So this weekend was amazing. WE LOVE MIRAFLOR. Best girls weekend get away of life!!
Friday night we went out for dinner to celebrate Siobhan´s 20th Birthday and after that we went to Cafe Mochanana for a live concert event. That was really relaxing and her host family came with a chocolate cake...and the musician playing that night sung her Happy Birthday as well. Great celebration for a birthday.

Saturday morning, bright and early we caught the bus to Miraflor. We arrived around 8:30am and after hiking the 2km to Lindos Ojos and checking in, we had some organic MIraflor grown coffee and lazed around until lunch at 12:30pm. Our cabin was gorgeous - it had 2 double beds, a bathroom and shower, and a porch...which we moved chairs out onto to sit and Gene, the German owner of Lindos Ojos and our new BFF, put up a hammock for us as well. Lunch consisted of a bean/potato/soy meat chili with corn tortillas and fresh lemonade. After lunch, feeling more energized we hiked 5km to this little waterfall for a nice refreshing swim. As we were hiking back it rained slightly but nothing serious. At the waterfall, we hiked in a different way from last time so we found ourselves prevented from getting to the waterfall by a barbed wire fence. This however, did not stop us and we crawled under the fence to get to the water. Very classy.

On our way back to Lindos Ojos, we made a slight detour to the local tienda or variety shop and proceeded to buy it out of its food - 12 bags of chips, 10 mini chocolate bars and 4 500mL bottles of Coke to go with our already existing supply of cookies, chips (that were eaten by this point) and giant bottle of rum...I mean water. Cough cough. Back at our cabin we showered, WITH slightly warm water, and commenced the drinking of the...water. With coke. Delicious. After some serious bonding with personal stories and a cry fest here and there...come on people, this is a girls weekend, it was dinner and man were we hungry. Cold air really brings out an appetite. That was another thing: I was actually cold for the first time ever. Like, wearing a sweater bundled in a blanket cold. It was great. Dinner was a pasta bake with bread, salad and peppermint tea (made BTW by boiling dried peppermint leaves in water..amazing). We each ate 3-4 helpings each. The food is so good there.
And then we were in bed by 9:30pm. Lame right?? But it was dark, with a lot of fresh air and bugs were swarming us.

Morning. We were awakened by cows mooing. At 6:30am. So by 7:0am we were all outside on the porch enjoying the fresh morning air and the beautiful green scenery. Miraflor was a lot greener this time than before so it was even more fantastic. Breakfast was at 8:30am - organic coffee, little buns with homemade jam and brie cheese and fried, crispy pancakes. OMG: I know I talk about the food but seriously. Delicious. We of course did not want to leave but begrugdingly caught the 11:30am bus back to Esteli and were back in the hot city by 1pm. It was however, like I said, an amazing weekend. We´re going to go back in July for one last visit and to stock up on some coffee to take back home. Miraflor is our paradice.

Otherwise, not much new has happened. We´re in our 7th week here, meaning there is only 6 weeks of work left and then 1 week of vacay. It´s pretty exciting and as much fun as I´m having here I still miss home and can´t wait to get back. Work is still going well and I have an exciting opportunity presented to me: the school that people from GVI work at want someone to paint the sides of the school with colorful murals and one of my friends who works there, Jon, volunteered me to do it!! It would be an amazing experience and I just need to ask FUNARTE for supplies. I will keep you updated on that.

Hasta luego for now but another post will be coming soon I hope.
Adios!!