La Cascada de Tisey

Thursday night I went out with a group of friends for pizza, drinks and dancing. The highlight for me was the mariacchi, a very short, elderly man with dark, prune-like skin, who played a guitar and harmonica simultaneously (they were strapped together) and carried an amplifier in his backpack. The boys paid him to play us a couple of songs at the pizza place. Unbeknownst to me, they asked him to insert my name into one of the famous Nicaraguan love songs. The entire pizza place was smiling and watching as he belted out "AYYYY....linda KAY-LEE!!!" (Oh, beautiful Kelly!). The guys were singing along too, and I was laughing pretty hard. It was definitely a good time.

Yesterday (Saturday) I went to Managua for a meeting with a friend of mine, who is also a political consultant, who wanted to interview me about the Citizen Power Councils and collaborate with me on a similar project. I feel like such a professional! :-) I would have felt more like a professional if I hadn't hopped the wrong bus that took twice as long as it should have to get from Esteli to Managua, and if I didn't have a pounding headache from a wailing child who screamed for two hours straight on the ride home. Oh, well. Still well worth the trip.

This morning (Sunday) I got up at 6:00 AM again, but this time it was purely for fun. My friend Gwen and I wanted to check out the waterfall in the town nearby, and it turned out that some women that she volunteers with also wanted to go. So we all met up early this morning to make the trek. Everyone says that the hike is 5km, but I think it's more like 2-2.5 miles each way. Still, with all the climbs, it was definitely good exercise. Here are some shots from this morning...

La Cascada

Kat is a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in Esteli. She works with microfinancing for women and is absolutely hilarious. No surprise, however. She is from Spokane, WA and is a Gonzaga grad. Small world, huh? No wonder we got along so well. :-)

Carla (the mom) runs the non-profit environmental education group "Mujeres Ambientalistas" (Women Environmentalists), as well as Eco-Kids (self-explanatory). The girl in front is her daughter, and the other girl is a friend. They were really friendly, talkative and funny. I'm excited to check out their project soon.

Here are Gwen (left), Kat and Carla. Gwen is from Philadelphia and has traveled all over the world (Mongolia, Zimbabwe, Scotland, Spain...the list is incredible!). She and I are going to start running together in the mornings, which will be great. I don't feel comfortable running by myself, and the mornings will be best because it's the coolest time of day and there is far less air pollution.

Here's a view of Esteli on our hike back from the waterfall. You can make out the central church (white structure, center-right), which is one block from my hostel.