Hello everyone! It’s Aly and today was the final “fun day” of our extraordinary trip!  Ironically, fun day began by waking up to me knocking on everyone’s’ doors, yelling out “Fun Day!!” at 4 o’clock in the morning.  For most I don’t think they found that to be fun.  Unfortunately, not all of us were able to participate due to not feeling well the day before and had to stay behind at the hostel. Nothing major. But this was really disappointing to all of us. However, after everyone dragged themselves out of bed and managed to pack all of their stuff on the bus, we made the 3 hour drive to Somoto.  Luckily,  a three hour drive means more sleeping time!! Also on the way we picked up Julio, our leader from our first fun day who is so positive and energetic! Once we got to Somoto, we met with our travel guides and collected our life jackets.  From there we drove 15 minutes to the start of our hike to the Somoto Canon. The hike was fairly short and mostly down hill, which was a big relief to all of us considering yesterday was mostly uphill!  At the bottom of the canon, the scenery was so beautiful and green, it was mesmerizing.  Also an extra bonus was that the weather cooperated perfectly for us today; there was no rain what so ever!

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From the top

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Pre-Swim

After the hike down, we jumped in the water and just floated down the river.  The river is called the Rio Coco and is the longest in Central America! If we wanted to we could have floated  all the way back to Jinotega!  However we only swam/floated for about 2 or 3 miles.  It was really relaxing and everyone loved it despite running into some big rocks a couple times.  We even got to jump off a large rock about 12 feet from water level which was really exciting.  It was so heartwarming to see everyone cheering each other on as we all jumped off.  (The trick is not to second guess just jump!) Also shout out to Brandon, the Birthday Boy, who jumped first!  When the wind started to pick up and the water became too shallow, we all piled into two small blue and green boats that took us to the shore.

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In the boats

 

From there we walked all the way back to the bus which unfortunately was a longer and less pleasant hike due to the uphill. When we finally got to the bus everyone was very tired and after returning the life jackets and eating lunch everyone pretty knocked out on the 3 hour bus ride back.  By some miracle, we arrived right on schedule to the hostel and the Glimpsers were awarded with the precious and rare gift of FREE TIME!! (Also I’m happy to report that those who were sick were feeling much better when we returned!)  During this time, a couple of us used the leftover CAP money to buy school supplies for Juan Carlos and the kids!

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Overall the day was very Fun as titled so, despite the rough start.  I loved spending time with my new family and I am so sad that we only have two days left.  I hope all of the families back home enjoy the pictures and thank you to everyone who reads the blogs and comments because it really puts a smile on all our faces!

Love,

Aly Carley