Tuesday - Going to Lunch

After the morning activities, we took a hike to the other side of the village to the homes that would host us for lunch today.  

The hike in these pictures looks flat, but it involved some considerably steep hills that were straight down and straight up which took us 10-20 minutes to hike.

This is one of the homes that we ate lunch in.  The family described how their kids walk to school each day on the same route that we had hiked to get there.  However it takes their kids only 5 minutes to get to the school (all the way across the village), a fraction of the time it took us!  

AND their kids walk those paths no matter the weather.  During their rainy season (June through January), it rains there (often pouring) at least 3 times a week, and it can often rain 8 days in a row making their dirt pathways complete mud. The kids still walk to school!

The land here is beautiful here.  No matter how many pictures we take to try and show the beauty, they never quite fully capture it.  We recommend that you come here to experience the natural beauty and peace of God's creation in this place.  

One thing you see in these pictures and throughout Nicaragua: both at La Bendicion and everywhere you drive in the mountains, is coffee plants.  They not only plant them on flat areas, but on every hill  no matter how steep the pitch is.  The coffee here is some of the best tasting in the world.



 These are beans that were just harvested.  They lay them out on black tarps to dry out for three days before putting them away to be sold or stored away to eat.

For a faster way back to the other side of the village, we got a ride in the back of a pickup truck - a common way for Nicaraguans to travel.  There is not much thought to seat belts or car seats here!

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