Managua, Nicaragua

Hi everyone!

Happy 2008!! I hope you all had a happy holiday and I wish you all the best in the year to come. January 6th marked one year since Leah, Rachel, and I boarded the bus to Mexico in NC (some say that anniversary doesn't count because we went home for a month in August but since we've been in traveling mode since then, I think it does). Rachel and I celebrated at the mall here in Managua; she drank a smoothie and I had some ice cream. It was too bad that Leah wasn't there for our special toast but she is still working in Peru and is planning to meet up with us in about a week in Guatemala.

This past year has been a wonderful year even though it has not gone according to plan. I just spent the past two and half weeks in Colombia and had a really nice time overall, even though the first few days were hard. After spending a year with my friends it was strange to all of a sudden be in an unfamiliar city all by myself. It didn't help that everyone around me on the streets was in Christmas mode and the weather was mainly cold and rainy. I went to the bus station hoping to get a bus ticket to Cartagena to spend Christmas on the beach with some friends but was told that tickets were sold out for the next week to pretty much everywhere in the entire country, so I didn't have much choice but stay in Bogota. I went back to my lonely hotel room and cried most of the afternoon and then decided to move to a nearby hostel in the hopes of having a more social atmosphere. It turned to be a good idea and I met a lot of great people. One advantage of traveling by yourself is that it is a lot easier to meet people. The hostel had special dinners on both Christmas and New Years so I spent the holidays surrounded by about 40 people from all around the world. On New Years I went out dancing with a group of about 20 people. We went to the Zona Rosa and got to the club just in time to see the ball drop on the big screen.

Even though I made some friends at the hostel I still spent a lot of time by myself. I spent most days wandering around La Candelaria, which was my neighborhood, and got to know it very well. I found a beautiful park about 15 blocks from my hostel and went there almost everyday to read and people watch.

I gotta run, but I promise I'll add another entry soon,
Katie