Birthday: From Managua to Tola

I bring in my 25th year in Managua, Nicaragua at a ''summer party,'' an outdoor bar with a band that reminds us of the high school singing cover songs from Green Day, Offspring, etc, but with an accent so I´m a creep sounds like i´m a crepe and we we laugh into hysterics at the idea.

The actual day begins with reading by the poolside, and toast with tamarind marmalade and coffee. We head to the bus station around noon and as we sit in our express chicken bus waiting to take off we realize food would be a good idea. So we wander 20ft from our bus to a woman making enchiladas and as we wait for our change Andrea looks up to notice that our bus is departing. A quick ¨Gracias¨a money grab, and we run.

Nicaragua is green and beautiful. Everytime we get in a bus to travel to our next destination the green surrounds. Today I realize how much I will miss the bauty of latin america once I leave. It is a beauty uncomparable to any I have encountered and it lies greatly in its culture.

So we take the bus to Rivas and then a cab to our next destination, Tola. Within minutes of arriving we have met the whole family, they radiate beauty. My first interaction with them is enough to make this one of the best birthdays of my life. For the first time on this trip I seem to understand nearly everything spoken. They even blast the Nicaraguan birthday song from the house as we sit out back and drink our ice cold cocas under a canopy.

Then, we go to the ocean. Obviously. A 30 minute car ride down a bumpy dirt road, and there it is. THE OCEAN! We sit on the sand and talk. HaHa. Who am I kidding? I just lay there and try to pick up the bits and pieces of spanish I can grasp. I wade in the frigid water up to my knees and then we walk to the rocks. We climb up and watch the waves come in huge and crash, like a monster attacking the mountainous shore. I am mezmerized. The energy that pulses through the waves is spectacular and occasionally makes me jump with its power. We watch the water, and then the crabs, and then the sunset.

We return for a dinner of rice, beans, fried chicken, fried plantains, rum and O.J. But for serious, the best beans we have ever had. Whoa. Fantansia Ice cream for desert.

I can still feel the ocean pulsating through my body.