Greetings everyone,

 

I received so many nice messages, ideas, groups to join, and help from you guys.  Thanks a lot!  I´ll be responding to each email but for now let me say a little bit about the journey so far. 

 

In San Jose, my friend Dave and I walked quite far to a backpackers hostel.  This `place was huge, with tons of european travellers, some of them a little strange, like this french collective, and many of them very chill.  It was nice. We ate great food at a Soda, which is alittle restaurant, and then checked out a medicinal herb shop, which smelled amazing.  That night, we took another long hike from the hostel, saw a beautiful church with a strange statue of christ, all bloody and tortured, wearing these styling robes and a nice crown.  Interesting representation.  We also climbed this strange street art which was fun, and had cookies. 

 

The next morning we headed on a bus to nicaragua after a lovely breakfast, of rice and beans and cheese with sweet drinks.  This bus was a long ride through the cowboy country of costa rica.  It was a nice restful time and we saw wierd movies en espanol.  At the border , they sprayed the bus with herbicides.  Dave and I ate delicious cheesy tortillas.  Finally we got to nicaragua, and it was very very differnet. 

 

Nicaragua is a poor place, but I saw a lot of smiles, and many of the people are very healthy and strong looking.  They walk a lot and do a lot of physical work here.  Dave and I spent very little money in a maze of open air markets for lots of good local food, rice, beans, onions, carrots, etc, and then got ourselves some pupusas, which are delicous quesidalla things.  This man shot a bird with a slingshot, which is a national pastime it seems, and they are very accurate. 

 

Dave and I, followed by some kids who gawked at our big backpacks, made it to the house of our friedns Andres and Gladys, a really nice couple who live in Diriamba.  They were so incredibly hospitable and kind, making us excellent food and giving us a place to stay.  They have three awesome children who are near our age.  We talked a lot of spanish and learned a lot.  That night Dave, Andres, and I went to one of the biggest parties in Nicaragua, here in town, which is a giant rodeo, discotech, county fair thing.  It was really cool, if a bit overwhelming.  Once again, very kind people, friendly, good fresh food on the streets.  I got to call home which was nice.  We came home and watched austin powers and went to bed. 

 

The next day, after some exercise and breakfast, Dave and I hiked a local moountain volcano.  It was great.  We got a tremndous view and saw howler monkies and it was very fun.  That night was really nice, just relaxing and chilling with Gladys.  She told me a good bit about the medical system, about life here in Nica, and it was really interesting. 

 

Today we walked about 3 miles to a subsistence farm run by glady´s cousins.  He looks about 50, but is actually 70, very tough and knows all about farming.  Beautiful, hospitable people and we were able to take back a cartload of food for gladys´family.  We chilled a bit and are now partways on the road to Isla Ometepe, a supposedly amazing place.  It has two cloud forest covered volcanos to hike, and then we can catch a boat back in a few days to Costa Rica, so that the adventure may continue. 

 

This journey is amazing, I´m learning so much, experienceing so much.  It is a huge blessing.  One thing is to just take it a bit at a time, relax and not let the heat or any of the other things get you down. 

 

My love to everyone, I´ll write more in a few days.