Hello mother, hello father, here I am in Camp Granada

Alright, so Im going to do as much as I can in the time I have which is very little. Its Sunday night and I have a few minutes in the internet café. I am going to try to upload some photos and describe the amazing, but yet a little twilight zoneish weekend I just had. Saturday I went to Volcan Masaya National Park with Lindsey and Claire. Early in the morning we got up and took a bus to the park. Buses are always an adventure, but that was just the start. Once in the park we spent some time in the visitors center and then took the shuttle up to the summit of the volcano. I should add that this is an active volcano. When you get up there, smoke continuously billows out the top and you have incredible views of the land all around you. For miles you can see Lake Nicaragua on one side and Lake Managua on the other. You can see all the other volcanoes around Masaya and it is absolutely beautiful. There is an insane cross that was erected above the crater from the 1500s, Spanish priests put it up because they believed the volcano was the entrance to hell. So then we took a guided hike into caves the volcano has formed. Now similar to San Juan del Sur, the lovely presence of bats was a big part of the cave experience. It was great though, we walked through the caves as our guide told us about the boa constrictors, witches, and bats that live inside. Luckily, we only saw bats…and mosquitos. Then when we got out we were told to take this hike up to the other volcano, which wasn’t far. So we did. Even though there was a huge sign that said landslide area, do not go past this sign. Hey, the guide said we could. I don’t have the pictures on my computer yet, but I will post them shortly. It as by far the most beautiful view I have ever seen. When we came down we climbed up to the cross took some more pictures and then we kind of sort of flagged down a bus to take us home. We stopped on the way though and managed to finally buy our tickets for the black eyed peas concert which is in Managua on October 7^th. We made it back to Managua alive, that’s the most important thing. When I got home I watched USC football on TV with my sister and tried to explain the entire game of football without knowing how to say any of the words I needed in Spanish. But hey at least she now knows what a touchdown is. I must say I did a pretty good job!

Okay…so then today Lindsey and I went to Granada. It was gorgeous! So pretty and so different than any other part of Nicaragua. It is this beautiful old colonial city with churches from the 1500s and little coffee shops and jewelry vendors. We walked all around, climbed the bell tower of the cathedral and ate some of the best food of my trip so far. We found what was basically an American sports bar where we met this former cocktail waitress from Las Vegas who now lives in Granada with her husband and runs the best hamburger joint in town. We ate chilly cheese burgers and then went to an amazing coffee shop where we had the closest thing to a frappacino that you can find in Nicaragua. It was amazing, like always my day revolved around meals and what I could eat. Mom, you would have been proud. It was beautiful though, and Im for sure going to go back before I leave.

I know this was brief but I will update again as soon as I can. Im trying to upload pics but it is really slow and I don’t know if I can. Ill keep trying. Tuesday I leave for the Caribbean coast and I will do my best to find a cyber café while Im there. Love you guys and miss you! Keep up the comments, I love to read them!