Laguna D'Apoyo

Thanks to a few great recommendations, we decided to spend our final three days at the Monkey Hut in a place called Laguna D'Apoyo. Laguna D'Apoyo is an old mountain that erupted and then formed a bowl. It looked like someone just scooped it out and filled it with water.

Here is a nice photo of the whole lake.

They had no spoons so the kids had to eat their cereal with a spatula and serving spoon.

What a lovely morning view.

It was a great place to spend our last few days. We also took a day trip and went to Granada which is described as the Belle of the Ball of Nicaragua. There were lots of pretty coloured buildings and lovely churches. We decided to rent bikes for the day and bike to a park on Lake Nicaragua. It was really fun despite getting caught in the rain and having to bike back with Kiyoshi sleeping on my back. The rain didn't seem to bother Kiyoshi. Around here naps happen where and when they need to happen!

Back at the Monkey Hut, we had a fabulous final day. The kids spent the whole day in the water then we found some sort of special May event going on down the beach where we ate supper, listened to Nica music and saw loads of drunk people.

Taro has become such a strong swimmer that he swam all the way out to the floating dock and back several times!

We got back to our room, packed all of our bags and got to bed reasonably early as we had to leave for the airport at 4:00am. The stress came that night when the skies opened and the rain bucketed down. I started to worry that the road to get out of the bowl might flood or that our taxi driver would sleep in or that I had the wrong date or that our flights had changed and the airline couldn't get in touch with us etc. You know, these are the usual things you worry about before a long flight. Well, we actually had something much more serious to worry about. At midnight, Dave got up with a fever and diarrhea. Try sleeping now, I was going over all of the worst case scenarios in my head. What if we are both sick? What if the kids get sick too? We had another 18 hour travel day ahead of us with 3 different flights to catch. Try sleeping now.

So, Dave and I both took an antibiotic and tried very unsuccessfully to get some rest. In the end, the road didn't flood, the taxi driver didn't forget us, we didn't miss our flight, the kids didn't get sick and Dave started feeling better about noon the next day. We made it home safe and sound just really really tired and in need of a wardrobe change.

The all the flights went off without a hitch with the one exception of Kiyoshi peeing in his pants. Fortunately we brought an extra pair of pants which lasted us until he peed in them again. As the plane was taxing down toward the runway with the whole plane wearing their seatbelts I had to do the walk of parental shame from row 5 all the way to the back with Kiyoshi dripping pee from my outstretched arms. As if this wasn't enough when we were done in the bathroom he took two steps forward and announced in an excited two year old voice: "I'M NAKED!" The passengers chuckled and we walked back to our seats with Kiyoshi naked from the waist down.

I'm naked!

Like my outfit?

With this fabulous trip over, I couldn't help but think about where we should go next. Any suggestions anyone?