Michelle's Island Adventure

Michelle: I want to live on Ometepe. This may have been the best day ever.

Pedro: Because I enjoy flaunting how I have the best job ever, I like to ask “Michelle, what would you normally be doing on a Friday??”

Michelle: Boring, unexciting stuff like going to meetings and updating Excel documents. Instead, we had an awesome, we’re-in-paradise day. We got in after dark last night and didn’t realize how close we were to the water. Turns out our hotel is right on the waterfront and we ate breakfast looking out over Lake Nicaragua.

The playa is just a few short steps from our room!

View from breakfast

Peter: Incredible.  After breakfast we took a morning walk on the beach.  For as far as we could see, there was nothing but tropical forestry, water, and two looming volcanoes.  Minus a little sunburn, it was amazing!

Pete's best imitation of Michelle from her high school cheerleading days

Sandbar + volcano

Money shot

And the Lord said, Peter shall walk on water.

Volcano La Concepcion

Michelle: It was cool too, because we walked for about an hour (thus the sunburn) but saw maybe five-seven people, a horse and two cows. It was pretty much our own private beach.  Then as we walked to our next adventure, we looked up and saw 10-15 monkeys playing in the trees above and around us. A little farther down, we saw another pack of them, including a teeny baby monkey way up in the trees. So, so cool. We also passed a band of men with machetes (they were prettying up the trees/bushes on the side of the road), but definitely one of those Nica things you never get used to…

Look!  Monkeys!

They were friendly

 Peter: Speak for yourself.  I don’t look twice at creepy men wielding machetes anymore…  Anyway, we safely ended up at Ojo de Agua.  It is a naturally filtered spring pool right in-between the two volcanos.  I’m sure Michelle’s pictures can describe it better than I can.

Ojo de Agua

Mermaid Michelle

Off the rope swing

Michelle: And it had a bar, so it was pretty much paradise.

Peter: Agreed.  Then top the day off by eating garlic shrimp and lobster with a banana split for a steep price of $30 and it was paradise!

Michelle Adventure Continues!

Pedro: Last time we chatted, Michelle and I successfully took Granada by storm.  What was next on our Nica journey agenda?

Michelle: We stopped in Managua for a night because I was feeling a little under the weather. We bought a bunch of snacks at the supermarket and had a hotel party while I waited for antibiotics to kick in. They next day, Pete had his one-year check-up at the doctor/dentist and then we were off to Esteli (town up north by his site)!

Pedro: Yup!  With receiving my clean bill of health it was back to work.  After eating some GREAT Italian food, Wednesday I co planed with a professor and taught a class with a different professor.  How’d I do, novia?

Michelle: Great! The kids were learning about mission statements (for businesses, etc.). Pete talked about the mission statement for the Nicaraguan Ministry of Health and the Peace Corps. Then we headed to Pete’s town, Palacaguina. Right as we got off the bus, it went from sunny to pouring BUCKETS on us. We ran to a covered pavilion and waited it out, but then we had to ford massive rivers on muddy roads to get to Pete’s house.

My walk home if it rained recently

Michelle meeting my neighbor's pig

Gross

Pedro: A guy in my town and I may have laughed at Michelle expense at her unsuccessful attempts to build a bridge to cross the stream…  Anywho, mama Carmen was happy to see Michelle again.  She fed us fresh cheese, avocado and tortillas.  Then it was back to Esteli for dinner.

Michelle: We went to a steakhouse…nice food was never so cheap! The next day we went to another class on Condega (I learned about market studies) and to the post office. After one year and nearly twenty pounds of care package jerkey, we learned that it’s illegal to mail dried meats into Nicaragua. Ryan’s package had been opened, the jerkey confiscated and then rewrapped in all sorts of bright yellow, official “Illegal contents were removed from this package” forms.  Ryan is such a rebel.

Pedro: Indeed he is.  After leaving the post office, we began the marathon trek to OMETEPE ISLAND!  First an hour bus ride to Esteli, then a 2 hour ride to Managua, plus a 20 minute cab ride, add another 2 hour bus ride and 20 minute cab ride and finally finish it off with a dead sprint to the last ferry to the island!

Michelle: Peter, would you like to tell your readers how we passed all that travel time?

Pedro: All I can tell you is that it definitely didn’t involve Michelle reading romance novels aloud to me…

Michelle: Definitely not ;) The hour ride on the ferry was amazing. We were moving towards Ometepe, an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua with two volcanoes. And we were moving away from the prettiest sunset. Also, off to the left, there was a lighting storm in distant mountains. Really cool! Well off to breakfast at our waterfront hotel and to do island- things!

We made it!!!

A couple and a couple volcanoes

Sunset on our boatride

Michelle's Monkey Island!

Pedro: Yesterday went about as well as imaginably possible!  Michelle has wanted to see a monkey ever since I got my invitation to come to Nicaragua.  And…?

Michelle: We went to MONKEY ISLAND!!!!! Basically, in Lake Nicaragua off of Granada, there is an archipelago of hundreds of tiny islands that can be as close as ten feet apart. Some have very ramshackle, tin-roofed houses where local Nicaraguans (mostly fisherman) live; some have restaurants and many have absurdly nice houses for wealthy Nicaraguans and foreigners. One island even had a house with four rooms, air conditioning and pool that you could rent for three days…for the low cost of $440,000. We paid $20 each for a boatman to take us on a private tour of the islands. Our first stop was Monkey Island, a teeny tiny little island where a family of four monkeys lives. They clearly love attention from tourists because they were hamming it up and climbing out onto tree limbs hanging over the water. A local vet owns the island, as well as the next closest island. He brings the monkeys food and takes care of them when they are sick. It was AWESOME. Our second stop was…

Fishermen

Welcome to Monkey Island!

Look, Ma! No hands!

Can you find the monkey? (Hint: it's not the one wearing the red shirt)

Michelle con mono

Is this my good side?

Peter John: “Restaurant: Your Island”!  And that’s exactly what it was, our own little private island.  We told our boat driver that we wanted to be picked up in 2.5 hours and bummed around.  We ate some AMAZING pork, drank a liter of brew each, dipped our toes in the pool and talked to parrots!

Polly, want a cracker?

Can you see all the isletas behind this attractive couple? The one in the back right is Monkey Island!

This is the best job in the world.

Island for sale!

Michelle: Then, later we grabbed banana smoothies and snacks before heading to Pete’s first movie in Nicaragua, the Hunger Games!

PJ: I loved the movie but it definitely had its Nicaraguan touches.  First we were the ONLY people in the theater 10 minutes before show time.  And then like a lot of things in Central America, the movie which was schedule to start at 6:45pm didn’t start until 7:05pm.  No previews and I’m pretty sure it was a pirated copy.

Nica movie theater!

MK: Another Nica touch? There were at least three bats chasing each other around the theater. This morning we went to breakfast at a waffle house and climbed to the top of an old church bell tower – pretty views of the city, volcano and Lake Nicaragua! 

Granada Cathedral

Pete and Michelle in the bell tower!

 Pedro: But that’s it from Granada.  Back to the great north and work (well for me at least!).

Michelle Return Adventure

Michelle is back for Nicaragua round 2! Things that are different this time around:

•  Michelle is being less cautious about the water, and no longer brushing her teeth with bottled water, like the awkward, healthy tourist she was last October.

• Hotels this time around are actually nice and don’t involve foxes scraping against the walls.

• Pete is no longer skeletal. He had been hospitalized with a gallbladder infection the week before my visit, and had lost a [scary] amount of weight. Thanks to everyone’s care packages, he is slowly fattening up.

• Food is AMAZING (no rice and beans yet…)!  Last night we ate at the supposedly #1 best rated restaurant in Granada.  Bottle wine, olives, bread and SHARK steaks with a calamari ink pasta.  YUM!

• HOT, HOT, HOT (AND HUMID). Last year, I came at the end of rainy season. Now it’s the very beginning of rainy season. I felt like I stepped into a sauna when I got off the plane. Also, this year I didn’t bother to lug my straightener down. It was a losing battle.

• Touristy things!  Our plan after breakfast is go tour the archipelagos via boat and, maybe, hopefully see monkeys!

• And drink at an island bar! Pray to the rain gods things clear up for us :)

• First world movies!  Tonight we’re going to Juegos del Hambre (HUNGER GAMES!).  In English no less.

That’s it for now, talk to you in a couple days!

-Pete and Michelle

Another day at the "office"

Today happens to be an important day in Palacaguina history.  During the civil war in the 70s, a famous general lived (or maybe fought, still sketchy on the details) in Pala.  So today instead of having class, we all walked out to the shrine of where he’s supposedly buried.  It was actually kinda cool because living relatives of General Ortiz gave a little speech.  And, I kid you not, two people played a flute and guitar cover of “The Sound of Silience”.  Anyway, there’s this cool mountain/hill behind the shrine and I climbed it.  It was a pretty steep and technical climb – it felt like “127 Hours” because I went by myself clutching on to reeds and scaling boulders (there were hundreds of people below, stop your worrying).  Great view at the top!

What did you do on your Monday morning??

ONE YEAR NICAVERSARY!

I DID IT!  Despite Nicaragua’s best attempts to get me to leave (illnesses, pickpockets, naggy loved ones), I’m still here.  Put that in your gallo pinto and eat it!  Yes, May 10^th 2011, I left everyone and everything I know behind for Washington DC to meet up with this ragtag groups of volunteers.  Over the past year, we’ve had quite the adventure working at “The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Love”.  Here it is by the numbers:

·        365 days ago I was speaking English and eating pepperoni and pickle pizza.

·        $200.70 was my paycheck for the month of April.

·        22 days I’ve been in the United States in the past year

·        20 the number of Business Volunteers I came with to Nicaragua AND we’re all still here!

·        14 months until I come home for good.

·        8 the number of teachers I’ve trained.

·        7 the number of times I’ve “visited the laboratory”.

·        5 the number of highschools I teach in.

·        4 the number of haircuts I’ve gotten.  Yes, I’m a dirty hippy.

·        2 the number of times I’ve been pickpocketed.

·        1 night spent in the hospital

·        0 the number of times I’ve regretted this decision!

Are there any numbers I’m forgetting or you’d like to know??

 

Back to reality

I have safely returned to the land of Lakes and Volcanoes.  Quick word on Lima first, LOVE IT!  Maybe I’m jaded because Managua is, well, awful.  So super jealous of the Peace Corps Volunteers in Peru.

But back to work.  And by work, I mean traveling to a new part of Nicaragua!  Our business program had an in-service for us volunteers and our counterparts.  So two teachers from Condega and I traveled to the “Black Forest” hotel in Matagalpa.  My German heritage felt right at home with the Bohemian décor.  The training was more targeted for the Nicaraguan teachers but it was great to see all of my friends from training again.  We spent 2 nights eating good Italian and Mexican food while catching up what’s new in our lives.

Unrelated to the in-service, one of our fellow volunteers, Michaela, told us the following story to motivate us.

A Thousand Marbles
 

The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the study with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it. I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.

Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whomever he was talking with something about "a thousand marbles." I was intrigued and stopped to listen.

"You see, I sat down one day and did a little math. The average person lives about 75 years. I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about 75 years. Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime."

"It took me until I was 55 years old to think about all this in any detail"; he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over 2800 Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be 75, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy."

"So I went to a toy store and bought every
single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out."

"I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focus more on the important things in life." There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

Then Michaela gave us these jars and marbles to actually participate!

Only 52 marbles remaining!