Today was our “Sunday Fun-day”, and the day certainly lived up to its name. We woke up at 7:14, had breakfast, and left for our first event of the day; a tour at Castillo de Cacao (The Castle of Cacao). We had a tour of the facilities, and got a behind the scenes look at how organic chocolate is made here in Matagalpa. After the tour, we taste tested some freshly-made dark chocolate, and fell in love with the rich taste you can only receive from hand made chocolate. We proceeded to purchase THOUSANDS of cordobas worth of chocolate. After the tour, we took a 40 minute bus ride to El Ranchon/Laguna de San Martin, which is like the Nicaraguan Water World. We had a delicious lunch and changed into our swim suits. For over two hours we swam, climbed inflatable play structures, kayaked, and paddle boarded. During our time at the lagoon, we supported each other through fears of heights and tall jumps off the different inflatable structures. We developed our teamwork further learned how to help each other through difficult situations. After we drove home, we had dinner, and an hour of free time before our nightly meeting. Being the leaders today was a lot of fun and a big learning experience for both of us. We were able to step out of our comfort zones to help guide and lead the group through our long day. It was a valuable learning experience that all of us will carry with us forever.
Hi Jazz, I know you were in heaven today with all that Chocolate!!! 🙂 Hope you didn’t eat too much & hope you’re bringing some home so we can try too! lol. & all those water activities How Fun!!! I hope you did them all, I’m super jealous of all this fun you’re having chick! Make sure you’re taking lots of pics so you can show us everything when you get home. Love you Jazz….. <3 Mom
Jazmine, hello love, wow your Sunday Funday sure must of been a blast! I would of been in Heaven with all that chocolate! I’m glad you are keeping busy with all the activities you are doing! I wonder what tomorrow brings you? Enjoy yourself and know I love my #1 & only grandaughter.
Love you my,brown eyed girl.
Nana Bella
Hey maddawggg! I miss you!!! Couldn’t wait to tell you I met one of the bachelors and can’t wait to show you a picture! I hope you’re having an amazing time and can’t wait to hear all about it! Be safe, I love youuu!!
Nicole Finn
Hello Jazz, Sunday Funday is exactly what today sounded like. You and your GG friends deserve it after all your hard working days. It nice to see all the smiles and fun you are having! It doesn’t change how much I miss you but I know you enjoy everything you are doing there and experiencing there. Continue to take it all in Baby Girl. See you soon!
Love ya,
Grandpa & Nana
Bryant
Dark chocolate my favorite looks like a fun day for all of you, hoping your enjoying every minute of everyday with your new friends, many memories and being thankful to what you have, we never could understand or imagine others not having what we have taken for granted. Keep smiling ❤️
Hi Bryant this is your twin sister I miss you very much how’s ur trip going? I see you be eating my favorite beans and rice
See you soon!
Maddi,
What a great day you guys had. Chocolate and water fun. You have all worked hard and deserve a Funday. Looks like you all enjoyed your day. Hope you bought some of that yummy looking chocolate. Have a great day tomorrow. Thinking of you! Love M/P Baylee too?
Samantha
A Chocolate Factory, OMG, I hope you saved a little bit of money for the rest of the trip. I read that you slipped and hurt your leg on the hike, but you look okay now playing around on the inflatable play structures. Glad you recovered fast. The funday sounded really fun. I hope the camera is working so you can document all of these wonderful experiences.
love, M,D,S,M
Hello Bryant ,
Wow looks like a fun water day .. water and chocolate !!! Jealous ! It was very hot in the Bay Area this past weekend 100 degrees plus ☀️.. enjoy the water!!! I know you had a good time!!!
Good night !
Miss you !!
Love always ,
Dad & Tracey
Hi bugs I’m sure the water felt amazing !!! It was awesome to see your beautiful smile in the picture they posted even though it was a side view haha. All is well here, remember to soak it all in …. love you so much bugs xoxoxoxoxo
Mari – glad to see some Sunday Funday activities.
Tasting chocolate, organic chocolate – well that’s a team building experience right there.
Glad to hear that you are having a variety of experiences. Hope your camera is working too. Is there anything we can do to help you with that? missing you tons – enjoy that chocolate for us. xo m d k m d
Hi Bryant,
It sounded like you had a great day … I love chocolate sure it was fun watching them make it glad you got to enjoy yourself today!! It has been very hot at home.. Love and miss you lots
Love Mom?❤️
Hi Bryant,
It looks like your having a lot of fun!! I am so proud of you brother I would never be able to do what you have done going away from your family for two weeks!! I knew you would do a great job.. love you….
Love Jasmine
Hey Imani,
We enjoyed reading your blog. You got to be a leader on Sunday Funday and you got to sleep in a bit. Awesome!! It sounds like a wonderful break and fun day that you had after all of the hard work. I hope you bring some chocolate home. Your father will love to taste it ; ) We had a busy Sunday as well….We went to church and DJ had to leave early for a basketball game. Then after church we went to Living Hope for Sarah and Josiah’s end of camp celebration. We ate lunch there. After that Dad and I went to Membe’s Birthday celebration at Salute’s which was a fundraiser for Eric and Aiden’s tuition. We were very tired after all of that . We miss you much!! Continue to grow and learn all that you can.
Love ya,
Mom, Dad, DJ, Sarah, and Josiah
Imani and Abby, really enjoyed your mouth-watering post. On behalf of the Kramer Family, I’m really hoping some (much!?) of that yummy chocolate makes its way back home! Swimming looked like a blast. The diversity of modes of entertainment continues to amaze. As they say in New Orleans “laissez les bons temps roulez” (“let the good times roll”)!
Unka Cary sends his love!
Love, mom, dad and the rest of the Kramer Clan.
Hi Bugs
Looks like such a fun day. Doesn’t get much better than chocolate and water fun, haha. Its great to see all the smiles and fun everyone is having, creating more amazing memories. Continue to have fun making the most of each experience. Off to Victoria’s swim lesson. Love and Miss you! Victoria says” Hi Maddi, are you on the big airplane?” Love you bugs oxoxo
Abby!!!!! I love and miss you like crazy. It’s like so much has changed since you’ve been gone. First off, the second you left Kim had the decorators and painters here to change your room into a mud room for the dogs. Don’t worry, you and I can share my bed, I normally don’t sleep at home anyways…. (; Also, I only have 2 episodes of Supernatural left! WHAT?! I am avoiding watching them because I’m in denial.
I can’t believe you went to a chocolate place! You were probably so overwhelmed… I hope no bodies fell out of a giant bar of it… Just kidding haha. The description sounds so delicious. I bet you’re having way too much fun. I can’t wait to hear all about it!!! I’m really sad that I’m leaving the morning you get back though so I won’t be able to say hi! The girls told me to tell you hi and they miss you. I told them they need to tell you that first because they will see you before I do!!! I miss having a dinner/sushi buddy. When you get back we need to go on more sister dates, please. Having you gone makes me wish we could spend more time together.
Can’t wait until you get here! I know how much you’re probably missing your own bed and stuff. Don’t worry, it’s sitting in a nice little storage unit waiting for you (; Just kidding about the room thing lol it’s still there. Kim even spent hours cleaning it all up for you (lucky duck).
Love you so much!!!! Keep living life to the fullest and know your presence is missed over here. I know you probably won’t have time, but dad and Kim told me they got a call from you! I wanted to give you my number to call in case you have the time/want to and you don’t have it memorized (don’t worry if you can’t!!) 1(510) 468-8587. Sorry to all the other people that had to read this or hear it, Abby has a strange sister. It’s a wonder she’s so normal…
Love you brotha <3
Hi Abby,
glad you are having a good time. Cant wait to see you! Much Love and keep up the good work! Unca Cary
Hi Bryant! No not never, ever will Aunty be on those bounce water inflates! OMG! But I would eat the chocolate lol. I hope you had a wonderful time at the water park which looked amazing despite the high water inflates. Then learning how they make the chocolate looks fun too. Better to have an organic chocolate that’s made locally! Love you and can’t wait to hear more.
Love Aunty Christina.
Hi Quincy!
What a great day you must have had! I bet everyone was in a great mood after eating all that cacao! Bring some home please! The water park looks awesome!
Kim and I managed to get a short 1.5 hour sail in before the small craft advisory on Monterey Bay Sunday. We saw a crazy creature…the head looked like a great white at first, but the thing was really short… like a big blob…maybe a big jellyfish… we kept turning around to get a closer look. Turns out it was sunfish, that can weigh 2200 lbs, and it goes near the surface so that seagulls can peck into it’s flesh to extract embedded parasites! Then back at the dock I cleaned one of the fenders that prevent the boat from slamming into the dock… it had been part submerged in water for 6 months… The slime on it was full of mussels and sharp barnacles, but also hundreds of creepy crawly things including a 8 inch long centipede like tapeworm thing.
Opa turns 80 next Sunday.. can’t remember when your trip ends. I miss you.
Love you tons
Papa
Hi Lauren,
Wow, what a fun Funday had by all! You guys certainly deserved a break in your rigorous schedule. I bet the chocolates were amazing so hope some of them make it home for us to try :). And the water park sounds like it was wet ‘n wild. Hope you had a great time!
Can’t wait to hear about the CAP project this coming week.
Love U, Mom, Dad & Eric
Just to let everybody know. This delegation spent over 14.000 cordobas on chocolate!! This is absolutely a record for Castillo del Cacao. No group that visited it has ever spent more on chocolate… But for the people at home who can’t wait to taste it… I saw a lot of Glimpsers already eating every night. So I’ll doubt they are bringing any home for their families or friends…