Nicaragua

San Juan Del Sur:



This is the place we stayed for a few nights nights--it's called the Buena Vista Surf Club and we rented a "tree house" and got to sleep to the sound of howler monkeys - not super calming, but fun. The food was amazing--we had communal meals and one night we all played poker (without bets) and I beat everyone--by a lot.



This is the view from the kitchen table. It was a gorgeous place.



This was our room.



And these were the howler monkeys.



Playa Maderas. Every morning of the entire trip, I would just jog along the beach and the beaches were long and completely undeveloped (no resorts, roads, tourists, nothing).





The town market.





A souvenir I thought I would bring back for Cyra.





Jared enjoying his mangoes on the to go.



This lady walking her monkey.









Jared vs. the waves.



These parrots were hilarious. They kept yelling "Hola, Hola!"



This is Playa Guascate. Probably the most amazing beach I have ever visited. I swam in this little estuary every day. It was a long, white-sand beach with nothing on it for miles on both directions.



Someone gave this monkey a water bottle and he fell in love with it.



I know that pictures of sunsets are frustrating because they just cannot capture how beautiful they really are, but here's an attempt anyway. The sunsets over this beach were just breathtaking. The pictures seem pathetic in comparison.











We ate one of our best lunches at this restaurant on top of this rock. We were the only people there at the time and maybe ever.



The view from our table.





Another sunset. Sorry, I can't resist.





The other place we stayed.



Puppies. I am not a dog person, but these puppies were adorable. There were three of them and their mom did not like them very much.



Granada



This is the oldest colonial city in the West. It was cool.









Where we stayed.



So this volcano blew up a long time ago and made about 250 little islands (Las Isletas) on Lake Managua (which is the largest fresh water lake in North America). We took a little boat tour of the islands:





There are many people who live on these islands and just get around by boat or just have everything they need on the island.





This was a fort on one of the islands that was built to protect Granada from pirates who got into Lake Managua from the Caribbean.





This was a monkey island. This one is pregnant.







Those are bird nests up there.



A little island cemetery.







It was a great trip. So nice to spend time together without the kids (thanks to my mom.) The one negative thing about the country were the cops who kept stopping us and trying to shake us down. At first we fought it and tried to get out of the bribes, but then we just started paying $10 each time and considering it like a toll.