Weekend in Ometepe Island

Friday we wrapped up our first week of classes in Nicaragua! We are learning a lot, reviewing some, and having lots of Spanish conversations. Below you can meet our teachers at our school, Spanish Ya:

Tyler with his teacher, Yoleny

Emma with her teacher, Jessica

Nicole with her teacher, Silvia

Josiah with his teacher, Maria Jose

The weekend is normally a time for fun and travel. With the crisis (read: approaching civil war if the other nations of the world do not help soon), many parts of the country are not safe to visit. So our choices are limited. But there is an island, Ometepe in the center of Lake Nicaragua. This is no small island, it was formed by two volcanoes that merged in a figure-8 shape. It has an area of approximately 107 square miles! So there was plenty to do.

Us getting ready to board the Ferry to the island

On the fairy we are approaching an active volcano! 

After arriving, with the active volcano in the background

Once on the island we settled into our hotel. With the crisis resulting in a lack of tourism, we got the entire hotel to ourselves. This included the large swimming pool and the owners agreed to cook us whatever we wanted for dinner - they even went into town to buy the ingredients we requested if they did not have them in stock! It was a great hotel - we may go back next weekend! Saturday was our tour day. We had a tour guide, Jorge, who showed us everything on the island.

Traffic on the island was a bunch of Bull... literally!

Aztec drawings

Emma found some turtles!

Carvings of the Aztec Gods

We went Kayaking - this was Nicole and Emma's Boat

Josiah had lots of fun leading Dad's boat

This was my smile before I noticed the sunburns...

One of the best treats, was getting to go to a much smaller island where Monkeys were trapped and have been thriving on the island ever since. We did not have a  place to dock, but from our boat we could feed the wild monkeys bananas. It was lots of fun!

Emma feeding the monkeys 

Josiah feeding the monkeys 

We visited a natural mineral spring called Ojo de Agua or Eye of the Waters. It was lots of fun to swim on a warm day - and now our skin is all soft! Bonus! Josiah and Emma enjoyed the Tarzan rope, Josiah jumped in much faster as the following videos show:

Josiah jumped right in

Emma took some encouragement

Kids playing in the springs

The last place we visited was called Punta Jesus Maria. This is a point that is on the edge of the island. We are here in the rainy season, but this thin bar goes out over 2 km during the dry season (April). 

The edge of the island - Punta Jesus Maria

And now we are back at home with only 2 weeks of studying and 1 week of playing left. The time is going fast. We have been away from home for 4 weeks now! Crazy how fast the time has gone and what great adventures we have had. We look forward to the next adventures in the next three weeks of Latin America!