On Friday after that ridiculous party below, several PC volunteers came to Ometepe to enjoy the weekend prior to the race I had helped plan with my youth group that would occur on Sunday. Putting my hangover aside, I bounced around all over doing last minute errands as visitors began popping in.
That afternoon, my good buddy Julian and I went to one of my schools to give a class only to find out that the students left early after receiving their exam grades. Looks like this guy just entered Summer vacation!!! No school until February 13th, sounds good to me. Julian and I then were solicited by the Red Cross to donate blood, to which we gladly accepted. Strangely enough, after visiting Costa Rica when I was younger, I couldn’t give blood for a few years because of my time in Central America, now there I was in Nicaragua (a country whose entire budget makes up just the educational budget of Costa Rica) donating my blood.
Soon thereafter, we traveled to the other side of the island, put our stuff down at a hostel, and now with a group 15 or so strong, made our way back to the party from the night before. Unfortunately for us, there was hardly anyone there, the festivities from the night before had vanished, the lights and stage had been dismantled and we proceeded to eat dinner and pass around some litros of that fine Nicaragua brew, Tonya.
Splitting up into different groups on Saturday morning, Julian, Pedro, and I took a bus to a coffee farm and spent the day hiking through the forest among pre-Columbian artifacts, snakes and spiders, and howling monkeys.
After a tasty lunch, everyone eventually made their way to the port city, checked in at Saturday night’s hostel, and prepared for the run the next morning.
Summarizing the days events, the race started about 2 hours late (or on-time by Nica time), and besides a 2nd place by Hooper Jones in the main 18 km category, all the trophies and prizes were earned by local Nicas. All in all, there were about 40 participants (12 Peace Corps Volunteers), and a huge turnout by the community to participate in all the side activities and sports. Most stayed an extra night, had Cornerhouse breakfast and left soon thereafter.
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