Close to Granada is La Laguna de Apoyo. As my brother Timothy called it, it´s kind of like a water crater. It´s a gorgeous freshwater lake surrounded by green mountains. One day I went to a small town called Caranita where they have El Mirador - an area with benches and restaurants overlooking la laguna. The next day, I met a CSer from Masaya (town nearby Granada) and we went down into la laguna for a couple hours of swimming and relaxation. Absolutely gorgeousssss place!... read more

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - celebrating the Virgin Mary's birth without sin. It is a HUGE holiday in Nicaragua and it's been really great experiencing it here with a family (I am staying with my friend Ashley's host family). For the 9 days before the 7th, people partake in a novena (daily prayer) to the Virgin Mary. The 7th is called La Griteria (gritar is to shout or scream or cry out). Everyone goes out with their family and it's sort of like trick-or-treating. We began the night around 5 by going to a neighbor's house to pray and sing songs. During this, the hosts give out candy, fruits, plastic buckets, household items, jewelry, toys to the kids. After that, around 6:30, we began walking around to other houses. A few families ... read more

It was wonderful spending almost 2 weeks with Mary, Joe, and little Samuel!! We hung out at home, went to restaurants, Pakistan National Museum, a day at the beach wıth a British famıly, had street food (mmmm), went to the community to see Mary's work, Waldo saw a bit of another NGO. Compared wıth the cıtıes ın India, Karachi seemed a bit more organized, clean, and generally less chaotic. Waldo and I managed to get around on rıckshaws, goıng to the Cathedral, shoppıng areas, and the Masoleum (where the foundıng father of Pakıstan ıs burıed). Whenever I took a rıckshaw by myself though, I seemed to get a drıver who SAID he knew where he was goıng but he DEFINITELY dıd not. We had to stop multıple tımes to fınd someone who spoke englısh so I ... read more

Pretty sure this is my favorite place of the trip!! Coincidentally, we were in Cinque Terre for two special occasions - my birthday and Waldo's and my 1 yr anniversary. It was wonderful to be in such a beautiful place and share the time with some really nice CSers. Cinque Terre is 5 small towns on the coast of northwest Italy. To walk from the first to the last takes about 5 hours. Unfortunately, we only had time to go to three of them. I didn't notice huge differences between the different towns but they all have their own unique feeling - all just very quaint, mostly quiet, and cute places. There's a lot of farms on the sides of the hills, small mom-and-pop restaurants, fun skinny streets to walk down. The trail between the towns ... read more

Soo many different kinds of transportation: taxis: normal auto rickshaws: can be quite the adventure. A motor cart type of thing which weaves in and out of traffic. cycle rickshaws: three wheeler with a cart in the back. cheaper than an auto rickshaw but can take a lot longer. TRAINS: so many different expereinces! #1 - from Kolkata to Delhi (about 17 hours). 8 beds in a compartment and you get served a snack, dinner, and breakfast. really comfortable and nice. #2 - little over two hours from Delhi to Agra. I would compare this to a regular sitting train in Europe. We got served tea and crackers and breakfast. #3 - Where it gets interesting returning to Delhi. We thought it would be the same as coming but alas we got a 4 hour train ... read more