Last week we said goodbye to Panama and started a new house sit in Nicaragua. We’re looking after five dogs and a cat, so we definitely have our hands full – especially when it’s feeding and walking time! But there are some perks. We have this fantastic view of Laguna de Apoyo:

A few new friends asked us to join them for a day on the lake. So the other day, rather than simply enjoy the view from above, we went down a few hundred feet to water level to play. After a lot of work on our new book, it was a nice day away from the computers, too. By the way, you can still enter to win a free copy!

There are a few places you can go to in order to access the lake. We opted for the Laguna Beach Club – it’s a $5 entrance fee but you get the use of kayaks, SUP’s, banos, and you can order food and drinks. Or you can bring your own cooler if you choose (for a small fee of $2).

It’s typically breezy up on the rim of the crater where we are, and you can often see small whitecaps on the 40km2 lake. When we arrived it looked like a storm may have been blowing in but after about 20 minutes the sun popped out, the breeze died, and the water became like glass, so Shelly and I took a kayak out for some fun.

It was probably the best day possible to be on the lake. In our first week here we’ve only seen it like that in the mornings, so having it calm around midday was nice – especially for our kayaking pleasure. When we visited in 2012 we got a cloudy windy day on the lake, so it was welcome weather.

The lake itself was formed when an old volcano imploded thousands of years ago and subsequently filled with rain water. There are still some hot pockets (not the edible hot pockets) where gases heat the water, too. You can even kayak to them and feel the temperature difference.

Being a nature reserve there’s an abundance of wildlife. You can hear howler monkey’s howling throughout the day. Birds of all sizes and color can be seen swooping through the trees or over the water. As we ventured back on our kayaks we saw a few huge iguana’s too – nice to see they didn’t become part of someone’s soup!

But all the above isn’t even the best part? Because it’s a nature reserve nothing motorized is allowed on the water, so it helps keep the lake 1. quiet, and 2. clean and pristine.

It’s nice to live near a lake again. Both Shelly and I grew up in towns on Lake Ontario. We went to college on Lake Simcoe, but for the last dozen years in Canada we lived in a town without a lake. If I had to settle again, I’m 100% sure it will be near a lake.

Now go sell all your stuff