Nicaragua!

In the midst of a cold, snow, desolate and unfriendly winter, the best thing that one can do to beat the perma-grey blues is to escape. And that is just what I did in the middle of January. From the 12th to the 16th I took off from Miami with some friends from south Florida for warmer parts unknown.

I can't say that the prospect of seeing parrots in the wild was a deterrent in any way either... wink.

It just so happens that a buddy of mine from Oregon owns a surf business down there ( www.surftoursnicaragua.com is the website and you can check it out) and it was really good to get to see him and all that his business has to offer. I have to say that he is doing a great job down there and we had a great time hanging out with him for as long as we could. Sadly, we had to move on and Joe and Sean and I headed up the coast halfway into our trip to find a house that Joe had rented or us.

It may be hindsight that encouraged me to buy my very first language program online, but I realize that I am never going back there unless I can speak Spanish! (And I have plans to take Sarah there next year)

*Pause for a collective sigh from the parental units*

The country was beautiful and warm and when you get away from the city the people are all very friendly and caring. We stayed at a little house near a town called Chinandego on the north shore of Nicaragua. View where we were at here http://maps.google.com/maps?f=s&ie=UTF8&ll=12.291701,-86.572266&spn=1.341781,2.136841&t=p&z=9 as you can see, there was a large lake when we landed in the capital city of Managua (I've never been to an airport where a plane lands and then has to turn around on the runway to get to the terminal) and for the entire drive NW we were seeing volcanoes out of our right window.

The house that we stayed in was gorgeous and we got to surf and play around on the beach during the day. The caretakers of the house, Wilmer and Coco were fantastic hosts and spoiled us with oranges each morning and coconuts picked from the trees in the yard in the afternoons. My buddy Joe had a god time chasing the family chickens and Sean enjoyed talking to the parrots. Myself, I got to bird. Even on a limited time frame and in slightly urban areas, I managed to add 14 species to my life list. Great names down there too: Tropical Kingbird (my favorite), Turquoise-browed Motmot, White-throated Magpie-Jay, Rufous-naped Wren, Cinnamon Hummingbird, Red-lored Parrot, Blue-black Grassquit, Bare-throated Tiger-heron, Violet Sabrewing and Cinnamon-bellied Flower-piercer it's enough to tangle your tongue and allow your imagination to run rampant.