Banos, Ecuador - It is all going downhill

It is going to be all downhill! That's at least what the brochure promised. Banos 1800 m above sea level, Mera 50 km away 600 m above - easy no?

I rented a mountain bike in the morning: suspension - check, disk breaks - check, helmet - check, water bottle holder - check. And downhill I went on the crazy road.

Slowly winding through a steep valley over bridges and along 20 waterfalls I made my journey to the gateway to the Amazon in Mera.

On the way my book told me to do ziplining. It has come a long way from the playground activity I remembered. Across a 500 feet deep canyon, over a waterfall and a rushing river going 40 miles an hour. And back. Holy shit. 

Then a hike behind an insane waterfall. In the valley, up to a dark, narrow and wet tunnel crawling on my legs and arms to get behind the beast of a waterfall. 

Rewarded myself with fresh Chocolate Banana Empanadas - I will need to find a way to introduce the Brooklyn to this amazing treat.

That was the end of the regular bike trip. Because then the road went up instead of downhill. Over a pass. And down again. And up. And down. And up. Over another pass. And down. This did explain why most people did not go past the last waterfall, because they are not stupid.

But in the end I (barely) made it to the gateway to the Amazon and that's what counts. Crazy to think all the waters will go down thousands of miles to the Atlantic from here. And the put my bike in the bus and back to Banos in a surprising 40 min...

San Pedro Sula, Honduras!! This was not the plan :(

It was another beautiful sunny day in Nicaragua and we get to Managua airport all set for our 2 hr flight to Miami. This is going to be a breeze is what I thought and the 3 seats right in front of us were empty and I quickly moved in front with Connor while Daniel stayed behind with Ivy.., what luck on a pretty packed flight to have all this space! 

About 30 mins into the flight there is an announcement that if anybody on board is a medical doctor please come forward as there is a sick person on board. Uh oh.. Then a lady gets up who I later learn was a nurse and goes to the front of the plane. A few mins later the airplane makes a turn and Daniel says that it's going to make an emergency landing. Of course he's correct, the pilot then announced this plan and to make matters worse the "sick" person is a flight attendant who bumped her head and I suppose was suspected to have a concussion. WTF was this woman doing in the cabin? There was no turbulence was she just a clumsy clutz who just didn't see the open drawer above her head?? Seriously how does this happen?

Anyways we land in Honduras a lovely small airport in the Murder Capital of the World!! Seriously! San Pedro Sula has the highest murder rate in the world. I am Miss Safety and this happening completely out of my control with my kids well thank you AA couldn't your pilot have landed in nearby safe Belize or Guatemala??

Anyways I figure waiting in the airport for our flight to continue once we get a new flight attendant won't be so bad.. Safest place is probably there. BUT after 6 hours of waiting in a confined area in a crappy airport they then announce that our flight is cancelled and start handing out immigration cards for Honduras! I could kill somebody at this point. Maybe nobody would notice in this town.

So it's almost 9 pm we have been here since 3 and Connor just fell asleep on 

me and Ivy is so tired after climbing on every airport chair and then playing non stop with 3 other little girls on our flight that she is ready to pass out. We get in a bus that takes us to a hotel (more like a motel) that is 10 minutes away. The place looks pretty run down but at least it's clean and the guys at the front desk speak English ok. One guy was the size of 3 men, not sure what the diet is in Honduras since I saw quite a few of these rather large men in my short stay there. The porters/security guards had handguns and ammunition strapped around their waists in plain view as they helped us with our luggage including Ivy asleep in her stroller to our second floor room since there was no elevator and no more rooms on the  ground floor.

The next morning we have a 6 am pick up so we are up at 5:30 and very tired only to be taken to the airport where there is a massive line and chaos to check in. The platinum access line is non existent and Daniel gives up after standing around for 1/2 hr and nobody helps us. Tells me that we should forget this and just stay here... No WAY!! So with Connor in my arms I go to the front of the line and demand that they check us in next and I suppose the pissed off desperate look on my face together with a baby did the trick they check us in straight away.

We have an uneventful flight to Miami and check into the airport hotel there for the day since our connecting flight to Trinidad isn't until 7pm that night. That night we get to Trinidad and you would think after 1day and 1/2 of traveling we could just get a break BUT no of course one of our pieces of luggage is missing- its the travel crib! Daniel is so fed up we just leave the airport minus the crib, thank you once again AA. 

Connor says "lemme out of this airplane!"

Ivy says "what are you smiling about Daddy? American airlines sucks!!"

Nicaragua ... The land of lakes and volcanos

Volcano Mombacho watches over the city of Granada like a silent giant, sometimes covered in clouds, it's cool air wafts downwards to cool off the city streets after the blazing sun has set. A visit to Granada is not complete until you have gone up to its peak some 1300m + high and luckily for a small fee you can ride a truck up to the top.... Although some crazy people prefer to hike it.

The other volcano "Masaya" close by continuously spews tonnes of fumes in the sky. There is aparently a pretty cool night tour of this volcano which includes a visit to see the red hot lava and a bat cave ( the latter I could pass on)... We plan to do that next week!

The twin volcano island of  Ometepe

exudes mystery as we enjoyed the spectacular views from the banks of lake Nicaragua. It is the largest island in this massive lake and also is the largest volcanic island inside a fresh water lake in the world (fact I just learned on Wikipedia )

Everyone knows that where ever you find volcanos that crater lakes are never far away.  A 20 minute cab ride from Granada takes you to a spectacular one called Laguna Apollo, where the water is the perfect temperature (warmed by lava apparently ) and is as clean as an Austrian mountain lake. 

That's Daniel above showing his approval ... 

We just spent a long lazy day lounging lake side, while Ivy was a pre-school and Connor was home with Carla our house keeper who for $2.50 US per hour does baby sitting. On our way home today I made a calculation... For 6 hrs of child care here we would pay the same amount for 1 hr in NYC. And pre-school cost for one month here what you would pay for 2 days back at home. No wonder we are meeting so many young foreign families with kids that are moving to Granada! Something to consider...

Escuela de Sacuanjoche - which one is it?!

Pre-school Nicaraguan style, 2 schools with exactly the same name located across the street from each other, anybody would be confused.  Our babysitter Lara, a 24 year old american young lady who spent many years in Nicaragua and is now a bilingual teacher at the school told me to bring Ivy to the yellow building after you pass the cemetery. She may have said left side of the road but who knows, that morning in the taxi I stopped at the first yellow building I saw with this big sign saying international school. The people who greeted us were lovely and they gave us a tour, Ivy was happy to stay there from day 1. I thought it was a bit strange when I asked for Lara but the administrative lady did not know her, just figured she was teaching the older kids and thats why. Well it turns out Lara teaches at the other yellow school with exactly the same name across the street. No big deal though as both schools are pretty much the same and Ivy was very happy at hers as she met her new BFF "Sophia" a little girl from Colorado, who was also in Granada for the month of Feb.

Having fun in her classroom

One day I came to pick her up in this little red taxi, Ivy's first question when she climbed in was "mummy, where are the seat belts?" I told her that my arms are going to be the seat belts today as this was a special taxi, we took the quiet back roads to get back home and when we got to the main square and it was time to get out, she told me "i want to ride that taxi again!"

After taking a few taxis to and from school I managed to arrange for the school bus to come for Ivy. This big minivan picks up all the expat kids in the neighbourhood and Ivy was always so excited to take the bus like a big girl. All you moms out there reading this I have to mention that all this was extremely affordable..school for 3 weeks( which includes lunch and snacks) and school bus was $70 US for everyting!! No wonder so many families with kids are moving here....

Viva en Granada

My 5 years of spanish classes in high school have come in handy here, although I am very rusty and I am sure the locals are not impressed ...

We arrived in Granada via Miami 5 days ago, and thats just enough time to get settled in to life here and also wish that we could stay for much longer. Its a beautiful city with a bustling market, cafes, restaurants, night life, just enough tourists so that its convenient but not too touristy...locals definitely out number the tourists.  Everyone is very friendly and the renovated colonial homes that can be rented for little money are breath taking. Our casa is one of the jems, close to the main square, 2 minutes walk to everything, yet quiet inside and spacious enough that some days I never want to leave. The typical days are hot and dry (90F) and by 11am its usually too hot to do much, so having a shady courtyard with a pool has been a dream come true.  We live on a busy street just off of the main square and every morning when I open the front door Ivy and Connor rush over to peek out the door and take in all thats happening ...horses and donkeys, pull carts and carriages around, people hang out on the front steps, market vendors stop to sell all kinds of stuff, and just the general foot traffic of a busy town- they love it!

 Photos of our street and front door

Sea Lion City

In Puerto Baquerizo Moreno the Galapagos sea lions rule. They own this town and would take it over if they would not have put up fences everywhere. Still any flat surface around the harbour is occupied by the lazy beasts. They sleep on each of the stairs to the water, they block the way to the water taxi, they have taken over the swimming platforms, they lounge on boats, they hang out on the park benches and they had to close the local beach as it was taken over by the lions. A mother even gave birth to a little baby between the parked cars on the pier. Some moored speedboats put barb wire fences around their hull to keep them away. 

They surf with the surfers and swim with the turtles. They fight,nurse their babies and mate. Apparently there are two ways for a male sea lion to have sex: fight to become the beach master and inherit a harem of women from his predecessor or keep a very very low profile and do it with the harem when the beach master isn't looking...

Galapagos Impressions La Pinta Jan 17 - 24 2014