Nicaragua!

Buenos dias, Amgios!  Well, as you know, you can go months without a peep from me and then all of a sudden I pop up again. Since Christmas, things have happened, yada yada yada, and now I've quit my job and I'm in Granada, Nicaragua with my Sam.  As I write, I'm sitting in by the pool in the kitchen of my hotel, Casa del Agua.

This chair requires a high level of commitment to laziness--I'm ready!

Today is Sam's birthday and he wanted to brush up on his Spanish, so he's off to a class.

He already looks more fluent

Meanwhile, I (being an advanced learner) instantaneously adopted the laid back Latin lifestyle and am completely content to sit around typing away to all of you and enjoying the breeze that is making this courtyard paradise.

Here are a few highlights of the journey so far.  We hit the street yesterday and Sam bought a bag of fruit to start the day.  I know, we are so exciting!  What will they do next?

Then we decided that wasn't enough breakfast and found a cafe that caters to gringos.  Even though we completely blend with the locals, we decided to hang with the tourists for awhile.  While this may be obvious to all of you who are more traveled in Central America, I didn't really anticipate what a big deal courtyards would be in the architecture here.  It is like living in the land of jewelry boxes where every hulking structure contains a beautiful walled oaisis.  At night when they open the doors to catch the breeze you get glimpses of magical gardens everywhere.  This is the courtyard where we ate breakfast:

I am resigned to constantly glistening in the tropics.  

This is me and my lime, pineapple and coconut smoothie.  Try this at home, people!  It is a great combination.

After that we took a nap (I told you, I'm a natural!) and then we went and climbed the bell tower of this church:

The view was spectacular from up top, but I just about had a heart attack climbing the spiral staircase.  It was very authentically narrow and medieval and generally not up to safety codes.  Who needs zip lines or surfing? I'm good for death defying acts now.

After that it was nap time again before we headed to chocolate class.  There we learned everything about making chocolate and ground up our own beans to make drinks like the Mayans, Aztecs and Spanish made them. We also got to make our own candy bars.  It was a good day.

Grinding the cacao beans

Sam posing with our chocolate bars