PLOT TWIST

Spring break was nothing short of perfection. We picked up Savannah and Caroline's crews from the airport on Sunday afternoon and went on our way to San Juan Del Sur. A beautiful quaint beach town. We stayed in two beautiful homes on the top of a very very steep hill (like soooo steep), about 10 minutes from the beach. I am forever grateful for Dani, Craig, and Colleen for taking me under their wings for a week. It was so wonderful to have some family time, even if they weren't technically my own. It is always fun to finally meet the family of my closest friends, it makes everything make sense. Caro and Sav are definitely their parents daughters, in the best way.

We spent one day at a small beach, Playa Hermosa, surfing! While Savannah and I have many skills, "the sport" is not usually one of them, but we weren't bad at surfing! All the other kids were naturals as well. It was a blast.

We spent another day in Granada and boating around lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America and the only fresh water lake in the world with sharks. Eeeeek.

The rest of the days we spent wandering the little town, swimming in the infinity pool that overlooked the ocean, and eating meals in hammocks. It was the worst. 

I finally got to drink coconut milk out of a coconut! It was disgusting, but I loved every second of it. 

I got sunburnt. 

Flor de Caña made many appearances throughout the week. Colleen won with the best mix, tasting similar to what you would expect fingernails to taste like. Delicious. 

People travel from all over to Central America to San Juan Del Sur during Holy Week to party. You go Jesus! It was pure craziness. The nights I didn't go out, I spent falling asleep to the base shaking the earth below me...or were those temblores? 

It was just such a good fricken week. We dyed eggs, we played, we danced, we swam, we laughed a lot, and maybe cried just a little bit (oops.) I'm sad it's over, it went way too fast. I owe tremendous thanks to all of the people who let me tag along for the ride.

Emma jetsetted back to Minnesota for a week, John and Heather spent several days on the Caribbean coast getting their scuba diving certificates, And Jenna and Dima wandered around Ometepe, an island on lake Nicaragua, staying at different farms and hostels. Our lives aren't real, we know. Jenna fell in love, naturally. I will continue to live vicariously through her beautiful life. 

Here comes the plot twist...our parents received an email on Thursday morning letting them know that Managua was still on red alert. And in fact, Sunday and Monday night many people spent the night sleeping in parks because the trembles (or earthquakes) were pretty severe. Soooo what that means is that as long as there is a red alert in Managua, we will not be. 

We got back Sunday afternoon to our host families and were forced to pack up all of our belongings and take a taxi back to the CGE house. Now we are in Esteli, a town about 3 hours outside of the city. The transience keeps getting more and more real. I actually don't know where I will be tomorrow....wikka whaaaat...as if I wasn't already outside of my comfort zone, good one universe. 

The plan is to spend the next 4 days in Esteli. 2 nights in the town, and two in the campo. No electricity. No cell service. Naturally the two days without cell service also falls on the day of Michael's birthday. How convenient. 

Oh and while Michael is turning 22 in a few short days, he was also just offered his first big boy job!! What an adult. I'm so proud of you bub. 

We have been told that Esteli is cooler than Managua, it might even get to the low 70's! When it gets to the 70's in Minnesota I hop in my bikini, and when I heard it could get to 70 degrees here I packed pants and a light coat. Who have I become? 

On Friday we will either go back to Managua, if the red alert is up, or Corazo, a town about 40 minutes outside of Managua and also outside of the red zone. Have I mentioned that Managua is literally on top of a fault line? Also convenient.

If at any time there is another massive earthquake in Nicaragua, rating around 5 or higher on the Richter scale I will be soaring back home to the states. Oofta. Minnesota I love you, but I just don't know if I'm ready yet. I have a little bit more of myself to get in order first. 

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself." -Alan Aida

Hannah