Feliz Año Nuevo!

We've been off the grid for a few weeks, traveling around Nicaragua with visitors. Over Christmas and New Years, we got to visit some of our favorite places (Ometepe, Granada, Laguna de Apoyo) with some of our favorite people (our friends Remy and Gwyn and Davie's sister Anna and her family).

We began 2015 on the roof-top balcony of our hotel in Granada, with a 360-degree view of all of the fireworks shows going off all over Granada. Fireworks went off in every direction – from the cathedral in the central park, from the lake side, from the courtyards of colonial houses across the city. By 12:10, the night sky was just one huge cloud of smoke. And by the next afternoon, the drunks were still passed out in the cobblestone streets.

Thus began our last year living in Nicaragua. Looking back at our list of New Year's resolutions from last year, it looks like we accomplished quite a few of our goals for 2014:

- Start an after-school book club of some sort

- Plant and grow a garden in our back yard

- Hike to Cerro Apaguaji, a scenic mountain that overlooks the lands southwest of San Nicolas

- Visit a women's cooperative in Potrerillos that makes jams

- Continue our cooking club with neighborhood kids

- Work with the P.E. teacher, Reynaldo, to develop some after-school sports teams

- Fix the leaks in our roof

- Learn how to do the elaborate braids that so many little girls have

- Continue tutoring adults in the community in English

- Spruce up the natural medicine area in front of our house

- Help La Garnacha, the local organic farm, improve their communications materials

- Get bikes

- Visit Costa Rica and Davie's friends there

- Finish the Game of Thrones book series

- Teach English to a class of little kids and a class of high school students

- Bake stuff (including sourdough bread)

- Visit the Isla de Ometepe in the middle of Lake Nicaragua

- Practice my Spanish with our friend Fatima, who works at the pharmacy next door

- Deepen our friendships with the people of San Nicolas

And here are some things that we still want to do in 2015 before we leave Nicaragua:

- Visit the huge Bosawas nature reserve in northern Nicaragua

- Teach computer classes to high school teachers

- Form a women's baking group

- Go on a tour of the famous Nicaraguan Flor de Caña rum factory

- Learn how to make nacatamales

- Ride horses

- Go over land to Bluefields on the Atlantic Coast

- Do origami with some of our little kid friends

- Organize or participate in a community trash pick-up day

- Learn more about the 1980s Contra war in this area through oral histories

To top off our streak of visitors, my (Sarah's) parents and brother, Jon, arrived in Nicaragua a few days ago and will be staying in San Nicolas for two months. They are renting a house just down the street from us. My dad will work on writing a book for his sabbatical while my mom connects with some local artists and Jon homeschools. We're really excited for them to get to know our friends here and come to love San Nicolas as much as we do. It's the perfect way to start 2015.