One of the things Caite and I did at La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge was the Caiman (reptile similar to an alligator) night tour. We headed out in a boat with no running lights (nobody has running lights down here yet they all move around at night) with Jackson on the front with the…
First port of call on the Río San Juan was the La Esquina del Lago Jungle River Lodge for a few days. It’s located in the Los Guatuzos Nature Reserve and although it is one of the key fishing lodges in the area, it also offers some other interesting options as well. The Lodge is just across the river…
Still got a few blog posts coming from my time at La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel 🙂 I mentioned previously that one of the wonderful things about the school is the sense of community it fosters amongst its students. For example, there were two families studying at the school over Easter, so the kids…
Getting around in Nicaragua is both easy and difficult. What is easy: there is public transport to pretty much everywhere and it is really cheap What is difficult: said public transport is slow as a wet week crowded as sardines in a tin without aircon (Nicaragua is a hot country, especially in April) without a bathroom (or bathroom…
Big day when I finally headed out of La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel to start my travel adventures! The great news is that my formal spanish-learning journey is over – I am at the highest level of advanced spanish in both writing and speaking … almost bilingual 🙂 The rest is really…
La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel is very well known for rescuing dogs (there are now 45 and counting!) but they also rescue other animals as well. Only a few weeks after we arrived, Pedro heard a macaw calling from a house while waiting for a mototaxi. He asked to see the bird (which was obviously…
Wander through the Central Park of León on any day and you’ll find brightly painted wooden push carts with several glass bottles lined up on top. These are the Raspado sellers and one of the institutions of León. Inside, the cart is lined with aluminium and contains a large block of ice. The Raspado sellers use an ice…
For many tourists, volcano boarding down the active volcano Cerro Negro is the biggest drawcard of León in north-west Nicaragua. Think snowboarding, but then replace the snowboard with a slightly larger and more rudimentary slab of timber, replace the snow-capped mountain with the black cinder-cone of one of Central America’s newest volcanoes, and replace the cool briskness of…
Some more pictures of wildlife taken from the patio where we eat our meals at La Mariposa Spanish School and Eco Hotel. Apart from the Blue-Crowned Motmot, we also have the following regular visitors:
Another very regular inhabitant of the gardens around La Mariposa Escuela de Español is the Variegated squirrel. This is a tree squirrel endemic to southern Mexico and Central America. Again taken from where we eat our meals at the school/EcoHotel.