Saturday - January 15th

Sitting in my bed at El Raizon - it's a hotel that is situated adjacent to the Bridges to Community Office in Ticuantepe. (for more detail on the location of this municipality - check out my blog from last year. It's at http://semilla-nicaragua-2010.blogspot.com/2010/01/journey-begins.html )
Can't seem to locate my journal - so many toys that my bags are hard to navigate. Long day but fun. The group is melding very well and I am enjoying getting to know many new people. I am a bit surprised at how easily the group interacts. Where else are you able to connect with so many different types of people?

I think 10 of us were on the same flight from DCA to Miami. Thankfully, we had no problems and arrive in Miami on time. We connected with Jenise, Beth, Kareem and Trudy at the Miami airport. From there we headed to a bar near our departure gate to toast our departure. The bloody mary's were excellent. Katie shared her mimosa with me and I shared my bloody mary with her. Who knew they could be a good combination... Maybe we should try mixing them all together?

We arrived at the airport at Managua (pronounced Manawa in local speak) and were greeted by Leslie, Bill, Anna, Denise, Michelle who had been down for a week learning Spanish. We also connected with Jeff, who had taken a different flight. Dave, one of the Bridges employees, greeted us in the stead of Carla and Kayla, who were finishing up with the group before us. Nicaragua is known as the land of lakes and volcanoes. Scott, who is quite the creative photographer, snapped this picture from the plane. You can see why the country is known by these features.


We ate lunch at a nice restaurant and I was reminded again about the remarkable juices , salsa and cuisine. I had orange juice at lunch and it tasted like it came right off the tree. Note that my glass is half full - I was so eager to taste it that I forgot to take a picture before I drank it. Next I had a margarita and lets just say that was equally delicious. Michelle, no need to make any comments here.


On to the zip line and the highest point in Managua. In the early 20th century Sandino had a palace at this location. I looked at the pictures of it and the panoramic view that this location affords is something to behold. There was also a prison here, where people were tortured. Katie asked some one about ghosts, and apparently night guards have heard screams...

Anyway, many of us went on the zip line. This zip line goes over a lake and consists of 3 sections; each of which is separated by a hut. Our groups was adventuresome - many went down upside down. I believe this is a shot of Denise hanging up-side-down. She made it look so effortless that I did this on the second leg. I have to admit that it was very intimidating... I should have learned from her stories that Denise has nerves of steal. Next year, I think I'll pass on that.

We arrived at El Raizon and had dinner. Jenise, Beth and I shared a room. I was delighted that all of them were non snorers. To the right is a picture of our room. We were about to settle in for the night when there was a knocking on the door. Denise and Leslie came in and we were in for a treat. Denise proceeded to tell us some stories from her week in Nicaragua learning Spanish. I was laughing so hard my side ached. Let's just say that Denise has a knack for story telling and has the luck to have many good stories to tell. I fell asleep quickly, exhausted after a 19 hour day.