I don't mind the weather - I've got scarves and caps and sweaters

Today was hot.

You might be thinking, "Duh, you're in a tropical country in the summertime" but you'd be wrong. It isn't actually summertime here, which would make sense if we were south of the Equator - which we aren't. For some reason, in Nicaragua, winter goes from May-ish to October-ish and summer is everything in between. There's no fall or spring, either; this made my weather worksheets really complicated in Spanish class because they were written somewhere that has four seasons. In any case, winter time in Nicaragua is technically the rainy season, which is why it's worth mentioning that today was hot!

Family and friends at home have been asking about the weather lately and I've been having a hard time saying much about it because nobody seems interested in measuring the weather here. While I've checked online a few times - apparently tomorrow's RealFeel is supposed to be 42C - some of the weather sites actually try to pass off Managua's weather as Jinotepe's. Still, I think I checked the weather here more often during the year than I do now. Here’s a screen shot of Managua’s weather in March when it was -40 in Edmonton. Checking this was an excellent way to remember that there was a light at the end of the tunnel of winter!

Now, I usually just ignore the numbers because the weather is generally pretty consistent anyway: brilliant sun in the morning, clouds or sun in the afternoon, pouring rain all night. Sometimes the rain isn't done by the time we get up and throws a wrench in our plans to run, but it isn't usually too inconvenient. John says the rain drives him crazy and I understand why, but I don't mind it because there are still very few cloudy days. It's rainy or it's sunny and there isn't much in between.

So today, the sun was especially shiny and the palm trees were especially green and I was especially grateful to be here. I put sunscreen on first thing in the morning, then again at lunch, then again before our run (as usual) and sweat all day long. While I’m looking forward to a day when I don’t have to put slimy sunscreen and bug spray on as soon as I get start my day, it’s still pretty great to walk down the street in all that sunshine, even at seven in the morning. Here’s a fun photo of how freckly I am now despite all that slime.

I’ll spare you the details of everything I did today, just this once. There will be more pictures in the Week 5 album soon, though!