Last of the Nicaragua Pictures

I haven't been feeling very bloggy lately... sorry about that. Tonight though, I feel like sitting down at the computer and pounding away a few posts for the next couple of days. Still not back to editing my photos into beautiful pieces of art though, so these are all pretty much straight-out-of-the camera (except for some cropping).

These are the last of our photos from Nicaragua that I want to share with you. I'm just putting them all in one post though so I don't overwhelm the next week with old pictures.

On the first day, we took a tour of the city. Charlotte rode on the baxi (bicycle taxi) with me for most of it, but she did insist on walking for part of it.

 

This is one of the neighborhood boys who followed along on the tour. He really took to Charlotte and wanted to be with her the whole time. He even offered to carry her around a few times.

  

See how Charlotte loves riding the baxi? The look of pure joy over her first bicycle ride? After this trip, she asked to go on a baxi ride every time, well, every time she breathed. :)

  

On Sunday afternoon, we visited the farm of Gertrudis's uncle.  While waiting for everyone else to be ready to leave, Bruce and Charlotte took one of the 4-wheelers for a spin.

  

She sure did spend a lot of time in this backpack carrier. Best $5 I ever spent at a thrift store!!

  

On our cultural day, we visited Vulcano Masaya.  It was a long trek, but I walked all the way to the top, even though I was 7 1/2 months pregnant. And I am making no apologies for my frizzy hair, I earned every frizzy strand!

  

Here is a view from the top of the stairs.

  

 And the happy family posing at the top of Vulcano Masaya.

  

After all the volcano and related-museum excitement, Charlotte was tuckered out and took a nap in my arms. I had hoped this would happen since we had a long day planned, but was still surprised it did!

  

After a 1-hour bus ride, we finally made it to Granada for a boat ride. We saw many beautiful island homes and many very simple island homes. 

  

During the boat ride, we pulled up next to an island inhabited by over 15 monkeys. Our boat captain was friendly with one in particular, Lulu, and once Lulu got on board, she went straight for

Charlotte.

  

Charlotte wasn't too sure about all this monkey love...

  

But she did seem to warm up after a minute or so... and when Lulu left, she kept asking for more.

  

On our final morning, Charlotte sat on a real, live horse, for the first time ever. She really liked this animal adventure.

  

And then we had a finaly goodbye with a neighbor of the hotel's. This nice lady doted on Charlotte all week and Charlotte really seemed to take to her. 

 

Hope you didn't mind all of the random photos, it feels good to finally have found the time (and will) to post them! If you missed any of the other Mission: Nagarote news, don't forget to check out the team blog - Mission:Nagarote.