Return From The 3rd World

Well we all made it out of Jalapa alive yesterday after our days of service. Between medical surveys, educating the locals on oral and vaginal health (haha... I'm too immature to not laugh at that combo), and construction work, we definitely stayed busy and gave back to the poor community of Jalapa in northern Nicaragua. Rather than write a ton about the service work and week I'll just post a bunch of pictures so you can get a better idea of some of the things we did.

Yesterday we woke up and traveled by bus from Jalapa to Matagalpa to a coffee plantation/resort called Selva Negra. Coffee is one of Nicaragua's main exports and the valley definitely smelled of it as we drove in. Selva Negra is apparently a honeymoon destination for Nicaraguans, but when we arrived we were told that all the males that didn't have wives on the trip with them would be staying in a bungalo, aka "The Man Shack". There is quite the variety in terms of age on this trip. About 1/4 are students like us, while a majority of the rest are over the age of 60. We soon found ourselves in the loft of the bungalo with 6 other roommates of various ages. Don't get me wrong, each and every one of them is awesome, but the group dynamics have been very interesting. Playing drinking games with people older than your parents is always a great time.

After a night of drinking games with way too much Flor de Caña, the three of us woke up early and went to breakfast. After assessing our options for the day we came to the realization that our best bet would be to go back to sleep for 2.5 more hours until lunch. Besides, it was cold and rainy out and none of us were in the mood for a tour of the coffee farm on horseback. After the hugest lunch I've ever had in my life, we loaded up the bus and drove back to Managua.

We are now back at Las Mercedes hotel, and for the first time in about 10 days we worked out. Prez, Luke and I did an aqua jogging workout with Gina Collings in the hotel pool followed by some abs on the pool deck. Felt great to get the heart rate up and work out. I think we're all feelking like blobs right about now. Tomorrow we're back on our own again though so I think we'll all be eating a lot less (frequency and volume) since we're back on our own budget. We're going to try to catch a bus to San Juan del Sur which is a beach town on the Pacific in southern Nicaragua.

That's all for now...

See you soon!

-chris