Ometepe y San Juan del Sur

Last week on Friday (July 19) Nicaragua celebrated 'Dia de la Revolucion'. And because every reason is good to have a day off, there was no school on Thursday either apparantly. So, we didn't need to think twice about what to do next: two days to Ometepe and two days to San Juan del Sur.

As usual our crew left very early in the morning, to get a comfortable bus ride to Rivas, a cab ride to San Jorge and the ferry to the beautiful island of Ometepe. From the ferry, the island offered us a first amazing view of its two volcanoes. An hour later we set foot in Moyogalpa and took another cab ride with Bolivar, our taxi driver for the weekend, to playa Santo Domingo.

We quickly got two rooms in a hostal, threw our backpacks on the bed and immediately headed out for Ojo de Agua, a beautiful outdoor swimming pool filled with cold, clear, volcanic water. And as if that wasn't enough, we had some very tasty 'coco loco', an alcoholic drink with coconut milk and rum served in a coconut.

In the evening, we had a lovely dinner at the neighbour's 'comedor' and afterwards we hooked up with the rest of the volunteers who were at Ometepe. 21 people having drinks and going in for a midnight swim, evenings don't get much better than that! And no mom and dad, this time around my stuff didn't get stolen ;)

Up early again the next morning, because we were hiking up to a waterfall in San Ramon. The signs next to the road said it was only 3 km, and the first two went very smoothly, so when we reached the 1 km mark, we were getting excited about seeing this 'cascada'. Unfortunately, Nicas seem to use a different unit of measurement, because the final km was twice as long as the first two combined. In the end, it even didn't matter that much, because the hike was absolutely worth it. As soon as we reached the waterfall, we rushed into our bathing suits and cooled down under the falling water. We ended our trip with a great meal at an ecological restaurant with beautiful surroundings and an amazing view at the volcano.

We left early on Saturday to go to San Juan del Sur, a small city and apparently a surfer's paradise and hotspot for nightlife. Everyone who has been there knows about 'The Iguana', the place to be if you want to party hard. The police thought otherwise though, because they closed the place down at around 1.30 am. We didn't care that much, because just a few houses down to the right, we could dance into the night at another venue.

During the day, we had spent our time at 'playa hermosa', and beautiful it was! A couple of beach huts, some big waves that pleased the surfers and very cheap cocktails, especially during happy hour, what more could you ask for. We even tried to surf ourselves, but apart from one or two people, nobody had ever done it before. In the end, it was only me who wasn't able to stand up on the board and ride a wave, but that won't surprise anyone.

On Sunday we - finally - slept in until 10.30 and went to see the second largest statue of Jesus Christ in the world. We couldn't go to the top, because our bus was leaving soon, but we had a pretty good view of it.

As if this weekend hadn't been perfect enough, I came home to find a Nica guy playing the guitar and singing songs like 'Heart of Gold' by Neil Young. When he was done, he told me that he often plays just around the corner from our house, so I know where I'll hang around for the next couple of weeks, because this guy was an amazing artist.

Nevertheless, every story has a downside as well. I've been here for almost a month now, and a lot of volunteers are heading back home. I hate saying goodbye to people, especially when you've spend so much time with them over the past couple of weeks. I thought I wouldn't get attached to them as quickly, but it's just the contrary. These people have really made my experience here so much more interesting and I would like to thank them for it! So Olivia, Aaron, Anya, Meera, Elisa Coline, Suzanne and Leo, we had some unforgettable times here and I will ALWAYS remember that! I'll miss you guys so much during the coming weeks! Thanks again for making me feel at home here!