Back in Costa Rica!! Enjoying a couple more sights and typical Costa Rican food before catching our flight tomorrow to NYC for some great music with some great friends!! Can´t wait!!
It´s been amazing Nicaragua!! Muchas Gracias!!

We spent the day on the most beautiful beach we have ever been to in Maderas! We have been to many a beaches in our days, and this one was the best by far! The only way there was a back country dirt road, the beach was surrounded by untouched, lush green forest, and 4 ft. waves crashed up onto the many rock formations sticking out of the water!!! We had an entire bay all to ourselves for the whole day! Two bays over we could watch surfers! Dan had a hammock set up in the shade and I laid in the sun, watched hermit crabs go about their business, and took a dip the ocean of billowing waves when it got too hot! Ahhh...a perfect day in paradise!
Later we met an older Canadian couple who lives here in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. They took us off-roading around the tiny beach villages, and then up to the gated community on the cliff where they live. We have been staring at these huge beach homes up on the cliff from down on the beach, and we got to visit one today! It was an amazingly beautiful home with a cascading pool that overlooked the San Juan Bay, and down the coast all the way to Costa Rica!!! Their home was decorated with all local, hand made furniture and art....a dream home! We sat and had a glass of ice tea with the couple, and they told us about their Island home on the St. Lawrence River in the 1000 Lakes. Hmm small world! There is a large statue of Jesus on top of the cliff near the bay, and we drove up to see that up close, and look down on the bay of San Juan and over the rolling hills of Nicaragua that lead down to Costa Rica! I really wish we could upload pictures to share, the views were stunning!
Dan was not feeling well yesterday, but he is all better today!
6 DAYS UNTIL OUR RETURN!!!!!!

We made it to San Juan del Sur! It is gorgeous here! We are very excited to be back in civilization! We much more appreciative of the comforts of our way of living.
It was really sad to leave our students :( We had a dance party with the teens during our last class! The girls brought traditional dresses so they dresses me up and taught me the Merangê. (No idea how to spell) It was really fun! We were sad to leave Ometepe, but it we were ready to leave and move on.
Our hotel here in San Juan is really nice, and just one block from the ocean. Yesterday we went to lunch, and we could help ourselves from ordering a big juicy cheeseburger! We walked along the beach yesterday evening, which always proves difficult for Dan who refuses to wear sandels! We spent some time at the rooftop bar of our hotel with some rum and watched the sunset. We had dinner at a local restraurant and had BBQ chicken, yum! Then we made our way down to a bar on the beach where we sat next to a bonfire and listened to a regee band with some friends we made in Ometepe! It was perfect!
Today we are doing some shopping and laying on the beach all day! Tomorrow we have surf lessons, and Saturday we are taking a day trip to a different beach to go snorkeling.
Not sure we will be able to upload pictures here, unfortunately.
Love D&J

We had a really nice weekend. Saturday was our 1 year engagement anniversary (but we didn´t realize it until yesterday)!! Saturday we went fishing with one of the families of our students. We waded in the water while 2 people dropped the fishing net from a hand carved wooden boat. They made a half circle with the net from two points on the shore, and then we pulled and pulled until the net was brought in. We only caught 6 fish, and the family was very upset because usually they catch at least 30 fish! They made us a delicious fish soup! This families home was a bit more substantive than many of the homes here, made of brick. We sat around and talked with the family while listening the Creedence Clearwater Revival from their Ipod. We had a good laugh about listening to CCR in Nicaragua! The family invited us to come back someday and stay at their home with them. We are planning on keeping in touch with our students and families here, and coming back to teach again.
Saturday night there was a big party in the village, and the high schoolers put on a beauty pagent. One of our students was the reigning pagent winner, and passed off the crown. We attempted to walk into the village for the party, but it was dark and started to rain which gave us an excuse to walk fastly back home, because we were really scared of the growling dogs following us! We met a really cool couple from the States that we have been spending a lot of time with the last couple days.
We are getting sad to leave our students, but we are ready to leave and start our trek home, with a 4 day beach vacation to start it off!
10 days and we will be HOME!

Buenas,
Nothing really new to report. Classes are going great. We have been scoping out new friends for this weekend. The hotel is very busy so we have many people to choose from, but we are pretty sure we are going with the couple from Denmark!
Dan is going fishing with a family on Saturday and then we are having dinner with them at their home.
We are excited for our vacation to the ocean next week, and to start our journey home, even though it will be very sad leaving our students.
Here are some random pictures.
Hasta Luego.
D&J

Jessica planning lessons in the work hammock

Us, sunset, volcano

The village hospital

Full moon sunset

A Royal Egrot (Garsa Rayal)

We kayaked down the lake to see Volcan Conception up close, but it was hazy out, so this is not the best pic

Dan lounging

Fatima, a mother of one of our students, in her kitchen. She also helps out in one of our classes.

Dan and one of our teen students, Darwin, reading with the little ones.

Our students reading bilingual books.

Our little friend P. Mantis!

The beginning of the most amazing sunset EVER!

Kayaking down a jungle river trying to get back out to the lake to get ashore for the rain storm rolling in behind us!

Muscle mania!

We went to the local elementary school today to donate school supplies and observe classes. The school also received a donation of stuffed animals today. Each student received a stuffed animal!

A family of  of some of our students invited us for lunch today, this is their kitchen. Their home was very primitive, with dirt floors, mud or  stick walls, and a palm tree leaf roof.

Jessica with our students, Yoadi, Miguel, and Johan in the front door of their house.

Can't beat a $2 forty of jungle beer!! That is the small Volcano in the back.

Us with our class of Teens...the ones who show up on time anyway!

Birds from our kayak trip in the jungle river.

Hi All,
We have been busy, busy, busy! Last weeks classes went great. We were busy last week creating a blog for the Ometepe Bilingual School. The school runs purely on donations and volunteers, so there is no curriculum. We started a blog as a resource for the volunteers to communicate with each other about what they have taught  each class so everyone is on the same page, and the students will have a more consistent curriculum. Last week we also worked closely with the owner to set up an online donation site and created a letter to be sent to possible donors and volunteers, as well as to Government officials here in Nicaragua and the US. We need more volunteers and donations so we can send more students to University. All these projects will be complete by the end of this week, hopefully!
Yesterday we went for a long kayak ride down the lake to a river that flows through the jungle. We saw lots of cool birds and heard monkeys, but unfortunately we did not see any of the alligators that live there. This weekend we saw the most amazing sunset we have ever seen in our whole lives, and shared a bottle of delicious Rum with some new friends we made! We are meeting up with these friends next week in another city.
Starting this week we have an extra class in the morning with our most advanced students. Also starting  this week we will be observing at the elementary and high schools. We have a bunch of school supplies to donate to the schools! Tuesday we were invited to have lunch with one of the families of a student, and we are excited for that. We have been receiving home grown fruit from a couple of the families, and it is so good! Dan will be going fishing this weekend with one of the families and then we will have a feast with the family. There is a legend that if guests eat Red Fish, then they are destined to come back to the Island, so the family said they are going to feed us Red Fish so we are guaranteed to come back and stay with them at their home!
This Sunday we are hoping to rent a motorcycle and drive around the Island and go to Ojo de Agua, a fresh water spring. This is our last full week here on Ometepe Island. We leave next Wednesday and will spend 4 days on the ocean in San Juan del Sur! We will be staying right on the beach and learning how to surf! After that we go back to Costa Rica for 2 days, fly back to NYC and stay for 2 days, and then we come HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are so excited to see our family and friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We will try to post pictures later :)