The End

I have been avoiding this last post for almost 2 months now, but with snow falling .....AGAIN and with highs in the forecast at below 0C I guess I have to admit we are back.

The first week or so was all about getting our systems used to a regular schedule and food. Everyone got sick but after almost 2 months at home I can say (fingers crossed) that the snotty noses have left the building. It took the girls a few weeks to get back into the swing of things at school and gym... poor Jade and her sore muscles ... and then it was spring break!

The boy is now walking, albeit like Frankenstein, and has popped another couple of teeth. When we first got home he would just go to his stroller and sit in it waiting to walk around a new town, but he has now discovered our backyard and is happy just Frankensteining around on the grass.

As for Jason and I, we are already planning the next trip. Jason has this rule about not going anywhere we've already been so I am researching fun places to go. Our new goal is 50 countries by 50 so we have quite a bit of traveling to do in the next decade or so.

So although this is the last post of our amazing Central American tour, it is not the last of our adventures. Right now I'm thinking Equador!!!

Thank-you everyone for reading!!

Adios!

It is our last day today and only Lena and I are awake. It is hard to imagine we will be waking up in our own beds tomorrow morning.

We made it back safe and almost sane from Little Corn. The panga back was almost smooth although my stomach was in knots the night before as well as the entire boat trip. I kept thinking that the ride was almost enjoyable, but I didn't want to jinx anything. We forgot the stroller at the dock, so Jason had to taxi back to get it. I suppose we could have just left it because it is barely held together now. It started really falling apart the last time we were in Granada and then Jason and Colin (from Casa Iguana) put it back together with a big nail. That little umbrella stroller has been fantastic. When Reed wasn't in it, we shuttle backpacks, groceries or Lena and Jade!

Our last few days have been in Granada. As soon as we got here Lena said "We're home!" We took a chicken bus (an old school bus that now serves as public transportation) to the market in Masaya for some last minute shopping. We went to the big market with everything from fresh cheese to car parts. Reed got picked up by one of the locals every time we stopped to look at something. We're not sure he cares who holds him now. He just hangs on to whoever has him and gives them a blank look while out come all the cell phones so people can take his photo. That boy will have the best immune system in Canada!

I guess I should go and get the rest of the crew up so we can have 1 last breakfast in Granada and maybe squeeze in a swim before our cab gets here at 9:30. I don't want to hex our flight home so this won't be the last post. I will do that when we are actually at home (between laundry loads, yuck!!)

Lena and Jade learn to dive

After much begging and pleading, Lena and Jade have persuaded us to let them learn to dive. They took a course called "Bubble Makers" which is for kids 8 and up to get a feel for diving. They got to learn the basics of diving from the lovely Maly and after some lessons close to shore it was out to sea.

I went out to snorkel while the girls did their first dive. There were no wetsuits small enough for the girls, but they didn't go too deep. Maly held onto the back of their tanks and the 3 of them went diving. Jade got a little cold and got out mid-way, but Lena "the fish" Adams kept trying to go deeper and deeper! That girl is hooked :o)

Never leaving Little Corn

I'm not sure if it is because I am afraid to get back on the panga or if I just don't think we will find another spot as nice as Little Corn, but we have once again changed our schedule and are staying put for 2 weeks. We were supposed to fly out of San Jose in Costa Rica, but we have changed our flights and are now going home from Managua.

Our days on the island go something like this:

8 AM - wake up and wander over to Casa Iguana for breakfast (fruit and bottomless coffee/tea with every meal)
10 AM - wander down to the beach in front of Casa Iguana because the breeze is nicer on this side of the island
1PM - buy meat and fruit patties from Richard the Patty Guy (1 day 1 bought 8 and didn't know that Jason had bought 12 after his dive on the other side of the island)
*option 2 and 3 are buying hot coconut bread and pizza from the kids plying the beaches
3 PM - wander back to "Our Side" of the island because it is getting cool with the breeze. There is almost no breeze on our side which is nice as the sun sets
5 PM - watch the sunset while sitting in the sand with a cold beer
after dark - dining on fresh lobster or fish at one of the restaurants on our side unless we have made a reservation at Casa Iguana for some yummy meal cooked up by Mark and his kitchen crew.

Yep, that about sums it up! We have met up with a couple families from Orcas Island in Washington state which has been great. It is nice to chat with other people traveling with their kids. It is really great having some kids for Lena and Jade to play with, too.

So that is life on Little Corn ... such a grueling schedule!!

Diving Little Corn

This entire trip, Jason and I had yet to go diving. When we met up with David who was here to dive, we decided we should tag along. The reason we haven't been diving is that we often find that snorkeling is just as good and the price is much better. I guess with only a few weeks left and having carted our dive computer around for the past few months, we thought we should get down with the fishes

The first dive after a bit of a break (almost 2 years) is always just about getting a feel for the equipment and trying not to go flying up to the top causing our heads and lungs to explode. We went with Dolphin Divers as they were attached to our hotel. Sandy, the woman running the shop set us up with a nanny for the kids so Jason and I could dive together. Very nice!

Our divemaster Trevor was a great guy and our first couple of dives were really mellow and not too deep. We saw some nurse sharks and rays. The next day we went out looking for hammerheads. We had heard there were some around, but we always hear divers chatting and rarely believe anyone anymore. We had the nanny all set up so we set off to look for some sharks. The beginning of the dive was really cool going through some caves and checking out the fish. Then I could see Jason pointing to some eagle rays. There were 8~12 of them swimming together, absolutely fantastic! And then, right behind them was a HUGE hammerhead shark!! I had never seen one before and I was so excited I was trying to get everyone else to look by screaming and pointing. (You can never tell if anyone sees what you see until you get to the top. You are supposed to stay with your buddy, but Jason is my buddy and I can never find him when we are diving.) I looked over at David and the hammerhead was back with its harem of eagle rays again!

When we got to the surface I was so excited and screaming about the hammerhead and the school of eagle rays, but Jason didn't see the shark because he was chasing the rays!

Well, we had another dive to do that day and Jason wanted to go back to look for the hammerhead. Trevor made us proud and found another one. It was smaller than the first one, but it swam right up to us and Jason got a front row seat.

What great dives!

Sardine Suicide Ride

Although it has been 4 days since we got on the panga (aka Little Suicide Boat) from Big Corn Island to Little Corn, I still can not talk about the trip with-out feeling the need to hold Reed as tightly as I possibly can. I’m sure that I will be able to laugh about this one day, but with the return ride coming up in a few days I’m still hoping a helicopter will show up to save us!

Our day started off at 4AM as our shuttle arrived to take us from Granada to the airport in Managua to catch our flight over to Big Corn Island. After misunderstanding the Spanish flight attendants 3 times, it was finally our turn to get on the plane. It was a very strange looking little plane in that it looked almost as tall as it was wide, kind of like a double decker bus, but with-out the double deck inside! We were all really tired, so we fell asleep almost as soon as we took off. About 45 minutes into our trip the plane hit some turbulence and bang! We fell about 10 feet! It woke the entire plane up and everyone seemed a bit nervous for the rest of the ride. Luckily, even with our 1 touch down we only had another 45 minutes to go to get to Big Corn Island.

After a rather bumpy, but ultimately safe landing, we headed in a taxi to the ferry terminal to catch our boat to Little Corn Island. Big Corn and Little Corn are a couple of islands just off the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. I had heard the ½ to 1 hour panga ride could be a bit rough, but it is not rainy season so I was only a bit worried. Well! After waiting an hour to finally get on the boat after all the supplies had been loaded, they started loading all the passengers on. We were so squished on there that Jade was sitting on Jason’s knee. With all of us scrunched together like sardines, they made us wait on the boat in the boiling sun for another 15~20 minutes. By this time we were all getting grouchy and everyone just wanted to get moving so we could cool off. Jade wanted to go swimming in her clothes again, but I told her I didn’t want her to get wet ...HA!

I sat with Reed beside a local woman from Little Corn Island and her children. She assured me that it would get cooler out on the open water. She was right, after we started moving the breeze was welcome .... until the waves hit 30 seconds later. The waves were at least 5 feet high swells and when I looked out the side of the boat all I could see was blue waves higher than the boats edge. We were all getting sprayed and then boom another wave hit and the boat driver had to stop the motor because the waves were so high! As soon as he did that a giant wave came over the top of the boat and just soaked everyone. Although we arn’t sure if he stopped because of the waves or if the boat kept stalling, this happened 3 more times along the way.

I would guess that there were about 60 people on board, not to mention the side of beef sloshing around the front of the boat or the crates of beer and other supplies along with everyone’s luggage. I was lucky enough to be at the back of the boat, but I was right on the edge holding Reed with all my might. The good thing about being on the edge was that I could attempt to hold the black tarp over our heads although this only slightly helped. We still got absolutely soaked.

Thank goodness for Lena and Jade and their ever present love for adventure. They screamed and laughed the entire way to the island. We had been lucky to meet up with a great guy, David from Atlanta and he had the girls laughing, too. I could also see his arm behind Lena while Jason had Jade which made me feel better as all I could do was squeeze Reed and pray for land. I think the girls with their giggles helped the rest of the folks feel a bit better about the ride from hell. When we finally got to shore, we almost had to be dragged up onto the dock both because it was so high up and the fact that the entire boat was sopping wet and shell shocked.

It took me a few beer and a few days to get over that ride. I suppose it was worth it as Little Corn is absolutely amazing. A perfect little island with no roads or motorized vehicles (aside from the boats). But more on that in the next blog. I need another beer to get over writing this and reliving it.... and I need to go and hug those kids again :o)

Especially on a Boat!

There are 365 little islands in Lake Cocibolca that formed thousands of years ago when volcano Mombacho exploded and spat them out. They are now either privately owned by rich Nicaraguans and foreigners or for sale. You can go on a small motorized boat tour or check them out on kayaks. Considering our traveling crew, a motorized boat was the only option. It was a good thing, too because it was quite windy and the waves were rather large so a kayak would have been suicide. Our boat driver was not a big talker so we had no idea where we going or what we would see for most of the trip ... another adventure.

The houses were beautiful and how cool to live on a little island. There were birds of all colors, shapes and sizes. The trees on one of the islands were just covered in nests and the beautiful birds were flying all over the place. We pulled up to another little island with no house on it and I thought I saw a huge bird in one of the trees, but it as we got closer I could see it was a monkey! And not only 1 there was a whole troupe of them. Our boat driver tried to get us closer so that we could take some pictures and then he made a gesture to ask if we wanted one of them to come on board. I said yes and the monkey jumped right on. This monkey came running up the middle of the boat showing his sharp teeth and scaring the living daylights out of the girls. Lena was screaming and waving her arms all over the place while Jade was jumping from seat to seat trying to get away from the crazed monkey onboard. I was holding the baby so couldn’t really do much and Jason was trying to calm the girls down while the boat driver was freaking out because of all the craziness going on. During all of this, the monkey hopped on the front of the boat, grabbed some pink coconut thing Jason had just bought from one of the street vendors and made his way back to me to enjoy his snack!

As soon as he had his little snack he was very happy and sat down on my knee with his tail wrapped around Reed’s head. Reed wasn’t too happy about it but the monkey didn’t care. Then I guess the monkey decided I looked a little safer than the baby’s head and he wrapped his tail around my arm. It felt really cool and all was well in the world again. We took a couple of pictures and we were off again.

At dinner that night we had to explain to the girls that the monkey was freaking out because they were freaking out and that maybe the next time they should calm down a little ...especially when in the middle of a lake on a boat where the life jackets were used as cushions, not life saving devices!!!