Ometepe and Playa el coco

Because the boys (mostly Zach) were having a rough week at school (their teacher was on vacation) and because Steve only had a few days left in Nicaragua we decided to pull the boys out of school and do a trip to Ometepe and Playa el coco. This turned out to be a brilliant idea.
I'd called around to a few places to price a trip to San Juan del Sur and playa el coco. It was pricey ranging from $200 to coco to $90 to sjs. We found a tour company that arranged to drive us to the ferry to ometepe, pick us up from the ferry and take us to coco and then pick us up from coco and take is back to Granada for 140. Seemed like a good price to us. So we took off on a wednesday morning at 7am for our long weekend adventure.

An aside. What pushed us over the edge on our decision to go to ometepe was seeing the boys' teacher at the grocery store. Her parents were in town and she was going to take them to the island. We were on the fence about going and she sold us on it. I hadn't wanted to take the boys out of school but once I found out that she was on vacation and that she thought ometepe was awesome we decided to take the boys out of school and have some fun. Poor thing we ended up seeing her on the ferry and then it turned out we were staying at the same hotel in ometepe. I hope we didn't ruin her vacation!

Imagine a villain's lair in a volcanic island. That's what Ometepe looks like

On our first trip there with Steve we had a blast.  We stayed at villas paraiso. It really is paradise. Beautiful landscaping, amazing views, decent food and fine accommodations. The cabañas are nothing fancy but they have ac and hot water. The beach is great. The water is shallow for a good 50 yards so the boys could easily play in the water. They even have a play structure on the beach. Pool too. The boys had lots of fun in the hammock on our cabana's patio. We spent our first day at the hotel's pool and beach. The next day we went to ojo de agua. Eye of the water. Guess what song popped into my head after that visit. It's a volcanic fed spring/pool that is in inland a bit so it's not windy like the beach. Great spot.
The second visit we went with Wendy. The boys didn't even make it to the beach this time. We did have some fun in the pool and a nice trip to ojo.
There is so much more to do there-petroglyphs, volcanic hikes, biosphere reserves, etc. We didn't do those adventures for two reasons, Zach and Theo.

The trip to playa el coco was a bit rough. The road is dirt and we were in a very old mini bus with no ac. But we made it and it was totally worth every bump.
Playa el coco is mellow. The beach is picture perfect. Like a postcard. Our accommodations were fine, we had a kitchen and an and hot water. We're thinking of going back. Theo wants to go back for the pancakes. We just hung out on the beach and at the pool. It was perfect! Steve mentioned this on fb, the hermit crabs! I've never seen anything like it. At night you hear this rustling and think huh, is the wind rustling the leaves, no, there are thousands of hermit crabs climbing on top of each other. Creepy and cute at the same time.

The service at both places was fine. A little slow and not super friendly, but definitely not bad. If you decide to go to either of these places don't expect American style waiters. The people are nice but don't bend over backwards for you which in a way is nice. I will say they all loved the boys and were  nice about giving us spoons and bowls for our cornflakes that we bought at the pulperia.