el fin

Well, it has finally come to the very last day of our 6 week adventure in Central America. Back in San Salvador for the next 24hours and then San Fran.
Our last leg of the trip took us through Granada, a very beautiful conservative city whose Spanish style colonial buildings are being restored by the foriegn dollar. Hard to resist though, very little trash, gorgeous homes with large botanical courtyards, and horse drawn carriages everywhere for a smallish price (we spoke with one guy who was looking to buy 5 acres+creek for $18,000. He said ¨Now thats an amount of money a man can stand to loose.¨ Don´t know if we agree as that loss would be devistating to us but...). Might be the first time I´ve ever seen someone parallel park a horse and cart before- looks more difficult than a car! There was alot in this area we didn´t get to see, funny how the time starts to sprint when the end is in sight, so we´ll have to come back some time.
Took a bus to Leon to meet up with my half-sister´s half-brother (does this make Olin my half-brother once removed?) who has been living in Nicaragua for 6 years. Olin, his wife Ofelia, and their 9 month old cutie Kenna are running a hostal called La Tortuga Booluda (the Lazy Turtle) which serves as a hub for folks creating social, environmental, and eco-tourism programs in Northwestern Nicaragua. Want to come down and do social work in Nicaragua, Olin and Ofelia are the ones to hook you up. Olin took us to the beach where we pretended to be surfers but the ocean saw right through us, so after getting our asses served, we relocated and pretended to be sunbathers. I got tumbled pretty roughly and later had my first back spasms in which I was literally unable to get up off the bed. Hata had to help me negotiate this painful transition so, in many ways it will be good to come home and seek out a chiropractor. Aren´t we too young for this kind of stuff?
Since my back was hurt, we decided to head back to Managua instead of going to the Gulfo de Fonseca on the way to El Salvador. In Managua we caught an 11 hour luxury bus to San Salvador loaded to the gills with Advil and Vicodin. And my back is feeling much better thank you!
Today-the last day- we will walk around the city trying to eat as many pupusas as possible and then fly home in the morning. This trip has been great, giving life to all sorts of other travel plans, and expanding our acceptance of trying moments or perceived imperfections.
Although I would have to say, we have a major problem with plastic. It is everywhere and after all the plastic trash we have seen on the roads, clogging rivers, covering beaches, fueling people´s cooking fires, I would like to urge everyone to reduce their own consumption of plastic. When biologist cut open the stomach of the first dead dolphin whale that washed up on Utila, they found she had eaten large amounts of plastic which could have been what killed her.
Lets all do our best and then some more...
Love you guys, thanks for traveling with us, and we´ll see you guys soon!
xoxoxo maggie and hata