Photos from Nicaragua

We finally found internet! So here are some photos from our time in Corinto which was a great place to hang out with the boat.

We were surrounded by mangroves and volcanoes. That cloud on top of the volcano, isn´t a cloud; that is smoke and ash! Sometimes you can hear a rumble.

Ivan and his family were friendly and helpful. We let the kids take a turn at trying to row PUFF around the estuary. The navigator took them straight across the water and hard onto the mud. We had to go out in Ivan´s boat and pull them out of the muck.

We took several day trips to see some of the famous areas and parks around northern Nicaragua. We even splurged one day and rented a car to see the highlands.

This photo is from the cathedral in Leon. It seems you can´t take a photo anywhere without a volcano or another church in the background.

One of our side trips took us up to the private forest reserve run by a coffee plantation Selva Negra. They are hard core conservationists with all shade grown coffee and they have even developed a new way to capture the waste from coffee processing and reusing it...something no one had done before. They have a small lodge with private chalets. The most amazing of the building is the little chapel which has been carefully designed and watered so that it is covered with plants. It looks like a living building and it is truly amazing.

Here´s a picture of Sherrell looking out the window of the chapel. Notice the roof and walls?

And the chalets are on the edge of their private reserve where we hiked several trails and listened to the howler monkeys.