ringing in the new year with mama julia y tia la reina

Matt and I were giggling and grinning ear to ear the last hour we waited for familiar faces, moreover family, to finally get into Granada! And after putting their bags down, we wasted no time in finding some fried, non-vegetarian Nica food for them to try on the Calzada. And of course some Flor de cana y Tona! Everyone here thought Lo was Julie's sister, therefore my Tia, and so we decided to go right along with that. And they got a kick out of the Spanish translation of Lorraine into La Reina, yes that's right, the queen has arrived!

Our second day in Granada we had a very important date to bring my family to meet the kids' family we work with. The kids were delighted to have us, and jumped right in singing, dancing, and playing hand and word games with both Julie and Lo.

And then we headed out of town and down to la Isla de Ometepe, an island of two volcanoes (one active and one extinct) in the lago de Nicaragua (the largest lake in the Americas). It was an adventure to get to our destination, as we first took a shuttle for 1 hr and half to San Jorge, followed by a ferry to Moyogalpa on the Island (another 1.5 hrs) and then the last 3rd of the journey was taking a minivan taxi 4 wheeling over rocks and through puddles, on some of the worst roads in history. The funniest part was asking the driver if he thought it was going to rain, to which he replied with a confident no, seconds before there was a downpour inside the van! However, we settled right in at Hacienda Merida where we had the lake as our backyard and the volcano Maderas as our doorstep. And we all slept good, after that 1st night where I woke up Matt scared to death of the creepy crawlers in our bathroom (centipedes and perhaps a kissing bug). Let's not talk about that.

Ometepe allowed for lots of phyiscal activity and incredible sights. Basically, you are one with nature. Julie, Matt and I kayaked for 3 hours up the lake, through the river swamp, and back to our hotel. The views of the volcanoes were magnificent, and we saw a plethera of birds and monkeys within a couple yards distance. Here's Julie and our tour guide Simion in front of volcano Concepcion.

And here's Matt and I in the river swamp, in front of Maderas, just before he thought it'd be real funny to run me into a tree with spinas that scratched up a good chunk of my arm and leg. But in his defense, his arms were really tired from having to paddle the whole way there pulling up any of my slack as I took many rest breaks, took pictures, and played with the water. (It worked out wonderfully that we all got massages on the last day back in Granada, after yoga in the morning, and I am still sore!).

This mono congo is a male. If you want to know how, just ask our guide (like Julie did) and he'll respond with - because he has huge white balls. See for yourself.

New Year's Eve was spent at Margarita's bar in the tiny town of Merida where we waited for the much talked about climbing of "el palo lucio" (a slippery pole, covered in soap and cow fat). As we waited they began to set up the bare dirt dance floor with 6 or 8 ginormous speakers, as if KISS was coming to town. But once the climbing began, it was well worth the wait, as boys and men strategized and persisted many times to get to the top where there was 4 prizes to be claimed (including money, rum, beer, and a mystery prize). One strategy included filling your pockets with dirt and grabbing handfuls to get a better grip.

One of our favorite activities was checking out the daily sunset over the lake. A picture truely is worth a thousand words.


And our last big adventure was hiking to the wasser fall of San Ramon.... which ended up taking us a total of 7 hours round trip. This is the view of what it looked like as we headed in. And we knew we would meet some rain on the way. However unlike the day before when Julie, Matt and I were caught off guard in a rain storm as we attempted to bike to a natural swimming hole, we were better prepared with wind breaks, and banana leafs on hand. La Reina was the only really smart one who remembered to bring her poncho.

Julie hiding contently under a tree during the brief sprinkle.

Can you see the waterfall?

And even though we thought for sure we were going to have to turn around, as the farther we went, the harder it got, with boulders to climb over, and the path ever steeper, we did succeed in reaching San Ramon, where we promptly collapsed and ate beef jerky and lara bars (THANKS MARIE AND LEON!) to sustain ourselves. Can I just say that my Tia is one strong lady, and even though she was about to be deserted on the side of the road on our return wondering where the heck the taxi was to take her back, we found hotel Monkey Island just in the nick of time where we were saved by the grace of Tona and dinner!

Sadly, we packed up our bags and headed back to Granada after 3 days in our tropical Paradise. We all would have gladly stayed another 3 or more. Here we are on the Ferry back to San Jorge.
Goodbye Ometepe and goodbye visitors. Come see us again, and we'll be back to the isla soon!