We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand. — Randy Pausch

Backpacking brings new faces on a daily basis, if not hourly, and the new faces quickly become new friends as we share in all that life has brought us to the present moment in time where we find ourselves, which just happens to be San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. I was saddened on waking up heading out for brekkie to find a lovely hand written note from Nikki, my Kiwi/Aussie friend that she had left earlier in the morning for Omete. Her note highly encouraged me to join her in the Corn Islands on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua, but I am finding it harder and harder to pull myself away from a place that I have grown to become a familiar face around the small beach town. I have realized how incredible it is in where life takes me and what or where I could be in the numerous paths that life can lead me down, but have learned to grasp hold of how significant it is to appreciate the every day happenings and experiences I am fortunate enough to have lived even prior to leaving the United States.
