Nicaragua - Day 7 and flying home

It was strange waking up in the morning and not hearing Annie giggling in the hammock above us or Donald making us all a freshly squeezed drink.  Casa Ola was silent!  Everyone else had left early in the morning to catch flights in Managua.  Birch and I had used frequent flier miles to fly to Nicaragua and in order to use less miles we flew out the following day.

Before saying, "Goodbye" to Casa Ola we took a walk on the beach.

I feel so lucky to be eternally connected to my Lover!

Goodbye Casa Ola!

We stopped at several fruit stands throughout the day and purchased some delicious fruit.

The papaya were not our favorite but were sure plentiful in Nica. 

Love me some mangoes!

There are horses everywhere in Nicaragua and most are all SUPER skinny.  You could literally see the ribs on most of the horses.

 

Our time had been cut short in Granada so we decided to return there for part of the day. 

 

Before going to Nicaragua Birch and I had done a lot of research of things we wanted to do.  One adventure that we had run out of time to do the day we went to Granada was going kayaking on Lake Nicaragua to Monkey Island.

I don't know what I would have done if I had been in a solo kayak.  My arms got SO tired as we paddled and paddled and paddled.  Good thing for my handsome and strong motor in the back.

Lake Nicaragua has over 300+ islands.  We kayaked to around several dozen of the islands and found that many of them are inhabited.  Some by poor locals and others by rich Americans.

Tons of white cranes

Wash day

After paddling until our arms were screaming we finally made it to Monkey Island.  I won't lie that as the tourist boats came speeding in with their motors I did wonder for a second why we took the hard scenic route to the island.

I was a little nervous getting too close to the island as Birch and I had read an account of two ladies that were in kayaks that got too close to the monkeys and were mauled by them in their kayak.  The monkeys were put on the island as a tourist attraction.  After many of the boat companies started feeding the monkey's beer, pizza, chips, etc... the monkeys have become very friendly to the tourists as long as they have food for them.  They have no outlawed the beer as the monkeys started to get real mean.

We kayaked for over two hours straight...I now have a better appreciation for this arm muscles.

We could see the volcano Mombacho from our kayak.

After all that rowing we totally deserved some cold Gelato!

We found this little Italian restaurant and enjoyed some super tasty pizza.

After our late lunch we hopped in our car and drove the last couple of hours to Managua to return our rental car, have our last Nicaraguan meal, and stay at our hotel.  I was so sunburned by then that it was quite uncomfortable to do anything. 

Early in the morning Birch and I loaded the plane and started our loooong trip home.  We were greeted to snow covered roads and a sheet of ice over our car in the Tri-Cities.

I'm so thankful for all those that helped with the kiddos and made this trip possible.  I feel blessed to have family that I love spending time with and can't wait until our next adventure!