Finally An Update...

It has been a busy few days here for us! On Friday, we had a busy travel day to Ometepe Island (an island on one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world). We took a public bus, which was a very interesting, hot, cultural, and crowded experience, to the the bus station. Then another bus from the station to the ferry. Then, private mini buses from the ferry terminal on the island to the grocery store. And finally to our hostal called Chico Largo in San Jose Del Sur. A great hostal right on the coast of the lake. There was a family living there who allowed us to use their kitchen. We also got to interact with their kids in Spanish. So cute! We pitched tents at this hostal to save some money.

On Saturday, we got up early and headed out for our first hike. Our local guide was Will, who is very knowledgable in flora and fauna, and many other things. He brought a local girl our age with us - we all had a fun time speaking to her in Spanish. She wanted to know all about America. Our bus ride was very fun. The dirt roads are in horrible condition with holes and rocks everywhere. This was about a 4 hour hike round trip which brought us up to some a breathtaking waterfall. So amazingly beautiful, and a great reward after a HOT and sweaty 2+ hours of hiking. We packed up yet again and headed to a new hostal called Hostal Central closer to Volcan Concepcion. They have a deer here who loves to lick people. They also have 2 monkeys in a little caged-in courtyard who are quite fun to watch.

This morning, we got up before 5 to eat breakfast before climbing Volcan Concepcion. Mrs. Clemens was unfortuately sick, so she didn´t get to come. We had private buses to take us there. We enjoy saying hola to all the local kids on the way. We started hiking around 6:30am. It rained for awhile, but we welcomed it because it made it a whole lot cooler. We started at about 50 m above sea level I believe, and then hiked up to 1000 m. It was a long and steep hike, and took us about 5 hours to get up. The view was extremely beautiful. We could see other volcanos, the rest of the island, most of mainland Nicaragua, and many little villages below. Our guide said on a clear day, you can even see the Pacific Ocean. We didn´t have enough time to go the extra 600 feet to the summit, or crest of the volcano, but it was still amazing. We are now relaxing in hammocks and enjoying having some down time.

Tomorrow we have a day for planning and relaxing. We are hoping to find some hamburgers as we celebrate 4th of July here. We heard there is an American man in town who makes the best burger on the island!

Sorry for the long post... it was a busy few days!
We enjoy seeing the comments, so feel free to keep them coming.
Hopefully we can get some pictures loaded up soon. We are having problems getting the computers to read our camera software.
-Gretchen