flying time

Why hello! It's been awhile, no? And what has happened? This:

-work, back in Telluride. It's like I never left.
-rearranged my room, adding a couch, which resulted in an actual living area. MUCH better.
-lost my tan from Nicaragua. Damn.
-celebrated Bluegrass on the only fully sunny day since I've been back (except for today, which is promising).
-developed anxiety (see the first note, about work).

And there has been more, I imagine, although I'm drawing a blank at the moment. Oh, most importantly, I have ignored you! Sorry about that.

lovely leon

Leon was lovely! I am too tired to write about it at the moment, so more on that later. But shown here in this photo is its claim to fame: the largest cathedral in Central America. Which I am now a bit tired of after editing all of my photos of it. I don't know why I felt the urge to take so many photos, since it looks the same in every single one. I got trigger happy I guess.

It was a cultural visit - we went to museums! Will talk more about that, as well as the amount of food I ingested in 26 hours, and our terrible experience with itching. Excited now, aren't you?

everywhere a bus

I've touched lightly on traveling via the buses here in Nicaragua, but since it feels like it has consumed our lives the past week or so, I thought I'd expound on the subject and construct a list of a few non-obligatory but seemingly standard rules that I've recognized for being involved in the bus industry here:


1. Be sure to write in an extra large fancy font on the front windshield of your bus anything about God and how much you love him. Call him "senor" or whatever you like, as long as you have words to show your undying love and affection for him. Bonus: additional signage (icons and visuals are a plus) within the bus so the people inside can be enlightened as well.

2. Turn on any type of music you please at any level of volume you would like. Rap-style spanish preferred, but polka-like spanish is also accepted.

3. Hire a fellow bus-worker to hang out the open door while the bus is in motion to tout your bus route and yell the name of your destination in rhythmic style out the window over and over to any and every person who is standing on the street. (Our favorite: Masaya! Masaya! Accent on the final "a") Because clearly every passing person is a potentially additional passenger, which equals potentially additional money for you.

3a. Side note: This guy must be very agile and quick in order to jump off and on the bus repeatedly and to squeeze down the aisle between mushed bodies to collect the bus fares from everyone when the bus is packed.

3b. Side note #2: These guys actually help us when we get anywhere because they always ask where you are heading and then guide you to where you need to be. I like them, actually. I confess.

4. When you stop for gas, don't bother turning off the engine. Not dangerous at all. (apparently?)

5. Be nervous, because there is a lot of competition. I'm talking hundreds (more or less) of buses everywhere, everyday. Really quite amazing. And they are all full.

6. Offer your services to those who live along your travel route - you can quite easily pick up a packed lunch from someone along the way to be dropped off to their distant cousin who lives 10 blocks down.

6a. Along these lines, try to work on the travel route of where your family lives. Then they can hand you your very own packed lunch as you drive past.

7. Ignore the mass of vendors who walk the aisle of your bus selling things: food, DVD's, watches, batteries, drinks, etc and etc. They will be persistent to those on board, returning repeatedly and standing in front of them, repeating their product's name over and over. And over. So much so that they start to think they want to buy it. But they will exit your moving vehicle once you start to drive. They always manage to find their way back to their stall in the market.


That's all you need to know here! You're welcome for the advice.

leon is for eaters

We are in Leon now for a few days. Got in this morning. Love it! It´s fabulous here. I just ate a very big meal served by a very big woman, which makes me nervous for what I just ingested, but I´m on vacation, so I´m pretty much over worrying about it now. Deep fried anything is delicious! Off to have a glass of the wonderful rum they make here (with Coke; I´m not that intense) to kill any bad stuff that may have been involved.

beach trip

Today we took the kids to the lake, which they choose to call "the beach", which I guess it does resemble, but it is nowhere I would like to swim. There is a lot of trash and pollution around there since that's where all the streams of water and sewage funnels out, which leads me to wonder what is in the water, so I chose to be an observer rather than a swimmer. In this picture, one of the kids from our class is graciously posing with the white foam-like substance she brought back from the water. I think this foam is actually a relatively normal thing in the ocean (correct me if I'm wrong?), but this foam from the beach here seemed to last longer than usual. I don't know. Call me paranoid (since I am. I know) but it didn't look good to me.

Anyways, an enjoyable day in the heat where the kids went in the water for hours. Anita and I snacked on all of the food we bought. All in all, a success. It was my last day with the class, sadly. Tomorrow we are off to Leon, another town here in Nicaragua, since apparently we have run out of time to do everything we want to do. We are rushing so many things this week. Have to see it all! Stressed! So ambitious, that we are even thinking of another attempt at Masaya. I know. Crazy talk. This time though, we are going to have the lady who cleans the office come with us - she volunteered to help us and is the sweetest lady.

And now I will awkwardly end this post, since I don't know how else to. Concluding sentences are difficult. I was never good in English class.

another week in paradise

And...I'm back. Ready to discuss what is one of the most special places. It is a beautiful island here called Isla de Ometepe, formed by two volcanos that create dramatic views from anywhere and everywhere you look. Amazing. Anyways, a brief rundown of the week in bullet point form, so I don't ramble on and on:

Hopped on the morning bus to Rivas, which was apparently rush hour. We had seats thank god, but it felt like the seats were smaller than ever, and unfortunately more people meant more sweaty armpits there to accompany us along the way.

Boarded the ferry for the island. A bit of a side-note: Anita and I are probably the two people in the world most prone to getting car/seasick, so we have been fearing this ride since we got to Nicaragua. I was most seasick before the boat even left the dock, and then, thanks to bad spanish-language music videos (I couldn't take my eyes off them!) and fear of death from toppling over with the waves, I forgot about being sea sick and we made it to the other side, sans vomit. Moral of the story? I'm pretty sure my seasickness is mostly mental. It should be called instead, "paranoia of being seasick." That's an ailment in itself, right?

Arrived at the beautiful island and took a taxi to Merida, where we were heading to stay.

Ometepe has BUMPY roads. I'm talking butt-numbing bumpy. For at least an hour of the ride. I am not exaggerrating at all when I say that this island is extremely undeveloped. Which is one of its main assets. Sooo...beautiful scenery along the way, and our first views of the volcanoes. So pretty. Can I stress that any more?

We arrived at our hostel which was along the lake and the most calm place in the world (pictured here). There is really nothing to do on this island except relax. No stores, nothing. So we were forced, happily, to just sit around, swim in the lake, lay in hammocks (but not for long though because I get seasick), watch the stunning nightly sunset, and read our books. Bliss.

Next day, a hike to a waterfall. And when I say hike, I mean a walk to the bottom of where the hike started, where we were kindly picked up by a couple with a car who drove us to as high as we could go in the car, which was about 45 minutes from the waterfall. They cut down our hike by a good two hours, bless them. They were god sent. Especially since it was completely uphill and rocky and in the sun. The waterfall was more like a wading pool, but no less magical. Anita sat on the rock where the water actually fell and said it felt amazing. I chose to only indulge my feet and wade.

Took a bumpy ride with that same couple down to the very south of the island, and shared the road only with locals (some on horseback), pigs, horses, dogs, cows, lots of wild animals. I want their simple life. Really I do.

Yikes this is going to be long. I am rambling like I had promised I wouldn't. Oh well.

Next day was the hike up the volcano! 1350 meters! Whatever that means in feet. I have been too lazy to figure it out. After countless warnings from people that the 7-8 hour round trip hike would be "the most difficult thing you will ever do in your life" (really? worse than childbirth? sorry Kelley and Leah, I'm sure it's not so bad) and that we "really shouldn't underestimate how hard it will be", we woke up after a nerve-wracking night ready to head out at 7am. We went with a group of people and two guides, and after an hour of a not-so-bad start, they informed us that it was at that point where the uphill would begin and it would continue for three straight hours. THREE HOURS. I clearly didn't believe them. But I was wrong. This uphill climb involved huge stairs made up of rocks, climbing up mud hills using your entire body...basically picture the movie King Kong. Very jungly. The guides barely broke a sweat in their 20 year old, torn apart shoes. Yeah, they do it about three times per week. No biggie. At the top we were greeted by a solitary mouse (weird, right? we think he wanted our cheese sandwiches) and a view of the crater lake, made visible when the wind carried the clouds away. Oh and by the way, we were completely beat by a mother-daughter pair who passed us while we were on our way up. The mom was probably about 60 years old. She put us to shame.

Next came the worst part of the hike - the downhill - which I thought would never end and that my kness would fall off before I reached our hostel. Either that or that my feet would never stop moving. It was hell. Luckily my knees didn't fall off and we were able to stop, and we got back, laid on our room's cement floor, and reminisced on how it really wasn't that bad. Ha. Or so we tell ourselves now.

Next day, we stayed at another part of the island where there is a beach, and went to the Ojo de Agua, which was a clear pool made up of spring water from the volcanos. This was heaven. In a nutshell. I'm serious. The nice Nicaraguan guy working there, Byron, talked American baseball with me, politics with Anita, and made us ashtrays out of soda cans. He was nice.

And the next day sadly was our last. It took an all day trip to get back to Granada, and we hung out with a nice Dutch (again!) couple who had gone on the hike up the volcano with us who we loved. And we discovered how hard we are to please since we were able to find so many annoying people at our hostel while we were staying there. Friendly backpackers we are not. People can be so weird. We'd rather just stay to ourselves. Ourselves and the Dutch couple, that is.

Now we are back and I leave on Friday! Weird! Where has this trip gone?

ometepe

This is the volcano we climbed! The big thing in the background. And I worry it doesn't look as hard as it really was. But I swear, hard stuff. Will talk more about our trip later after we finish up classes today, but I wanted to post something quickly since it's been awhile. Stay tuned.

the lowdown

The kids are so freaking cute. We have a new kid in our class today who is just adorable. Anita and I can't get over it. He wore all green and you kind of just want to put him in your pocket and take him home with you. Anyways, this photo is not of him, not meaning that Alejandro here isn't cute, it's just that this other little boy is just unbelievably cute. Anyways, enough of the word "cute".

After I got a question about the program here, I figured it would be a good idea to kind of explain things better about the organization we are working with because I don't believe I ever tried. So...the organization's main focus is tutoring kids after school to help them with their studies. There is a sponsorship aspect to it, as they seek donors to sponsor certain kids, and the donors essentially pay for their education since these kids' families don't have the money to do so. It's really sad, the level of poverty they live in. They are so cheerful so it's easy to forget the things they don't and can't experience because of their lack of money.

As for the photo classes we are doing, that is an extra component to the tutoring that goes on. It isn't as constant throughout the year, as there have been I believe only a few workshops before ours with visitors/volunteers, and the lady who runs the organization has done a few workshops herself and started the idea. It is great, since it gives kids something more creative to do and helps to encourage them to continue on with the tutoring program since apparently some of them lose motivation or have other commitments like work and drop out of school and the program.

And I'm not positive how each kid gets chosen to be with the organization, but I believe it is in fact a bit of a selection process since they don't have enough facilities for all of the kids, obviously, but they are all from a neighboring barrio, so I imagine it has to do with teachers' recommendations and word of mouth.

As for cameras, all 9 of them have been donated by people for the kids to use - they are the basic little digital cameras. So we are mainly teaching them the creative, compositional side of photography, and less on the technical side. Especially since I have to keep remembering they are all between the ages of 11 and 12. Still a bit young to get too technical, especially when many are still learning to read.

So that's the lowdown on that. Today we endured maybe the hottest day of my life and spent the morning with the class, then we took them down to the market to take photos and after we went to the baseball game but this time only took pictures - didn't play. This was beacuse we had zero energy and I couldn't even imagine putting on one of those smelly gloves since it would limit the amount of fresh air that could reach my body. I'll take fresh air anywhere. I am forgetting to mention the highlight of the day (sarcasm at its best)when we had returned mid-day to the office after our long morning, and the electricty wasn't working, so again, no fans. We pulled out the rocking chairs and sat outside with our soaked towels draped over our bodies. Like old grandmas on a hot summer day. That's us.

Off to bed and no, I will NOT be taking a shower tonight since we have had no water. All day. After so much sweating and heat, no fresh shower. I am off to jump in a puddle.

encounters

Here's the San Juan del Sur beach. Note the adorable dog in the bottom who was tanning himself in the sunset. And napping.

Also on this beach we encountered:

An old lady, not wearing enough supportive clothing, going for an early morning jog with 5 dogs on leashes and a parrot resting on her arm. Crazy? Or talented to be able to juggle all of those animals while exercising? You decide.

An old man who apparently is the town drunk/homeless guy, having a snooze. He made many appearances during our stay actually: once asking if we were going to finish our food at the market since he wanted to generously finish it for us, and once letting Anita know that she had a "very pretty face".

beach trip

We're back from a trip to the coast - a very exciting trip as it is Anita's first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! We think, that is. As we are geographically challenged and are not sure of some locations where she's been in the water, which I'm too embarrassed to ask about, so we'll just go with the idea that it was her first time. And she loved it! As did I. The water was so warm, it was like a bath.

Anyways, to start, we took the fun chicken bus to get there, and we learned a valuable lesson. Sit in the front of the bus. We made this promise to ourselves after arriving in San Juan with sore butts and mild cases of car sickness. Plus on the second bus we had to take, we stood in the back, thinking it would be just a quick trip and to kindly let our fellow passengers enjoy the seats (we are thoughtful people), only to get cramped into the corner by bags of food and supplies, and ladies who decided to get comfortable and stand in our very valuable personal space, directly underneath my armpit and where Anita's left foot should go. You would think that the presence of my armpit would be enough to make someone move (trust me, it should be), but apparently for this lady it wasn't. I may not smell as bad as I think I do. Anita woke up the next day with one sore leg.

But alas we arrived in the small town of San Juan del Sur, and it was so cute. We had heard many compaints that it is a touristy, overpriced beach town, which it was, but it was still so cute! I loved it. And I think I want to live in a beach town. Everyone is so relaxed. And the water is so nice. Just so refreshing. Especially after the heat of Granada, since there was a wonderful breeze through town.

We situated ourselves, and then that night met up with a friend of a girl I work with who lives down there. He does fishing tours and rents out property, and it was interesting to talk with someone who lives there and can have some more insight into the town. Basically, it's Telluride in Nicaragua. A small town, tourists discovered it, realtors came in and drove up the prices, and now there are more realtors than locals (or so it seems) and no one is buying. What do you do. We had drinks and food up at this gorgeous resort where you look out over the ocean and watch the sun set, and it was a nice introduction to things.

The next day we headed off to some neighboring beaches, and they were gorgeous. Totally uncrowded, and we ended up all by ourselves where we decided to camp out for the day. It was hot as hell, but we found a shady spot to bring relief to our tanning process, and read our books and enjoyed ourselves, not doing anything really. Not much thinking going on with me, just focused on tanning and having an empty brain, both of which come naturally to me. We came home to realize we were more red than tan, which was not the best surprise, especially since it elevated our inner temperature about 10 degrees, making for a hot night sleep. Oh and also, being in San Juan enabled us to take showers in the morning (hooray for non-stop water!) but apparently they encounter the problem of electricity being turned off sporadically. Wonderful! Which you wouldn't think would be too much of a problem except when you realize that fans need electricity. Yes, they do, I can assure you.

The next day was a day of relaxing. And watching European soccer/football. Yay Barcelona! Otherwise we wandered around, had lunch at the market which had amazing local food (We are getting our nutrients! We ate fish there! Protein at last!), and went for a hike up to see Jesus. Not the real guy, sadly, but a statue of him that overlooks the town from a mountain. Pretty cool. He meant business. There we encountered a family from Ohio who I am quite positive are in the dictionary under the listing for "American tourists". They did such charming things as refer to the Nicaraguan cordoba as "not real money" and ignore the girl who worked at the gate when she spoke to them since they didn't know a word of spanish. The father wore a shirt telling the world that he loves Alaska and the mother informed Anita, when she told them she was from Spain, that she too had a t-shirt that said Spain on it. Great folks. The hike was also entertaining since on the way, you get to see the monstrosities that foreigners have constructed there. I'm talking Mediterranean villas with infinity pools at every place. I think I'm just jealous.

So now we are back in Granada, where, only AFTER our walk home with heavy bags, it seems to be getting a bit cooler. As in, it may now be 93 degrees instead of 95. We're getting somewhere. Tomorrow is our day of planning for this weekend's class, which takes a long time when you put it off all day, doing other unimportant stuff and procrastinating. I'm good at that.

telepizza

Just a little interesting tidbit - we had pizza delivered to us tonight! Pretty cool, right? We don't even have a street address (there are no numbers here for houses, just street names and a general description in terms of how many blocks away from something you are) but they made it! And it was delicious. We splurged and payed a whopping $1.50 for the actual delivery. After a big baseball practice (where the ball twice went directly between my legs and under my glove into the outfield - not embarrassing at all) and a day of walking aroud with eight kids taking photos in the blistering sun, we definitely deserved it.

early class

While I am all for enthusiasm, there is a point where one should tone it down.

I found that out this morning when we were getting ready for our class, which starts at NINE AM and the first student showed up at 7:30am. That's right, 7:30am. We had just woken up! Anita told him, half asleep and in her pajamas, that the class doesn't start until 9am and that he needed to come back later. However, the other 6 that were there today showed up at, oh, around 7:45am and said that they would just wait outside, thinking surely we wouldn't just make them wait outside. But being the ever-disciplined person that I am (some may just call me anal, I just say I'm being professional), I made them stay outside until 8:45am so that they learned their lesson. I did feel bad though when they found a mango while they were waiting and brought it to us. I'm mean. I know.

Punctuality! It isn't just about not being late apparently!

deep thoughts

A few more things about life here that may be interesting, or may not.

But first, a thought from my awesome travel partner, Anita, that I think is genius: For those here, and anywhere really, who think that we, as tourists, may be stupid, inexperienced, out of place, (i.e. the girl in the market who laughed at us (see previous post)), we would like to drop you off in the subway station at Times Square during rush hour and see how you do. Good luck with that. Let's talk again after, when you've figured that one out. Thanks.

I'm still not understanding anyone here, but I've begun to blame it on the fact that they don't pronounce there "s" here and that they have a very strong Nicaraguan accent. And then I feel better.

Oh and by the way, many people, including us before we arrived, would think that the men here would be aggressive toward women because of the Latin men stereotype, that they would be hollering at us, whistling, etc. but you would be quite surprised. Most times they don't even look! It's great! We have concluded that it is worse in New York City and Madrid. The worst for sure is Italy, but Nicaragua, not so bad. (That one is for you dad!)

Something odd - we met 5 Dutch people in our first week here. That's a lot right? And last night was the Orange party at the Dutch-owned hotel run by a guy we know here, and there were tons more. For such a small country, this seems strange to me. PS. For an interesting story, check out what happened yesterday for Orange Day in Holland. Crazy and sad stuff.

It's Labor Day here! Happy May Day!

never ending days

So since we wake up at 6am, the days just seem so freaking long. Since this is unusual for me to be up so early, I'm not sure if this is common for early risers, but good lord, when 6pm hits, I feel like it's time for bed.

And a few days ago, we truly had one of the longest days since we've been here - in a not-so-good way, but we made the best of it.

We decided to do a trip up to Masaya, known to be touristy, but the place you go to buy souvenirs since it is known for its huge market with crafts, hammocks, etc. I was thinking how great it would be to get some gifts, get something for myself, see other tourists around since there aren't many here. Sounds pleasant.

So we hopped on a bus to get there, which drove us to what seemed like a huge dirt field filled with masses of dust, trash, locals and other buses. We got off and it was so hot - just so hot. The heat cannot be conveyed in words. And no tourists. Which we thought was odd. But we headed into the market that was right there and were immediately overwhelmed. It had so much junk like shoes, clothes, bath products, food with flies buzzing around it, all totally local stuff. And we were the ONLY gringos there. We were so confused, so hot, so lost, since it was a maze of alleyways and everything looked the same. I swear they all sell the same stuff and could make life easier if they condensed a bit. But anyways, we were made fun of by a girl who was working there, and thank god for Anita who could understand and give a piece of her mind right back at her. We spent the next 20 minutes trying to figure out where we were and how it all went so wrong, all while inhaling smells that I swear shouldn't be allowed and getting more and more frustrated. We couldn't pull out our guide book because we would have looked even more out of place, and everyone was just moving so fast. So fast! We bought a Coke, looked at each other, and realized we were both thinking the same, that we should get back on the bus and go home. We failed. And we had no energy to figure it out. We got on the bus, pulled out our peanut butter sandwiches and had a good laugh about it all, at just how pathetic we were in the whole situation. We were so overwhelmed with the culture shock that we had to balance it out by going back and watching the European soccer tournament at a bar and drinking. I had two drinks and felt MUCH better. I think at this point it was only noon too, and the sun was just starting to beat down. God, just terrible. But drinks do help. Yes indeed.

All in all, another day with lessons learned. We realized later on that we were at the wrong market - there are two and we went to the local one. Duh. Good to know. Perhaps we will give it another go, perhaps not. So no one should expect any gifts from Masaya.

And PS: This photo is definitely NOT Masaya. It's Granada.

a change in temperature

Yes, your eyes are not fooling you, that is Anita wearing a winter hat. The reason being that we hiked a volcano yesterday morning and the temperature there was 60 degrees, a drop from the 100 degree temps in Granada. We did not come prepared, as no one really warned us about this dramatic change, but thankfully our guide had extra clothing for himself that he selflessly shared with us. I had on a huge XL sized red long-sleeved shirt. So yes, this was our trip up to Mombacho Volcano, a quick trip since the volcano hovers right over the city. It was so great to be cold! I made sure not to complain too much about it, since as soon as we returned to the city, we were bombarded again by the heat and wanted to turn around and go back.

On this hike, we saw such botanical wonders as the plant smoked by indigenous people to cause abortions, the plant used in Viagra, and the "sensitive" plant that wilts when you touch it and stays that way for a few hours until it feels better about itself. Our guide also informed us that on the volcano is a plant that gets you high as well as a plant used to induce diarrhea. Who knew! You can take care of quite a few things on Mombacho. We debated bringing some of the stuff back with us to start a new business in the states, but then thought that perhaps we'd run into some problems at customs, so we decided against it.