Well the sundrenched blur I anticipated setting in is here in full force, so I'll see what I can still remember clearly of the days leading up to our arrival on the island.

We left Ometepe without too much hassle. We were quickly ushered onto a bus upon getting of the ferry and were just getting nicely settled in when they pulled over to the side of the road and in thirty seconds flat were pulled off the bus and thrown, along with our bags, onto another bus. I have to say, I was impressed with the efficiency they used getting us moved. We arrived in Granada in the middle of a very busy market. We made a quick dash for the hostel we had chosen- not that there's anything "quick" about dashing through a Nicaraguan market. We dropped our bags, barely taking the time to examine our new room, and hopped on a shuttle bus that was bound for Laguna Appoyo for a relaxing day.

The Lagoon is supposedly "nicest place in Nicaragua to swim" and is made up of an old crater lake. At that point I agreed with the statement, but that was of course before visiting the Corn Islands. It was beautiful though. We sunned and swam and relaxed, but after a few hours grew restless and tired of being surrounded by Canadians, so we decided to wander the area. We caught the shuttle back to Granada and walked around the city. Once we actually had the chance to take a look beyond the market area what we found was a truly charming, old, colonial city. We ate a fantastic dinner, drank more fantastic coffee (wow I've been spoiled by that on this trip), and decided to get a good early night's sleep-ha!!

It would seem that the Bearded Monkey, the hostel we were staying at, while very convenient and cheap, had more than a bit of an acoustics carrying problem. Our room, which we dubbed "the loft" was inconveniently situated over the main common area with the window facing the check-in and gathering spots and the door facing the washrooms. By about 9pm it was abundantly clear that we would not be sleeping without earplugs. It's not that people were overly loud, but due to poor location, they may as well have been sitting in our room with us. Even when I woke up at 4 and decided it should be safe to free my ears, the volume was beyond what I could handle. We, the non-partiers, had managed to choose the "party place". C'est la vie.

The next morning we got up early and headed to Masaya, about an hour away, to check out their market. It was an interesting place to spend a morning, but by lunch we were ready to return to Granada. At that point, Ola decided to go site-seeing and spent some time exploring churches and a creepy, abandoned hospital. I went straight to a spa for a much needed massage. We met up later for another wonderful dinner in the Garden Café, a restaurant with a cute little garden in the middle of it- as any good restaurant should have-and to check out some live music set up in the main square. It was a full moon that night, and as good travelers know, that means the party goers would be out in full force. Since we had a very early flight the next morning, we headed back to the hostel for the 9 o'clock bed time we'd become accustomed to. At least this time we were ready for the blocked ears night ahead of us.

When we headed down to take our 4:15 taxi in the morning, we were greeted by the other people in our hostel returning home from a night of dancing. I'd blame my lack of interest joining in on age, but I've been "old" for a very long time then.

Anyways, we made our flight, with a little Xanax to help along the way, and obviously we're here on the island. But since I've finished my lunch and lethargy is creeping in, I think it's time for a nap on the beach. I'll be back in the village later for happy hour though :)…