This new year of 2025 has brought a long-awaited opportunity to step out of life in Canada and take some time to be together in a change of setting. Instead of the typical 2-3 weeks traveling around various spots in a new country, we’ve chosen to spend the two months experiencing a slower visit in one place – Ometepe Island, Nicaragua – and I’d like to share some of our experiences here.
Imagine that. Me actually posting to this heavily neglected blog again. It’s not that I haven’t had things to share, photos to show, thoughts and ideas to put down. There have been plenty of everything. However, the busy-ness of life in this stage I’ve been in, and the ease of social media to quickly put out those bits and pieces, has kept me from sharing here. But now, more than ever, I’ve been considering stepping away from supporting and feeding Meta-owned properties as much as possible, and instead growing my voice on my own web space here (as well as on my photography website – so many dreams, right?).
So, instead of posting my travel journal on Instagram and Facebook as I have up to now, I’m going to try sharing here again on my The Big To-Do List blog instead.
The majority of our trip so far has been spent close to the little casita we have rented for our stay. Wanting to change up our scenery and check out somewhere new to us, we decided to head on a scooter ride to Altagracia for an afternoon.
The drive was much quicker than expected, and gave us views of the lake, farms, cows, chickens, goats, pigs, dogs, cats, and a few carts pulled by oxen. On the way we decided to stop at a farm we’ve been curious about, and walked around the paths, catching a view of the two volcanoes that Ometepe is made up of. Truly a lush, beautiful place, where we’d like to explore more and try to catch a sunset at one of these evenings.
When we got to Altagracia it was bigger and had more than we imagined it would. It reminded us of Granada, a city on the mainland nearby in Nicaragua that we had visited last year.
I wish I had taken more photos of the colourful buildings and town itself, as I realize now I have none. When there are so many new stimuli to take in in a new place, I tend to keep my phone away and focus on being aware of my surroundings. I very rarely bring my Nikon out and about with us, preferring not to draw more attention to us than we already do. Next time we go I’ll get some better images.
The park in what seems to be the main centre was an unexpected space of fun for Z. We checked out all the sculptures of various animals and landscapes, and she tried some slides, teeter totter, and one of those merry-go-rounds that many people my age and older have painful memories of being spun too hard on and breaking collarbones or other injuries that were part and parcel of growing up playing on them.
For a late lunch we walked to Comedor Sonia. The host was very friendly, and after telling us the menu (thankful for our bit of ability to understand and speak Spanish, as we didn’t see a hard copy) and taking our order, he sat and chatted with us, sharing back and forth about our trip, what life is like in Canada, and his life in Nica.
After lunch we went to find a bakery Z had found in her map-exploration of the island. We walked down the streets into a residential area, and after realizing we must have passed it, asked some people on their porch who pointed across the street. We thanked them and first tried walking into someone’s house (it wasn’t it), then another man called to us from his porch to ask if we were looking for “the lady that makes the cakes”. He was an English teacher working with someone, and pointed us to the right house, encouraging us to speak some English with her.
Walking into this woman’s small home kitchen (unexpected but the kind of new experience I enjoy), where she was whipping up a batch of something at the time, we were directed to a cooler that we could choose sweet good from. Z chose a small Tres Leches cake, which we paid and thanked her for, then headed to a beach we were told about nearby to enjoy it.
Something in our guts told us this beach, down a secluded and narrow bumpy road, was not the right place for us to be (another story for another time), so we ate our cake quickly and made our way back out to the main roads, and back towards home.
After dropping off a couple of groceries we picked up on the way home, we hopped back on the scooter and headed to Pan de Mamá (a café where different activities happen, and Z very much enjoys because of the cute kitten and her new good friend who is often there as her family owns the cafe) for Salsa dancing lessons. We very much enjoyed joining the lesson the week before, learning Bachata. This week Merengué was the focus and we both agreed that this was our favourite dance thus far, because it was much easier to go with the flow and have fun dancing, rather than worry about proper step counting, and the spins and fancy moves we so much fun. I highly recommend giving it a try if you’re interested in learning some Latin dancing.