"Welcome to the Jungle" and back to Masaya

We have been on the road, river, lake and trail since last Friday night and blogging opportunities have been few and far between.
Last Friday we took the night bus from Managua to San Carlos and arrived in San Carlos at the wonderful hour of 2:00 am. Loucious had the prime seat on the bus with the overhead water drip, the window stuck closed, and missing cushioning from the bare metal seat, and a 2 hour wait for a bathroom. San Carlos is the jumping off point to catch a boat on the San Juan River to El Castillo which is a small river town in the tropical rainforest near the Indio-Maiz Reserve. We slept in San Carlos from 2:00 am to around 6:00 am on the sidewalk in front of the boat docks in San Carlos. I don't recommend sidewalk sleeping for a number of reasons but we managed and caught the river boat to Boca de Sabalos and on to El Castillo.
In El Castillo we stayed in Nena Lodge, a nice place with a balcony overlooking the river and a fan and mosquito net over each bed. It was a family place and except for the bats in Seth's room there were no complaints.
We spent Sunday and Monday on boat and walking tours of the surrounding jungle reserve, canoed and tried our luck at fishing, swam in the small jungle creeks, toured the fort that gives El Castillo its name, relaxed in hammocks, and had chocolate milk shakes in the local cafe. Life is rough in the jungle with all the milkshakes and hammocks. We even found good hamburgers.
On Tuesday morning, we caught the river boat back to San Carlos and took a ferry across Lago (lake) de Nicaragua for 14 hours back to Granada and then bused to Casa-Nica in Masaya where we started our trip.
The hot showers at Casa-Nica were just what the doctored ordered after a day and a half of boat travel.
Well, HOLA students got a welcome to the jungle and they really did have fun and games (reference for you Guns and Roses fans). Tomorrow we start back to Houston.
Later.