Day Trip

Yesterday was a day defined by drastic temperature changes. We took a little day trip to Managua to check out Nicaragua's proud capital, and, in true gringo form, we spent most of our time not at history museums or revolutionary landmarks, but rather at the American-style mall that everyone raves about. We're talking McDonald's, a Cinemark movie theater, and (gasp!) air conditioning. Air Conditioning, where it exists, is serious business down here: you walk out of the humid tropical heat and into an arctic environment that could be used as a meat-locker if necessary. So while it was a relief to get cooled off, it was an equal relief to leave the mall and re-enter the humidity where our frostbitten fingers could thaw. Maybe they plan it that way just to double your pleasure.

Out of the frying pan and into the furnace of our bus ride home, where the outside heat is compounded by the heat of far too many bodies. This time Jenna and I both passed the claustrophobia test with flying colors, even on the return trip, where there were about 26 of us crammed into a 15 passenger van, sweating on each other and bent over in unusual positions to which our bodies are unaccustomed. And then, an hour later, the sweetest feeling of the day: stepping out of the bus and into the cool evening breezes of Granada . . .