Day 10: It's Not Sierra Leone

It's hard to believe, but we've been at this for 10 days already. 1/3 of the way through. it is going by super fast, but at the same time, our stay in Santa Ana feels like ages ago. Together we have displaced five pairs of sunglasses. Three have been Christi's. Thankfully, I think that is all that has been lost. Knocking on wood now. (for the record, Paul and I have not added to that figure.)

Today, Saskia and our hosts transported us to León, about 45 minutes away.

Old meets new: The Chinandega team handing us off to the team in León

We are staying in a hotel in León versus with a host family. We are here two days and each day a different club is taking care of us.

We were met by three Rotarians and quickly got settled into our hotel, the Casona Colonial Guest House. It's super quaint. The lady who runs the hotel is very sweet. There is a ton of wood work and it's gorgeous.

There are pros and cons to staying at a hotel. When staying with a host family it's hard to find time to have to yourself as you want to spend time with them, get to know them and their family, and they want to entertain and show you their town. So it will be nice to have a bit of quiet time and not be on display as much. However, it is also sad because we know we won't have the opportunity to bond with the people in León as much as we have in the other cities.

My first reaction of León is that is is gorgeous. The shops and houses are built beautifully. The town plaza is also gorgeous. All schools and churches are unbelievable.

We went and grabbed some lunch with out team and it was my fave lunch to date. We also saw many North Americans. Tourism is picking up in Nicaragua and we could definitely tell here.

Some sort of sweet curry chicken with veggies and plantains

After lunch, Julio wanted to show us the city, but wanted to wait until it cooled off some and didn't really have any other plans until the meeting tonight. Paul was quick to offer up suggestions of what we could do in the spare time, and they were open to it. So... Christi and I got pedicures. Never in my life did I think I would get a pedicure in Nicaragua and watch horses ride by... but that is exactly what happened. And for a $6 pedicure, it was pretty nice (and much needed).

After pedis, we went back to the hotel to pick up the men and rode to the plaza to tour the church and do a bit of shopping from street vendors. I can not figure out the transfer rate to save my life (again with me and math).

Rawr

We got to go onto the roof. So beautiful... and a bit freaking for Christi

Church with a view

We're now back at the hotel catching up on emails and resting before our meeting tonight. I think it will be fairly relaxed. We are learning that Nicaraguans are much less formal than in El Salvador, at least in the cities we've been so far. I'm not sure what is on the agenda for tomorrow... I'm actually not sure if there is an agenda or a plan for tomorrow. We haven't heard. Hopefully we will at the meeting tonight. One of the things we were prepared for was to fly by the seat of our pants and I think we are getting quite good at it.

 

Posted with Blogsy