Beautiful Nicaragua

We are currently sitting on a platform in a tree with a view of Lago de Nicaragua, Volcan Concepcion, and behind us is Volcan Maderas, (the two volcanoes that jointly make up the double sphere island of Ometepe). It is a good time to take stock of our time spent here in Nicaragua. So besides our “Life in the Campo” we’ve had our share of beautiful cities as well, starting with Leon. An old colonial city reminiscent of San Cristobal de las Casas or Xela (though way hotter!), Leon has a magical feel to it with its ancient churches, remnants of a not-so-distant war, museums, markets, and festivals like the one we arrived at the tail end of, eating festival food while bathed in the lights of fireworks.

Our time spent in Leon was made all that much better by the fact that we ran into old friends from our days in Guatemala. Also on Couch Surfing, they became our hosts (along with the rest of the Quetzeltrekker household, the great organization that leads hikes up volcanoes and gives all proceeds to helping street kids). We also got to work with Sonati collaborating on environmental education projects and materials- thanks Noni for everything and best of luck in all your endeavors there!

We found our new “tostada lady” aka a wonderfully kind woman with the most delicious of food for a price so low you feel like someone must be getting ripped off somewhere. In this case it was boiled, mashed yucca with a topping of some kind of saucy meat thing and pickled cabbage with some chili sauce on top, all wrapped up in a banana leaf. Delicious, enough for two people to split for a breakfast and only $.75. If that wasn’t our feast of choice you could probably find us at a street frangetta where you can get a wide array of friend deliciousness.

Esteli, Jinotega and Metagalpa are all beautiful cities in the mountains of northern Nicaragua. Especially nice when you’ve come from the sweaty, hot coast to the cool mountain breezes. We got to check out some great NGOs and help on some projects, plus hike around in Selva Negra which was beautiful, or our trek up to the cross on the slopes of Jinotega. Plus dine on some Salvadoran pupusas since we were starting to miss them :)

After a fly through glimpse of Managua trying to track down my passport (still in transit, thanks immigration) we arrived in Grenada to the hospitality and probably the strangest of our CS experiences with Jonathan. It’s a beautiful city where it was always the little unexpected things that were the best- like stumbling upon a kids’ baseball game, or a rehearsal for a musical, or the kid in the park selling cashews that wanted to arm wrestle me. Life is random.

Now life on the farm has slowed down the pace yet again. It’s hard not to just sit back and appreciate all the beauty nature has to offer when you have the kind of views there are here. That is when you have the time to just sit back, when you’re not planting or digging or mulching or swinging a machete, plus the time working at the community center. So life is busy as always, but great. So we’ll sign off now to appreciate the bugs and the beauty and the sounds and the stillness of it all. Wherever you are, slow down as well and take it all in.