Stockings were hung by the palm tree with care...

Somehow, even though I'm half way around the world, the craziness of the holiday season still manages to track me down, hence the lack of blog updates! So...starting from Granada. I took a moonlight ferry trip to Ometepe (the giant island in Lake Nicaragua), stayed there for two days, then it was off to Playa Del Coco! Although it took me a cargo ship, followed by a taxi, followed by a bus, then a hike, then a bus, then another bus and finally a free ride in a station wagon, I did make it to El Coco in one day. The Nicaraguan/Costa Rican border is pretty hectic, lots of lines, lots of police, lots of Nicaraguans trying to travel to their wealthy neighbour. Once in El Coco, I grabbed (a rather expensive!) place to stay for the night and wait out everyone's arrival. Given that I only had a couple dollars left for 3 meals, I was reduced to making processed cheese quesadillas, cooked over a coffee pot hot plate, but it mattered not, moral was high for the coming reunion! Dev, Dani and Michelle pulled into town around mid afternoon and from there we basically spent the rest of the day remembering who we were. Dev finished off his Advanced Open Water diving certification, which basically meant that Michelle, Danielle and I spent the days lazying around the pool. It took a while, but I think I've finally taught them how to truly relax. Devon and I did a night dive, for his certification. Saw loads of puffer fish, which were a big deal in Honduras, but now they cover the ocean floor like ants. Periodically one would bump into one of us and explode, then would slowly drift away, completely out of control. We've visited two different beaches so far (aside from the actual town's beach). Both had slightly nicer sand, but I think we're still in search of that perfect tropical beach...it always seems just out of reach (I didn't have the heart to tell them that I had actually found the perfect tropical beach several times on the trip already...). Costa Rica itself is a huge change from Nicaragua. It's evident as soon as you cross the border how much more money they have. All of a sudden houses have yards, garbage doesn't occupy half the street and backhoes have replaced dozens of pickaxe wielding labourers when doing roadwork.

We did our last christmas food shopping today and plan to make quite the feast for the 25th. Unable to find the right stuffing ingredients, or gravy, or even a turkey, we've settled on a chicken dinner with instant stuffing, followed by the christmas baking that Mom and Tara sent down, huzzah! Breakfast will be slightly different than our traditional french toast marathon, but we'll make it work with chocolate pancakes. As we returned from shopping we found Jason, Ryan and John (American, met him in Granada and plan to travel to S. America with him) wandering into town! It seems that they're a day early. So once again, we spent the afternoon and evening swapping stories and having a few cocktails. It appears that Mike (English chap...he's been in enough of my stories that you should know him by now!) may be able to squeak into town tomorrow afternoon, in which case there will be 8 of us for christmas! Other than that...not much more to report, just happy to see everyone and glad that we could get some kind of makeshift christmas together...even if it is in 33 degree weather. Feliz Navidad!

Pictures! Top one is to appease the Deslauriers family that her daughter successfully made the trip to Costa Rica!
Next is of our beautiful christmas lamp...err tree. Dani and Michelle fashioned it out of bags, but the real treasure is the popcorn garland made by yours truly.
And lastly a shot of the full moon as seen from the boat to Ometepe!