wrapping it up in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

San Juan del Sur is amazing. I could definitely spend a month here and am already contemplating how I can fit in another week on some part of this trip. Above is the family I´m staying with -- Jesus, Guadelupe and Jesus Jr. It´s funny, when I first walked into their house I assumed they were poor as the tiny bathroom/shower is outside with a small piece of aluminum for a roof and things seemed pretty barren. It´s interesting, as that impression was totally wrong. There are two maids in the house and it´s so uncomfortable that I haven´t done any dishes or lifted a finger this entire week. Last night they let me chop garlic though, which was very exciting. Jesus is a retired sailor and his son is a fish distributor. Yesterday he brought home shrimp and snook and we had a feast. The food here is surprisingly amazing. I can´t tell if everyone is eating this well or if Guadalupe just has some crazy skills in the kitchen but I´ve tried a million new things that I want to recreate at home. It´s also incredibly windy here this time of year and the power keeps going out. When the power goes out, the water stops flowing, so I have gotten used to flushing the toilet with a bucket of water.

Politically things seem quite interesting too. Even though my Spanish is on par with a three year old, I´ve been trying to decipher the morning paper. A few days ago was a front page shot of the president of Iran kissing a Nicaraguan child with Ortega in Managua. Yesterday´s front page announced that Ortega hadn´t appointed anyone to lead the police force or the FBI and inferred that he was going to lead those as well. He seems pretty controversial around here -- young people seem to like him but the family I´m staying with is upset and worried about reliving the days of government rationing. And then there´s some pipeline deal with Venezuela -- should be heating up. Doesn´t seem to stop all the American real estate speculators down here though. Perhaps they know something else..

Tomorrow I leave this lovely place and bus to the ferry which goes to the island of Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. I´m staying on this awesome organic cooperative coffee farm for the weekend and then heading to Granada on Sunday. Check it out: http://www.fincamagdalena.com