In the Clouds, Literally

Day Three- Friday, February 26, 2010

Excited to begin our third day in Nicaragua and with our faithful and very knowledgeable guide, Bosco, by our sides, we ventured into the Cloud Forest - el bosque nuboso, located at Mombacho one of the 60 volcanoes indigenous to this enigmatic land. It was a place unlike most typical forests we know. Tropical and very dry at the same time, the cloud forest is home to the Heliconias a banana type plant that grows wild and tall. We visited the volcano and felt its warm vapor on our faces as it emitted sulfur from deep within. We made contact with hundreds of types of flora and fauna touched exquisite butterflies and couldn't believe all of this existed from 3,772 ft above sea level. After our visit to Mombacho Volcano, we all wanted to go zip-lining. Although we had to wait about an hour, it was very worth it! There were 11 platforms. You could go upside down, with a friend, or superman style. We all enjoyed it very much! For R&R we headed northwest to swim in a crater lake, known as la laguna de apoyo. We had so much fun and ate very well in a terrific restaurant called La Posada de la Abuela (granny's rest stop). We spoke with a group of Norwegians living in Spain who like us discovered that Nicaragua is a paradise on earth and to think it's only little more than 3.5 hours from Miami!

-Lisa Del Favero

In these three pictures, we are at the Apoyo Lagoon having a nice swim and delicious lunch. It was a beautiful setting. The sun was beaming all over the lagoon, which is 600 feet deep; the deepest in all Central America. To get into the lake, we jumped off the dock that led to the restaurant. It was astounding to be able to swim in a hot, active underground volcano that was heated by its own doings. The water was a perfect temperature, its heat slowly sinking into your skin giving a glow to your whole body. The mountains and volcanoes that surrounded the body of water were standing boldly and peacefully. It completed the view for all of us.

-Tessa

Walking Tour of Granada

Day Two- Thursday, February 25, 2010

Today is our first full day in Nicaragua! We started off with a walking tour of the city, which included visiting La Merced, a bell tower and a convent in the very heart of the city. We also visited a local radio station. Matt and Nico went on the air and spoke for a bit. It was pretty funny! To get to the top of the bell tower, we climbed the many steep and narrow stairs within the convent. However once up there, the view we got of the city and the volcanoes in the distance was breath-taking and worth the climb of stairs. On our way to the convent we passed Fortelezza Polvora, one of the oldest forts in Granada. During the early afternoon, we left the city with our guide Bosco and driver Alberto, and drove to Mayasa to see a volcano. We drove all the way up the volcano and climbed some stairs to a lookout spot where we looked down into the volcano and got a strong smell of the sulfur. For lunch, we went to Catarina where we ate some deliciously filleted meat, chicken, and fish. After lunch we drove to San Juan de Oriente, a “witch town.” There we got a demonstration on how pottery is made the old-fashioned way. Some people even were able to see how hard it actually is to make pottery and tried it themselves. During our time at the pottery place, a bunch of people went outside and we saw two little boys. One boy was using a stick and trying to play baseball. Ms. Heneveld decided to help out. She would pitch a rock and the boy would hit it with his stick. He hit nearly everyone! After Ms. Del Favero treated the boys to icecream and they were very happy!

-Geige

Traveling and Tour of Las Isletas

Day One- Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When we arrived in Nicaragua, we went to our hotel, La Posada del Sol, which was very nice with a pool and AC to drop of our bags. Then we dropped of our donations for the Nicaraguan children at the office of La Esperanza Granada. We brought them construction paper, markers, crayons, scissors, chalk, pencils and much more. We also made a bigger donation of laptops and backpacks. Once we emptied our bags of all of our donations, we went on a boat tour of Lake Nicaragua. There are 365 small islands that we toured around on these small boats. We saw birds, fishermen, monkeys, egrets, and 2 girls rowing home from school. The most exciting part was when we were able to hand feed the monkeys. We bought vanilla wafers, which our guide Bosco told us that the monkeys love. They came up to the boat and ate off of our hands. Once we were done playing with the monkeys we stopped on one of the 365 islands. This island had a home and a restaurant on it. What we found very cool is that there was a diving board made of plywood on their dock. We wanted to jump in, but we didn’t know how deep it was… On the boat ride back we were able to see the sunset and it was gorgeous. Once we were back in town, we went back to the hotel and changed. Dinner was at 6:30. It was on a road that we called “The Restaurant Street” because it had so many restaurants. Restaurant Street is where we ate most of our dinners during our stay in Granada. Tables were always set up outside on the road so we were able to see all of the local Nicaraguans. One of our favorite parts was the break-dancers. They would do all of theses amazing dance moves and always kept us watching. Small children would also come up to us and beg for food or try and sell us things. We headed back to the hotel and most everyone went to bed. It had been a long, hot day in the sun.

-Rose and Isabel

Great First 2 Days on Campus

The kids did a wonderful job on their presentations about Nicaragua. We are all leaving feeling we have experts in every area of the country. Please get to sleep, and please do not be later than 1:45 a.m., as the bus will roll out at 2:00. I will call as soon as we land. I expect that to be around 1:00 p.m.

Course Description

Nicaragua is the “Land of Lakes and Volcanoes” and we will explore several of each during our visit. We will visit smoking Volcan Conception and swim in Apoyo crater lake. We will take a boat to stay two nights on Isla de Ometepe with its two volcanoes, ancient petro glyphs and White-faced Capuchin and Howler monkeys. We will explore the natural flora and fauna of this beautiful country and visit historical and cultural landmarks including the classic colonial city of Granada and tour its hundreds of islands in Lago de Nicaragua. In this 15-day travel course, students will learn about the cultural, historical, and environmental issues confronting the Nicaraguan people and devote significant time to service learning projects.  We will spend several days working with La Esperanza Granada, a commended local agency that regularly works with world wide student groups, and a local school doing a project that improves their newly built school and assist with student learning.  We will be working with local educators and also be involved with the students themselves in and out of class including a field trip.  We will explore the diverse landscape of Nicaragua and spend several days visiting the Pacific coastal environment as well with their turtle hatching beaches.  We are looking for students who desire to help others and are adventurous in spirit. Learning and practice of the Spanish language will be available on a daily basis.  Learning of ecotourism, biodiversity, ecological systems, conservation and education will also be a significant focus. Knowledge of Spanish is helpful but not required. We hope you will join us on this amazing trip.