Mt. Mombachu aka Mombacho

 So we literally live 10 miles away from this  volcano,( and I can never for the life of me remember if it's Mombacho or Mombachu)  and that is kinda exhillarating and freaky at the same time. But it's not active so it's not really that freaky. But yall I'm kind of freaked out. Anyways people have been telling us almost everyday that we need to hike Mombacho since we've come to Granada. And last Friday we went!

 We were a little hesitant because Mombacho  was covered and clouds and we didn't know how pictures would turn out but it was awesome you guys! We left in the morning and drove out of town and up to the Mombacho entrance. If you come to Granada and don't have Internet for your phone be prepared to get lost. There are no signs it's insane. We made it to the ticket counter,paid and waited for the bus to take us to the top. We could have walked up to the top but that road is soo steap , and let's face it were not in shape. So we took the bus which is an attraction of its own. The road is probably 5 ft across at most,so only one car can go at a time. How do you know your the only one on the road? I have no idea. The trucks motor was struggling the entire time as there was almost no flat road and a super incline. The driver he had to have it in 2nd or 3rd gear at all times.  It was pretty exhilarating. We made it to the top with out any catastrophes and went into the visitors center for a while. The information centers and museums here are severely lacking in information. There are a lot of displays with no descriptions. The employees told us we could take a guided tour on the difficult trail or just take the regular trail, we decided on the latter for that trip and it was so much fun! Except for the fact that for a while we could of sworn we were in Jurassic Park. I'm positive we heard velociraptors. Anyways,  There were tons of look outs into craters and out onto Granada. It ended up not being to cloudy so The view was pretty spectacular, not to mention it was a whole 10 degrees cooler up there! We're defintely going again soon. Nature is awesome yall!

In these next pictures we are a foot away from one the main openings. 

We attempted to copy @muradosman on Instagram and didn't quite make it....

Jeff really likes this picture... Haha^^

Okay so it was pretty much all cloudy, but really really pretty!

Laguna de Apoyo

Let's face it learning another language is hard. Jeff is a lot better at picking up Spanish as he already knows a second language and once you know a second language it's easier to pick up others. That's what I've heard anyways. I took French in high school and everytime I try to say something in Spanish it usually comes out in French. I wasn't fluent at all but for what ever reason I want to say comment tu t'appelles? instead of como te llamas?  It's all confusing sometimes but let's keep going shall we? We've had. Lot of experience to talk to people in Spanish because they hardly speak English here and we've been exploring!

This past week we rented a moto and went exploring the different cities around Granada and also to the local volcano. 

Side note there was a earth quake here a few weeks ago and I literally thought it was Jeff kicking my chair just to annoy me. He was like "Dude get over yourself, It's an Earthquake!" And then I almost had an anxiety attack. First one ever and what the heck! Why are they so scary!

On Tuesday we tried to go to Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake supposedly really beautiful! but we got rained ( it rains almost every afternoon cause it's the winter season, and the low always is 85. See you next year fall :((()on on our 

way there and we bailed cause I'm a ninny and don't like being in wet clothes. 

So Wednesday we set off again early

and quickly got rained on, we stopped at the closest town of San Juan de Oriente to get out of the rain (diva remember)

We ended buying a hammock there. They are so colorful!!

And got better directions to Laguna de Apoyo and set off after the rain stopped. The lady said it would take about 20 minutes and it probably would have if we had a car. But at the end there is a really bad dirt road and we ended up getting a flat tire. Awesome. So all we could do was run through someone's field and snap a picture

You win Laguna you win. Next time we'll take a taxi. After me freaking out about the flat tire for a good 10 minutes and walking for a good 10 more We found a little shack that had a tire pump. With no power... The sweet lady let us wait until it came back on and her husband got back. They were so nice and I wanted to give them a big fat kiss because they just saved our lives. We don't have cell service and there aren't hotels or anything on any corner and we were a good 45 mins away from home. 

Anyways they were awesome and after that we were starving  and went to our favorite local gringo food place and pigged out.

First Month in Nicaragua

We've hit it folks! It's been a month and a suprisingly it has gone by really fast. The first week was a little part of hell. The room we were sleeping in.... Gah I'm shuddering just to think of it. It was just a room with a bed with a mosquito net. Bugs are everywhere here and like you, I'm sure I CANNOT handle them. Every morning we would wake up and find all these bugs stuck in the net like they were desperately trying to get in to nibble on us.

And our bathrooms were those outdoor bathrooms like at girls camp just infested with all sorts of creatures just waiting to get me I'm sure. So naturally I'm not even a little bit ashamed to say I only showered once that first week. (I mean there were some girls at girls camp that didn't shower at all for a week so it's a step up right?) Jose Antonio, the guy who is hosting us is very wealthy and he owns several properties in Granada. We are living on his "Eco Farm" 3 miles outside of Granada. That's part of the reason there why are so many bugs. At the end of the second week Jose told us that he was going to take us to one of his houses right in Granada and we would stay for a few days. It was sooo nice. It has this huge courtyard with a pool and every room is separate and closed off with A/C. We actually had A/C in our room and no bugs! HEAVEN!!We spent the next couple of days swimming in his pool and exploring Granada.

We took a carriage tour around the city which I always get strangely giddy about, horses I love em'. And a boat tour on lake Nicaragua to see the Islettas. Side note, Lake Nicaragua is the only fresh water lake to have sharks in it. The Islettas were really cool. Almost all of them had huge houses that took up the whole island and our guide kept saying "muy Rico" which means very rich. We found out that a lot of them were owned by Americans. The last picture is of us on top of a fort. But there weren't any signs or any information so I can't tell you what fort it was. 

I was really depressed to be going back to the farm so we asked if we could be moved into the "Eco hotel" or nicer living space. We moved in the same day we got back to the farm. It's nothing much but I actually got to unpack our things and we have a bathroom in our room so I am back to my regular showering schedule. The thing about showers here is that they are always cold. And I hate cold showers, I just don't always feel clean after them, Ya know?

We are much happier now and we don't even have to use the mosquito net! It's a very liberating feeling. 

The road to get out to the farm is really bad and it takes 20 minutes to go 3 miles in a car, 15 on a moto (motorcycle) and like 30 by bike ( cause let's face it, I am no good at riding bikes especially on a super rocky road). We went into town a couple of times by bike and each time we were dripping by the time we got to where we were going. It's annoying but it's really our only transportation, except if Jose takes us. Everyday is a pretty big adventure and we're having tons of fun! This past week we rented a moto and have had a blast exploring the cities around Granada! But I'll post more on that later!