Food poisoning and Apoyo Lagoon

As you can tell from the title, today was not our best day. I woke up with stomach pains and was generally not feeling well. Devin's food poisoning set in later but was much worse. Eduardopicked us up at 9:00 to start our city tour of Granada. We made it to the first museum before Devin was sick and had to run to the bathroom. We tried to continue the tour for a few minutes and then decided to visit the pharmacy and head back to the hotel instead. We took a nap until noon and then went to the Apoyo Lagoon which is a lake in the crater of a volcano. Devin was still feeling awful but we thought he might feel OK lying down in a hammock at the beach; he ended up spending the entire time lying on a rock bench reading. I was feeling better, except for occasional stomach pain, and I had a great time snorkeling. The bottom was all rock which made it kind of painful wading out. Most of the rock was covered in fine algae. I saw a couple kinds of fish, one was only a couple inches long, the body was translucent, and it had a neon greenish-yellow stripe down the side. The first fish I saw had a black line down the side and also black splotches on the skin and ranged from a couple inches up to 6 or 8 inches. I got to follow a couple of this type of fish around as they followed a school of smaller fish that they were snatching up for meals. The last fish was bigger and had a pan fish shaped body with black dots down the side. I only swam in water that was about 10 feet deep because after that the bottom dropped off really quickly. I tried swimming down a couple of times and I saw fish as they disappeared into their holes in the side of the drop off and some sea weed. I checked on Devin a few times but he stayed lying down the entire time. I had mushed plantains with fried cheese covered in cream for lunch and then we headed back to the hotel.

Devin stayed in bed but I went down to the streets because they were celebrating Fieste de San

Roque and had bulls running down the street as well as lots of people walking or riding horses down the street. I tried to walk down the street by myself but didn't like all the attention I was getting as a single female walking down the street so I went back to the hotel and read with Devin. We went to bed really early and hoped that Devin felt better in the morning.

Climbing Cerro Negro (active volcano)

Today was awesome. How many people can say they climbed to the top of an active volcano and then ran down the side of it. Awesome.

We had breakfast at our hotel and left at 7:30 to go climb Cerro Negro. Cerro Negro is the most recent of four very young cinder cones and it's most recent eruption was August of 1998. The drive there was over an hour, even though it wasn't very far away, due to poor road conditions. I'm pretty impressed that we didn't get stuck or tip over. As soon as the volcano came into closer view I said, "There's no way we're climbing to the top in and hour" which was what was on our schedule but we did. The volcano is almost all black lava rock and there is no vegetation; we followed a trail through the volcanic rock ashes. Most of the climb wasn't too bad but there were parts that you had to use your hands to climb and you had to watch for rocks that weren't stable. By the time we got to the top I was covered in sweat and exhausted, but it was worth it. In the crater of the volcano (which we hiked through) you could see sulfur coming out in many places and in some places you could see crystallized patches of it. From the top you could see almost 20 miles and we saw the city of Leon, other volcanoes, and the Pacific ocean.

The hike down was much, much easier than the hike up. We basically just walk/ran/slid down the opposite side we had climbed up. By the end I was covered in volcanic ash and I had a ton of rock in each shoe.

On the way back to Leon I saw an oriel fly in front of the van and asked Eduardo about it. This set off a long birding expedition on the way back. We stopped a couple of times trying to get a picture of an oriel but they flew away before we got there. Twice we got out of the van and walked a little trying to spot something without the noise of the engine. At one point they had us duck under a barbed wire fence to check out a tree with fruit that birds like to eat. We got really lucky there because we saw a blue-crowned motmot (the national bird), a Yigürro (aka gray thrush, National bird of Costa Rica) and a torgon.

Then we drove back to the city so we could take a quick shower and wash all of the sweat and ash off. After we cleaned up we had lunch at the same place we had dinner last night. Then more time in the van (not my favorite part) as we drove to Granada which was about 3 hours away. I spent most of the drive sleeping since I was exhausted from climbing the volcano. We checked in at the hotel and then wandered around central park and had dinner. We went to bed fairly early looking forward to the next day of adventures.

Boiling mud and the city of Leon

Our day had an interesting start. We got up early and enjoyed a delicious breakfast with the best orange juice I have ever had. I got the Nicaraguan breakfast which had rice, beans, and scrambled eggs. Devin had the American breakfast which came with fresh fruit, toast, and eggs. The toast had a really yummy papaya fruit jelly that tasted more like honey. We wanted to get some money changed into Cordobas (local currency) so we asked the hotel to take us to the ATM which the night front desk staff had told us was free. Well, the driver took us there...and then left us there...and didn't come back as far as we know. After standing around a while we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. Luckily for me, Devin speaks a good amount of Spanish and can get us around town and understand all of the staff who don't speak English.

At 9:00 our driver, Antonio, and our guide, Eduardo, met us at our hotel so we could start our adventures. Edwardo told us a lot about the history of the country, his views on all of the politics, about his family, and was very patient while answering all of our questions about everything.

The first place we stopped was a local eatery where we got quesarillos which is a cheese slice in a tortilla filled with some sort of onion mix. Devin also put the chille sauce on his which I skipped. We had diste to drink which is a beverage made with water, cocoa, corn, and spices. Both were really, really great and surprisingly filling.

Our next stop was to see the boiling mud in San Jacinto. As soon as the van pulled up, at least half a dozen children surrounded the car in hopes of getting paid to be our "guide" or holding our hand while we walked

around. Devin managed to stay free of small children, but of course I made a new friend and had a adorable little girl walking around with me. The boiling mud was really interesting and also really hot. I took lots of pictures and Devin took video of the

rolling boil of mud and the steam coming out of the ground. Devin and I each got a gift of a small

pot from the kids and when we had our fill of mud we headed back to the van.

Our last stop was the city of Leon. We checked in to our hotel, La Posada del Doctor, an

d freshened up before heading on a tour of the city. Our room

had just enough space for the

bed, a nightstand, and a small table that folded down from the wall. The bathroom had a swinging door and the toilet didn't have a handle to flush it (we took the tank top off and just lifted the chain). It was super charming and Devin and I both really liked it. The courtyard had flowers and grass that with box turtles wandering around. After a nice siesta we got back in the van to see the city. We saw old spanish churches including La Recolección Church, San Francisco Church, La Merced Church, and San Juan De Dios Church. We also saw largest cathedral in central america. Eduardo told us that there was a rumor that they had switched the plans for the construction and the cathedral was actually supposed to be built in Costa Rica.

We also toured the house turned museum of Rubén Dario who is a Nicaraguan author credited for shaping the modern Spanish language. We also went to the Museo Ortiz-Gurdián (art museum) where we viewed older European art and more modern Nicaraguan art.

After a very full day of walking around we were dropped off at the hotel and left on our own for dinner. We walked to central park and viewed the local shops and grabbed a yummy dinner of quesadillos and plantains with rice, beans, and cheese. On the way back we stopped at a local grocery store to pick up water and also got a pineapple tart for dessert. After that we got lost trying to get back to the hotel which had me completely panicked although nothing happened and we got directions from some nice locals before giving up (mostly because of me panicking) and grabbing a cab back to the hotel. As if that weren't enough for one day, Eduardo picked us up again at 8:30 so we could experience some of the local nightlife. The first bar we went to we sat on the roof and had a beautiful view of the park. We got the local rum, Flor de Caña, and fresco. When you order it here you get the entire bottle of rum and then mix your own drinks. After we finished our bottle we headed to another bar where Devin had a mojito and I had a girlie drink. After we chatted for a while we were on our way to another bar with live music, however, it was really crowded which made me happy because I was ready to head back to get some sleep.

Nicaragua here we come!

So a while ago Devin and I decided to go to Nicaragua, 1. Because a travel writer and photographer I met in Peru highly recommended it and 2. It was one of the very few places my frequent flier miles would get us. So, Thursday morning we ran around getting last minute items for the trip and finished packing. We dropped off Grant and Halo at Scott’s house and Ryan took us to the airport. After a long flight we made it to Managua, Nicaragua. There was a driver waiting for us as soon as we left customs to take us to Hotel Mansion Tedolina. It was dark out so we couldn't see a lot of the city but from what I saw it was very similar to Lima, Peru or the Dominican Republic. We got there pretty late and were exhausted from the trip so we ate trail mix and dried fruit that we brought with us for dinner and headed to bed.

McClarty Treasure Museum

Devin surprised me today by taking me to the McClarty Treasure Museum (although I had already guessed where he was taking me when he told me it was a surprise). We got ice cream and a slushy at Dells to enjoy on the drive down to the museum since it is in Vera Beach which is about an hour away. When we first got there the place was empty and we watched a movie about the ships of the 1715 Spanish treasure fleet and other ships that wrecked off the coast during the 17th and 18th centuries. It talked about all the treasure hunters that have discovered gold, silver, jewels, and other historical artifacts, one of the most famous being Mel Fisher who has his own treasure museum which I'm sure we'll go to someday. The trip had me wanting to get a metal detector because amateurs have also found lots of really neat and valuable items that have washed up on shore after a heavy storm. The rest of the museum had different items that were found from the wrecks. It was a very nice day.

Ryan & Trina's Wedding

Beautiful day. Beautiful ceremony. Beautiful couple. Again, Devin and I spent the day helping with last minute wedding details. I worked on things like burning the DVDs with the pictures of the bachelor/bachelorette parties and changing pictures to be portrait and sepia while Devin helped Ryan with all of his last minute shopping and keeping him calm before the wedding. Even though the wedding photographer had 2 assisstants they wouldn't split up to take pictures of both the girls and guys getting dressed so I got to tag along with the groomsman and I even got to ride in the limo to the ceremony and reception. I had fun getting them to do fun poses like holding Ryan up and then pretending to drop him. I think one of my favorite parts of the day was watching Ryan open the gifts and read the note Trina left him. When he got to the part about getting Trina's grandfather's cuff links he started tearing up. On the way to the wedding site we stopped at Trina's parent's house where the girls were getting ready. Ryan stood outside the door where Trina was changing so they could talk before the ceremony. Everyone got the flowers they needed and then it was off to Ballard Park. The wedding ceremony itself was very nice. Ryan and Trina's vows were so touching they had me tearing up. Trina looked absolutely beautiful in her dress. The real photographers took lots of pictures after the ceremony but I got got some cute ones of the wedding party playing basket ball (the guys who were playing there very graciously let us steal there ball for the photo op.) I missed the wedding group entering the reception because I was on a important mission to get the car decorations out of Angela's car. I got there right as they were about to enter the room so I got more cute pictures of Ryan and Trina. The reception had lots of dancing which I mostly sat out of because I was exhausted. At the end of the night we lit giant sparklers down an aisle as Ryan and Trina made it to their get away car. We finished gathering and packing presents and tux rental stuff and then headed home. I crashed pretty much immediately.

Ryan & Trina's Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties

Devin's parents flew into Florida yesterday for Ryan and Trina's wedding. It's nice having them come visit, I really like having family in town. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend nearly enough time with them because both Devin and I were running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things ready for the bachelor party and help out with wedding craziness. Devin and I spent the day picking up last minute items like table cloths for the bachelor party as well as picking up the keys to the building and getting it all set up. Devin has been planning a poker party for months now and made veggie chili, pulled pork, and brownies as well as having purchased a bunch of snack food.

After things were all set up I got dressed up (I even curled my hair) for the bachelorette. I met the girls at City Tropics Bistro where I got to meet Trina's friends and chat over a lovely dinner outside. Then it was off to Levelz Nightclub where we were the only ones out on the dance floor. It was tons of fun and Trina had a pre-wedding glow all night as she danced her tush off. After everyone tired out on dancing we headed over to the Front Street Civic Center to meet up with the guys that were still there. I think both Ryan and Trina enjoyed their parties.