New pics of Granada w/ Syd!

Bahia Majagual Pics

Me hangin out at the Bahia Majagual Ecolodge
Me with short hair. Can you see it?

Bahia Majagual Magic

So, I wanted to continue about my stay at Bahia Majagual. It is the kind of place that you would like to go on a romatic getaway. Or, to go surfing. Since I had good luck with my ONE surfing lesson, I thought I would just rent a board to see how it would go. I ended up playing all afternoon in the whitewash away from the big boys, just trying to stand up. It was pretty tiring. One thing I became frustrated with, however, was the weight and inconvenience of my hair. I tried pulling it back, but it kept falling out. I tried letting it loose, but I thought I would throw my neck out everytime I tried swinging it out of the way. I expressed this frustration at dinner (over a bottle of Flor de Caña) and my new travel buddy, Nate, offered to cut it. He happened to have a pair of scissors in his backpack. Perfect! So we did it. With my hair all stringy, tangled, and wet from the ocean he choppped it off. Only, the scissors he had were those kind elementary school students have with the plastic, brightly-colored handles. But, hey, I wanted my hair cut off and they worked. And, it looks pretty darn good, I must say! It kinda looks like the layered, choppy look. He cut it just above my shoulders...long enough to where I can still pull it back in a ponytail. Unfortunately, I didn´t get to enjoy the lightness of my new do, because the next morning I was catching whitewash (pathetic I know) and the board came down on my head and did something to my neck. It scared me, and I thought I would give the surfing thing a break. My new hairdresser and friends were headed to Granada, and since I now had a bum neck (and they were cool) I decided to join them and leave a day earlier than planned. I´m not giving up on surfing, though! Maybe Syd and I will try it again the next couple of weeks. One last thing. I don´t know if we have this in Florida, but I went for a nighttime swim and the water was filled with these bioluminescence things floating everywhere. I just sat there waving my arms back and forth in the water watching them light up all around me. It was so cool. Do we have those anywhere in the states?

San Juan del Sur

Me swimming at La Flor Wildlife Refuge.
Sea turtle laying it's eggs. Awesome.
Beautiful beaches around San Juan del Sur.
Howler monkey at La Flor Wildlife Preserve









Beautiful sunset at La Flor.

Costa Rica Pics

Back in Nic

I finally made it back to Nicaragua last week. I came back to San Juan del Sur. These past couple of weeks have been totally amazing. First, I went to La Flor Wildlife Refuge and got to watch a sea turtle lay it´s eggs. It was awesome! Of course, there was a lot of sitting around and waiting until that point...but I was prepared. Me and these two French-Canadian guys (yeah, Kelly, I thought of you) split a bottle of Flor de Caña Rum (which I´ve become quite fond of...it´s so smooth you can just drink it without mixing it with Coke), so by the time the turtle came out...Well, I had a good time. and I found the perfect spot that I think I can return to again and again. See the pics below to view the beautiful sunset I witnessed. Of course, a picture can never do it justice. We had the whole beach, for as far as we could see, totally to ourselves. We also saw several howler monkeys in the forest behind the beach.

My surfing lesson in Costa Rica went pretty good, so I thought I would follow up on it around San Juan del Sur. The beach here, is kinda gross (for swimming), so I researched and after talking to a few people I decided to go to Bahia Majagual, which was a 12 km boat road away. What a great decision that was...I loved it! Beautiful beaches, not populated at all, surrounded by jungles teaming with wildlife. There were howler monkeys all over and these cool little crabs that looked like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid crawling around everywhere. This area is considered one of the best surfing areas in Nicaragua, so there were lots of cool surfer folks, too. I stayed at the Bahia Majagual Ecolodge, which had a big warehouse-like thatch roofed dormitory filled with backpacks and surf boards. There was also a campground where people could set up a tent or just hang a hammock for the night. The lodge also had an open area bar/restaurant area that was constantly pumping out cool music (lots of Jack Johnson...who didn´t make it onto my ipod yet) and a very relaxed atmosphere. It was here that I met some really fun people who I would spend the next 5 or 6 days with.

These past two weeks have been really different than the first three. Travelling around from place to place, seeing something different everyday, hooking up with different groups of people, travelling together for a little bit, then departing and going our separate ways. I´ve met the coolest people from all over the world. AND, I´ve met so many teachers. It´s really making me re-think what I want to do with my life as far as careers go. I just want to travel!!!! There are so many places to see, I don´t know how I will ever make it everywhere I want to go in my lifetime.

So much more to tell, but I ´ve got to close for now. Enjoy the pics.

Costa Rica Let Down

I guess it's been a week since I updated my blog. I'm still in Costa Rica. It's a lot more expensive here to use the computer and phone. I've really kind of felt out of touch with everyone over the past week.

Okay, I have to say...Costa Rica is way overrated. I have not really enjoyed it over the past week, and I'm kind of sad that I spent an entire week here. But, I felt like I had to give it chance, the way everyone has talked about it. But, I travelled to three "must see" destinations and it didn't do it for me. There's no mistaking that the landscape is beautiful, but it is so clogged with gringo tourists that it ruins it. And, you can't do anything without going out with a group of people,with a guide, and paying for a tour. You'll be bumbling down this horrible bumpy road (which I kind of like) in the middle of nowhere and there's nothing but vans and busses with "TOURISMO" stamped on the outside and a bunch of white faces staring out the window, driving alongside you. It pretty much feels like I'm visiting a new state in the U.S. that I've never been to. And, EVERYONE speaks English, of course.

I started out in La Fortuna (that is the name of the town I didn't know before) where I went to the largest active volcano in Costa Rica. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any lava because it was too cloudy. The hike was led by a tourguide (of course) and was somewhat strenuous, but the package included a visit to the volcanic hot springs which I was looking forward too. The place had 10 hot springs with 10 different temperatures. It also had a wet bar you could swim up to and sip on some WAY overpriced drinks. I didn't partake. And, the springs no longer felt natural since they were all done up and transformed into this resort place. It was nice for some folks, but just not my thing. I was ready to go after 1 hour.

The next day I took a seven hour (roundtrip) hike out of town to this waterfall everyone was raving about. I went by myself, which was nice. The waterfall was very pretty, but quite honestly, it was not any more beautiful than the waterfalls and sceneary we have in northeast Alabama. And, of course the swimming hole was filled with so many tourists you could hardly move. I hiked down away from everyone, though, and had a beautiful swim by myself amongst several rippling rapids. I did see a toucan, on my way back and it was awesome. It looked just like the one on the box of Kellog's Fruit Loops!

Next, I headed for the cloud forests of Monteverde and Saint Elena. It was a beautiful drive through the countryside and Monteverde is a cute little town. Here I went on another guided tour through the cloud forest where I got to see a howler monkey and several beautiful birds and cool-looking insects. Again, I would have rather gone through the forest alone, to experience it's beauty and reflect, but AGAIN full of tour groups...you could never be alone. I stayed in Monteverde three nights. I really liked the hostel and the people I met there and the communal atmosphere. Oh yeah...I also did a canopy tour, which entailed going on a 2 kilometer long zip line over the treetops at a very high speed. You couldn't see anything really, but it was a nice adrenaline rush. It ended with a freefall tarzan-like swing, which was awesome.

Now I'm in Tamarindo, on the Pacific coast, at the Northwest corner of Costa Rica. It's supposed to be one of the surfer hotspots, but I think it sucks. This is the most tourist-y area yet. I'm taking surf lessons this afternoon...I'm excited for that. Although, I've been to the beach already and I've seen some of the dorky-looking surfer learners with their color-coded rash guards...depending what class they are in. I want to skip that stage and just automatically become a cool surfer chic. We'll see how it goes. I'm heading back to Nicaragua tomorrow morning (back to San Juan del Sur...my original surfer spot I got lured away from a week ago). I plan to start up my Spanish again and really try to pick up on the surfing thing. And then Sydney comes on Saturday. Yay! I can't wait to have her as my travel buddy. I will try to post pictures of my Costa Rica adventures very soon. I want to wait until I'm back in Nic., where internet usage is much cheaper! Until later...Elise

Somewhere in Costa Rica

Ok...For those of you who gave the advice to go to Costa Rica...I did it! I'm here! But, I'm not really sure what town I'm in. This is such an adventure. Here's a recap of the past couple of days. I decided to take a week off of Spanish lessons, to let my brain absorb some of the info that has been thrown at me for the past 3 weeks. So, I thought I would head down to San Juan del Sur, a little beach town, in the southwest corner of Nic. It's very close to Costa Rica. I was thinking I would take some surf lessons, because it's really cheap. I got off the bus, at like 6:00 p.m. and found the hostel I wanted to stay at. It was full. So, I'm wandering around town trying to find a place to stay and there's hardly anything available. While doing this, I met this guy from New Zealand who's also looking for a room, so we walk around together to look. After it's apparent we would not find any dormitory rooms, we're like "um...soooo uh, I know I've only known you for five minutes, but, uh, you want to split a double room with me?" Sure. I gotta sleep somewhere. In the meantime, we run into a friend of his who is also looking for a room...so now three of us are in on it. We finally found a room...with three beds...to stay the night. We go out for pizza and cervaza, where they meet up with someone else they know...they are all leaving for costa rica the next day. The next morning, at breakfast, they're like "why don't you come with?" I look outside at the pouring rain, and think "Okay, no surfing today. I'll go to Costa Rica instead." So, I hopped on the bus and was off. The plan was to follow wherever they went, whatever they did, because I didn't have a guide book and I knew nothing about Costa Rica. We rode in the bus all morning...going over the border was interesting. I'm so happy I wasn't doing it alone. When we finally stopped to switch busses, it was POURING down rain, but luckily, there was a busstop sheltor. NOne of those in Nicaragua. Then across the street, a tv was spotted ...with the WORLD CUP FINAL playing. Since one of the guys was British, it was imperative that we get over to watch it. It was good, actually. I got to see the headbutt. And I got to eat chinese food. But, this meant we wouldn't make it to our final destination in one day. We stayed in some small town overnight, where we met a really cool couple from Holland. We all agreed to travel together to the final destination. Notice I keep saying "final destination," because I still don't know the name of the town I'm in. We get off the bus, I stop to exchange email addresses with the Holland couple and the guys walk off. I go to catch up, but they are nowhere to be found. So, I'm wandering around this town, no guidebook, wondering what to do. Then I see other backpackers who were on the bus with us earlier and ask if I can tag along with them to the hostel they are going to. Sure. The name of the place they are staying at is Gringo Pete's. So much for improving my Spanish this week. Gringos everywhere. But, Costa Rica is beautiful...I really enjoyed the busride today. I finally found the guys, again, who got me here. But, I just bought a way overpriced guidebook and so I don't need them anymore. On my own again. I think I'll go read my book now. Stayed tuned.

A Nicaraguan 4th of July

A Nicaraguan 4th of July is just like a Nicaraguan 3rd of July, or 5th of July, but for me, it was the first time in a long time that I actually reflected on the significance of OUR 4th of July. Funny, that it takes me NOT celebrating it in order to appreciate it. I was telling my teacher about it being a big holiday in the states, and it dawned on me how they have nothing like that to celebrate here. I have never felt so lucky to be an American as I do right now. Ive spent the past 10 years or so irate about U.S. politics and the crap that goes on in our country, even quite ashamed and embarrassed to be an American. But, for all our faults, I am so happy to be a U.S. citizen. Of course, Im not going to stop complaining about what an idiot I think Bush is, or stop pushing for change in our policies and attitudes toward other nations and civil rights issues, or the host of other problems that need to be addressed for us to really improve as a nation. But, the point is that I CAN do those things. And, with time I am still hopeful that the rest of the US will come around and completely agree with my viewpoints so that we can become a perfect nation. Just kidding. And, the bottom line is this...no matter how poor you are, or what rotten circumstances you are born into, if you live in the United States, anything is possible. Here, that is not so. Ive met so many intelligent and educated Nicaraguans who have no hope of ever having a better life. They have a college degree but can not even make enough money to purchase a passport to get out of Nicaragua and make a better life for themselves. And those that dont have a college degree...forget it. There are people working on the coffee plantations that make 3 cordobas an hour. That means they have to work almost 9 hours a day to make the equivalent of one US dollar. Okay enough of the pumping up American talk. Im starting to sound like a Republican! : ) Hope everyone had a GREAT 4th of July, and may this entry make you think and (gulp) be proud...or least happy...to be an American.

Views of my walk on Ometepe

Views along my walk on th island...this herd of horses went stampeding next to me on their quest to get a drink from the lake.

The infamous bus ride from Rivas to Granada.


One of the nice hotels in Granada...they actually have air conditioned rooms. And, no, I did not have the pleasure of staying here.

Weekend at Ometepe Island

I am starting my third week of spanish class now. My teacher said I haven't been studying enough and that I should know more spanish than I do. Basically, she said I'm a bad student. No more ingles! Mas espanol! Ok, ok...I gotta study more and stop hanging out with gringos and english speaking foreigners. But, I've got to update my blog, right?

Over the weekend, I decided to take the plunge and go exploring by myself at Ometepe Island, a volcano island in the middle of Lake Cocibolca. My host family drove me to the bus station, where I found a group of backpackers waiting to go to the same place. Good for me, because I had no idea what I was doing. It ended up being a group of girls who were all solo travelers, but had met up along the backpacker trail and were now traveling together. I asked if I could tag along, and they agreed (although, I think relunctantly). Four were British, 2 were from Holland, and one was from New Zealand. Boy, they really don't like Americans. They were nice enough, though.

I had no idea how round about, and LONG the trip was going to be to get to Merida, this little community on the furthest stretch of the island. We boarded the bus in Granada, rode for 1.5 hours to Rivas, where we caught a taxi to take us to the port town where we boarded the ferry to take us across the lake. Once across, we decided to stay the night in the port town of Mayogopo (not sure how to spell it). The next morning most of the crew stayed at the hostel to watch the world cup, but since I'm an unsophisticated american, another girl and I decided to go on to our final destination: the Monkey Hostel. This cosisted of a 3 HOUR bus ride plus an hour break for some unknown reason. So the driver could take a nap? I don't know. I could not BELIEVE the dirt road we had to take to get to Merida. Only one car could safely fit, and it had huge potholes and steep hills. And, remember, this is a SCHOOL BUS that we're travelling in. We eventually made it. The hostel was pretty rustic, and run by a nice native family. They had access to this great beach, and they rented horses. And, they had chickens, dogs, pigs, and a pet monkey! We decided to go swimming in the lake where we discovered another island a few meters off the shoreline. It looked swimmable. We attempted it. It was way longer than anticipated. We kept swimming and swimming and finally made it to island, only to be greeted by this mean little monkey bearing his teeth at us. No climbing up on the island. But, at least we could rest on the lava rocks around the shoreline, and watch the monkeys before turning around and swimming back. We found out the mean monkey was only defending his family, though, because we saw a tiny little monkey clinging onto his mommy, as well as another smaller, juvenile monkey. I thought I was going to die swimming back...good exercise, though, something different from walking.

Speaking of walking...the next morning I had to catch the ONLY bus of the day out of Merida, so that I could make it back for class on Monday morning. This time I was definately on my own, because the others were staying behind an extra day. I was not looking forward to the five hour treck back to Granada. It's really not that far...just a lot of waiting and riding in a bus that can only go 5 miles per hour. Needless to say...I missed the bus. Of course of all times it actually came EARLY that day. So, I had no other choice but to start walking. There was only one road and where it forked I could always stop and ask someone which way to go. I don't know what I was thinking. Yes, I do, actually. I thought "Oh well. This will be a good adventure. I'm glad I missed the bus." Ha ha. About an hour into it, I had one car go by with a load full of guys who offered me a ride ...but I declined. "No. I like walking" I said. It was sooo hot and after about 2.5 hours...my feet were hurting. But, hey, I thought if I've walked around Disney for 12 hours straight, certainly I can make this 9 hour treck to the port to catch the ferry. After 3 hours, I heard the buzz of another engine and I was begging that it was someone who would offer me a ride. I was in luck. It's amazing the things I will do here that I would NEVER do in the U.S. The buzzing ended up a being a motorcycle...yep, I got on it. Riding on the back of a motorcycle, that was being driven by some stranger, while wearing no helmet. And, I felt totally safe. The road had no cars, and it was so bumpy, that he had to drive relatively slow (but faster than my walking). He drove me to a town where I could catch the bus to the ferry. While on the ferry, I met this awesomely cool guy who does volcano surfing, and offered to take me out. Cool, huh? That will be next weekend.

The rest of my journey was totally miserable. The bus back to Granada, was supposed to leave at 3:00, so I wait until the last possible minute to board it because, well, it's 3:00 in the afternoon in Nicaragua. By the time I get on, the only seat left was the one with the big hump for the tire where you have to put your feet on, and it makes your knees come to your chest. You remember those seats in the school bus, right? No worries, though...I had it to myself, so I just stretched out sideways. BUT, the bus did not leave...they kept waiting for more and more people to get on. Someone sat next to me. I had to sit with my knees scrunched up holding my bookbag, on the side of the bus where the sun was shining in. At 3:10 in the afternoon in Nicaragua. I thought I was going to start hyperventilating. The bus got so packed...and they kept piling more people in. I was pretty bitter. And, for the like the first 30 min. of the trip they kept stopping for any Tom, Dick, or Harry who waved their arm...or looked like they MIGHT wave an arm...and packed them on the bus too. They would even try to recruit riders by yelling Granada! Granada! Granada! Granada! I was beside myself. After 1.5 hours of this HELL I finally made it back. At least next time I go, I know what to expect. The island was beautiful and there was so much to do that I didn't have time for. I think I'll go back when Sydney gets here. But, don't worry. I won't hitchhike with her along. Adios for now....Elise

The Monkey Island Hostel

The inside of my dorm room at the Hostel. Girls on Tour group I met on the bus. All solo travellers who banded together for a couple weeks.















I found a pig to pet! It was so cool. They also had a pet monkey that loves "muchachas."

Pictures: Ometepe Island Aventure

Me and my teacher, Johana, at my school.













Interesting things came on board with us on the ferry across to Ometepe Island, the casket being the most bizarre. These pictures are views from the ferry on our way to the volcano island.