We're Not Alone

Bex! here, reporting for duty.  Seems like Dave is finally letting me write another post all by myself.  However, it is a post all about other people's writing.  Maybe he's trying to send me a message…

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While our writing uses lots of phrases such as "rural," "at the end of a very long dirt road," "more than an hour from definitive medical care," and "too remote to get a pizza delivered," Mérida is not so far off the beaten track that we don't get our share of visitors.  (Although, as the rainy season turns that beaten track into a sea of mud and a jumble of rocks, maybe that will change for a few months.)  We've written about a number of those visitors here in the blog, either volunteers or travelers we've particularly connected with.  Traveling and living abroad this year is giving us great opportunities to make friendships around the country and the world.  We're not alone in leaving home and seeking adventure.

We're also not alone in creating web memories of our adventures.  Other people have posted about their travels to Mérida, and sometimes about us, too.  So, if we're not posting enough to satisfy your curiosity, check out these other windows into our experience.  Plus, they have their own unique perspectives.

Our four young Swiss volunteers in February (here is where we wrote about how awesome they were), had to keep a daily blog as part of their program.  You can read about their experiences at Ometepe Bilingual School here: The P.I.E.C.E.S. - Team M&M.  If you do, you'll see a couple of familiar names mentioned from time to time.  And if you just want a quick laugh, read this post first:  'A' Like Alcohol.

A May visitor who hooked us up with penpals in the United States for our high school students posted a short blurb on Ometepe Bilingual School, including a picture of yours truly at work.  You can see that post here:  Line Llama Travel Blog.

Our recent June volunteer also kept a blog while in Nicaragua, partly to share her experience with friends and family, partly to create content for her Spanish classes back in the United States.  (We haven't written about her yet, but we will soon.)  She was a rock star in the classroom and also super amazing at blogging regularly.  You can read about her experiences at Ometepe Bilingual School and elsewhere in Nicaragua here: Aventuras Mías - Nicaragua.  It was nice to learn we aren't the only ones who struggle to understand Nica Time.

People passing through, but not volunteering at the school have also done some writing.

Kelly was one of our February volunteers.  She was traveling with her husband and their two young children and he wrote a piece about their experiences traveling with kids which you can read here on Budget Nomads.

The Teasdales are an amazing family from Montana.  They pulled their boys out of school for a year and came south to spend 7 months traveling and living in Central America.  We greatly enjoyed getting to know them when our time on Ometepe overlapped in the fall.  We've previously written about working with them to stuff school supplies and about the dastardly trick they played on us when they loaned us their SUPs while they biked around the island (we got hooked and had to buy our own SUPs).  And they've written about their adventures in Central America, too.  You can read about preparing for and starting their adventure here: Aaron Teasdale's Web Log.  And you can read about one night's adventure standup paddle boarding in Nicaragua here: And Llamas - Why We Need Adventure.  There are pictures and short blurbs here: Aaron Teasdale Writing and Photography.  Finally, if you just don't want to read anything at all, Silas Teasdale edits up great videos.  Watch this one about Ometepe.

And when you've reviewed all this, then you'll be stuck with us again.  Or more accurately with Dave, I'm only qualified to caption pictures.  (Shhh, as long as he thinks that, I can keep letting him do all the hard work.)

-Bex!