Nicaragua- Freakin' Nica's

Turns out the Benson's just had bad luck with bugs and the bedspread, we didn't wake up with any strange bites! This morning was nice and relaxing, we woke up, had breakfast, and made our way to the Isletas (the little islands). We took a boat out and around these islands in Lake Nicaragua. There are about 1200 people who live on the islands, each island is big enough for about one house. It was so pretty, and so green!! We stopped at a restaurant to have a drink, it was very refreshing! Then we made our way back to Granada.

This is Mombacho, the volcano.






On our tour of the Isletas, we visited monkey island. Our guide told us that if we had food the monkeys would have come on the boat with us.





Just being silly.




More of the islands.




After the isletas, we were headed for San Juan Del Sur. As we left we accidentally were going the wrong way on some oneway street. A police man stopped us and in perfect spanish Cameron asked for directions Then the police man asked for our documents, as Cameron was getting the car registration out of the glove compartment he said, "Oh crap, I don't speak spanish." Cops in Nicaragua have a history of pulling over gringos (white folks/Americans) and asking for their drivers license then not giving it back until the driver pays the cop. For the next 15 minutes, Cameron pretended to not speak Spanish, the cop continued to ask for the drivers license and Cameron continued to ask for directions as well as attempt to give the guy 100 Cords. Then finally Cameron pulled out his license and the guy took it to look at it. The cop told us he was going to get someone to fine us for driving the wrong way on the oneway street. Cameron continued to play dumb and took his license back. The whole time the cop was talking to us I was just trying not to laugh, it was so funny. Eventually, the cop got frustrated with Cameron took the money and let us go. Cameron asked if we could take a photo, he agreed but only if he could get his gun. As he ran to get it, I was a little nervous that he was just going to shoot us! But he didn't and we ended up with a sweet picutre and a funny story!!



We were finally off to San Juan Del Sur, the drive was pretty neat we passed sugar cane and banana tree fields. We were also able to get a pretty good photo of Ometepe, the island in Lake Nicaragua with two volcanoes!



We arrived at our amazing hotel, and it turns out that the American guy who owns it is doing renovations and it's actually closed. But, he's such a nice guy that he let us stay there anyways! We had the whole place to ourselves it was the coolest thing ever!



Here is the photo of the Cemetary across from our hotel. Mom, I took this for you! HAHA It's pretty crazy, they don't bury people here, they just build a cement block around the casket.




We drove down to the bay to play on the beach and have dinner. It was fun and nice to just sit and relax for a while. We had dinner at El Globo, Cameron ordered Lobster and I had the best friend chicken I've ever had in my whole life!! We liked it so much so mich even go back tomorrow! We were able to watch the sun set over the ocean which is always beautiful.




After dinner our plan was to head back to our private hotel and swim! We as we drive down the street we notice a bunch of cars parked outside our hotel and wondered what was going on. There were all these nicas on the inside of the fence like guards. We see Mike, the owner, outside and ask him what's up. It turns out these people took over his property illegally and paid off a judge to sign some paper that says they can kick him off the property. It was pretty messed up! Since we had already checked in our bags were all inside our room with the most important thing, our passports!! Cameron walked over to see if he can talk the nicas into letting us go grab our stuff and leave. I was super nervous that they were going to go through our suitcases and find our passports and we wouldn't be able to get back into America. I said a little prayer and with the Lord's help Cameron was able to retrieve our bags. We are so lucky that the situation didn't turn into something much much worse!! I guess that's one of the reasons that there aren't a lot of nice resorts here because people can just pay off the judge and kick the owners off the property.

Cameron and drove back into town and checked out a bunch of different hotels. We found one, it's definitely not as nice but it works, I'm just glad we are safe!