I'm still here!! I wanted to wait until I had something interesting to write about before posting again. It took a couple weeks for that to happen :)

A bunch of people from my group all met up in San Juan del Sur to celebrate the 4th of July. Before going I was kind of dreading it because it's a 9 hr trip and expensive (for me) and all the other volunteers that I mentioned it to that had been said it wasn't that great...BUT I had a great time and I thought the town and the beaches were really beautiful. It's true it's pretty touristy, you could forget you're in Nicaragua, but I actually kind of enjoyed that part of it. I got there early on Fri. with Elise and Braden and we checked into our hostel and then went directly to the beach. The beach in the actual town is pretty small and really not that crowded because it's not good for surfing. It's in a little cove so the water is a lot calmer, which was perfect for me because I barely like getting in the ocean anyway (it hurts my eyes :( ). The sun was only out for about 2 hours and then it got overcast, but in that time I managed to get really burned on any place that sunscreen had missed. Nick, Penny and Craig got in later that day and we cooked dinner (spaghetti! with REAL tomato sauce, not ketchup) in the hostel and then went to this bar that had a fire on the beach and live music. It was really beautiful and Elise and I enjoyed our first taste of Tequila in almost 6 months!

Saturday we got up and had free pancakes at the hostel-you had to cook them yourself but so what- and then caught a ride to one of the surrounding beaches. It was about a 45 min ride on a poorly maintained dirt road and when we arrived we found 1 little restaurant and nothing else but an almost empty (and beautiful) beach. Then we remembered that we were still in Nicaragua. But more people arrived as the day went on and one of the hostels in town was sponsoring a 4th of July party so they brought out drinks and "BBQ". We left around 5 but not too long before we left they started giving out free rum shots, so I'm sure it got pretty crazy. We cooked dinner again (tacos!) and went out dancing. It never did feel very much like the 4th of July but it was really great to see all the people in my group that I haven't seen in months


Nick, Craig, Penny, Kerri, me, Braden, Elise


the almost empty beach on Sat.


Elise, me, Lorna


The weekend before that Elise and Braden came into to town and we all (w/ Owen) hiked to the cloud forest reserve Miraflor nearby. When I say nearby I mean in bus or truck which is how we planned to get there, but not one passed us as we were walking so we ended up hiking the entire way there, uphill (4 hours). I was already tired by the time we got there and so maybe not as thrilled with it as I would have been. But it was still really pretty.


in the forest


pretty hydrangeas -mil flores in spanish. One of my favorites!





view- you can see why they call it a cloud forest!


You've probably noticed that I'm only talking about the weekends and that is because not alot has changed in site. I'm still doing nutrition consults in the health center, and I've had a couple patients. I think they're finalle ey remembering that I'm there and referring people.Yesterday one of my bosses came with Danny the volunteer that I visited in Rio San Juan. He extended his service to a third year, but is also working with Peace Corps as a Volunteer Coordinator. He leaves not too far away in Matagalpa, so I think he'll be good support for me. Anyway they came to check up on me and monitor my progress (or lack thereof) and we had a meeting with Johana, my counterpart to address any concerns or questions she might have. It was a good visit and the best thing that came of it is that Johana and I decided we'll have regular meetingd to discusss my schedule and talk about project ideas. This is totally something we should have been doing anyway so I'm glad we're going to start that.

But that's going to be about it for July...Sunday I leave for Masaya and have a Spanish workshop until the 16th and then my family arrives!!! We'll travel around until the 28th, when they leave me, and then it will practically be August! I like it when it feels like time is moving quickly!

I hope everyone is doing great! It will be a couple weeks again before I post, I don´t want to waste family time on the computer! But we´ll take pictures!

Love, Danielle