Pik-too-rays: The Side Trips

12:17 am -- Well, I discussed Granada, our home away from. I really loved it there, heat and all, but of course there were some things we really had to see outside of Granada since we were in the country. I mean, how lame would "There are tons of volcanos" "How many did you get to see" "None really, but I hear they're nifty" sound? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Amn't I cute? I loved those hammock chairs. I loved them so much that I bought two when I got the chance. They're sitting in the corner of my room. I hear you're supposed to use them, but meh. N-E-wayz, here is me on El Mango Falls, my uncle's island.

Here's a nice shot of the island...

...and another...

...and another, from a distance this time.

When we visited another island, this was the view we got. Lovely, neh?

Oh, the irony of life. The room we were invited to stay in on the island was called "The Spider Room." It was pleasant though, with air-conditioning, and I'm happy to say that I encountered no spee-drays. (That's "spiders," for the Rebeccalese deprived) Which means either that there were none, or they waited until night to attack with their knives.

Aren't they cute? Uncle Gerard and Maria Celia on El Mango Falls. There was a nice plaque in prominent view on the island sporting that name, which I still didn't realize was the island's name until someone drew the connection for me. I...thought it was a random tiled display? Score a point for Rebecca's deductive reasoning.

This tour was handy-dandy-notebook fun!!!! We drove up one side of the Mombacho volcano, where they had these zip-lines set up between trees. We were harnessed in, and got to zip from tree to tree on these ropes, really high up. I can't even stress how fun it was!!! And I'm pleased to say that I don't look totally ridiculous in a harness, though the helmet was iffy...I'm sure I could have survived smacking into a tree...George does it all the time....

Well, no one really said, but it sure looks like bamboo to me!!!!! Bamboozled!!!!! :D Bamboo makes me very happy. This was on the hike back down the volcano, as the truck desided to go and flatten all its tires. Lazy little minx.

Xavier y Susana took us to Caterina one weekend. Isn't it lovely? Oh, and the water's quite nice as well. This photo also features the elegant half-liter water bottle, the near constant companion.

Aw, aren't they cute? These were the taxis in Caterina, and yes, we took one. I mean, no stealing or anything...just went riding in one.

This picture demonstrates a few useful pieces of information. One is that when we biked to Laguna de Apoyo, the bikes only took us so far. We had to hike the rest of the way. Secondly, we did said hiking (and almost everything else) in those fantabulous Adidas flip-flops, that had incidentally already seen us through a six month trip, with equally a great deal of action. Impressive little shoes, those. Only excepting those are in fact not the same flip-flops...OoPs. Well, I'm wearing the Adidas. You just can't see them in this pic, but that's...completely not important. So thirdly, Elizabeth seems to have been more affected by that monkey bite than we had realized.

Dali kept claiming all the mischief ocurring in the water was pescados (fish) and not himself, throwing rocks and attacking us under water. Psh. I'm holding one of said pescados. It's such a rocky looking fish.

Dali, Angelica, and Elizabeth on their bikes on the way back. The way back was pleasant. The way back was easy. The way back was downhill. What of it?

Our trip would not have been complete without seeing Ome Tepe, the largest island there, with two volcanos. This require more time than other side trips, so we spent two nights away from home sweet Granada. Here is one of the volcanos as we're approacing the island. And yes, there always seems to be smoke around the top of the volcanos there. Very cool.

I kid you not...they're frogs. We were crossing a little bridge, and saw a largeish puddle with swarms and swarms of weird black beetle looking thingies. Hopping. As the others walked away, I bent down to look closer...well, I'm sure you can see. They're frogs.

We were able to get even more out of the way at the mineral pools of Ojo de Agua. It was quite lovely and relaxing.

And also someone provided Elizabeth with birthday cake, since it was her birthday and all. Couldn't have planned her birthday better if I tried.

Later that night, our newfound friends (Ryan and Rebecca) had dinner at the same place we'd been eating for every other meal...it was locally run, cheaper, and much much tastier than other places. Well, THE other place. We really didn't have many options. There's that Tona beer again. And the giant water bottle that had by now replaced the small one. Forget the pain of having to lug that monster around...it was way better than the pain of a dehydration headache.

12:16 am -- Seviche. I'm going to get that typed before I forget it. I'll be back in a mo' to explain further.

12:55 am -- Ah. Here we are again. Seviche is a traditional appetizer dish with fish, garlic, onion, seasonings and citrusy stuffs and then crackers to dip in it. Of course, it ended up being our whole meal rather than an appetizer, due to some confusion, but it was quite tasty, so we weren't complaining.

This was the view from our hostel's deck. It was very nicely situated. I have to say, much as I loved staying in one place for most of this trip, hosteling it for a few nights reminded me of Europe, and it was far from an unpleasant reminder. Part of me misses the crazy moving around. Just part of me.

Uncle Gerard took us to a crater. It smoked a lot. I guess no one warned it against lung cancer.

O shut up. It was funny.

Having been invited on many adventures by our dear friends, we were happy to return the favour and invite them out to the island. All six of us had a blast!

Dali noticed some people fishing around a neighbouring island, and called them over to buy some fish off them. We cooked them, seasoned them (they used salt on most of them, but I insisted on Tony Chacheres), and...

...ate them.

Our final side trip, right before heading to Managua and then home, was San Juan del Sur. Not really my cup o' tea, as it's a beach town, but it's just one of those must sees. The town though, was actually quite pleasant. I don't suppose it's its fault for being next to a beach. The pink bottle there is mayo. They call it creme. Weird.

They were actually quite good. Nothing all that special, but we were hungry, and the sauces were really nice.

I suppose I couldn't really get away without a picture of the actual beach. So here I am, getting about as close as I wanted to. Of course I did walk along the beach several times. And what most people would consider to be not a great beach (it's much "nicer" on the other side where the nice beach houses are), I was rather pleased with, since most of the sand was damp and therefore not hot and sharp and sinky and irritating. But it still got everywhere.

Aaaaahhhhh. When it's that hot, you have to appreciate frappuccinos. It had been months since I'd had one.

Nacatamale is a traditional breakfast there, especially on Sundays. It's quite good, and we had it several times. On Sundays, of course. Also cafe con leche, which is very good there.

Now this is my idea of fun at the beach. I beautiful beach house, where you can effectively shut out the beach and enjoy a lovely pool instead. Complete with hammocks.

Well, that's it for the side trips. Only one post remains.

Next Up: ............I don't know...something.

Did you know...?

When you look in a mirror, you can see what's behind you. Unless it's a vampire.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Pik-too-rays: Granada: Six Fixed Pics

Heh, say that ten times fast...

So once again, some pics decided to be sideways. Little scamps. Here they are not sideways. I even provided the descriptions again for your convenience, though I can't promise they'll all make sense without the context of the others. Of course, I can't promise they make sense anyway, but all the same, I'd recommend you read the original post first, and then look at these pictures upright. Upright and steadfast. Like a bell. And a lizard. Like a lizard on a bell eating a tortilla. Yeah. Man, I'm tired.


On our little tour of Granada which our school took us on, we got to go up into the bell tower of a church and have a lovely view of the yellow church and the lake beyond. They had signs saying not to ring the bells. Which of course I had no temptation to do until I saw signs that said not to ring the bells. Sometimes there's no justice in the world.

Inspite of my lack of attention, I did manage to draw my eyes away from the kitten long enough to make my own tortilla.

Gustavo is the pharmacist at Clinica Alabama. We loved working with him, which was good because we worked with him a lot. You'll see in the third picture post just what that grueling work entailed.

This was another, though slightly less frequent, favourite snack...mangos!!!! Yummy.

Look, I had a friend!!! Actually there were lizards all over the place in the homes. And they make the cutest little clicking sounds. I was very pleased that this guy showed up to say goodbye. In case you can't make sense of the picture, the wall next to my bed was cement, and had a row of those holes in it. I assume in order to keep bugs out (which I greatly appreciate because there were swarms of mosquitos), they had a screen on the inside of the holes, and my friend is sitting on the outside of the screen.

Here I am ready to leave for the last time ('sniff'), with only my small bag packed and ready for San Juan del Sur. We had sent the rest of our luggage to Maria Celia's home for safekeeping while we were gone, to be picked up on our way to Managua later. Which was without doubt more info than you needed. No worries.

Pik-too-rays: Granada

What? It hasn't been that long. Maybe almost that long, but not quite. Anyhoos, since I don't currently have the next Ender book, and won't until the library opens, which is, in fact, tomorrow, I decided I ought to attempt to finish up my travel blogging. And hey, it's what you've been waiting for...pictures!!!!!!!


Maybe it seems wrong to you for me to open up my Granada pictures with one that is not, in fact, in Granada. But there are probably many things about you that seem wrong to me, so how's about we just leave that where it is. This is our luggage. Which may seem unimpressive, but when you consider that before we had giant backpacks to lug around everywhere, you can perhaps understand my excitement to have only carry-ons.

On our little tour of Granada which our school took us on, we got to go up into the bell tower of a church and have a lovely view of the yellow church and the lake beyond. They had signs saying not to ring the bells. Which of course I had no temptation to do until I saw signs that said not to ring the bells. Sometimes there's no justice in the world.

One might wonder why in the states, we're all about the grey and brown houses with little to no variation...ever...when people in other countries have buildings like this. I say One might wonder, as I do indeed wonder, and so I wonder if One might not wonder too.

On one of our field trips with our school, we were taken to a nearby woman's house to make (and of course eat) tortillas. There happened to be a kitten there...one of the only kittens I saw on the whole trip. I wasn't paying much attention to the tortillas.

This cat would not leave the poor dog alone. She kept pouncing and jumping and slapping, and the dog just sat there and did nothing...it was fantastically funny.

Inspite of my lack of attention, I did manage to draw my eyes away from the kitten long enough to make my own tortilla.

Look, I graduated!!! I actually learned Spanish!!! This is my teacher, Maria.

We learned to make churritos at the school. Here I am expertly rolling them as Janine watches my grace and epertise with envy.

Angelica proceeded to fry the churritos we had rolled. They were quite tasty.

We later had a party for all the students still in the area. They made mojitos. We helped by squeezing the limes...ow...but it was worth it. Oh, and the Victoria is their local beer. That and the Tona. The Tona seems to be more popular, at least with the men. To me, they both taste like beer.

Here I am at the Cocibolca Jockey Club that my uncle belongs to. He got us guest passes. It was very relaxing and quiet there.

On our way out of the jockey club, we spotted these horses on the island in the middle of the road. It was such a bizzarre sight to a city girl like me, so a picture was needed.

Thanks to a small refrigerator our uncle provided for us, we were able to keep a few snacks and things in stock. Our favourite by far was the vanilla waffle wafers. You see them here, along with our homemade mint iced-tea. I had some tea bags, so we took the last of them, made hot tea, put that in one of the water bottles and left it in the refrigerator. It was so refreshing, especially considering how HOT it is there.

??? It's by the main square, I can tell you that. I've no idea why it's crooked like that, but I like it.

This is a nice view of the main square. The yellow church is on the left (clearly) and the central park is on the right.

...'sigh'...Moving on...

This is the old church...I think it was used before the yellow church. But now it's just old and cool looking, neh?

Carita Feliz kids!!!! Aren't they cute? Well, as cute as kids can be.

This was our standard breakfast, with occasional variation. Watermelon, melon, banana, and pineapple, plus bread and an egg, and coffee to drink.

Gustavo is the pharmacist at Clinica Alabama. We loved working with him, which was good because we worked with him a lot. You'll see in the third picture post just what that grueling work entailed.

Cecilia is the administrator at Clinica Alabama. She made us feel welcome right from the start, and we enjoyed working with her immensely.

Finally, some pictures of our apartment. It took us all the way until the day we were leaving. It was just one of those things that you could keep putting off. It wasn't like in Europe where we knew we'd be gone the next day. Anyhoo, here's a view from the door inwards. The refrigerator's on the floor behind that counter on the left. And the stairs lead to...

The bedroom! My bed was just a matress on that platform. The shelves were full for most of our stay. It was nice to be able to unpack. Very nice. Elizabeth called me a weirdo because of the coke...

...and yet...'nuff said. But do note the fans, if you would. Talk about life savers. I would lie down every night on the very edge of my bed with my face in the fan.

Clearly, by this time I had completely abandoned the .5 liter water bottles and gone for those three times that size. And I was chugging three to four of those per day. Criminey, but it was so hot! And there on my plate is the infamous gallo pinto. Actually quite good, especially with some chile sauce.

This was another, though slightly less frequent, favourite snack...mangos!!!! Yummy.

Look, I had a friend!!! Actually there were lizards all over the place in the homes. And they make the cutest little clicking sounds. I was very pleased that this guy showed up to say goodbye. In case you can't make sense of the picture, the wall next to my bed was cement, and had a row of those holes in it. I assume in order to keep bugs out (which I greatly appreciate because there were swarms of mosquitos), they had a screen on the inside of the holes, and my friend is sitting on the outside of the screen.

Here I am ready to leave for the last time ('sniff'), with only my small bag packed and ready for San Juan del Sur. We had sent the rest of our luggage to Maria Celia's home for safekeeping while we were gone, to be picked up on our way to Managua later. Which was without doubt more info than you needed. No worries.

Sarita (we never could quite figure out if that was her name, but it's close to that), Susana, and Xavier. Our hosts and their hired help. And also our family while we were there. They are wonderfully sweet people, and made our stay there so pleasant and comfortable.

So, that's Granada in a nutshell. A very pleasant and smallish city, with plenty of nice shops, walks, views, and foods. :-)= It really was the perfect place for us to stay.

Next up, our little weekend trips away from Granada...

Estoy Cansada

I feel somehow like I'm always tired now. And when I say that, I mean the last two days, obviously. Honestly, how deep do you think I am? En serio, I love traveling. The experiences I've had over the last year have strengthened me, enlightened me, tried me, and ultimately....something. 'snort' Still expecting depth, aren't you? I'm tired. Cansada de viajando. Tired deep down where you can't really do anything about it, except curl up with your kitty and shut everything out. Hay problema...no tengo mi gata preciosa aquí. I'm weary of a world that won't, that can't understand me. Of people who absolutely cannot comprehend a life outside of partying. Yo extraño mis amigos. Yo extraño mi familia. I miss my cat. Ella se odia las fiestas. And though I find the trip approaching the end, a trip that's been muy rewarding in so many ways, it seems this next week is stretching out ahead of me longer and longer. In other words, muchas cosas han ocurrido, y yo no tengo nada para decir.

All that said, yo me repito, yo he habido a great time, y he aprendido mucho, de español, and about myself.

Ahora...¿donde está mi gata?

¿Sabías que...?
La palabra del día está: mezclandoing.
Gracias para eligiendo Lod's Little Tidbits, y tengas un buen día.

Questioning Answers

OoPs! I forgot to answer comment questions in my last blog.

Daddy: You haven't seen pictures because the connection here is too slow to upload them. There there. You'll see them when we get back. And if I could find a piano? That's a big if. A very big if, as it turns out, because I have not seen one. I wish.

SaraBee: Actually, SHE´s not a Lizzie Plant, but there is a plant called the Busy Lizzie plant. It became part of my blog through a complicated process of a thesaurus and a search engine. I wouldn´t bother questioning it too closely.

Sanna: Excellent point...but I can´t just randomly set up music ministries in a few weeks. It´s convenient for the teaching because things are already set up. At home I have more opportunities. And then there´s the language barrier. And the lack of instruments here. And no church content. Enough whinging yet?¿? :-)= I guess I´ll just have to come back with more resources.

And then to answer the questions already posted to my last blog...

Cas*: Heavens no, and a world of no, and any other no you could possibly think of. This was NOT the end...we have another season. I´d be wallowing in the depths of despair if THAT was the end. Not even plum puffs could minister to a mind diseased and a world that has crumbled into pieces. Okay...I´m already wallowing a little, I´ll admit. But we will certainly get a season 6, no worries there.

Sanna and SaraBee: The taxi drivers are liars. And the bus drivers too. I don´t just mean deceptive. That I expect. I expect that the taxi drivers will press you to ride with them rather than take the bus...because there´s not enough time...because the bus isn´t safe...I expect that. But when we were dropped off by the bus, we asked where the next bus was to the port. The taxi drivers said there wasn´t one. The bus driver said there wasn´t one. We pressed and pressed...right up until the bus pulled away without us. Thankfully, another taxi driver pulled up and offered us a cheaper price than the first taxi driver had given...but when we arrived at the port, there was the bus sitting pretty as you please. Let´s just say, I had a few words to say on the way back from the port two days later to that taxi driver...who was also pushy and I had had enough...

And yes, Sanna, I think we needn´t worry that Rebeccas and Susannas are becoming extinct just yet...it is comforting, is it not?¿?

...I feel like there´s something wrong with my title...

El-Banko

We don´t meet many Americans where we are. We´ve met Canadians and tons of people from Holland, but no Americans. They do exist here...we´ve heard them talking along Calle Calzada (the main tourist street), but they don't seem to frequent the same places as we do. However, in order to walk from our apartment to Carita Feliz (the center where we´re helping teach), we walk along Calle Calzada, and hear bits of English conversations. I need to explain this to you, because you have to understand my amusement and delight over one particular snippet I was lucky enough to hear. This man from the south (or is that The South?¿?) was speaking in English, and then turned to a Nicaraguan and said something about "ehl bank-o." It´s moments like this that make me glad to be alive.

And now, to speak of my weekend. Elizabeth and I left for the weekend to see Ometepe Island, the largest island on the lake here, sporting two whole volcanos. Cool, eh?¿? You´ll have to excuse the "eh..." we hung out with a Canadian couple while we were there. We had a great time. When we arrived in Moyogalpa, we boarded a bus for Charco Verde, which is near the middle of the island, and is supposed to be relaxing. We were not disappointed. It was pretty out of the way, with no busy cities nearby. Not that there are any huge cities...it´s the biggest island on the lake here, but it´s still not THAT big. We stayed in a hostel right on the coast (is it still a coast if it´s a lake?). It was well priced, so they made up for it by charging too much for meals and giving a little food. It turned out alright though, because our Canadian friends (who shared our dorm room) knew of a little place about ten to fifteen minutes away that had great food for great prices. The owners got to know us, because we were there for every meal. They had different options all the time, and everything was great. We even got to try Sebiche, which is a traditional dish here.

Sunday was Elizabeth´s birthday, and we celebrated to the best of our ability.  In the morning, Rebecca, Ryan, Elizabeth and I went hiking along the hiking paths in the area.  We saw some wildlife (no monkeys unfortunately, but we did see monkeys the first day on our way in to the hostel) and got some good views of one of the volcanos.  They always seem to have a ring of smoke around them...wonder why that could be...

That afternoon, after lunch (at our regular place, Sinai I think was the name), we took a taxi to Ojo de Agua, a relaxing location with hammocks and chairs located next to a pool/spring.  Because of the hot weather here, the springs were delightful, and we relaxed and chatted all afternoon.  After we had finished swimming, we relocated to the hammocks and chairs, and chatted for a little while.  The subject of Elizabeth's birthday came up, and it was decided we should ask around if there was any kind of bakery with cake around.  As this was being discussed, a nearby woman who had overheard us walked over with a plate of cake and handed it to Elizabeth.  Turns out, they had been celebrating a birthday as well, and had plenty of cake.  What a delightful coincidence!  

That evening when the taxi driver picked us up, we had him drop us off back at the restaurant, as it was now dinner time and honestly, where else were we going to eat?  As I understand it, sebiche is something of an appetizer, and so Ryan ordered one large for the four of us.  When he brought out separate cups for us, we thought he must have separated it for us...until we thought about it more logically, assessed how very large each cup was, and came to the opinion that rather than one large for four, we got large sebiche cups for four.  Hence, the appetizer became the meal, our bellies were full, our mouths happy, and our pocketbooks satisfied, as they were kind enough to charge a little less for the sebiche, due to the mistake.  :-)=  Afterwards, Rebecca (no, I'm not discussing myself in the third person, silly) asked if they had anything suitable for birthdays.  One kind soul ran to another store and picked up little Eskimo ice cream containers, and we celebrated a little more with vanilla ice cream with chocolate topping.  My birthday present to my sister was a nice birthday massage (I'm certain I put a little more care into this one than our regular "My-neck-is-killing-me-just-like-every-day" massages).

And now it's back to work, but I don't mind.  It's kind of like coming home.  Three more weeks now, and then we'll be heading back.  I'm sure by the time we leave, we'll just barely be feeling like we're getting the hang of Spanish, and the weather will just be getting better and cooler, but I guess that's the way it goes.

Okay...phew...it's taken me a long time to get this blog written.  I've just been too busy with other things!!!!  Like watching House, for instance.  ;-)=  Anyhoo, that's about it for now.

Did ew know...?

Taxi drivers are as evil as lawyers.

Thank you for choosing Lod's Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.

Busy Lizzie Plant

Our days just got a bit busier. Which is too bad, since I came here to relax and shut out the world. Oh, I came here to learn Spanish?¿? Well...fine then.

We decided a few days ago that we have too much down time, specifically in the afternoons, so we inquired at our Spanish school about volunteer options she was aware of, and yesterday she took us to a center for children, specifically for those who can´t pay. School here lasts only for half the day, and the other half of the day the children are free. This center offers more education for them, teaching them a number of things such as cooking, sewing, Mathematics, English, and Spanish. Each session lasts for an hour and a half, and we´ll be helping with Mathematics and English for one session each afternoon. For the first week I´ll help with Math and Elizabeth with English, and then the following week we´ll switch. If everything goes as planned. Which is actually quite an assumption, but we´ll see.

All this means that we´ll wake up at 7 each morning, have breakfast at 7:30, work at the clinic 8-12, run a few errands or study (or sleep) until lunch at 1, leave for the center at 2, get back to the house around 5 or 5:30, and have dinner at 7. Yowza. We really will be busy. It´s good though. They were really excited to have help with the English class...whereas we were worried that ironically we would go to practice Spanish and end up practicing English. But they´ll need explanations in Spanish, so it should be fine.

Truth be told, my mouth goes a bit dry at the thought of not having Elizabeth to fall back on when someone tries to speak to me. I understand people just fine when they´re talking to her, but when they speak to me I tend to stare at them blankly. I´ve gotten in the habit of just turning pointedly towards Elizabeth when they´re done speaking. So I guess it´ll be good for me.

And this all brings me to my complaint: Why is it that wherever we go, there´s a way Elizabeth can help in the area of her profession, but not for me and mine?¿? Of course there´s a center where we can help teach English. Why isn´t there a place where we can teach music? Why isn´t there a music theory session?¿? Personally, I think it´s Elizabeth´s plot to take over the world. And need I mention there´s a cannon right next to the central park here? Yeah. ´Nuff said.

Did ew know...?
Busy Lizzies are succulent.
Thank you for choosing Lod´s Little Tidbits, and have a nice day.