Day 9, 10, 11: Lake Apoyo, Nicaragua

We spent our last few days in Nicaragua at a small 5 room boutique hotel on Lake Apoyo called Casa Aromansse.  Lake Apoyo is a super deep, quiet lake surrounded by mountains.  The people at the hotel mentioned something about the volcano forming it and the minerals being great for your skin, but I didn't catch all of what they were saying.  All I know is the lake is pristine and warm and the place we are staying at had so many hammocks and comfy spots to enjoy the views of the lake... and then you could just walk down to the beach and jump in the lake when you get too hot.  All of the food was fresh and wonderful.  The owner of the place Serge also made us this delicious drink with brown sugar, lemon, white rum, and mint, all blended together, which was just perfect.  As much as we enjoyed the cities we visited in Nicaragua (Granda and Leon), it's awesome being able to end a trip just laying around, relaxing, and reflecting.  

An amazing way to end an even more amazing trip.  Hasta luego Nicaragua.  I hope we'll be back.  

Day 7 and 8: New Years Eve and New Year Day - Leon, Nicarauga

Day 7:  Our first full day in Leon we spent mostly just wandering around and taking it all in.  We both have been really liking the vibe of this city - tons of local shops and lots of people walking around with very few tourists.  At the same time it feels very safe and you're definitely not getting harassed by anyone.  We stumbled across a bunch of local markets, which were just awesome.  We ate some yuka from the market and then went to a pretty cool art museum that only cost $1.00.  In the afternoon we at lunch at a great restaurant called Azul.  Might have been the best chimichuri sauce outside of Argentina we've ever had.  

In the late afternoon we met a local guide to take us an hour and a half away to the active volcano Telica.  The road up to the volcano was crazy bumpy (I guess they just widened a walking path around a year ago).  After we got to the base of the volcano we "hiked" for around 30 minutes to the top of the edge of the crater where we could stare down at the lava.  The path up was pretty difficult with all the loose rock, but when we got to the top we were the only people there looking down at the lava.  They really should charge an entrance fee and assemble a better path, but it was still amazing to spend the last day of the year climbing a volcano.  

That night we ate some street food before going on a search for a discoteca (club) to celebrate the New Years.  We were the only gringos in the whole place and I think it had to be our cheapest New Years ever.  We drank a ton of whiskey, danced to reggaeton and salsa, made friends with a guy at the bar, and counted down the New Years in Spanish.  Feliz Año Nuevo!

Day 8:  First day of 2015

After sleeping in, the family that runs the small hotel we are staying in offered to make us "part of their family" and take us to the beach.  I guess it is a tradition for a lot of Nicaraguan families to head to the beach on New Years day.  Their family was super cute and it was fun to see a lot of locals out enjoying the beach.  We also had a ridiculously delicious whole fish for lunch - definitely some of the best fish we've ever had.  It is a local fresh fish they called corvina (we can't find the translation in English).  If anyone knows the name of it in English - definitely let us know because we want to order it again.  

Day 5 and 6: San Juan del Sur y Leon, Nicaragua

Day 5:  We spent the day relaxing by the pool at the hotel and drinking the most delicious homemade lemonade with vodka before heading for our rappelling tour around 3pm.  The company (Canopy Tours) offered a combo rappelling and zip lining option so we decided to do both.  We had never rappelled before so wanted to try it.  Rappelling ended up being way harder and less thrilling than I imagined it, but Javier (the guy the ran the tour) was Nicaraguan and quite nice, so I'm still glad we did it.  The zip lining on the other hand was an impromptu and ended up being the better choice and was WAY easier and way more fun than we expected.  There were around 12 zip lines with the longest zip line being 400 meters.  We got to zip super fast and the views of the jungle and beaches were incredible.  We had another fabulous dinner at the hotel with crepes and limoncello for desert.  

Day 6:  We were enjoying the beaches so much in San Juan del Sur that instead of leaving in the morning like we planned, we decided to spend the afternoon at Hermosa beach.  We ended up preferring Maderas beach to Hermosa, but it was still fabulous.  We had a great time hanging out with Jasmine and Josh and ate some great fish tacos and quesadillas, drank some Macuas, and just laid in the sand.  

Around 3:00 we started our 4 hour drive to Leon.  We hired ORO travel as private transportation between each city, which has been well worth it.  About 3 and a half hours of the trip was spent talking (probably 10% me talking and 90% listening) to our crazy driver Ricardo Nicaragua.  He was the perfect person to practice my Spanish with since he spoke a little bit more slowly and knew quite a bit of English.  Listen to this video to get a taste of the 4 hour drive.  

After finally arriving in the city of Leon we had an amazing dinner at a place called Susteo, which had a view of the Cathedral and lively park nearby.  The city of Leon is pretty similar to Granada with an old and colonial feel, but there were even fewer tourists walking around (even there there weren't too many in Granada either).  The weather cools down at night and is the perfect temperature to walk around the city.