Monkeys and more of the Monkey Hut

Monkeys.. lots of them

A couple of weeks ago we stayed a night in a hotel, only half an hour from Managua but couldn't have felt more different. It's tucked into the forest away from the road and is much much cooler than here. The best things about this: I could wear one of the many surplus jumpers I brought, and we slept with 2 layers of sheets (still no duvet) and no fan on all night! Luxury, although probably not what you want to hear whilst freezing your socks off in England and Belgium. We had a cheese fondue for tea, the only vegetarian thing on the menu, but it was delicious, apart from the gherkins which had been inexplicably pickled with a massive amount of cinnamon. Not a good surprise. The next day we went for a walk after breakfast having been told there were trails, and arrived at a viewpoint at the top where we could see a volcano in the distance (not sure which one). We thought 'oh we'll go back down a different way, the other paths must lead down to the hotel. WRONG. After at least half an hour of walking down quite steeply we finally admitted we weren't on a proper trail anymore, we were just wandering through coffee plants getting deeper and deeper into the forest. So we went back up in the heat of midday, already nearly late for lunch. I had a minor tantrum but Frederic handled it well. We did see some really nice birds on the way back up so that made up for it, and for the first time this trip I actually had my binoculars with me when we needed them. 

We had a good dinner and then I heard howler monkeys, like Frederic during the night. I walked a bit away from the hotel and they were suddenly above me, no-one else around! Special moment! I watched for a couple of minutes and then ran like mad to get Frederic but by the time I got to him they were in the trees right next to the hotel, where they stayed for the next hour! So I had to share them then, but I got a few photos, and realised that I want a longer lens for my camera! There was a couple of big males, younger ones and a mother with a baby. It was sooo nice to just lie on the grass and watch them for an hour through the binocs, but I paid for it with a nice bit of sunburn. 

View from the top before we strayed from the route and got lost .. it's cloudy but spot the volcano in the background

Moon rising over the lake 

We were at the Monkey Hut last weekend and it was a full moon, the most orange moon I've ever seen! You can see the moon come up every night, it appears on the edge of the crater and then really quickly its up. We weren't quick enough with the camera to get a picture while it was just appearing but we got this one. It was more orange in real life! Couldn't see many stars though, it was so bright!