In the meantime...

11 June to 27 June

We experienced many things since our last Blog entry – an internet connection was not one of them. Now that we're in Monteverde, we have internet access, but it's slooooooow (which means that I won't post photos, or else our stay here will be prolonged by a week).

Here's what we have been up to:

While still in Granada, we did an excursion to serene Laguna Apoyo. As this beautiful lake is set within the crater of a volcano, some of the lava rocks on its shore are so light such that they float.

We then moved on to Ometepe, a magical island created by twin volcanos rising from the calm waters of lake Nicaragua. Its lack of infrastructure is more than compensated by its abundance of natural beauty. In an adventurous 10 hour hike, we scaled one of the two volcanos. The steep, muddy slopes and pouring rain stilled our thirst for adventure for the time being.

Familiar with the public transport system of Nica by now, we crossed Lake Nicaragua by Ferry (10 hours overnight) to spend a day in San Carlos. From there we sailed down the Rio San Juan to El Castillo, an old fort set on a hilltop defending the river passage from the Caribbean Sea to the Cities on Lago Nicaragua from pirates.

We crossed the border into Costa Rica via boat on Rio Frió, fringed by lush vegetations. From the tree-tops, the monkeys bid their fare-well. We had a chance to really enjoy the serenity of this river, when the motor of our boat failed and we slowly drifted downstream (which would have been fine, if our destination had not been upstream). Luckily,our boatmen were able to fix the problem within a short time.

Now, we're in Monteverde, Costa Rica, where we enjoy our Spanish classes, and the cloud forest. At 6 a.m, the hilltop location of our apartment let's us enjoy a beautiful view down the mountains as far a the golf of Nicoya. But soon after, clouds start creeping up the mountain from below until we're wrapped in a cloud. Afternoons tend to be rainy.