granada

Here is a photo to give you a sense of what the city of Granada looks like, architecturally, but to get a real, personal sense, imagine a layer of sweat on your body, lots of heat, stray dogs at your feet, etc. And there you have it.

Anyways, a bit of notes on life so far:

It's expensive here! Well, not expensive of course, but not as cheap as one would think it would be, and definitely not relative to the level of the economy here. Granada is supposed to be more expensive than other Nicaraguan cities, but they all are apparently pricier than one would expect. Or at least what I had expected. For instance, at restaurants, we are spending sometimes close to what we would spend in the US. Damn tourists.

We were fortunate to make friends with a scorpion the first night we arrived, after we were alerted in the middle of the night by the barking dog we are watching. I was too tired to be scared so we got the broom, slammed it down onto he scorpion and killed it (I think). Funny how ballsy a lack of sleep will make you.

Not to brag, but we played baseball the other day and I hit a home run and our team won. Ok, so we were playing a team of 10 year olds, but that doesn't take away from the glory I felt at the time and still feel now. It was so much fun - baseball is huge here and we played on a trash-filled, dirt field in the barrio with some kids from our school. We're totally locals. Big props to Anita for running full force into the field of garbage to get the ball that was overthrown to her. I've never seen such dedication.

Our body clocks have adjusted nicely as we now go to sleep at 9pm at the latest and wake up at 6am. It's impossible to sleep past that time, due to heat, the fully-risen sun and barking dogs. Who knew I was such a grandma. Actually, I did know that. So. Pathetically, life as usual - no change there.

The best part of the day - showering. Which happens only at certain times of day because they turn the water off in the morning after 6am, more or less, and don't turn it back on until about 3pm-ish. It does two things: makes a good excuse for not doing the dishes after breakfast, and makes you that much more excited for your shower at night. Honestly, it's the highlight of our day after being out all day. Although I feel bad for anyone who has to smell me until then.

Another adjustment here: our lack of nutrient intake. Due to our volunteering budget, we are trying to save money on food, which lead us last week to a nightly cuisine of pasta, and this week we have moved up in the world to dinners of rice and beans, which are actually delicious when you add a few spices and olive oil and eat it with tortilla chips. Oh and by the way - we got the beans for 25 cents at a local little store behind someone's home. A find, right?

That's it for now. I don't want to overwhelm you with our stories all at once, so more to come later. Plus more photos. You can see what I've got so far on my flickr site which I'll be adding as I take them.

Gotta go take my shower now!