The bacteria got the best of both of us

It's been six months, incredible but true, we have been on the road for six months... So far, we had been quite lucky health wise and despite eating street food everyday, we did not get any traveler's sickness. Well, that luck vanished about two days ago and we finally had to pay our dues to a bacterial infection. Chad was the first one: his stomach had been disturbing him for a couple of days and as we arrived in Granada, things were just getting worse. He had to stay in bed for the entire time we stayed in Granada, while Caroline either visiting the city or taking care of him, getting him some medication from the pharmacy once we noticed that things were not going to improve. Caroline was sad for Chad but happy that she apparently was safe. Short lived: we left the next day as Chad felt better and as soon as we reached Playa del Coco, Caroline felt sick herself. She ended up in bed as well, somehow with stronger symptoms than Chad but he was here as well to take care of her very well. The only brights side is that at least we were not sick at the same time and were able to take care of each other.

Granada, the city of a thousand churches

So obviously, this chapter of our trip will be told from Caroline's side as the only stories Chad could tell you would be how nice the paintings were on the hotel room walls. Poor him did not see much of the city but Caroline showed him all the pictures she took. Since we entered Mexico, we had a favorite city in each of the countries we visited: in Mexico, it was Oaxaca, in Guatemala Antigua, in Honduras West End on Roatan and in Nicaragua, by far, Granada. It is a mid-sized colonial city with a church or other historical building at each street corner, clean, easy to walk in with a relaxing mango and palm trees shaded plaza. In that sense, it reminded us a lot of Antigua but in addition, Granada borders the huge lake of Nicaragua as an added bonus.
As Caroline strolled down the streets listening to her iPod, she was admiring all the buildings which made for a very entertaining walk to the lake about 1 km down the main road. The city was also well decorated with Xmas lights and a big tree close to the main plaza. She also saw quite a few people cleaning the buildings with a hose or the streets. No wonder it all looks so perfect here! After she came back to see how Chad was doing, the decision was made to get him some medication. After some research and the help of the pharmacist, we got what we needed and Chad felt better shortly after and enough recovered that we could leave the next day. Before we left, we went back to the pharmacy and bought another set of the same drug; we did know at this point that we would need it that quickly.

A little hidden beach just for ourselves

Before crossing into Costa Rica and meet with Caroline's parents, we thought is would be nice to head to the beach for a few days and relax. We had heard about this little beach, 17 Kms south of San Juan del Sur at the end of a dirt road. On the way there, we stopped to admire the Isla de Ometepe, which has two volcanoes, one being active. We enjoyed a nice lunch on the beach, eating local fish, while watching the constant changing volcano from distance.
After much effort riding on the dirt road, we reached Playa de Coco: time to look for an accommodation. We found one by accident and could only afford it because the owner was away and the person there told us the wrong price. The perfect Mc Mansion right on the beach, with a big swimming pool, giant kitchen and a master suite made for a honeymoon, with the French doors directly opening to the ocean. And that's the room we got for $20 a night! The private bathroom we had was the size of the our previous rooms. It was like kings in our beach cattle. Around the pool, a nice shaded patio had multiple long chairs perfect for relaxing time. After watching the sunset directly accross the back of the house, Caroline started feeling sick. This is when she went to the big nice room and would not leave it for the next day and a half.
The rest of the story is now from Chad's perspective. Has was able to enjoy some good quiet time at the house, having fun in the ocean and the swimming pool. There were also two French families, each with two kids who kind of adopted him and fed him for the next two days. It was a good opportunity for him to practice French. Chad also had a chance to know the owner's daughter better, a young woman from California, who is running the bed and breakfast while her dad is back in the States for a few weeks. He even got a chance to fish and spearfish with her. A few fish were caught but nothing dinner material. We really enjoyed this house, feeling like home with the Xmas tree in the living room and we will have a hard time leaving, especially with the amazing beach right in front of us.

So it looks like all feel better now, or on the path to recovery, with a few tough days behind us. Hopefully, we have another six months of good health in front of us before the next bacterial attack. We are now getting ready to cross the border and in a couple of days celebrate Xmas with the family. We will be thinking about the rest of our family and our friends, all of whom we will miss a lot. Merry Xmas to you all!