We´re alive!

Hello everyone!

Just to let all of you know, Kristen and I are alive and well despite the recent lack of blog-activity.

So, to catch up a smidge, here´s the latest:

Kristen and I visited Volcano Poas two weeks ago (I think). It´s one of the largest volcanic craters in the world, spanning just over a mile and reaching a depth of 1000ft. Our guides all said to go early in the morning because, like most mountains but especially Costa Rican ones, Poas gets cloudy in the afternoons. Well, we got there around 11:00 and expected to see very little, but to our surprise and great pleasure the whole crater was visible; a stunning expanse with a sulferic springs at the center of it all. Pictures will be posted next time...the internet connection today is spotty.
Poas also has a beautiful lagoon that Kristen and I hiked to, as well as an informative (albeit in Spanish) visitor center. Lots of fun.

This past weekend, Kristen and I fled to Nicaragua for three days. Costa Rica gives out temporary traveler´s visas, which expire after a 90-day period. To renew this visa, one must simply leave the country for 72 hours. Easy enough.
So we went to Nicaragua. Our destination was Managua, to rendezvous with Annie, an American (and Midwesterner to boot!) working with ELCA Global Missions at the Lutheran Church there. She and her Nicaraguan boyfriend Luis acted as our guides for the weekend. Luis and his family are very involved in the heated Nicaraguan political atmosphere, so we received government, history, and culture lessons as we went. Managua is a very poor city - so poor that the poverty and general uncleanliness of the area surprised Kristen and I. There was a violent revolution in ´79 and a bad earthquake some years ago that aided in defacing the city, but it is still unfortunately impressive. Over 50% of the people in Nicaragua live below the poverty line, and unemployment is around 60%. Incredible.
Grenada, by contrast (where we went last Sunday) is beautiful. Churches, parks, and a boulevard with a European flavor inhabit Grenada. The poor and beggers are present in some force, as well, but the city is much neater than Managua.

So. That was the past two weeks. In brief. This weekend is Halloween, and today we made masks with the kids at the orphanage, pretended to ¨trick or treat¨and filled plastic gloves with popcorn. Everything went very well. Until four of our beloved 5/6 year olds dug through the garbage (after being asked not to repeatedly), found and removed the empty microwave popcorn bag, tore it up, and proceeded to lick the salty and buttery inside, making a point to find Kristen and I to show us just how well they couldn´t listen. Sigh. You win some, you lose some.

The rest of this weekend is going to be filled with a scary movie, pizza-bagels for dinner (we´re cooking) a trip to Sarchi (maybe).

Blessings to all of you, wherever you are.