First off, I would like to share that we experienced our first BIG, HARD, and LOUD THUNDERSTORM in Nicaragua! We all acted as if we never experienced a thunderstorm before and jumped around screaming like monkeys. Or maybe we just haven’t had much rain in the Bay Area for a while now that we were overjoyed to see and experience it here. It just made all of our day end on a really good note.

Anyway, today we started off our morning by waking up 8:00 AM but I woke up at 7:30 AM which wasn’t too bad considering that I’ve been up way earlier than that before. At 9:00 AM we headed to our usual comedor, Quiero Mas, for breakfast & had a wonderful pancake that covered the whole plate and it was drenched in syrup with a side of fresh banana. When breakfast was over, we headed back to the hostel to clean our mess to be more considerate and responsible of our belongings so we left it spotless before we left for our free time.

We then got in our groups & made our way out to the streets of Leon. My group and I went to this coffee shop called La Libelula & it just reminded me of home working at my coffee shop and seeing my happy customers. While walking to el Parque Central and enjoying our coffee frappes, Niko had a minor accident and hit his leg against this short pole so we had to walk him back to the hostel. Back at the hostel, a fellow glimpser, Dr. Jesse COOLar fixed up Niko’s leg with items that we had in the first aid kit. Soon after, we left the hostel making our way back to Central Park again & also passing by the other Leon delegation for the 4^th time. I had 2,000 cordobas to start with and then ended up with only 100 cordobas left because I just went crazy souvenir shopping and I also offered to buy my friend and fellow glimpser, V,  a smoothie & her headband.

Lunch time came so soon and before we left, it started to rain little droplets out of the sky. Everyone was so excited and Kevin, the hostel manager, along with the cleaning staff looked at us like we were crazy and laughing at our reactions to the sprinkles of rain. If only videos could be posted on blogs, we could really show you all how crazy we were and are in general as a delegation! For lunch we had rice, spaghetti, friend chicken & a slice of bread. Sebastian gave his chicken away to a child who was hungry that we saw last week because he just so happened to walk by when we were there today. But it was sad that one of the owners tried to shoo him away by closing the door. To replace Sebastian’s chicken, I gave him mine because I was tired of eating chicken anyway.

After lunch, everyone just made their way to their new destinations while my group and I took a long, hot walk back to the market where we worked at as a local for a day. Merline couldn’t find what she wanted there so we left shortly after. Jesse and Niko both bought bootleg Dr. Dre Beats headphones, one in pink & one in black. Niko was upset his earphones didn’t have bass like Jesse’s. Afterwards we walked to the supermarket. On our way, we stopped by the theater to use the restroom and to our surprise, it was AIR CONDITIONED! It was so amazing and we basked in the fresh, cool ambiance. Began bought a delicious hot dog from there with chips on top that looked so delicious! He had also broke his turtle that he bought just hours ago too, which was sad so the hot dog really cheered him up again. Jesse was admiring some Rolex watches that he wanted to buy on the street stand. I’m not sure if those were bootleg too but he couldn’t get it either way because no one was there & he ran out of money anyway.

We finally arrived at the supermarket and I bought V some food and myself some too.  I also bought some Cookies & Cream Oreos to bring home to my sister as a souvenir because we don’t have those back home. Began went SUPER CRAZY, he bought four bags of snacks & shortly after went “bankrupt.” I asked him how he was going to finish all that he bought with only two days remaining of this trip & he said, “I won’t. I’m going to bring some home. I probably won’t ever have plantains ever again. Or I might just share with everyone.” After he said that, I asked him to give me those chocolate covered Oreos that we also do not have back in the states anymore because it was limited edition. After our trip to the supermarket, we went back to Central Park to buy Beagan another turtle.

Dinner time was when the whole day got even more exciting & everyone’s energy went from 0 to 100 real quick. Before we headed out to eat, we knew that it was going to rain but just didn’t know when exactly. It was already thundering quite a bit too before we left. Farima told us that it was also Don Luis’s birthday (the owner from Quiero Mas). We didn’t reach the door yet, but we already started singing & shouting happy birthday to him about 50 feet away because he was already outside turning up with his friends and family blasting music from his car. Just moments when everyone got their dinner, it started to pour really hard. We went super crazy again & ran outside to catch rain on the sidewalk with Don Luis. We were all soaked with smiles from ear to ear. Dinner was full of such amazing energy and excitement celebrating with Don Luis and also celebrating our first Nicaraguan rain and thunderstorm which we had been waiting for since last week when it thundered a bit. As we were leaving Quiero Mas, it was still raining really hard and I was already drenched and I didn’t want my hair to get ruined so big love to Amy for letting me borrow her windbreaker to cover up so only my bottom half of my body got soaking wet.

Back at the hostel, we all were still fascinated by the thunderstorm & asked the other guests staying at the hostel to help us take a bunch of pictures while we danced in the rain again. Our nightly meeting went well like every other night while the storm slowly ended.

Today was a beautiful day. The thunderstorm is no longer with us but I’m happy to say that we took full advantage of it while it was with us and we had so much fun!