Semana Santa

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday and is one of the biggest holidays in Nicaragua. We had the entire week off of school and most businesses shut down at least from Thursday to Sunday; even public transportation was less frequent.

Most Nicaraguans try to go to the beach sometime during Semana Santa, but we stayed in Masaya most of the time. Our one trip was to visit another TEFL volunteer in the department of Granada. It was a joint Easter/vacation/birthday pot-luck celebration, and was a great time overall.

Making the trip even more exciting was that we decided to bring Dora along for the ride. We were worried that she wouldn't like being in a loud, hot, crowded bus, but she did wonderfully. From Masaya to the city of Granada, she just slept in our laps and was a perfect little puppy. On the second leg of the journey, there weren't any seats, so I had to hold Dora the whole way:Here's some of the group that was there. There were volunteers from TEFL and Small Business and several volunteers' boyfriends.
Dora took advantage of the patio to hone her new-found calling...
...and then enjoy the fruits of her labor:
Dora also got to meet Ty, our friend's dog. Ty was a dog living on the streets of Granada and was badly injured in a car accident. Some volunteers living there got him all fixed up and now he's a really sweet tripod dog:
It was our friend Nicole's birthday, so she had an authentic Nica birthday party with a Tigger piñata, and Audra baked a great cake.
Dora got her first stamp on her puppy travel passport, and it was a lot of fun to get to see other volunteers and enjoy our Holy Week Vacation.