October 2004 We didn't stay long in Nicaragua, just a short time in Marina Puesta del Sol, and a road trip with our friends Linda and Vic Smith from Sera.  We took the local chicken busses and minivans to Chinandega, Managua, Masaya, Granada, and Leon. We promised ourselves we would come back and stay longer in Leon. As internet access is becoming more and more difficult, we've started to write less on the web page.  We will add more to it when we get back to more reliable internet access.
Marina Puesta del Sol
Marina Puesta del Sol is lovely and has a wonderful pool.  It is so hot and humid here that Betsey spends most of her time in the pool.  She has experienced both a lightening storm and an earthquake in that pool...
	This is the ocean side of Puesta del Sol, with the new Beach Club palapa.  The swell and the breakers looked and felt quite formidable, but it was a very straightforward entrance.
Here is the river side, with the Marina, the hotel, and the riverside palapa.
	This lovely creature is Rosalia, aka Blondie, who has come from Sera to visit us on Soul Catcher.  We're not sure her mommy Linda knows she has jumped ship.  We cruised extensively with Sera, and Rosie became part of our cruising family.
Luc:  My parents were taking a walk to the beach w/ the folks from Sera, when the afternoon lightning storm rolled through. The wind was howling and rain was so heavy that it was painful to go outside. The lightning was coming down so close that I could feel the thunder The next day, George agreed to go up Shayna's mast to install an emergency antenna. I managed the halyard attached to dad's climbing harness while he shimmied on up the mast.
	Note the lightening deflector (brushy gadget at the top of the mast), which came through without even a burn mark. George looks like he's enjoying himself, yes? Also note that storm that's brewing, while George is at the top of the tallest mast in the marina.  We hope he comes down before it hits (about thirty minutes from now) Postscript: All the boats around Shayna (Libra, Sera, and Soul Catcher), who thought they had been so lucky to escape a direct hit, experienced gear failures over the days and weeks after the lightening strike.
The storms are so huge and intimidating, we have to keep taking photos of them.  They come on, from patchy clouds to full storm, in the space of about 30 minutes.  This one is coming our way, you can see the rain falling in the left of the photo.  The whole storm lasts about 45 minutes, full of scary lightening and ear-shattering thunder,  a fire hose of rain, and cold winds.  Then it blows out, the heat and humidity go immediately back up to suffocating, and its all over. Nothing at all like Seattle rain.
	Betsey:  My favorite moment in Nicaragua was the night I was in the marina pool during a stupendous lightening storm. The electricity went out all over the marina, so it was just the lightening and the thunder and the rain.  The lightening was so bright my eyes closed involuntarily against the glare.  The rain hit the pool so that the drops bounced up 3 or 4 inches from the surface. The pool was warm from the day's sun, but the raindrops were icy-cold and stinging, and I could feel the thunder through the water as well as hear it:   a total sensory experience.
Here's a photo we like:  Our tattered and patched American flag and the storm brewing in the background...
	We're going on a Road Trip! "The bus comes at 8:00 am. We go to El Viejo, then Chinandega, then Managua, then Masaya, then Granada"
We were at the bus stop, on our way to Granada, when we attracted the attention of these bewitching boys...
	Oops, a few more have arrived.
The boys said, "take her picture, take her picture"  She was so shy she just ducked her head and kept walking.
Granada, Nicaragua
	Granada's Parque Colonial. We liked Granada, and had a good time here. The best restaurant: La Terca Oja
Central Market and the Cathedral
	Breakfast in Granada
Girltalk at the Hotel Granada.  The women in the cruising fleet treasured these times.  We all spent so much of our time in the company of men, that we often said, after setting the anchor in a new port, 'I need a woman' (to talk to, of course ;-)
	The local taxi
Granada's Parque Colonial.
	Vic and Moses hangin' in the Central Market.  Vic met Moses on the street, and they got on so well that Moses followed us around for a while.  This was business as usual for our Vic, who could make friends with a stone on the street.
Leon, Nicaragua
Leon's famous Cathedral.   We longed to spend more time in this vibrant city, heart of the Sandinista revolution.
	The anti-war mural across from the Cathedral
We took the roof tour with a guide.  We still hadn't tuned our ears to Nicaraguan Spanish, so he was very patient with us as we tried to understand him.  Note the volcanoes in the background. There are seven around Leon.
	The view was stupendous
This is now the elementary school.
	The rooftop
Rooftops and volcanoes.
	The Cathedral garden, seen from the roof
The Central Mercado from the Cathedral roof
	The homes around the Cathedral
The anti-war mural across from the Cathedral
	The taxi stand in Leon, complete with advertising