Hotel Ivania's Masaya

... greenery. Whipped through them very quickly and the good mirador in Catarina before heading to the not so good but less touristy one at Niria.<br><br>Only filled 1/2 a day so decided to try &amp; get money at an ATM. The trick I learnt first time (no choice as don't take travellers cheques here) was to put the card in &amp; whip it out at great speed ...

I am deviating from my usual blog to let you know of an incident that happened to Al and I just outside of Masaya, Nicaragua today. This is to warn and inform others if this happens to you. <br><br>We were on our way to the Masaya Volcano National Park, a short distance outside of Masaya. The bus conductor forgot to ask the driver to stop so we got off a little way along after the park entrance on the opposite side of the highway heading in the Managua ...

Its a good thing I am still currently in the honeymoon phase of culture shock because **** here is pretty different. To start, this morning I walked in after my run to find Juan (one of the people who works here) snapping the neck of a chicken... needless to say I was extremely thankful that they served fish at lunchtime. Jackie and I ventured into Masaya to climb another ...

... them peeled right and the other half kept their bearing up the main street, the parting mass revealing the big bad white bull bearing pretty much straight for me! One Nica tripped on the edge of the footpath, falling at my feet, and I don't know was it this or did something else catch its eye, but the bull halted his advance and veered to his right just before the pavement, little more than six feet from my somewhat shocked self! Needless to say I didn't stick around to ...

... in order to spend some time in other places we advised the driver to avoid the places we already knew. It seems that the carriage is the first thing to do when arriving to Granada.... i guess i just do things backwards.. We visited an old fort that has been military fort, military warehouse and jail during the civil war in the 80s. It's very interesting. <br><br>When the tour was done, we went to the many tour agencies in the main avenue to see about the volcano ...

... express bus, and there wouldn't be another one until about 10 hours later) sooooo off I went to this city that I did not know at all.. alone. aha. another entry for the list of things my parents will<br><br>never know about. I have to admit.. a fear trickled down my spine as the ayudante (the guy who collects money) asked me, "are you sure?" - I'm 6 days into my first experience in Central America, and I'm traveling solo ...

... will<br>still meet as a large group with people in the other cities once a week<br>for most weeks, but we´re pretty much on our own most of the time. I´m<br>definitely excited to start work. Oh, and I forgot to mention that most<br>of the internet cafe´s here have cameras, so if any of you has a camera<br>you´d be able to see me! I can´t remember my skype name, but if you do<br>a search for¨speare¨I´m sure I´ll be the only one on ...

... the way to the lake. Hope to get to one soon. Haven´t heard from Vince today but got an e-mail from him in the morn yesterday. I´ll copy it here: I finally got my tourist Visa after sitting in their office for an hour yesterday and from 8:30am-10:30am today. I am exercising my patience on this one. I still have to get my vehicle permit which is at the ferry terminal I am going to get there early to make sure everything ...

... on our own, we decide to make the trail without guide.<br> Besides lots of different trees and plants (bromelias, orchids,..) that thrive because of the cloud forests humidity you can also observe howler and white faced capucin monkeys, as well as snakes, reptiles, birds, and insects. We were very lucky to see a family of Howler monkeys!<br><br><br>Maandag 26 januari 2009<br>Weer vroeg uit de veren. Rond 05 uur reeds wakker, we blijven nog wat dagdromen in bed want we ...

... en tur rundt i de små gader for at opleve stemningen. Det var virkelig en oplevelse! Det var et stort kaos med mennesker og dyr overalt. Der var en masse grupper der spillede live musik rundt i gaderne, og folk trak rundt med deres æsler og heste, mellem biler og små børn der løb alene rundt. Om eftermiddagen mødtes vi på hotellet for at tage på bådtur rundt til nogle små øer. Vi sejlede rundt en halv times tid, og endte på en meget lille ø hvor vi skulle spise ...