Home sweet home

I am back on solid, stable and safe ground. Nicaragua was amazing as usual, the sense of beauty, danger and adventure keeps your blood flowing. We spent the first part of the trip in Managua, the capital city, which wasn't planned but we had a really great time. We stayed at the Backpackers Inn, which 8 bunks (meaning real mattresses!) to a room, hammocks galore and an actual working refrigerator the accommodations were excellent. We also went to an outdoor Reggeatone concert which was an experience in itself. Later we went down to Granada and visited that amazing Volcano crater lake I talked about before. If anyone ever makes it down I really recommend staying at The Monkey Hut. They speak english, have plenty of cold beer, yoga, kayaks, rope swings...basically every fun thing you can imagine. Granada is also a beautiful city. One of the oldest colonial cities in the western hemisphere, the colorful arcitechure is a blast to explore.
Next we took a boat to Ometepe. One of the most remote islands in the world. We stayed on a plantain plantation situated between the two volcanoes that make up the island. Life on the island was perfect. The electricity was very unreliable, which much of the time meant non-existent which meant no fan (AC doesn't exist there) on the 100+ degree nights. Without lights also that meant that when it got dark at 7pm at night there is not a whole lot to do, except what the locals do; sit in the rocking chair in front of your hut for 1-2 hours a night and comment to the person next to you on the most mundane things possible, ie "that breeze feels nice.", "yes that breeze does feel nice.". etc. There is no phones and no computers. Trucks are very rare so everything is "just a 7 or 8 km trot that way". One morning we actually hiked one of the volcanoes(straight up), 12 km each way, 98 degrees out to get to the coffee farm at the top and proceeded to enjoy the best cup of coffee of our lives.
Everything was beautiful, peaceful, perfect. All natural volcanic spring swimming holes, coca cola in glass bottles drank while exploring the jungle, dinners of rice, beans and fried plantains on the porch in the dark while reminiscing with your best friend about high school. I forgot work by day 2. Its easy to blow off and forget things in the real world when you're thousands of miles away and have no way to keep in touch if you wanted. I recommend it for everyone at least twice a year.
I was sad when I had to come back and leave Liz, she is there for another 6 months. Her two year commitment to the peace corps will be up then and then she will be back in the real world.

Fall here is beautiful. I would never want to be anywhere other than New England for it. More on that later