Mural is complete and we are about to set off to the school for the last time for "elevenzies" with the teachers. Its a shame we are leaving tomorrow as we have settled into our way of life here and we seem to have made another home on this sie of the world.
Went to Chinandega yesterday to buy gifts for the family and the teachers. Bus journey back competes for the worst yet, balancing a boxless cake, defiantly trying to protect it from the perils of the knees and elbows of the overcrowded bus. Hopefully our journey to Leon tomorrow won´t be quite so dramatic.
We are going to miss the family dearly, are contemplating stealing 6 year old Franvir to keepus entertained on the rest of our travels.
Adios Tonala.