Transitioning again

This will be another quick post, since I would rather hang out in the Washington sunshine than on the computer - but all of our fans are clamoring for an update!  And I'm waiting for Jeff to finish paperwork.

We've had a busy couple of weeks since we left El Jocote for the last time.  After a whole lot of goodbyes, we took a week to travel, theoretically to have a little vacation to ourselves before heading back to "real life."  We went up to Leon to visit Carolina at her house where we had stayed while talking Spanish classes.  

After that, we took off for Ometepe Island, one of the most magical places we've ever been.  The first time we went, we visited with Fawn in February.  It was gorgeous, but I was in a walking boot and had a crutch, so I didn't get to check out too much.  This time was much better.  We decided to have a look around at some of the interesting farms they have near Balgue, including Finca Bona Fide, a permaculture farm and educational facility:

 

 We found a few things to tell our Nicaraguan colleagues about, including a cheaper way to make big water tanks:

 ... and the idea of a seed exchange:

We stayed right next door at Finca Magdalena, a community cooperative organic, shade grown coffee farm.  They sell all their exportable coffee to Bainbridge Island in Washington, their sister island, where it is sold as Cafe Oro.  My lordy, but the coffee there was tasty, and the views were incredible (yes, that volcano is smoking):

But, of course, we had to get back to Managua, since the airport was there and all.  We managed one more stop by the Huembes market, where you can find piñatas and other party supplies,

 fish and iguanas,

 meat - at least, I think that's what it is,

 shoes shoes shoes,

 and DVDs, as Jeff spent lots of time discovering.

Packing was a challenge.

But we got packed, and we made our flights - all were delayed, which made for a lot of hurry-up-and-waiting, but we made it.  We got to the Managua airport a little after 5 am (mountain time), and sat sweating in the so-called air conditioning, then flew to Miami, then to Chicago O'Hare, then finally arrived in Seattle at almost 10 pm (pacific time).  But in Seattle, there were my mom, brother, sister-in-law, and my new nephew.  That was so much fun!

We hung around Seattle for a couple nights so I could visit with the new nephew catch up with his parents.

Much eating of wonderful food ensued - my brother, being awesome and all, decided that he needed to show off his new smoker skills with a roast and a big chunk of king salmon.  They both cooked up lovely things like stroganoff, eggs/bacon/pancake breakfast, etc.  Nothing like getting away from the rice and beans!

We have since visited my 95-year-old super-woman grandma, who continues to amaze, spent a little time (never enough!) with my niece, seen our cat and cuddled as much as his pride would allow, celebrated my birthday with both moms, step-dad, aunt, Subira, and another fantastic salmon/shrimp/cheeeeeese! meal, and done one heck of a lot of errands.  More errands and visiting to follow, as well as a road trip to see a solar eclipse, and jobs starting up.  Jeff will be starting on May 24th, it appears, but my start date has gotten held up.  I'd be more ticked if the hold up didn't mean more time with people I'm enjoying seeing...