Day Ten - Friday, February 19, 2010

Despite our 5am bedtime, we were up by 8:30 and ready to head to the Apoyo Laguna.  Louis, Luke, Elena, Amanda and I all jumped in the back of a pickup and were at the laguna about 45minutes later.  The laguna offers breathtaking views and stunning scenery, but can get slightly boring if you don't bring a good book.  Apparently there are some amazing hikes you can do around the area, but we were somewhat confined to The Monkey Hut for the day.  Perhaps our lethargic attitudes were directly related to our lack of sleep and not the lack of activities in the laguna.

Our ride came back around 5pm to bring us back to Granada.  When we got there we packed up our stuff and headed out to find a bus back to Managua.  Like always, as soon as we stepped outside we were able to hop on (not sure how there are possibly so many buses going exactly where we need to be).  

When we got to Managua we met up with Jenn and Daniel and headed out for dinner at La Cocina de Dona Haydee (I think).  Jenn had been raving all week about this particular soup, which I didn't possibly think could stand up to the hype, but I was mistaken.  The soup (Sopa de Tortilla) was hands down best soup I've ever had.  I would book a trip back solely for the soup.

We had big plans of heading out to see a band after dinner so we went home, changed, then made the  mistake of laying down and didn't get back up until the next morning.  Disappointing waste of our last night in Nicaragua, but we had been on a pretty serious streak of no sleep. Our last morning we were able to laze around, explore Jenn's neighbourhood , then eventually my favorite taxi driver, Edwin, came to bring us to the airport.  

It was a sad goodbye, despite Nicaragua hating me (I not only got a 'mild' case of Dengue fever and lost half of my skin due to peeling, but I'm pretty sure I also have a parasite..going in for further testing this week), I loved every minute of it.  I have a new found love for Central America and am already busy plotting how soon I can go back.  

Things I Learned from Day Ten -

1) You need more than ten days in Nicaragua!!!!  It is a gorgeous country with many different landscapes to explore!

2) Remember our friendly bus driver Mike? Well as promised when we got off the flight in Detroit his friend Marlon (whom we had never met) was waiting paitently there for us to drive us to the Detroit bus terminal!!  So now not only did we get a free ride in, we didn't miss the bus aaand he gave us a free ride to Toronto! It pays to make random friends!