A much needed rest (though 44 days in, not 7). Now I realize most of you are muttering under your breath “Rest from WHAT? How do you rest from vacation?” Oh but allow me to explain why we insist on NOT calling our trip a vacation. Vacation implies comfort, relaxation, ease of travel, dealing with businesses/people who are generally directly involved in tourism, a relaxed budget (or none at all for some lucky people), nice restaurants, packing enough clothes/supplies for …

We’ve hiked 2 active volcanoes in the last 3 days, though our hike around the Masaya Volcano near Granada was only a few kilometers, paling in comparison to our 12 km escapade on the Concepcion Volcano on Ometepe. Our Thursday hike on Concepcion took us to 1000 meters, above the tree line, and would have given us fantastic views if not for the cloudy/foggy weather. We were pleased with the weather though- it would have been unbearably hot and much …

Broken down cars, and late night power failures; Ometepe is where our trip gets interesting. We left for Ometepe Island from glorious San Juan Del Sur on Tuesday with fellow hostel guest, Canadian Mark, to San Jorge. The cab to ferry combination took about 4 hours door-to-door and was relatively comfortable minus the horrible bible-verse-screaming preacher who took advantage of a captive audience on the 1 hour ferry ride to Ometepe. Ometepe is a 2 volcano island in the middle of a …

So, it looks like a vacation, and feels like a vacation, but it’s not supposed to be a vacation. One of my goals of this journey is to learn something even though when we started off I wasn’t sure what that was going to be. I’m secretly hoping to have a philosophical and metaphysical epiphany, but I think I’ll need to wait a bit longer for any significant paradigm shift of internal wiring. In lieu of said tipping point, I’ve …

I’m starting this post with travel tips about San Juan del Sur. Even though we’ll be here for a few more days (until Tuesday morning, to be exact), I feel confident telling you the following should you ever find yourself here. There are a plethora of places to stay including the very high end (Pelican Eyes) and the super cheap hostels (like Casa Ora). I would highly recommend where we’re staying- Secret Cove Inn. It’s a B&B with delicious breakfast, …

OK technically this place is called San Juan Del Sur – but it is the surfing capital of Nicaragua and gets its Nica nickname from the most fun thing to do here. Today I am completely exhausted from surfing from 10am – 3pm – my body feels like I’ve been through inside washing machine all day.  I can’t really complain because surfing is fun as shit (good).  It is a delicious mix of all the good “tion’s:” relaxation, exertion, competition, meditation, …

Tyler and I arrived in Nicaragua on Sunday night after a long day of traveling. The plan was to stay with a family while taking Spanish classes every morning at the Spanish School of San Juan del Sur. Unknown to us, Semana Santa* celebrations had already begun in SJDS, and Sunday night brought with it a very loud, all-night long street party complete with terrible band/singing, cheering, and fireworks that to the untrained ear sounded exactly like gunshots. We tried …