Too busy to write (Nicaragua)

Sorry we haven't posted in a bit.  We have been busy bees.  Corn islands was amazing.  Super fun at night, great meals, and gorgeous beaches.  Tough life.  We came home on Sunday, spent one night relaxing, unpacking, and doing laundry, to wake up early the next day, finish everyone's schooling and head to...THE BEACH!  Eliza, Jared, Nicole, and I went to Gigante, a great surf spot on the pacific coast, and Eliza's favorite place in the world.

We arrived just in time for sunset, met some gringo locals, had a yummy dinner and hung out at the hostel bar for a few hours.  The next day, slightly hungover, we headed to the beach.  I finally bit the bullet and got surf lessons, which were much-needed.  The surf was great; I caught the white wash and farther out Jared was able to catch the big waves.   After, we grabbed a couple beers eight the surf instructor and went back to the hostel for naps, lunch and playing in the water.  As the sun started approaching the horizon, we again grabbed some
beers (there is a theme in Nicaragua that we did not have in other places), threw them into my backpack, and had a pretty vigorous hike up Pie de Gigante for, debatably (between Jared and us girls), the best sunset we've seen this entire trip.  It was pretty stunning and the cliff drop and water below we're stunning.  We spent about 1 minute soaking in the colors after the sun dropped below the horizon, before booking it back down as we would run out of light and have to navigate through the woods, and poorly marked paths in the dark.

When we got back, we washed up and had dinner.  Jared went to bed early and us girls planned on a nice glass of wine and steppe until...the owner showed up (a friend of Eliza's) and the night ended up extending slightly longer than expected.  The next morning, we closed out a pretty complicated bill, and headed back to Managua for afternoon classes.
That was Wednesday, the next Thursday, and the 4th of  July.  Everybody had a half day of class, and we spent the day prepping for a party at Eliza's house.  We had pool time and games, sausages, hamburgers, and shrimp tacos, and met all of Eliza's friends, and shared some good drinks and laughs.  Big moment of the night came when Nicole won the water balloon toss, later followed by some fireworks.  The whole night was lots of fun and Americano festive.

Friday was the last day of class for Jared and Nicole.  I sent the car to the mechanic shop the day before so they cabbed it there and walked back.  Then, you'll never guess, we packed up again to head to Leon.  We arrived last night and unpacked, before heading to a super yummy Cuban dinner.  After dinner, Nicole, Jared and I were officially pooped, almost falling asleep at dinner.  We headed back to our hostel and passed out nicely.

Today, we woke up, grabbed a quick breakfast, and Jared, Eliza, Nicole, and I went to Volcan Cerro Negro for volcano boarding.  Our guide was super nice, and brought his kick-butt 4 year old, who apparently can hike every volcano around.  We hiked up the side of the volcano, which was pretty tough as the rocks are not stable at all, and our boards we strapped to our backs, so the heavy wind caused us to nearly fall off the narrow path at the top a couple times.  When we got to the top, we saw the crater and the sulfur rising from the very active volcano mouth. Apparently, the volcano averages an eruption every 15 years, and is due to erupt again...right about now.  Once we got to the top, we got our knee and elbow pads on, gloves, goggles, and jumpsuits.  The way down was pretty steep, but very cool to slide down on our sleds.  We actually caught a collision on our camera as we were taking pictures at the bottom, and our guide told us, pretty serious injuries (including a girl whose face had basically been shaved off by the volcano rocks) are somewhat common.

Tonight, Eliza and Bryan have gone to a wedding.  Jared is hanging out at the hostel, and Nicole and I are currently giving ourselves an avocado hair mask.  Dinner and bed in the next couple hours.  Tomorrow, we are heading out to Costa Rica after running back to Managua to pack up the car.


Nicaragua has been amazing.  It has been a dream to see my best friend for so long.  As you can see though, there hasn't been much downtime for blogging, but our time has been great fun!