Gannon Volleyball Nicaragua Photo Gallery (New Photos Added Daily)
At around 8 a.m., we gathered our things, packed our bags and said “Adios” to our temporary home El Coco Azul in San Juan del Sur. We loaded up our things onto a bus and drove about an hour to Granada. As we entered Granada, we noticed how different this town was from the last. The scenery and buildings were more colonial, which gave it a kind of European feel.
Since it was only about 10 a.m., our rooms weren’t ready yet. So, we hopped back on our bus and headed for Lake Nicaragua. I personally was excited to get to experience being on this lake. After watching The Discovery Channel’s week-long special “Shark Week”, I learned that this lake contains the rare, freshwater bull shark. Sadly, we did not see any sharks. Once we got to the lake, we split into two groups and boarded tour boats to head out. On the water, we drove past many islands. Most islands contained beautiful estates owned by the richer people of Nicaragua. Other islands had resort-like restaurants and hotels built on them. One of the last islands we drove to was named “Monkey Island.” As we approached this island, we noticed all of the monkeys swinging through the trees. It was a really cool experience to see these awesome animals living in their natural habitat.
After the boat tour, we headed back to our hotel where our rooms were now ready for us. We moved our things in and headed out on the town to grab some lunch. After our stomachs were satisfied, we went back to the hotel. We changed into our volleyball gear and headed to a gym in town where we ran a volleyball clinic for a local youth team. The girls, age 16 and 17 years old, were very excited to have us.
At the clinic, we ran a lot of six-on-six drills working on cooperation and communication skills, which we also participated in. It was such a great experience to see these young athletes so open-minded and willing to learn from us. I was so happy that we got a chance to mix in with the girls on the court and play with them. After the clinic had ended, we presented the coach with jerseys, shoes and other volleyball equipment for her team. The girls along with the coach were so grateful. This may be my favorite part of the whole trip. I can’t explain how awesome it was to see the athletes’ faces light up and to see the smiles they had. They seemed to really enjoy our instruction and were very thankful for their new jerseys and equipment.
After we wrapped up our clinic, and said our goodbyes to the girls, we headed back to our hotel where we got all dressed up for a lovely dinner at The Garden Café. I’m so proud of how well our team has responded in helping others by distributing donations and providing instruction to the girls. I couldn’t be more thankful for the experience that I’m getting and I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to share it with. We have a lot of sight seeing to do tomorrow followed by our big match in the evening, the last of our Nicaragua trip.
Morgan Walters ‘16
Gannon University Volleyball
