Hola everyone!
I haven't had a chance to blog in the last few days, so I have a lot to catch you up on!
We left Grenada for ometepe, an island in Nicaragua. The boat ride there was interesting to say the least. It was this rickety old boat that looks like the cliché boat that kids would draw. There was water coming in at my feet and apparently a guy ha to pump it back out again at the back. We all survived to the other side!
No one can complain about potholes in the roads of the UK! We were shaken about the place on the road to the hotel. Next day we ha he option of climbing two volcanoes: concepcion and maderas. Concepcion was the hardest, it took ten hours to the top and the other was slightly easier at 8 hours hiking! So I chickened out of both:) half the group did the maderas volcano and came back in pain, apart from Erynne who was asking when the next hike was! The rest of us did the nicer hike, one hour up the slopes of the volcano to a waterfall. It was high, I think he said 180metres, but I can't remember exactly! It poured down once we were at the top, so only three of the group got in for a swim while the rest of us sat shivering and drenched at the edge! After a slippery hike down we went to a fresh water spring for a swim and some lunch! That was pretty decent and relaxing!
The next day was a trip across the border and probably the most interesting so far! Sean usually takes all of our passports into the immigration office while we all wait outside. We couldn't do this going into costa rica because they're a bit funny about tour groups, I think because Sean would need a working visa. So we had to go through passport control at the Nicaraguan border and then do a 500m walk to the costa rican border and pretend that we weren't in a group ha! After sneaking through the border we drove for an hour before we stopped for lunch and it was AMAZING! This is the most affluent country we have been in yet, and it was so obvious the place had been Americanized! We stopped at a kind of retail park with mcdonalds, burger king, pizzas etc. Was nice to get filled on a big mac haha!
The journey up here was a bumpy dust track over the mountains and we're now in a little town outside monteverde called San elena. This is the first place in a while we've heard some English speaking voices! A small group of us went out last night, it was the worst dj I've ever heard, which made it slightly more interesting! Me and marijke got asked to salsa dance by some locals, and I don't think that salsa class in Antigua payed off!
Today was one of the best days if the trip! Six of us girls went to the cloud forest this morning and had a good two hour walk about the forest. We saw a sloth, it was massive. After a stop for some real costa rican coffee we went ziplining this afternoon over the rain forest canope! Best experience ever!
I may have to tell you tomorrow, everyone waiting for me to go to dinner!
Love xXx