So I know I made some promises with Earth Goddeses and more importantly with myself that I would never hike ever again, but I got a second wind and decided that fuck it, we were going to go across the island to hike Concepcion, the volcano that I have a perfect view of from the outdoor shower.
The hike was incredible. Perfect misty weather that was cool for the beginning of the hike and as we made it to the clearing, a little more than halfway up the volcano, the sun came out just in time for us to see incredible views of the island and take lots of self timer pictures. Awesome. I felt super jacked after this hike as it was actually EASY and we did it in less than 7 hours.
Long Trail in Vermont when I get back, anyone ?
Last Weekend I got an email from one of my best friends in Ghana, Rachel, who had just finished with research she was conducting on community development with turtle conservation in Costa Rica and contacted me saying she was in Nicaragua with intent to find me and the farm. I was ecstatic that I would be reunited with one of my closest friends that has shared the most extreme of extreme experiences with me.
Sunday night Rachel surprised me by showing up on the farm. She´d called the farm phone from a nearby hostel and I had been out for a run, so Maddy and Holly went to pick her up. The reunion was beautious. Rachel cried.
Having Rachel here for the last week I´m in Nicaragua has been awesome and showing her around the farm and laughing about Ghana and how funny it is that our friendship has only been outside of the US in crazy environments. Maddy, Rachel and I are solely responsible for finishing out huge field of Ohotche, Miringa and fruit tree contour lines and weeding the Cassava that is at the top of our field and it feels really good leaving our campo finished for now, well, finished for the most part, it seems that there´s always weeding and mulching to do.
The 4th of July here was pretty epic. We went to our favorite swimming hole spot and basked in the sun in the water on an island of rocks, looking like mermaids for a bit. There´s an old boat with an American flag painted on it, so we all decided to take a series of 30 self timer shots.....I really should have taken advantage of this camera feature earlier....and all of us are piled into this boat looking ridiculous. Of course the pictures took a turn for the worse when we all decided it´d be best to show our American Pride by mooning the camera, so pictures of our Ode to America will be coming to a computer screen near you soon.
And no 4th of July could be complete without burgers. Rachel, Youri and I were on dinner duty for the 4th and we made the most bomb sauce veggie bean burgers you could imagine. They had garlic, onion, carrot, and refried beans and were delicious. We splurged and bought bread and ketchup in town and it was a delicious, not to mention very patriotic, 4th of July. The talent show was postponed on account of we were exhausted from a day of hiking to the swimming spot, but Youri and I have promised eachther that we will perform before I leave with Rachel and Holly to stay at another volunteeer, David´s, hostel he is watching for some friends in Managua on Monday.
Being with Rachel and sharing this experience in Nicaragua with her and reminiscing about Ghana, merging these two adventures, has been really surreal and incredible. We called a few of our Ghana friends which happily surprised them and it was really nice reconnecting with more of my Ghana family.
Really excited that I´ll be seeing Katie on Tuesday! Hoping my 10 hour layover in Bogota goes alright....
No comments:
Post a Comment