Day 52 to Day 57

November 28th, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua
November 29th, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua
November 30th, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua
December 1st, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua
December 2nd, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua
December 3rd, 2005: Granada, Nicaragua

Original Men... my favourite flavour of nachos! Mmm....???? We're still here in Granada! My morning routine now consists of waking up, AfterBiting all my mosquito bites, throwing on whatever articles of semi-clean clothing I can scrounge up, and heading over to Kathy's Waffle House for a giant cup of coffee to start the day off right. Perhaps that's why we've been here so long....the coffee has a hold on us! I suppose the to-die-for strawberry pancakes don't hurt either! The waffle house is pretty much 'Gringo Central' in the morning because they have "Americano" diner breakfasts which I think most gringos start to crave after eating rice and beans for so long. On the 28th of November we spent the day in town visiting the San Franciso Cathedral museum and drinking by the poolside with a couple that we met at the waffle house. On the 29th we loafed around town again, and I swam my 100 laps in the hotel pool while Jan caught up on his CNN. As such, the only semi-productive thing I did was take two pictures of a lizard that was eating bugs outside of our hotel room. Not only are the little guys incredibly cute, but they're good to have around because the mosquitos are pretty bad here in the evening......I'm just thankful, though, that I haven't gotten anymore fireant bites! On the 30th we probably spent the day loafing again, because I have no pictures to show for the day and I don't remember what we actualy did. Oddly enough, we have met quite a few motorcycle travellers over the course of the last few days. Dan and Bonnie (2nd and 3rd on the left) are travelling to Panama, Rex (between me and my dad) is following essentially the same route as us, and Alan (far left) will be travelling the world. It is always nice to meet people along the way that share a common interest, and it's been so great sharing information and stories about everyone's experiences along the way! On December 1st we snapped out of our semi-comotose state, and took a trip to Lake Nicaragua for a tour of the islands with a few of the people we recently met. The 'captain' maneuvers through some of the over 390 islands in the lake pointing out many of the small privately owned islands with unique houses constructed on them. My favourite island of the entire trip, though, was uninhabited aside from a small group of Howler and Cappuchino monkeys! We bought a few bags of cashews from a vendor before setting off on our excursion with hopes to feed the monkeys, and sure enough one brave monkey with baby in tow jumped right aboard the boat! Being quite the resourceful little guy, the monkey first grabbed a bag of cashews out of my dad's hands, and while he was munching down on those dug right into a bag of beer cans looking for more loot. After that he went to the back of the boat, perched himself on a seat and grabbed more cashews out of our hands while we took some pictures.A quick thump on the boat's tarp roof by the captain was his queue to exit, and he promptly jumped back up into the trees. As much as we've been enjoying our stay here in Granada, we've made a firm decision to leave on Monday to continue our travels before we become permanent affixed to the hotel lounge chairs, never to be found again. While we were still on our productive streak we figured we might as well use December 2nd to go to San Jorge and figure out the ferry schedule to Ometepe. We drove to San Jorge with Alan since he was set to take the 2:30 ferry out that day. On Monday we'll be making the trip back to the San Jorge again, boarding the ferry with our motorcycles, and heading to the island of Ometepe as well. The island is actually made up of two large volcanos...one of which is still an active volcano which apparently hisses and burps every now and then. We were told it was a must-see on our route.