Yellowknife, NWT Trip, Day 1

Up around 6:00, wanted to get an early start.

Got diesel and checked my oil at the gas station (something I kept forgetting to do during the week) and there was no oil on the dipstick at all! I had grabbed oil from my house, so dumped it in and got it back to within "normal" range. That's bad, good thing I checked it!

I headed north on Deerfoot and remember passing by 16th Ave. at 8:02am. On the way to Red Deer, I had electrical issues. I had bought a new electric cooler (DC and AC) from Canadian Tire a few days ago, and now my phone was saying it was almost dead, despite being plugged in in my car. I thought it had something to do with the electric cooler plugged in in the trunk.

I stopped in Red Deer at Canadian Tire and discovered that my phone charger had a bad connection where it plugged into the phone. Thank goodness it was not the new cooler. Got oil and some new DC phone charging stuff at Canadian Tire before heading back on the highway. I turned off the QE2 just after Red Deer, figured the other highways would provide better scenery and I could also avoid Edmonton.

Nothing exciting happened, and I arrived at Twin Lakes Provincial Recreation Area shortly after 6:00pm. As I was arriving at the campground, there was a nasty looking storm cloud and it rained a bit as I drove in. Nice campground, not too busy. I got my tent up and started a fire, and looked up and the clouds were swirling. I knew it was going to rain, so decided to not throw any more wood on the fire and instead grabbed all the stuff I needed for hot dogs and tailed it to the picnic shelter. It started raining as I ran and once there, it poured and hailed and lightninged and thundered. One bright flash and a second later, one of the loudest thunders I have ever heard. The storm was on top of us. I made hotdogs while the storm unleashed its fury. After 30 minutes or so, it subsided, so I headed back to the tent. The inside of my tent was a bit wet along one side. After investigation, I realized my tent was not leaking, but the hail and rain was coming down as such an angle and with such force, that it was bouncing off the ground, under my fly and getting into the tent a bit. I dried it up and tightened the fly wires a bit better and got everything ready and climbed in bed and started reading. It started raining again and more lightning and thunder. It was cool! As I reading, I had the scare of a lifetime. There was the brightest flashes of light I've ever seen, instantly followed by the loudest thunder ever. Crazy! My tent handled it fine, no leaks or anything.

Eventually the storm passed and I fell asleep.

Back to Calgary

Got a taxi to the airport around 4:00am. Got checked in and waited.

Nothing exciting happened today. All I really have to say is that going through US customs and baggage at Houston was a royal pain the ass. It took soooo long. It's a good thing I had an almost 4 hour layover or I would've missed my flight. It ended up that my flight to Calgary got delayed by couple of hours as well, so didn't get back to Calgary until about 7:15pm.

Tracy picked me up, we went out for supper, and then I went home and crashed!

And that wraps up my 34 day trip to Honduras and Nicaragua.

Off to Managua - Almost finished. :-(

Tried to sleep in a bit, as there's nothing planned for today. We are catching a shuttle to Managua at 11:30am.

We had breakfast then just hung around the hostel for the morning.

The shuttle was uneventful. It dropped us off at the Tika bus station in Managua, which has a hotel and where dad had a reservation. Our first air conditioning of the whole trip, brrrr was it cold when you're not used to it!

We headed out to find something to eat for lunch. Most of the places were closed, but we did find one place that was selling food "buffet-style", you picked what you wanted, she'd scoop it on a plate. You could then sit down in a open-air table area and they'll bring it to you, and get your drinks for you. We had white rice and another rice dish, kind of like chicken fried rice, then a chicken thing with some sort of creamy alfredo-type sauce that had a bit of kick to it (this was amazingly delicious!) and some beef ribs. It was all very good and very cheap, as it was a local restaurant, not a tourist one.

We walked back to the hotel and did nothing for the rest of the day.

Went to bed kind of early, as I have to get up at 3:30am or so to get to the airport.

Isla de Ometepe

Up early, 5:15 to pack and get ready for our 6:00am pickup for the Isla de Ometepe tour. It was about a one hour drive south through Rivas to San Jorge to catch the ferry to Moyogalpa, about 1-1.5 hours, where our guide, Erik, met us.

First we had some breakfast then we went to La Punta de Jesus Maria, a sand point filled with lots and lots of shells that you wouldn't expect to see in a lake. However, this lake was part of the ocean at one point, but got cut off from the ocean due to volcanic activity. It has slowly lost its salinity, and apparently has a lot of unique fish species because of this, including shark and sawfish. The sand point may have been connected to the mainland at one point as well.

Then to Charco Verde, a natural reserve with a green lagoon (because of the algae) and lots of flora and fauna. It was a very overcast day, so the colors didn't really come out, unfortunately. We saw half a dozen howler monkeys. It was hard to get clear shots of them through the foliage. Also saw plenty of birds.

Then to see petroglyphs, which are up to 5000 years old. Then we headed for lunch at a resort along a huge stretch of beach. Lunch was not good at all, both dad and I agreed.

Then we headed to a natural springs (Ojo de Agua). Our guide told us they were neither hot nor cold, but just right. I jumped and near froze to death! It was cold to me!

The morning started off very cloudy and both volcanoes were completely obscured and it even drizzled a bit on us. As the day wore on, the clouds somewhat cleared from the volcanoes, allowing some decent pictures. The bigger volcano is Concepción and is still active. The smaller one is Maderas and is now extinct.

Back to the ferry about 3:45 and back to our hostel after 6:00pm.

I really liked Ometepe. It would have been awesome to stay a few days and rent a motorbike and explore the island. Lots and lots of backpackers around. This is the first place I've been in either Honduras or Nicaragua that would make me consider another trip to Nicaragua.

Around 7:30, we headed to O'Shea's Irish Pub again, as we really liked the food we had last night. Danielle and Alice showed up randomly, so sat with us.

Back to the hostel about 10:00, did some journal stuff and then to bed.

The Tourist

Dad got up early, as usual, as we were going to go kayaking early this morning to see the lake, but they locked up all the kayaks last night and there was no one around to unlock them. So much for that idea!

When the kitchen opened, we ordered breakfast, paid our stay and hung out until the shuttle came, about 10:45.

Back to Oasis Hostel in Granada, got our old room back. We hit an ATM to grab a bit more cash, as we don't have enough to last us. Then we booked a day tour of Isla de Ometepe, walked to an artisan market, then walked through a huge local market.

About 7:30pm, we headed to O'Shea's Irish Pub to meet up with Danielle and Alice, who we had met in Leon. Very nice evening, we sat outdoors. I had a great tasting filet mignon.

Headed home around 9:00pm, when it started to spit a bit.

I normally don't post pictures during my regular blog updates, but I need to for this. When we got back to Granada, dad did laundry, so pulled out a bunch of new clothes to put on for the day. This is what I had to walk around with today:

Laguna de Apoyo

Got up and had breakfast. Packed and checked out and got the shuttle to Laguna de Apoyo, Paradiso Hostal. A crater lake, Laguna de Apoyo is clean and a very comfortable temperature. Paradiso Hostel is a nice place too.

I went for a swim in the lake, had a beer at the lakefront lounge and had lunch. We talked with a German girl for a while.

Very relaxing here. They have kayaks, but dad and me are going to take them out early tomorrow morning instead, when most of the animals will be active. Lots of bird life here!

Did lots of reading. I think dad may have been a bit bored, as he had nothing to waste away his time, except his computer. But I think he still enjoyed the quiet and solitude.

There was a small shower this afternoon.

We had burgers for supper, very good burgers. I love the third world french fries as well, Canadian french fry makers don't hold a candle to them. In third world countries, they don't try to do anything special or fancy with them (i.e. spices).

With nothing to do and the rest of the guests having appeard to disappear from the hostel, dad went to bed early, like 8:00 or 8:30 I think. I stayed up reading until after 10:00pm before going to bed.

Dad Waves at Prostitutes

Got up about 8:00am after being awake for a few hours laying in bed. It's a free all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast (with bananas and coffee/tea) at the hostel.

The city tour guide picked us up about 9:00 for our city tour, which wasn't as interesting as the one in Leon.

Back to the hostel around noon, when we went to a ABM (for dad) and I bought some dresses for Tracy. It's hard, I have to try and size the dress based on mannequins that look about Tracy's size. Hehe.

Sent an email to Paradiso Hostel at Laguna de Apoyo, a hostel at a deep, clean, volcanic crater lake near Granada. I tried to do some laundry by hand. Had a dip in the pool, then journal stuff and relaxing.

Dad got an email from Danielle, one of the Dutch girls from Leon, inviting us to an Irish pub for trivia night and a beer tonight at 7:30. We said yes.

A big storm hit about 5:00pm, massive downpour and lightning and thunder. By 7:30, it was still raining a bit, but we decided to go to the pub anyway, as we needed to eat. We assumed they wouldn't go out in the rain, and I further assumed the rain would ruin the outdoor seating at the pub and the trivia wouldn't happen anyway. I was correct, there were a few people braving the rain, but the pub was not busy. Remember the three prostitutes hanging around outside, under umbrella's, waving in at us, and dad waving back at them.

Back to the hostel around 9:00, still raining. At least the power hasn't gone out yet.

To bed around 11:00, and BAM, the power went out! We both groaned and complained to each other. Fortunately, it came back on about 20 minutes later. The power did go out periodically throughout the night, but only for a few minutes at a time, so it wasn't bad. The room was pleasant with the door open and the fans going.