We just finished up 3 weeks in Nicaragua. As you are reading this, we are on a bus on our way to Honduras. But before we hit the border, we wanted to share some of our favorite pics from our time in Nicaragua.
Our first stop in Nicaragua was the old colonial city of Leon.

Our first view of the Real e Insigne Basilica Catedral de León Nicaragua (aka Real and renowned Basilica Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is home to one of the oldest Catholic dioceses in the Americas. It is one of the most beautiful buildings we have seen.

But if you go in this very nondescript door on the side, and pay a guy $3, you can take the stairs to the roof.

Once you reach the top of the steps, your first glimpse of the roof is this. It’s like you were teleported to Greece. That’s Volcan Momotombo in the background.

You can wander all over the roof of the cathedral. Here is where one of the bells used to hang, overlooking the Parque Central.

Another view of the Basilica. One windy afternoon, pigeons were swirling around in the park, giving it a very Hitchcockian feeling.

A street vignette. All the buildings are painted in bright colors in Leon. Makes wandering the streets a lot of fun.

Should a city really be allowed to have so many spectacular churches? This is Iglesia de la Recolleccion

We also had a bit of adventure during our time in Leon. We went Volcano Boarding. Here we are getting ready for our hike up the volcano.
Click here to read all about our boarding adventure, and see a video of Kyle boarding.

We were invited to attend a Rooster fight, the typical Sunday afternoon activity here in Nica. It is a huge part of Nica culture and we felt we wanted to experience it. At its best, travel challenges our ideas about the world. This was one of those times.
From Leon, we headed to Granada, another colonial city on the banks of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America.

Water Horses on Lake Nicaragua. We expected to see lots of aquatic wildlife and birds. What we didn’t expect was to come around a bend and see horses in the water, with Mombacho volcano in the background. It was surreal.
We took a day trip to do some hiking at Masaya volcano, about 45 minutes from Granada.

Masaya Volcano is (obviously) still active. They closely monitor it and let you drive right up to the edge as long as things seem calm.

We did have to wear respirators there. We tried breathing without them, but there was too much smoke and sulfur in the air.

Hospital San Juan del Dios in Granada. Built during Spanish Colonial times and long abandoned. We enjoyed walking past its spooky entrance daily during our time here.
Next stop for us was San Juan del Sur. We came to San Juan so Kyle could learn how to surf, but we were surprised by the beauty of the place. We are also super lucky and it turned out to be the Arribada, the mass nesting of the Olive Ridley turtles. We don’t have pics of the turtles (it was the middle of the night and we chose to just soak it in rather than focusing on trying to take a decent photo in no light) or of Kyle surfing. But we still have a few fave shots from this beautiful town on the Pacific. You can click here to read about our night with the turtles.

Crab in the sink. Our hostel was high in the hills above the beach, so this crab had quite a climb. Originally, he was climbing the bamboo wall in the bathroom in the middle of the night, and then we heard him fall. From there, he hid himself amongst the folds of a trash bag and then jumped into the sink when we tried to pick up the bag. We finally caught him in a coffee mug and tossed him outside. I was especially pleased to discover at 3 am that it was just a small crab wedged in my bathroom wall rather than something venomous.
From here, we headed to the volcanic island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. It is an island formed from 2 volcanoes, one of which is still active.

Cows in the road on the way to the finca where we stayed. BTW, this was the WORST taxi driver we have had in 28 months…and he didn’t even drive fast.

Muddy hike on Ometepe’s Volcan Maderas. It’s the Rainy (Oh, I mean the Green) season in Nicaragua. It rained a LOT while we were on Ometepe so there are not a lot of photos.
There are still loads of stories to tell about our time in Nicaragua, and we intend to tell them in the coming weeks. But we’re looking forward to new adventures in Honduras as well.
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Awesome post and photos!
Thanks, Jay! We enjoyed your most recent trip photos too!