This past weekend I went to San Marcos de Colón with Yoli, Susan, Grace, and Matthew (a North American volunteer living with us for a month). San Marcos is where Arturo grew up- his parents and a few of his siblings & families still live there (he has 10 brothers & sisters in total!). It was about a 4 hour bus ride to San Marcos (my family only has a truck, so it’s easier to travel by bus). The bus ride was through the mountains, so the combination of fast driving and many curves doesn’t always sit too well with me, but I’m glad it was only 4 hours. The photo (L-R) is Susan, Grace, Yoli, and myself.

San Marcos is a really cute town. There are brick roads, a cute park downtown with examples/statues of old fashioned appliances before there was electricity such as the oven and cooking over fires. The buildings are all really bright colors, and it’s just a cute town. We spent some time with the family (there’s a lot of them in and out of the house all day), walked around town, and visited different shops of people they knew including a belt/belt buckle shop, corner store (called a pulpería in Spanish), and a hair salon. I’ve included a picture of Grace and Matthew when we were taking a break at the pulpería- notice that they’re drinking water out of a bag. That’s pretty common for fresh made fruit juices and sometimes water instead of a bottle. We also had some ice cream (which I’m always up for!). Around dinner time I learned how to make tortillas. Well, I learned part of it. The mass/dough had already been made, but I learned the strategy on how to roll out the dough/mass, make it into the tortilla size/shape, and then bake it on the flat iron type thing which was over the fire.

Sunday on the way back to Nueva Suyapa, we also stopped in Choluteca for a while to visit a Canadian friend of Grace who is living and volunteering there. Before we arrived, every one kept telling me the weather in Choluteca is so hot. I wasn’t sure if I believed them, but after being there about 3 minutes, I was sure of it as well! It was nice to return to Nueva Suyapa, where the weather is more comfortable and it gets a little cool in the evening.

It was a fun weekend and a great opportunity to get out of Nueva Suyapa and see the country side. We’re entering the dry season right now, so the countryside is not a lush green, but it’s still beautiful with the mountains.