A tranquil day on the lake

Sunday, June 17^th

Today, after sleeping in and recovering from our Mombacho adventure, we headed out to see Colin’s land. He has a property out by Lago Cocibolca (Lake Nicaragua) that will eventually be the site where the students stay on our Travel to Learn trips (www.itraveltolearn.com). It’s a remote place out in the jungle, guarded by “Don Chico”, a very elderly man who watches the place in exchange for a place to live and a few bucks a month. He flashed us a toothless grin when we arrived, then hung out on his hammock while we toured the place. The open-air cabins are nice. It will be like sleeping in a tree house. Eventually, they will build a terraced garden and multiple lookouts with views of Mombacho and the lake. Pretty sweet.

After venturing around the place, we headed to Manuel’s, a fishing spot on the beach of the lake and he hired some locals to take us on a tour of Las Isletas in the lake. Lake Nicaragua is huge, the second largest lake in Latin America (note: I had earlier posted that it was bigger than the Great Lakes, but I was given incorrect information. It's nearly as big as Titicaca though.). It would take about 15-18 hours to cross. But on the Granada side of the lake there is a string of small islands that were created by volcanic activity thousands of years ago. Some are totally deserted, some have amazing homes. One small island is the home of a family of monkeys. We got close to the island and one monkey hopped on for a ride and a snack. She was very docile and didn’t mind us petting her. Heidi was enamored, so much so that she got almost close enough to give the girl a kiss but the monkey wasn’t interested. Heidi really is an anomaly. She is concerned with whether or not the people making our food are washing their hands properly and if there are flies too close to our meals, but she wouldn’t have hesitated to give a big smooch to a wild monkey, had said Monkey shown the least bit of interest.

The boat ride was amazing. Muy tranquilo as Colin would say. Taking the leisurely tour gave us an excellent opportunity to experience one of the many amazing things Granada has to offer. We finished off the day with a meal at a “fritanga” which is basically an open-air grill and fried-food stand. It’s the best chicken I’ve ever had and I am sure it is the flavor that El Pollo Asado is trying to emulate. It’s amazing what a chicken tastes like when it isn’t injected with hormones and pesticides and other chemicals.

Another beautiful day to add to the catalog of memories.