this may be a quick note as generally there is no power this time of night but we shall see.

we left Leon last Sunday after two great weeks there of school, adventures and traveling friendships and most especially comfort and wonderful vegetarian(fish and chicken though) food cooked with great sauces and flavored, 4 or 5 fresh vegetables at every meal and juices with fruits freshly picked.we had a private part of the house where we could gather and visit or read or do yoga together.

we knew we had lucked out with the family and the cook in Leon and appreciated every minute.

Leon, with a church on every corner and bells calling all to missa, ringing all of the time.

San Juan Del sur has one church on a hill with a view of the ocean. it is opened rarely and does not appear to be the focus of life as churches seem in Leon. molly rose is just as happy in the language school here with her teacher as she was in Leon. the beach is great, paradise really. but, oh my, the home stay is a challenge .

the rooms are dark and damp and the food, although i thought i was prepared, have been difficult to swallow.

molly rose and i are looking at it as the diet plan but for Jim it is the starvation plan so we have taken to buying milk and cheese and bread. two doors up from us now is the choco banana lady and that is our daily treat and two doors down from us in a small wooden shack is the tortilla lady who makes and sells them until they are all gone and then she locks her doors.

these have become great friends to us. the ocean breezes cool us day and night although the sun is still intense.
today, mollyrose got a surf board and showed us how to use it. she has learned from her language classes other students.

so, jim and i played with the waves and surf board all afternoon. a great treat. we realize that although our homestay is not a good one it is the only thing here that is a problem and not really much of a problem. oh dear and now the person next to me on the computer is smoking and that is an issue here. so much smoking at about 30 cents a pack. it is really available to everyone and lots of folks do it here. sad. a bottle of beer costs about the same so you can imagine how that works.
all is well.
actually, my biggest problem is to keep the sunscreen on.

This is the beach in Leon where two years ago while walking the shore, we, along with others, pulled a drowned young man from the water.  It has been a rather frightening memory until this summer we swam and played in the water with no fear. Good to be free/

Hello,

Jim, Mollyrose and I are spending our third night in Leon, Nicaragua.  After a most exhausting trip from the airport in Managua to Leon, we settled in a casa we knew from two years ago except now the price for a room had tripled!   

Next morning with Jim not feeling well(dehydrated) Mollyrose and I take off to find some coffee and a new place to stay.  We found a place where the young stayed, not quite a hostel but close and put in there and will stay another night.  Tomorrow, Mollyrose climbs the volcano with language school students while Jim and I move to the family who will support us all while Mollyrose and I study at the school. Jim and I will be delighted to move out of the ¨"young people´s" hotel and into the homestay place. Our early bedtime just does not work well here but we all are enjoying the joy of the siesta time.

Leon is a college time, thus making it for us a more interesting place.  Lots to see and do and hooked up with the language school will make that all the easier for us.  It already seems like less work being here than in previous years with Mollyrose with us.  She finds the best coffee and even espresso which has eluded me all these years.  Mollyrose seems fearless here, speaking good Spanish already.  She has given me confidence for myself also.  I am starting to relax and just try instead of thinking I needed to get it perfectly all the time.  Relax and laugh at myself is the key.

This is the very hottest I ever remember Nicaragua to be.  We need to slow down and drink more water, remember to drink more water.   

So Naren just helped his Ma get back into this blog, photos to follow!

...and, here they are!