Masaya

My host brother and his wife invited me to go to Masaya with them this morning in hopes of getting my a Nica cell phone.  The bus ride there was of course interesting.  I thought things were not gonna be too crazy as it would be a short ride.  Well, we came around a corner and there apparently was a bike race taking place coming toward us.  The lead cars were only about 20 feet ahead of the bikes, not giving us much warning so we came to a quick stop and had to wait for the entire crowd of bikes to pass, along with lead cars and other vehicles pushing their way through.  So it wasn't too bad, but it was pretty crazy because I know in the U.S. there would be a lot more saftey precautions...  Anyway, we made it to Masaya which is a much bigger town that San Juan and it was really neat to walk around.  We went into the supermercado and I bought a few things that weren't available in my town, and then we went to the phone store.  I got a Movistar phone (there are two companies--Movistar & Claro).  Movistar is a little cheaper but doesn't have as good of service.  I'm not too worried about that though.  They all have Movistar phones so I figured it was fine :)

We met up with my other host sister and I went with her to head back to San Juan while the others went somewhere else.  She wanted to get something in the market so we walked through what seemed like a never-ending covered market.  It was crazy but really cool!  I want to go back--it's fun just to look at all the stuff.  We finally made it to the "bus depot" which is a large gravel parking lot outside of the market where buses crowd in to pick up as many passengers as they can.  We got on the bus and had to wait awhile because they wanted to get more passengers.  During this waiting time, several people get on and off the bus trying to sell bags of juices/water, snacks, etc.  It cracks me up how they drink everything out of bags.  There are bottles here, but they're seldom used.  This juice bags look similar to what frozen veggies come in in the States, but they're about half the size.  So, you buy one, bite the corner off, and then drink.  Some of them are clear plastic bags that are filled with juice and ice, then tied off around a straw.  I have yet to try these because we are warned not to and they don't look very safe for my stomach...

Anyway, we made it back home and I was glad for that because it was HOT!  SO HOT!  I felt like my face was burnt & I was sweating so much.  I felt hungry and started eating lunch, but couldn't eat much.  I think it was the heat.  I drank a lot of juice & water too though.  Now I'm at the cyber with Jessica & Kellie.  We might go into Catarina later (the next town over) to visit some other trainees.  We'll see!