Down at the Laguna

Sunday morning...........and Marlon our  singing & dancing taxi driver (we wnet out with him the week before & he REALLY could sing & dance !) arrived at 0900 ready to drive us the 15km to the Laguna de Apoyo. After a brief & tearless goodbye to Nubia & Co. we left & were at our new abode within 25 mins.

The School where we were to study for the next 2 week also claimed to be an Ecological Station which promoted environmental education & professed to helping the local community. Unfortunately we saw NO evidence of the latter & very little of the former. However, the place itself was lovely, on the edge of the Volcanic crater lake & set amongst the trees. Both Liss & I had our own room & the food over the 2 weeks was DELICIOSA !!

The 2 weeks flew by, swimming most mornings before breakfast, then 4 hours of Spanish lessons, swimming once again, then lunch ! in the afternoons we would do our homework, chill & occasionally there were activities that the school organised. These weren't brilliant, but one day we did go to the Catarina Lookout (on top of the crater overloking the Laguna) & to San Juan Del Orient which is famous for it's pottery. I even had a go at "throwing" a pot.....it actually turned out as a rather large bracelet as the bottom fell out !!!!!!!

There were a few other students the first week....... Sue from Canada, Celine (Dippie was her last name !!! Classic !!) from NZ and Gene from the U.S. (S. Carolina). We all had a great week together & laughed sooo much whilst sitting around on the wooden decking in the evenings, supping on our Flor de Cana (Rum) !

Also that week, Liss & got invited to the Monkey Hut for dinner with Catherine & Michael (managers there from Uk & germany). Had a top night & I decided to stay a wee bit longer after Lissa went back home & ended up staying out till 3 am !!! There were a few people there, a couple of lads from U.S. (origianlly korea), Eyal from Israel & Martina from U.K. basically it turned out to be quite a raucous pm. & we all ended up skinny dipping in the lake....ahhhhhhh....soooo warm ! So much fun ! But not so much fun the next morning in my Spanish lessons !!! Poor old Barney (my teacher) wondered why I kept drifting off !!!!

At the weekend, we visited an organic market in the morning, then Linda came out to visit for the night. We had a wonderful evening & once again..Loads of laughs !!

During the 2nd week, both Sue & Gene left (sad as they were so much fun) & we had some new students arrive...... Art from the U.S. (Texas) & Catherine & Scott (newlyweds) from Florida, U.S.A. dynamics had changed so the last week was a little less raucous, however Art turned out to be a really nice guy. On the last day of lessons, Liss & I went for a hike with our teachers (Barney & Blas) & did a bit of bird spottng (feathered variety!) !!! We saw toucans, Urraccas, squirrel cuckoos, wrens, ospreys, hawks, woodpckers and oropendular birds..fantastic ! There was also a huge group of howler monkeys that we observed for quite a while.  Went swimming then headed back to the school. Had a really nice morning (0700-1200) .....except that by the time we headed back it was SO hot & Liss started to feel a bit rough (touch of sunstroke). After a cold shower she felt better, then later on the afternoon we all went out to the Catarina Lookout, San Juan del Orient then got dropped off in Masaya.

We were ther to watch the Halloween Fiesta Parades, but first we met Catherine & Michael in a bar (La Ronda) where unfortunately, I had my bag stolen ! It all happened so quickly & the prime suspect was the "Waiter what done it" . It was all a bit odd, in the fact that he took the order fom Liss, but then came back round to talk to me. I had my back against a wall & was in the corner, so there were no other people that could have passed by. Anyway........it put a bit of a dampner on the evening, as thay got away with my camera which had some great shots on it. Fortunately though, they got little money, an empty fag box , an empty water bottle & some scabby sunglasses !!!! That'll learn 'em !

Anyway.....the manager of the place was about as useful as a soggy twiglet, so we decide to leave & watch the parades from the back of C & Ms truck......even though I was feeling pissed off.....it was still amazing. The costumes were incredible & so many health & safety regulations being broken, with people walking around with aerosol cans, which they used as flame throwers !!!! All great fun ! I managed to copy some of the photos from Celine (see album)...Great !

The following day, I had to go back into Masaya to get a police report for my insurance Co. I also managed to call my mum as we hadn't spoken in 2 weeks as the school had no internet or phone access......we were really in the arse end of nowhere ! sadly, I found out that my mums companion, Ted, had been diagnosed with Cancer of the liver, as well as having suffered a cardiac arrest 3 weeks previously....so, not a good day. Got a taxi back to the Laguna & decided to chill out for the rest of the weekend before gong back to the "Big Smoke" (Granada).

Went for a 2.5 hour kayak across the lake, swam loads & generally loafed around before leaving on the monday morning on the 1130 bus.