Birthday in Nicaragua

It feels weird, but we've hardly used our Spanish at all since being in San Juan; it took me a day or so to readjust my cultural clock. Our hosts, Karen and Roy, speak almost no Spanish. Salty 50-something ex-pats, they are true Libertarians who feel at home here in Nicaragua, I think, because it is a fairly lawless place. (You can't, for instance, go off and leave your home unattended, if you want to have a home to come back to. Squatters' rights are strong here.) They are extremely hospitable, though: Roy let us take his 'quad' four-wheeler to the beach and back several times (I stopped driving after accidentally rolling it into a ditch).

On Sunday night Roy and Karen made my birthday a real party (complete with BC bud and Nica rum), and we stayed up late with them playing Liar's Dice. It was definitely one of the best birthdays I've ever had.