Ash and Holly’s adventures in the Americas

When we were planning our trip to Central America, one of the things recommended to us by our friend Genny was a visit to La Mariposa Spanish school in La Concha, Nicaragua. La Mariposa was started 20 years ago by a British lady, Paulette, as a Spanish school, eco-hotel, and centre for a number of community-based projects supporting local people. It’s set in a small village in the heart of Nicaragua, overlooking the volcano Masaya.  The eco-hotel: We opted to stay in the eco-hotel at the school, and we had all our lessons and meals there. All the food is veggie and locally grown, and the cooks were amazing - each meal was different and so tasty. Our room was lovely and spacious, and we had a huge picture window looking out to to garden. The gardens at the school are a wildlife oasis, as well as lots of plants and trees, there is an abundance of natural wildlife (birds, bats, insects, spiders), and a host of rescued animals including monkeys and parrots.  We really liked the se...

We left El Salvador in a shuttle bound for Leon in Nicaragua at 9am, due to arrive by 5pm. Sadly for us, we had our worst border crossing yet at the border into Nicaragua and we didn’t end up arriving til 11pm! We had heard the Nicaragua border crossing officials were a bit more rigorous than other borders in Central America, but we hadn’t anticipated quite what we would experience.  Firstly, we had to have our covid checks - our covid passports were checked, our temperatures taken, and a stamp of approval for the next step in the border crossing. Then we had to take all of our possessions from the van into a big room to be X-ray scanned, and the bus was searched for potential hidden contraband. Next, the border officials took all our passports and searched our social media accounts to check we didn’t have anti-governmental views, and that we aren’t journalists.  We managed to pass through all of those steps with no issues and in about 2 hours. But unfortunately for us, we wer...