Hello from Nicaragua! This post is a little late because although yesterday (Saturday) was a day for relaxing, it was a pretty busy day. We got to sleep in a little before our two hour trek to the beach in Leon. On our way there we took a detour to our translator Elsy’s “casa,” where we met her mother, grandfather, cousin, uncle and aunt. Her house was very clean and pretty. Her dog Oaty had no problem being pet for our entire visit by almost everyone in the team. The drive was a great way to see the countryside and more volcanos in the distance.

We got to the beach in good time; the drive was pleasant and full of good conversations. We ate at a very nice hotel. Our table and chairs sat in the sand under a palm leaf roof. The food came fast and in generous portions. Jason ordered fish with the full head and tail… it was huge! We all had to take a picture before Jason was allowed to dig in. Cathy and Josh made meals up with untouched leftovers for the local children that live around the beach.

After lunch we wasted no time getting into the very warm water. The waves were all around five to six feet tall and tossed all of the Canadians around, both Tim and Jason lost their glasses and I almost lost my hat before common sense kicked in. Tim and I had a very scary experience when I heard him calling for help because he was stuck in a current that was pulling him towards truck sized lava rock. I had his hand and we both swam against the current until we were able to escape it by pushing off a rock that I had been slammed into. We swam exhausted to the shore where we got clean water before Tim entered the water again in a much safer area to watch over Kiana. Roger, Todd, Melanie, Jason, Andy, Glynis, Elsy and I went for a walk along the beach where we found lots of great seashells and a salt water river that was warm, shallow and had a great current that would pull you along gently. We washed off at the beach in our first warm shower of the week before going to our hotel in Leon.

Our hotel was beautiful compared to Masaya and was the perfect getaway for our relaxing vacation from a week of working. Dinner was delicious, classic spaghetti. After dinner the others went to a church service and to visit their friends from last year’s mission trip to Nicaragua. The rest of us stayed behind to relax and play games while we waited to go out for ice-cream, which was so good I went back for more the next day. We had another hot shower before bed after an excellent and semi relaxing day.

Here are some pictures from the day (click any photo for a larger version):

See more photos of the team from this day in this Facebook photo album