Life after our trip to Granada hasn't slowed down one bit, too many wonderful things to do and places to see!! Our family has also grown, we allowed the kids to get a chick each from the market in Rivas!! We had stopped on our way back to SJDS from Granada but we found out that they were only available Saturdays at the market. So Friday was spent exploring a new beach just north of us called Playa Majagual. It was a beautiful drive not too far from here and we stopped along the way to climb some absolutely amazing huge trees and then we hit the beach to play in the waves for a bit. Didn't last long because Adison was stung by a jellyfish on her thigh, pretty painful for her so we headed home. We weren't home long when we invited to hang at the beach with some friends we met here last week. I had the incredible opportunity to paddle board in the ocean, so amazing, kids played in the sand, Rhett surfed and then we had a fire on the beach. About to head out when some local fisherman came in with some fresh fish, w bought 2 off him and then went back to our friends place to have a fish fry, so yummy! What a night, thanks Tom and Danielle for having us and such a fun night!
Saturday afternoon we were able to meet up with way our famous friend, Marvin! Remember him?? We call him Mysterious Marvin, you just never know what that guy is up to!! haha He actually showed up in SJDS and we met him at Playa Remanso so Rhett could surf with him. He didn't really get us our own board like he said he would but he had one from a local surf shop we could use. Worked out for us and Rhett was able to get out on the water again, Adison didn't want to go out though. Rhett is becoming quite a great little surfer and wants to be in water all the time, love it!! Sunday we spent the morning with our chicks and doing school work. That afternoon we drove to a new beach further south of SJDS called Playa Coco, about a 30 min drive from our house. Very beautiful beach, super soft sand, very quiet and we rented a board for the kids to surf . Waves weren't the greatest because it was low tide so it was tough getting up, kids just played on the beach instead. Incredible sunset again that night!!
Mondays plan was to meet Marvin at Playa Remanso but our plans changed a bit, something must happened with Marvin at that beach because he didn't want to go there and was avoiding it at all costs! New plan was to now surf right in town at the main beach where Marvin could get a board for us, ???? Not sure what was going on?? Before we hit the beach he had us stop at some coconut trees along the beach because he wanted to get a coconut for Adison, she wasn't feeling so great and he wanted to help her. So barefoot, like a monkey, up the tree he went to get her one, knocked it down and then he cracked it open to get the water out for her. What a guy!! Always up to something, a little bit of a hustler and full of stories but is very thoughtful and kind! So funny!!
Great day surfing and Doug even got up on the board!! Yahoo!! Surfing is hard and I'm so proud of him for getting up! He has been spending so much time with Rhett in the water helping him so I think that helped him. The kids were invited to a movie party that night and with that invite came the option for us to leave the kids and go out for supper without them. WOW, so amazing to head out alone and have an adult conversation over lobster! This trip had been amazing but that is one thing, we are with the kids every day, all day! The 2 hour break away was good for us and for the kids, they had a lot of fun with their new friends and we were so thankful for that opportunity!
Tuesday was a great day where we spent the day at Playa Hermosa, a private beach about 30 min from our house. Super cool place for us as huge Survivor fans because this is where they filmed the TV show back in 2010 when they were in Nicaragua. It is a beautiful beach where you pay to get in, $3.00 per adult, but you are able to get free lockers, chairs and palapas for shade. You are also not allowed to bring in coolers or your own food, you have to order from their restaurants. We went the families we have met here, it was a bit of a birthday beach day for Lily who turned 6 that day. So much fun to spend the day there with them and watch the kids all have a fun time. I can't imagine our month here with out them, they have made our time here so wonderful!!
Good people wherever we go! :) We will sure miss the Cartier and Francis families!
Doug also wants me to add that he played Poker at Big Wave Dave's bar that evening and was killing it, until he had a bad beat and got rivered (whatever that means). He says he got his chips in at the right time, but the other guy got SUPER lucky:] Lol, he had fun, that's what matters.
We had a pretty rough night that night with Rhett who was complaining all night of tooth pain, he did't eat or sleep so we knew it was bad. The day before when he was surfing his board came down on his head and it caused his top and bottom teeth to bang together really hard! I was up all night stressing about what to do with the situation, not ideal to be in Nicaragua and facing a trip to the dentist!! UGH!!!! I was up at 6:00 emailing our dentist back home about what to do and then I remembered that someone on the SJDS FB page had put a post about a dentist here so I looked it up and found the SunCare Dental Clinic.
I emailed them and had an appointment within 15 min for 10:00, quick service I'd say!! Found it no problem and when we walked in we had a good little giggle because inside the main door was a teeny tiny room that only had 2 chairs and fan. On the wall was a small closed window, think of a parking lot kiosk where you pay that person behind that little sliding window, that is where our dentist was hiding! lol When it was Rhett's turn we went into the back where we found more of a dentist office, a bit of a relief for me!! Dr. Jennifer Ramirez is the dentist we met and she was amazing, so kind and gentle with Rhett, her English was great too. She examined him and then took an x-ray, which also made us giggle! She took the x-ray and then took a small square film into the bathroom, 10 min later she came back out with the developed film of Rhett's tooth. X-ray showed us that his tooth was cracked right down to the root with a big chip out of his tooth as well, it needed to be extracted. Not what I wanted to hear, but it was the right choice. I received a response from my dentist back home stating that she felt it should come out too based on the pictures I sent her and the x-ray she pulled from back home. Rhett was a real trooper and the dentist did an amazing job helping Rhett through the procedure, all ended well and my stress level finally went down!! We also loved the $45 bill at the end!! CRAZY :0
Thursday was Doug's birthday so we decided to do another road trip out to Isla Ometempe and stay the night there. Ometepe is an island that is formed by two volcanoes, Concepcion and Maderas, it is surrounded by Lake Nicaragua so we needed to take a ferry to get there. We had been researching on how to get there and how to go across with our car but we really didn't find a definite answer on how to do it. So many conflicting reports out there and like most things here it was a very unpredictable schedule to go by. We made our way to San Jorge to face the ferry situation early that morning not knowing how it would all turn out! We figured that the worse case scenario would be that we couldn't get on right way and would have to sit around and wait until they had room for us. We didn't reserve a spot on the ferry for our car, we read that you had to but then many said it didn't matter if you did or not, they may not have records of your reservation and you would have to wait anyway. We arrived and we were approached by a guy, always a guy here, ( LOL) he helped us get ourselves organized and onto the ferry. We were super lucky because there was only one other vehicle on and we departed about 15 min after we arrived, smooth sailing!! YAH
Pretty cool ride across the water to the island, it took us an hour or so and when we arrived all we knew was the name of our hotel. Our hotel was located on the Far side of the island, Maderas side so we used Maps Me to find our way there. Needless to say I chose to go left when we should have went right!! I chose the shortest route based on the map but the road conditions were absolutely terrible, roads was either a rock pit or had holes that almost swallowed our little car up, eeeee hope the damage isn't recognized by the rental company!! lol Beautiful drive around the Concepcion Volcano though!
Our hotel was really in the middle of nowhere and we only chose it because it had amazing reviews on TripAdvisor and to be honest it had a pool! We were not prepared for the beauty of this place!! Absolutely stunning views of the lake and the volcano could be seen from the pool/restaurant area, couldn't have got any better. We checked in to our cute little cabana then settled in to relax and to enjoy Doug's birthday! What a place!! The food was amazing, prices were so cheap and the staff was so nice and friendly. This hotel is ideal for a place to go to get away with everything you need right there, I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself on Ometempe Island. We met the nicest couple there and get this, they were from Saskatoon!! Not only were they from Saskatoon, they are chiropractors in the city and Mike works in the same clinic as our chiropractor!! Such a small world!
We had also met a couple of girls in our hotel from Montreal who were leaving the same day and going to SJDS. We offered them a ride even though it would be a tight squeeze in our car. We were going that way anyway and the one girl had hurt her ankle hiking, we felt like we should help them out. Our trip to the island was complete when we were killing time before our ferry ride, and we found Nate a new chick!!! He was sooo happy and excited to have one of his own again. So much love in that little boy!! Welcome Licorice! :)
Our weekend ended with a trip out to the Surf Ranch, hotel just out of SJDS, to a skateboarding competition. Thought the kids would enjoy it but it wasn't too exciting and they wanted to leave to go to the beach instead. Made our way back to Playa Hermosa and surfed for a bit before the sun went down. On our way out we made the most exciting discovery, well to us it was anyway!! We found the Survivor Graveyard!! Tons of the wood used in the show for their challenges were all in a pile just outside the parking lot fence. Pretty cool discovery and we were all pretty excited to find all the cool memorabilia, we love Survivor! I believe the show left behind all of the wood since the locals here use and re-use everything they can. I don't believe the show just left behind a real mess, everything has a use here! Finding this pile of Survivor goods sure made our day and a few sand bags may or may not have left with us!! lol
Our time here is slowly disappearing and in one weeks time we will be on the road again, crazy how quickly our month goes!! We will be giving up our car rental this Monday, which will slow us down a little but we feel like we have seen so much of Nicaragua in the past two weeks. We have loved having it and it has made our time here so much better! We feel like we have truly seen a lot of the different aspects of the country, without it we would have been pretty limited. When I reflect on our week every time I blog it always amazes me what we do in a week!! lol Even though I'm living it, when I write about it I'm shocked on what we do and see. I love that we soak up the culture and life here, we are allowing ourselves to be open to it all. It's not always easy letting ourselves go and stepping out of our comfort zones but this trip has really pushed us to do that. We have been faced with many new and sometimes stressful situations, hasn't always been easy. We have really learnt to trust ourselves and each other, more now than ever before! My hope for all of us, is that we can continue to do this when we get back home. I want to stay open, connected and we need to continue to soak up life as much as possible!! Missing you all and we think of you often!!
We are all safe, happy and our hearts are full!!
XXXXX from the Steel Family
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