Today was a very interesting day because it was FUN DAY.  Starting with the wake up call of 7 in the morning to get ready to eat a delicious breakfast of Gallo Pinto, guacamole with tortillas and a fruit punch drink.  After that, the day became so much more brighter for me because we went to MARIPOSARIO!!! Where we got to see many and I mean many beautiful butterflies. This made me very ecstatic because I really love butterflies. The way they’re all so different in color, size and speed yet share the beauty of nature’s many mysteries. I knew that before turning into the majestic beauties they are, they were first just a tiny little larva – that is their first phase. Then larvae go into the second phase of turning into many different type of caterpillars that would eat and eat until they were in the third phase of being in a cocoon for a couple of weeks. And then they enter their fourth phase of turning in to beautiful butterflies. What I did not know about them was the type of defense system they have. One caterpillar had a defense of smell that if you touched its antennas then it would produce a terrible smell. A smell you really don’t want smell ever in your life. The second thing I didn’t know about butterflies is that once they come out of the cocoon they don’t instantly just fly away but they stay by their cocoon for a few hours to let their wings dry because they leave the cocoon with wet wings. But other than that it was an awesome day because I was the first one to actually hold a butterfly with no help and it was amazing because I’ve never done that before in my life and its an unforgettable experience.

After the butterflies  we all went to lunch at the comedor where we had white rice with surprisingly yummy chicken fingers, salad and lemonade. Then we had a bit of down-time in the Hostel and got ready to go on the Masaya shopping challenge.  A challenge because we all were in the tourist market for about an hour or so where everything was nice and clean, but it was a bit pricey. But on the bright side, there was a nice breeze with everyone’s little shop so organized and what not. Then we went to the local market where everything was so different than the tourist market. The local market had a lot more people and vendors that made the place look so small. The local market is big, but its a lot more crowded and pushed together by all the local vendors trying to sell their products but had their items more than half off the prices at the tourist market and were willing to barren with everyone. With all the people there, it was hard to walk in pairs and the whole group had to walk in a single file line. Compared to the tourist market that you could have two or three people walking right next to each other, which is not a bad thing. Even if the tourist market looked a lot nicer and was not hot in there, I still liked the local market more because not only were the prices better and more affordable but it was something about that just had this realistic side of Nicaragua. The feeling is hard to describe because there really is no words to describe the feeling of being in actual working market where locals work and buy their everyday items. You just had to be there to believe it because there are no words to describe the local market.