The Fam Has Arrived

It's family time here in Nicaragua. Among the four second years who are now allowed to have visitors, three of us have our families visiting at practically the same time. My parents and brother arrived last Tuesday afternoon. We spent a few days in Ciudad Sandino and Managua, taking in the sites and meeting people. We spent New Year's eve in the Ciudad Sandino house with our friends Joe and Kelly and their friend Nicki. I was really looking forward to seeing what the Ciudad had to offer on this infamous night of polvoras and bombas (fireworks and bombs). You may remember that last New Year's I posted a video of our neighbors "Burning El Viejo," well they do it in the Ciudad too. At midnight we all went out to the street to watch fireworks and a bunch of our new neighbors came up to hug and greet us with New Year's blessings. In the morning, as is a Reynolds family tradition we had a ton of friends and coworkers over for a lunch grill out. As always we threw a great party and everyone had their fill of hamburgers, hotdogs, and even brats brought directly from the brat capital of the world: Cincinnati.
The fam and I are now on the road. We have never had a vacation like this before. My parents have never been to Latin America and we've never traveled internationally together. That said, things are going very well. We went to Volcán Masaya, the Laguna de Apoyo, and are currently in the colonial city of Granada.
It's been really cool to share both the everyday side of Nicaraguan life that is my community, friends, and school and also the natural beauty of the countryside, the Nicaragua that is "the land of lakes and volcanoes." Nicaragua is such a breathtakingly beautiful country.