Hotel Real Leon

... and just threw up my hands and stared at Ted. Mini meltdown during<br>which I def gave up on my espanol for a moment. Ted wanted me to be<br>sure I included that since he thinks I don´t bash on myself enough in<br>the blog. (Ladies, if you want a sensitive one, you´ve found your man.)<br>It was all worth it, however, because we ended up getting a really<br>yummy typico plate with rice and beans (called gallo pinto here), meat,<br>and plantain chips, for about $3. And don´t forget the ...

... about $3. Love it. So I ordered my<br>usual obscene amount of snacks and we were in. Well, not really. Here,<br>you have to wait for them to open the door to the theater. It´s pretty<br>cool; everyone waits outside together like you´re going to see a live<br>performance or something. Then there´s this dramatic opening of the<br>gate, a flood of people, and at last.. the previews! We really liked<br>it. Even better, the movie was actually really funny (or maybe we´re<br>just starved ...

... to be more small pieces and less rock-hard chunks, so walking up volcanic ash is similar to walking up sand -- two steps forward, one step back. <br><br>A while back, someone around here decided to take advantage of this slippery feature, and start investigating ways to just slide down. After much experimentation, they settled on the sport of volcano boarding. With a specially designed board, similar to a sled or a ...

... an egg on it.. no joke. But needless to say it was amazing, and the tour company even threw in a mojito once we were back at the hostel. <br>I feel asleep very early that night. Sunday it was back to Jinotepe in order to get ready for our placements... ahhh!!!! So excititng!<br><br>Monday morning: the first day! <br>I have decided that if I ever do become a doctor, the first thing I will do is hire a secretary, Seriously, the amount ...

... us very ratty with people like taxi drivers! <br><br>Julian and Lyndsey were at Lazybones to meet us and we had some coffee and told them about what had happened in detail. Lazybones was the right place for us to lick our wounds, its a really quiet hostel, with a lovely swimming pool and a very laid back manner. We stayed there for five nights and it was great, free pool, internet and nice cable tv... all the things that we needed to help our recovery along. <br><br ...

... It <br>was incredible. Ranging from French Impressionist to Spanish religious statues to modern Central American artists. We enjoyed wondering through the old building and taking in a little culture. After that we enjoyed some wonderful nature juices before heading back to the hostel to relax before the evening. Around 4 PM we headed to the main square to try a few local delacacies. After stuffing ourselves we decided to enter this old building on ...

... restaurant, came over to find out all about who we were and where we were coming from.  She ended up sitting with us all night as we made dinner and settled into our temporary home.<br><br>The next day we went and rented surfboards from the local surf shop and tried to learn the art of surfing. Surprisingly enough Chrisitna and I did quite well, managing to get up on the board and being able to experience that exhilarating feeling of catching ...

(Pictures of Managua come before those of Leon, though I talk about Leon first.)<br><br>Well, I´m on a roll with these entries, so I´ll keep them comin´. <br><br>From Perquin, El Salvador, I headed across two borders to the beautiful colonial town of Leon, Nicaragua. In all I ended up staying 4 days, and could´ve easily spent more time. It´s just such a pleasant place to stay in! The first few days were spent hanging around, visiting different sights and the like. Of note is their ...

Had a tip that lazy bones hostel was good but after getting the taxi there realised it was way out of our budget so opted for bigfoot as the room was off a court yard and it seemed nice however the walk between the two was a bit much as becca still wasn´t feeling right. After one night of sweating in the room which had a low ceiling we swapped to via via across ...

... br>Penitas. It's an ugly trip through Managua. Managua is a chaotic, ****<br>hole of a city. It's a shame that this city is the capital as it's a<br>true representation of Nicaragua. Dr. Val speaks great English so we<br>have a great conversation about the revolution, Sandanistas, his job,<br>his niece's wedding, and his life in general. He's a great guy and a<br>good resource to have here ...