Day 6 & 7
We left our hotel in the morning and drove to Granada, a tourist town, on lake Nicaragua. There are small islands, the “isletas de Granada,” that have been built up with summer homes of various wealthy Nicaraguan, European and North American families. The islands were created when the volcano erupted last, several thousand years ago, and are sprinkled along the shore of the lake. We took a boat tour of the lake, and had several monkey-encounters (one of which was of the “close” kind to say the least). The monkeys live on the islands and are fed by giggling tourists.
After the boat tour, we toured Granada, including the cathedral. The Spanish style architecture was really unique to see.
We then continued our R & R day and drove to the Laguna de Apoyo, an old volcano caldera that has formed a beautiful lake. Trees and flowers cover the bluffs and the black sand shore can be scoured for pumice, a type of floating volcanic rock. Some of us took dips in the lake that evening.
The next day several people went out kayaking on the lake. One of them, Sam, headed out in the morning as well. Several mishaps and about two hours later than we anticipated Sam back, he arrived, no worse for the wear, but burned and exhausted. He had gotten a little too far our and couldn’t orient himself back to the resort. It set us back a little, but after lunch we headed back to Managua and the Nehemiah Center to spend our last night there. We had a lovely reflection time with David, our translator, and watched a slideshow of the pictures Amy has been so diligently taking (over 3000 total pictures-WOW!). We are excited to share them with you all when we get home! Our time here has been full and very rewarding. We all are walking away with a renewed sense of our place in the world, the ways we can help and how this time will impact our life going forward. We enjoyed our time away, but in truth, are eagerly awaiting seeing familiar faces when we arrive back home. We hope you will connect with one of us on the team and get a more personal perspective on our time here. Maybe you’ll want to come with us next time!
