'nother week

This is just going to be a pretty brief entry, there is not much new to report. Last week Thursday through Saturday I was a chaperon on the senior class trip. We went to Montelimar, there is a beach resort there called Barcelo which is a pretty nice place. It has a sweet beach and a nice pool, some mini-golf, tennis courts, clubs, casino, and a ton of food. I was worried going into the trip that I was going to have to bust some seniors for drinking, smoking, gambling, or trying to sneak out and hook-up but everyone was well behaved. We got there on Thursday afternoon, checked in and I played a round of mini golf with some of the seniors and a couple other chaperons. Then we ate and went swimming in the pool for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. Went to a huge dinner and then had devotions for the evening. By this time it was about 8, and I went back to the room to rest a little before we headed out for the night. These senior love to dance (we of course had a talk with them about appropriate behavior before we left) and we went to the dance club around 11. I gotta tell you, being on the responsible end of a trip is a lot more work than being on the partying end. I was playing dad all night, the students were fine but there are men anywhere from teens to 50's that I had to keep an eye on, didn't want them to try anything. Wasn't too eventful thankfully. Friday was more of the same, just chillin around the pool or beach and eating. Then Saturday night we went to the dance club again, they got me and the other chaperons out on the floor for a couple dances and I shook my moneymaker. They got a kick out of it, and I had a good time so it was pretty fun. We left on Saturday at about 2, all in all a pretty fun trip.

Once I got back I had about 15 minutes to get ready for my soccer game, we we played down 8 to 11. We got slaughtered. I had to play goalie for a half and that is not fun, we were eliminated from the tourney after that game. I'm not too depressed, the season was starting to wear on me...it's been going on since September.

I've been playing basketball with some teachers from another school and US Marines from the embassy on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so that has been quite a bit of fun.

Like I said not a ton to report this time, hopefully I'll have more for you next time. I'll put a couple more pics from the hike just to keep it looking nice, peace.

j

Volcan Masaya

Well my roommate Jake is leaving on Wednesday, leaving the place to myself for the last few months of this school year; so we decided to go on a night tour of Volcan Masaya. Jake had not been to Volcan Masaya and really wanted to do the famous night tour before he left. We went on Saturday night, it's about 40 minutes from my apartment, and it was well worth the drive. This is the best guided tour I have ever been on. We got there at about 4:45 and met up with our guide on the top of the mountain at about 5. Our guide Carlos was a great story teller and very knowledgeable about the mountain.

Volcan Masaya is what the native used to refer to as the mouth of hell. Which is easy to see why they would think that, as you can see on some of the pictures. To keep the evil spirits at bay they used to sacrifice some men and children, but their favorite sacrifice was young virgins. They would prepare them, not really sure what that consisted of, but then they would drink their blood before they would throw them into the volcano. Pretty interesting history.

I'm not sure when the catholics came and blessed the mountain and "Christianized" it, but at some point they did (that part got lost in translation), they made a huge monument on the top of the mountain; a giant cross. So...that was the brief history behind the mountain.

Anyway...we looked down into the mountain and all we could see was smoke rising. You could really smell the sulfur, it was almost too much. We went to the cross monument took a couple pictures and then we hopped into the micro bus and went down to the bat caves. By this time it was dark. Oh and the sunsets there are b-e-a-u-tiful Clark, the gases set off the sunlight. Awesome.

The bat caves are sweet, they continue to descend into the earth for a number of kilometers, and there are bats everywhere. They fly around you, but rarely bump into you as they have a great sonar sense that keeps them from flying into other objects. It was pretty cool.

After the bat caves we went to a different vantage point of the volcano, and they gave us some gas masks because you can damage your lungs or pass out from the fumes coming out of the crater. You could literally see the lava flowing in the volcano, one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I could see why the natives thought

that it was the mouth of hell. It was amazing.

So Jake is leaving on Wednesday, I'll miss hanging out with him, but

it was good while it lasted, but life goes on. Hope you like the pics, I still have some more to steal from other people, I'll post those when I get them.

peace,

j

Semana Santa

Just got back from Costa Rica on Thursday. We had a full week off for Semana Santa, also known as Holy Week. Myself and 8 other teachers headed down to Costa Rica for a 6 day, 5 night trip to Monte Verde. Monte Verde is a mountain (monte) lush with rain forest, technically a cloud forest which I still need to find out what the difference between the two is. Anyway, we arrived on Saturday evening after an 11 hour ride in the microbus, well actually not all in the microbus, some of it was spent at the border in lines waiting for passport stamps and van certification, but most of it was in the van. The last 2 hours of which was spent on a 35 km trek up the rocky mountain road, it takes that long to get up the mountain (they said it couldn't be done in less than 3, but if you know me that was just a challenge). Awwright! Anyway, so we made it up and spent the night just getting acclimated to actually being in a climate where jackets are needed, which was a welcome respit from blazing Managua. The next day we went on a hike up the mountain, which I thought would be easy; however, that was not the case. By the time I got to the top my calves felt like they were split down the middle, but the view was beautiful. That afternoon we just took some naps, and then we thought maybe another small hike and then we went out for dinner; so we just spent the first day on hikes and eating. The next few days we much more of the same, lots of hikes and lots of eating. We went on some canopy tours and went ATVing one afternoon. Saw some of the tourist stuff, but the best part of the trip was a night tour through the forest, where we saw some sloths, poisonous vipers, terantulas as big as footballs (no joke), scorpions, and lost of various birds and mammals. All in all it was a pretty sweet trip and pretty affordable. I would recomend it to anyone that has a chance to go. Alright, as this is my maiden blog voyage, and I'm tired I'm gonna leave it at that for now, but might edit it later-if you can do that. peace.

j