One thing at a time

Man, how time flies! I'm back in blog world again, finally. Mam and dad are currently in Atlanta airport, soon to fly back to Indianapolis. We had a fantastic time with them, and I have way too many pictures to share of all the stuff we did.

But to start off with this blog will be about the things we did in the week between my last blog post and mam and dad's arrival. It's been a busy few weeks for sure!

So, our friends from El Crucero came down to visit Leyla, our landlady, and we went out to eat. I was craving a burger but they don't have any at the place we went to. So I got some Nica Nachos, and then an order of fries - only the second time I'd had fries since we came down here I think - as you can see, I was very happy!

With Leyla & the Robleto family

My yummy Nica Nachos

Friiiiiiiiiiies!!!!

Henderson, a young brother in our hall, gave Charley a Nona to try. Here are a couple of pictures. It was good. It was somewhat like a pear in flavor and texture.

Looks like a tiny pumpkin doesn't it?!

The inside of the nona fruit

And then, the day arrived for our much anticipated trip to the beach, San Juan del Sur. Most of the congregation went, and some from other congregations too. The bus was packed beyond description. I'll just let you see the photos because it's hard to describe it. They told us we'd leave at 5:30am - yeah right, I should have known we could have had an extra hour's sleep like some apparently did! Oh well, so we got on the road at 6:30am and it took a couple of hours to get there. Charley says he remembers school buses being bigger back in the day!

Our bus - this held over 80 adults!

This is the view on the inside! There were plastic chairs in the middle!

Charley and I were the first to get in the ocean when we got there. Apparently we were the only ones who thought of wearing our swimsuit under our clothes so that we didn't have to hide behind a blanket to get changed upon arrival! We only went in up to our waists when a HUGE wave came and knocked us both over. Charley had a swollen hand for a couple of days, and I thought I was going to die under the water! I drank and inhaled more saltwater than I ever want to consume again! So, now I'm even more terrified of the ocean than I already was before! Charley continues to be fearless!

All in all it was a good day though. Around 1pm, we went to San Jorge which is at Lake Nicaragua. You can see Ometepe Island, which is made of two volcanoes, so we hope to visit there one day too. You get a ferry to go across there. 

My slightly off-color panoramic of San Juan del Sur

Volleyball on the beach

The twins - they were enjoying themselves although you can't tell in this shot!

 

Hesvan in his own little ocean - he had a BLAST!

Everyone is so brave - nobody can swim, but they were having a great time!

Junior provided the music - isn't he cool?!

The kids had a great time

San Jorge - that's Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua

I was too cheap to pay 50 cents to use a changing room. It was WINDY that day! Thankfully Brenda's camera didn't capture the moment just seconds before this shot!

Caleb decided to follow my example - it was almost disastrous too!

This last picture is when the bus made a BAD noise on the way home, then it started to smell like burnt rubber! So we were all a bit confused about the instructions, but started to get off. Then the driver clarified that he didn't need us to get off, he just needed us all to re-position ourselves so that we were all in the front half of the bus, to get the weight off the back. I laughed when he said that, since the bus was already PACKED from front to back, and now he wanted us in half the space, and he was dead serious! In the end, he had all the guys at the front packed in, and us ladies got to sit in the back! We made it home - slowly, barely, but home we went!

And then the next day we had Brenda, Caleb and their visitors, Lyn & Janell over for lunch, and then we did the night tour of the Masaya Volcano. You're supposed to see these birds that have adapted to the sulfuric atmosphere, and the lava glow, but we didn't see either of such things! We did, however, see the bats. There over 30,000 bats living in the caves around the volcano. I think we saw 28,345 of them! We went inside the caves, and we hiked up to a high point with an amazing view. I was terrified of the climb, and even more of the descent, but I survived and was glad I did it! It was a really cool experience. Here are a few shots.

Janell, Lyn & Brenda after the first little hill

The view was fantastic

Charley's catalog pose!

One our way up that hill ahead of us

Proof that I made it to the top!

See those little ants - those are people. That's where we climbed to.

The sunset was lovely

Entering the cave

Not a great shot, but those are the bats flying out.

 So, that was what we did just in the week leading up to mam and dad's visit. Sometime in between all that we got the house ready for their visit and planned some of the activities we'd do with them.

Next time I'll share some pictures and stories from their first few days here. Hasta luego!