Pico de Garza

My diligent little students continue to LOVE school! This last week they also started after school swimming lessons twice a week which has been fabulous. Audrey is officially a swimmer and is gaining confidence all the time. Reid also swims and is able to kick his legs and travel short distances in the pool. Redick is making great progress and will catch up in no time. He's a bit more of a perfectionist and I think he's taking his time learning the skills so that he will be able to swim well when he goes for it. They all have wonderful teachers and Mitchell and I are looking forward to our first parent teacher conferences this week. 

Right about the time we moved Redick's artistic ability began to explode! Right now some of his favorite activities are drawing Pokemon characters and coloring in the lines. He is very careful and loves the feeling of satisfaction when he takes his time and is proud of the result. 

This week was the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the Nicaragua office with the company Mitchell works for. Of course we had to celebrate! Most of the employees and their families were able to spend the day on Saturday at a resort called Pico de Garza. It was a fabulous time!

At the base of the volcano Mombacho is the city Granada. Granada was founded in 1524 making it the oldest city in Nicaragua and one of the first settlements in the Americas! We didn't spend any time looking around Granada this trip so I'll talk more about that in another post. We did, however, go straight to Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America, it even has fresh water sharks! Out in the lake off the coast of Granada are over 360 tiny islands that were formed as a result of a massive landslide off of Mombacho. Many of the islands are privately owned. Some are built as residences, resorts, stores, hotels and even a school! We boarded a small motor boat called a Lancha and headed for the island resort Pico de Garza.

Layne is learning the smile for the camera. I think he is just the cutest!

Aboard the Lancha!

This is half of our crew for the day.

On the Lancha! *Reid applied his sunscreen all by himself!*

It's hard to see (I was trying to take pictures while also making sure that my 3 curious little boys didn't fall overboard) but that mountain in the distance with clouds around it is Volcan Mombacho.

When we boarded the Lancha we were able to have a 1 hour tour of the islands. This blue building is a school for the kids who live on these islands! Our lancha captain lives on an island and his son rows himself to school and back every day! According to our guide this is the only school in the world on it's own island!

Ready for adventure!

Pico de Garza!

Add caption

We were greeted with a fresh coconut as we stepped on to the island. Coconuts are hollow in the center and grow filled with clean water that is naturally sweetened by the coconut meat. One coconut palm produces between 8-15 coconuts a month year round! They are abundant to say the least!

It was a really tiny island but there were plenty of places to explore!

The boat ride wore this sweet baby out! He took a 2 hour nap in this comfy hammock while we swam at the nearby pool. There were 4 pools at the resort!

Mitchell and the kids took kayaks out on the lake. 

This was our pavilion for the day. Lunch was catered by the resort and was delicious.

We stayed the perfect amount of time on the island! No one was ready to go and we all left feeling happy and excited about the adventures of the day! We can't wait to go back!

BIG NEWS!! On the boat ride back to the port Audrey lost her first tooth! She has been eagerly waiting for this day for several years since one of her best friends started losing teeth when they were in Joy School together. She was on cloud 9 singing and smiling and exploring the new hole in her smile all the way home!