Random thoughts/ month 13

It feels like we did a lot more this month than pervious ones. Probably because we were in a bunch of countries in such a short time span. This month we:

+ celebrated my 33rd birthday on April 30th while in El Tunco, El Salvador. Toby and Chloe stayed for the occasion and treated us to a fantastic noodle dinner at Take A Wok, which was the first thing I ate all day. The day before, I was close to death. I was the sickest I’ve been, progressively feeling worse, totally dehydrated and unable to hold down a thing. I finally took some meds in the morning and started a much needed round of cypro. Happy 33 to me!

+ officially took out our first cable. We were squeezing ourself into a tight space and forgot to look up. The guy said it was his fault for the gerryrigged low set up but then asked for $5 to fix it.

+ got unbearably hot. Air conditioning seems to be a necessity out here.

+ stayed in our first hotel since beginning this trip in El Tunco to escape the heat. The girls hated it, can’t you tell?

Then our second in Leon, Nicaragua while we volcano boarded (also escaping the heat).

And our third in Chinandega while Hani recuperated.

Notice anything different?

+ got a nice stash of American goodies. When I went to the states for a wedding the first weekend in May, I had a night layover in Miami on my return flight. It was awesome spending time with my parents and weird seeing all our stuff we had packed away in their house a year ago. My mom bought us a bunch of random items we were missing/ needing from home. Now Hani has enough airborne and his manly Oil of Olay ribbons soap to last another 6 months.

+ left Guatemala, toured through El Salvador, drove Honduras and have been in Nicaragua for 2 weeks. Our 90 day visas expire on June 8 so we’ll be entering Costa Rica soon. 4 countries down, 2 more to go.

+ chilled at an awesome surf beach hotel thanks to our new Florida friend we picked up in Honduras. Apparently there’s a group of Miami guys that have moved to the northern Pacific coast of Nicaragua. One found a wave and bam–Playa Aserradores is a destination among the surfing community. We spent a few days at Hotel Chanceletas, lounging around and had a great meal with an even more amazing view at the nearby Al Cielo property.

+ had an extremely positive experience with Nicaraguan health care. Hani had 2 minor procedures done by a plastic surgeon and dermatologist while in Chinandega. He is now officially a woman. Ha. Kidding. He had a cyst removed that kept getting infected and a harmless-but-bothersome fatty deposit on his head taken out. $450 later (meds included), he’s healing up well and looking forward to people not asking him what happened to his head. (Central Americans can be very invasive about stuff like that.)

+ discovered that Nicaraguans like their bombas almost as much as the Mexicans. And our poor dogs still aren’t used to the unnecessary freakishly loud blasts.

+ found the beach again at Poneloya after leaving Leon. We only spent a short time there because it was hot hot hot but the beach was pretty deserted and sunsets were spectacular. It reminded us of our days in Baja.

+ saw the active volcano of Masaya. For $8, you can drive up the lip of the steaming Santiago crater and drive right out when it gets too hot and smelly.

+ escaped to Lago Apoyo. I don’t know how, but we found a breezy non-sweltering area in Nicaragua and are forever grateful that it exists. This country is fantastic but we came at the hottest time of year. The lake is a volcano crater that houses a small laid back community of hotels and restaurants with a breeze to die for. We found a private property to park on for $4 a day (the owners live in the nearby town and rarely come to their lake house) and have our own little beach front. We swim and have taken the kayak out for the first time in a long while. It’s going to be hard leaving this spot, knowing our next stop–Granada–is supposed to be brutally hot.