Blogger's Choice Awards

Aloha friends and family.  I've been spending a fair amount of time researching the best blogs on the internet and came across the Blogger's Choice Awards.  For the Love of Waves started only because I thought it would be a fun way to update loved ones on the progress of the house and our life abroad.  About five months ago, I added the "Feedjit" widget that you see on the right hand side of your screen.  This allows me to see where my visitors come from and how they found the website.  As the content of this site has grown, so has it's placement on search engines.  When I first started out, you couldn't even google "for the love of waves."  Now, it comes up third and I've gotten visitors from India, Israel, Peru, and Portugal.  For the Love of Waves has gotten over four thousand hits and has generated about $70 using Google Adsense.  I'm asking my readers to take a second to sign into   http://bloggerschoiceawards.com/users/signup and vote for this site as the Best Travel Blog of 2010.  The higher up on the voting list we get, the more hits the blog will receive.  I appreciate everyone's support and have truly enjoyed my first blogging venture.  For the Love of Waves continues .... and I've been brainstorming a new project.  Stay tuned.

Mahalo Nui, Andy Irons

Since we left our best boards in Nicaragua, the first order of business was to make enough money for each of us to buy a stick for this winter in Hawaii.  That didn't take too long and here's what we got:

Ian got a sick Tractor board shaped coincidentally, for Andy Irons (yesterday was his passing - RIP Andy - what a truly devastating blow to the islands of Hawaii and the entire international surfing community.)  I got a JC.  Ian is madly in love with his new board and I'm getting used to the thinness of the nose on mine, but am loving the ease of duck-diving.  Unfortunately, neither of us are getting in the water as much as we'd like but I suppose that's the trade-off with work and also, the commute to waves.  

This project has made us feel like we brought a little piece of Nicaragua home with us.  Ian built a raised planter box a couple of weeks ago, and we've planted an array of herbs, vegetables, and strawberries.  Everything is doing really well, especially the tomatoes, the jalapeños and the manoa lettuce.  It's fun to check the daily progress of our plants.  The Hawaiian chili plant was struggling initially, but has somehow managed to pull through.  Bless this state and it's year-round growing season.  

And here are a couple of throw back pictures from our last couple of weeks in Nicaragua.  Jaime was visiting from Maui and convinced me to get on a horse, after the fin of her board gashed open her arm and put her out of the water for her last few days in town.  I'm glad I did because it was a blast.  Puna followed us the whole length of the beach, keeping an appropriate distance and I managed to get my old girl Canelo, moving at a jockey's pace.  What a beautiful sunset we got too.  

And that's that.  More to come.  The circus is arriving to the North Shore and the Rip Curl Pro starts this week.  

Adios and Aloha

As most of  you know, we're back on the island of Oahu, in total reverie of time's elasticity.  With our Nicaraguan exit stamps, came the abrupt halt of our simple jungle life, the reintroduction of paved roads, the luxuries of garbage disposals, washing machines and hot water, and of course, the first day back to work.  How simple it is to walk back in, and shed the life you have just lived.  I still hear monkeys in my dreams and envision the thin, empty lips of waves, curling and lapping onto Central American sand.  As phantasmal as the last six months now seem, the reality is, it was our dream fulfilled and has become our inspiration for the future.  We don't want much, but next time, we'd like to be able to stay - we'd like to have the house paid off and to start a little business - a car that doesn't rattle itself loose, (but even that's a luxury.)  We'd like a false ceiling over the kitchen and some tile in the bathroom and a garden that gives us unlimited tomatoes.  How to perpetuate our life abroad ... how to get back to our simple jungle life.  This will be the next chapter of this silly little blog, that is our life.

Big Waves

Rob Machado was all the buzz this week. As I mentioned in the previous post, he was staying at Mark and Dave's beach front surf lodge along with his family and a couple of big wigs from Hurley including, Bob Hurley himself.  (Anna, your favorite company!)  Ian had the opportunity to split a peak with Rob at Panga Drop's one fine afternoon and I got to feed him.  The baking job was a success.  I whipped up some puffy blueberry muffins on the first morning, my mom's delectable Russian teacake the second morning, banana bread the third morning, and for the grand finale on Friday, homemade cinnamon rolls that came out PERFECT.  (and I mean perfect.)  Marie, the friend who hired me for this culinary endeavor, emailed me a quote from Machado stating that the rolls "raised the bar to a whole new level."  Needless to say, I'm satisfied with my first paid baking job and Ian is stoked that I let five of the twenty-six cinnamon rolls stay home.

The waves have been huge and it looks like it's going to stay that way for awhile.  Ian ripped a handful of double-over head rides at Pangas two days ago.  That same day, the Hurley crew brought out the jet-ski and used a step-off platform to tow the boys into sets.  Yesterday, the middlemen who loaned the ski to Machado and his crew, were driving the machine back to Gigante when they thought it would be fun to take it to heaving Colorado's.  Check out August 21st's nicaraguasurfreport.com for pictures of the jet-ski going over the falls after stalling out in a very precarious spot.  I'll bet the boss man wasn't too pleased about that little stunt!

Not much else this week.  We are quickly approaching broke and it is seeming more and more likely that we will be returning to Hawaii a little bit earlier than we planned.  Poor us.  Trading one paradise for the other.  I'm sure ya'll feel really bad for us.  Thanks for reading everyone.             

Waves, Garden Boxes, Baked Goods, and Cabbage Patch Dolls

I slacked on updates this last week.  To my small but loyal group of devotees, I love you and I'm sorry.  There were fun, small waves all week at Colorados and I'm really becoming quite fond of the spot.  Panga Drops still rocks my world, as it did yesterday, tossing me around like a sweatshirt on spin cycle.  I did have one fun, small day there and was able to catch some rights.  Then the tide changed, some bigger sets came through, and I got stuck inside for an eternity.  This inevitably took all my energy, and I paddled in, humbled as usual.  Poor Ian has had to endure my frustrated tears more times than once.  What a beautiful, empty beach though.  Incarnadine sunsets and sand dollar heaven.  Not to mention, it's a dog's paradise.

Ian and Juan Pablo completed the garden box this week.  It looks really cool with the varnished, bamboo frame.  We don't have any seeds yet, but we transplanted some basil and cilantro and made a nice pasta with fresh herbs the other night.  Hopefully, we can get some vegetables started that will probably be ready just in time for us to leave.  Juan Pablo is the cuidador (night guard) of La Vista and he is excited at the prospect of maintaining our garden while we're gone.  Our banana plants are really starting to take off and the orange tree and papaya trees are going strong.  Unfortunately, the avocado tree didn't make it but, Juan Pablo planted a new one for us.  Ian gathered some Bird of Paradise that he planted along the back part of the house too - a little touch of Hawaii for our Nicaraguan 'hale.'  It looks awesome.

So, while Ian spends his time in the yard, I spend my time in the kitchen.  I have been dabbling in all sorts of baked goods.  My bagel shapes have improved dramatically and I think I've perfected a mix of recipes.  Our friends Gustavo and Marie manage a beach front surf lodge and have thirteen guests coming next week.  They asked me to do some breakfast treats and desserts for them which would officially make this venture, my first job in Nicaragua.  On the menu - cinnamon rolls, muffins, bacon and cheese biscuits, Russian tea cake, banana bread, brownies, cookies and cakes.  One of the guests happens to be pro-surfer Rob Machado and luckily for Ian, I'm nervous - so I've been testing everything out on him.  I never claimed to be a professional.  Wish me luck everyone.  We could use some grocery money.     

And in totally unrelated news, in 1983, the state of Minnesota sold out of Cabbage Patch Dolls.  Weeks later while on family vacation in LA, my mom found them in a department store and we had to have them.  It didn't matter to us that we were the only white girls in MN with black babies.  I'm pretty sure this is where my obsession with Motown started.  Here is a picture of a picture. 

 

P.S. - Happy Birthday to Ian's mom, Kathy!

Good Surf!

It's been a great week of surf here in Nicaragua.  Colorados has been offshore and perfect for the last seven days, and a fun little sandbar has formed off to the right that some of the locals call "muffin tops."  The afore mentioned spot has been a nice option for me as it is much more mellow than the reeling, hollow barrels that the peak tends to throw nearing low tide.  Ian has been crushing Colorados proper all week long, surfing two sessions a day and scoring a ton of quality waves.

Right now, we have our eyes glued to the National Hurricane Center website as there is a tropical depression forming off the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua that is supposed to strengthen over the next couple of days, but then veer right towards the Bahamas.  Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't materialize.

Not much else.  I've been reading a ton.  Ian keeps joking that I have "book sickness."  I finally got my hands on some literature in Gigante and their pages have been keeping me pretty occupied.  Ian has been busy in the yard.  He found an endless supply of "cascaha" on the top of the hill in La Vista, so he's been shuttling the gravel in the back of the Trooper and making us a nice little walkway to our front door.  He and Seth also spent an afternoon gathering some plants along the beach and transplanting them at the house.  We've got a couple more plumeria trees and some really cool border plants that look nice along the pathway.  The night guard at La Vista also gifted us with five young banana trees.  Ian's friend Jaimie comes at the end of the month and we're stoked to have our first guest in the new house.  We've got a brand new queen size bed waiting for you girl!      

The Horse who Races Cars

I just found this video in our library.  My sister took it while she was here in June and I forgot how much I love it.  Now that I have the YouTube thing down, I'll start posting more appropriate videos, i.e. - surf/house/landscape.  This one was just too entertaining to pass up though.  It's a horse in Hacienda Iguana who loves racing cars.



Then there is this story.  A couple of days ago, after our second tank of propane ran out surprisingly quickly  on the fridge, we connected a new one, ignited the pilot, and a giant flame shot out of the bottom, setting the line on fire.  Seriously.  We quickly snuffed out the line, used the old soapy water gas leak test and sure enough, found that the crazy Tecnosol guys who "installed" our fridge, forgot to tighten one of the valves.  After replacing the shoddy  line they gave us with an industrial strength one instead, and tightening all important knobs and whatnots, we have a gas leak free appliance.  Now that's not too much to ask out of a brand-new, two-thousand dollar refrigerator, is it?  We've decided that in the future, when it comes to important tasks such as dealing with things that could potentially catch on fire, that maybe it would be more appropriate to deal with the matters ourselves, instead of entrusting shady movers with zero experience in the matter, to do it for us.  Lesson learned.

La Canicula

As you may have gathered from the last couple of posts, it's been a particularly wet, wet season here in Nicaragua.  However, since the fateful 'truck in river' incident, we've been fortunate enough to experience a three day stint of sun.  This may be the start of  a phenomenon called "la canicula," which is a short, hot dry spell in the midst of the rainy season.  The term is derived from an astrological occurrence involving the helical rising of Canis Major and Sirius.  Canis Major is of course, dog and Sirius actually means scorching.  This is where the term "the dog days of summer" comes from.  All in all, we're happy that we were able to move our truck to the other side of the river, that the offshores are back and that I've finally gotten my nose out of a book.  Panga Drops has been clean and fun the last few days and it looks like the winds are going to cooperate for the week.  We took a nice walk to the ridge a couple of days ago and snapped a few photos of our house from above.  Notice how thick the canopy is.

ocean view from the ridge - lots still available!

Our neighborhood in the foreground

our 240ft well 

Lea, our hellian, keeper of the monkeys, La Vista's biggest fan, and recently, our worst nightmare.  Oh little Lea, La Sed (the thirst), digger of trashcans, killer of chickens, pisser of floors, sleeper of couches, face full of burs, why must you be such a rascal?

The Rescue

After the truck found its way into the river, everyone in La Vista stopped what they were doing to either help out, or witness the events of the afternoon.  Marvin, one of the head builders for La Vista, is a ridiculously skilled tractor driver.  He managed to pull the half submerged truck to the edge of the riverbank in an hour, where it hence, became stuck in the mud.  Four hours of switching out different chains, the snapping of the proclaimed "unbreakable" tow strap, and one battery swap later, the truck actually started, and with the pull of the tractor, was able to back its way to the top of the hill.  What an impressively played out spectacle.  From the idiocy of attempting to cross, to the mastery of the dislodging, I have no words to describe the selfless rally that ensued.  Not your typical Wednesday.

The River takes its First Victim

Last night as we were settling into sleep, the steady rain intensified.  In fact, it rained so hard that we knew, without question, the car would officially be stuck on the La Vista side of the river until further ado.  At around four am it let up, and in the morning Ian walked to the crossing and there was no question.  

At eleven in the morning we got a call from our friend Jason, who also has a completed house and is living in La Vista, telling us that Lorena Cruz had come to deliver a bed and low and behold ..... they attempted to cross.

So, the river has taken it's first victim this season.  The boys are currently waiting for a tractor, yes a tractor, to pull them out.  I bring you this update live and will post pictures of the rescue, when the rescue occurs.  

And so, we're in.  The first week has passed us by with one little adventure after the next.  We've spent time in the living room basking in the realm of all of it's glory; the beautiful wood frame, the details of the thatched-roof, the contrast of our blue couch against the natural elements of the eucalyptus.  Our Dometic propane refrigerator has proven itself worthy.  Our beers are cold and our meat is frozen.  She's small, but effective and that's all that really matters as we dip our toes into off-grid living.  There are only two things currently plaguing us.  Termites and sunlight.  The termites have already found their way through the floor boards and are feasting on the crossbars of our elaborate roof.  We've tried wiping the wood and mopping the floors with neem oil, but they've deemed themselves much stronger creatures and the house is currently being fumigated, with a heavy dose of terminex being applied to the underside.  Our other issue is solar.  The first four days, our marine batteries stayed above half their charge and then on the fifth, the sun never came out and the next twenty-four hours sucked them down to the "auto-shutdown" level.  The sun has not come out long enough for them to regenerate their charge and we've been powerless for over twenty-four hours now.  We tried recharging them with a generator last night, but apparently the electrician didn't hook up the cords properly and we still have no juice.  They're trying once more today but it seems as if we might need to buy an actual marine battery charger and a better inverter.  This is all part of the learning process and a process it will be.

Through it all, I profess my profound love for the boldness of Ian's spirit - his ability to take the plunge and to see a vision through.  Some people live their lives wondering if they could ever do such a thing, and then there are people like him that do it.  Cheers my love, and congratulations.  You (we) have done it.

our first Nica trash fire

  

A Managua Timeline.

Our intentions for travelling to Managua were certainly not for pleasure so, in an effort to give you the full effect of our experience, I think the best way to convey these two days, is to do it over a timeline.

Wednesday July 7th

400pm (still in Gigante) - Gardener Felix, tells us that it is going to pour rain overnight.  Knowing that a) we are leaving for Managua in the morning and that b) our passport stamps expire on the 8th and that c) the river out of Gigante is impassible after a storm, we d) pray that he is wrong.

600pm - We run out of gas while buying eggs at the pulperia.

605pm - Ian borrows a motorcycle to purchase two gallons of gas at the church up the road.

620pm - It begins to pour rain.

700pm - the power goes out.

Thursday July 8th

600am - it is still pouring.

700am - We decide that the river is impassable and sleep a little longer hoping that the rain will stop, the river will go down, and that we can leave by nine or ten.

830am - the rain stops, Felix the gardener arrives for the day, and tells us that in fact, the river is "not that bad."

930am - we lock the dogs in the bottom part of the casita, beg for them to not do anything stupid, then leave for Managua.  We cross the river with no problems.

1000am - we drive past the Guacalito pulperia, decide to turn around to purchase one more gallon of gas to ensure that we make it to Rivas.

1005am - Lady Grey starts making suspicious noises.

1010am - we decide that it is a possibility that the afore mentioned pulperia, put diesel in our gasoline engine.

1015am - the car is still making suspicious noises like a) she is running out of gas again or b) she is pissed off because she is ingesting diesel instead of gasoline.

1020am - we find some random house on the side of the road in Tola who will sell us another gallon of gasoline.

1025am - the car is still making suspicious noises but runs smoothly in fourth gear but we opt to stop at our mechanic's house, who is on our way out of town anyways.  Good thing ...

1030am - mechanic tells us that in fact, we DO have a little bit of diesel in our tank and that it IS in fact, bad.  He checks the spark plugs.  Two have been fried from the diesel.

1031am - Ian tells Melissa that she should always double check to make sure that the eleven year old kid who is putting liquid into your gas tank out of a recycled plastic Coca-Cola bottle is, for sure, putting gasoline, not diesel, into your engine.

1032am - Melissa gets pissed at Ian because she feels like he is blaming her for the diesel in the tank, even though she asked for gasoline and the eleven year old kid's mom, told him to put gasoline in our tank.

1033am - Ian apologizes to Melissa.

1035am - Mechanic replaces the plugs and tells us to put more gas in our tank and to let the diesel work its way out.

1100am - We arrive in Rivas, put forty dollars worth of gas in our tank, go to the ATM and call our Managua driver Robert Ow, whom we are meeting just outside of the city, to be escorted into the mouth of the beast, where we can ditch our car at the hostel we are staying at, then get driven around to do our errands.  We tell him we'll be in Managua by one.

1130am - we get pulled over by the national police.  All our documents are in order, we present our fire extinguisher and safety triangles and he lets us go without having to bribe him.  A small miracle.

1200pm - we go the wrong way in the Masaya region.

1230pm - we realize we have gone the wrong way.  This may have been Melissa's fault even though she chooses not to acknowledge this fact.  Ian is irritated with her but keeps his mouth shut this time.  They sit in silence for a half hour until both are over it.

100pm - we call our Managua driver and tell him that we have gone the wrong way and that we would be entering the city from the southwest.  He sounds disappointed but slightly humored by our mistake, and arranges for a new place to meet us.  He tells us we have gone WAY out of our way.

200pm - we meet Robert in front of a Shell station off the highway and he escorts into the city.  We see our first stoplights in three months.

230pm - a very drunk homeless man is taking a piss on the building next to our hostel.

231pm - we buzz the hostel's front door and the very drunk homeless man runs past us, through the hostel's front door.  We become very skeptical of our chosen location.

232pm - we find out that the very drunk homeless man is a guest at the hostel.

233pm - very drunk homeless man breaks beer bottle on floor of reception hall.

234pm - we become even more skeptical of our chosen location, but don't care enough to change it.  We see our room which is very, very small and smells like piss and cigs. We park our car in their gates and get into the more luxurious ride of Robert Ow's.  Robert tells us he is from the Corn Islands and we like his accent very much.

300pm - we arrive at Tecnosol.  They have one propane refrigerator.  It is exactly what we are looking for and it costs two thousand, one hundred and seventy six dollars.  We buy it because we don't really have a choice and are well aware that the only other solar store in Managua does not have what we are looking for.  We throw in a rechargeable fan for an extra fifty dollars and arrange to have the fridge delivered on Friday.  We are relieved that we even found this illusive appliance without any hassle.

330pm - we celebrate at McDonald's.  We crush multiple cheeseburgers and a boatload of fries.  Fountain Coke never tastes so good.

400pm - we arrive at PriceMart.  It blows our minds because, as we find out shortly after our arrival, it is, in fact, Costco.  We haven't seen anything like it since Hawaii and we are excited over things like organic cotton sheets, fancy knife sets, industrial shelving, ranch dressing, Grey Poupon, and above all Kraft American Singles.

500pm - we check out with a three hundred and fifty dollar bill.  We quickly realize that we need to leave the city or we will be headed back to Hawaii sooner than expected.

520pm - Robert shows us the correct way to exit the city and tells us how to get to La Colonial so we can buy  fancy groceries on the way out of town.  By fancy I mean, anything other than the menial items they sell at the only grocery store in Rivas.

525pm - We transfer our items from Robert's car to ours, thank him for his services and go inside the hostel to drink a beer.

530pm - We walk to Metro Centro which is only two blocks from our hostel and inquire about getting our passports stamped.  We realize they close in a half hour and decide to deal with it in the morning.  Because Metro Centro is a mall, we weave in and out of stores looking for typical, new house knick knacks.  We buy a dustpan with its own small sweeper, some tongs, a bunch of clips to close things like bags of flour or sugar, a shower curtain and rod, and a knife sharpener.

600pm - we indulge in the blended goodness of mocha frappes.

630pm - we buy tickets to the only movie they have in English because we are too tired to decipher an entire flick in Spanish.  The movie is Kick-Ass which we have already seen but don't care because it kicks ass.

815pm - we choose to have dinner at the fancy hotel next to Metro Centro because we feel like we deserve it and whats another fifty bucks after spending 2500?  We immediately order a half bottle of rum, a chicken caeser and a bowl of French onion soup followed by a steak with mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables.  They continually bring us fresh ice and more cokes for our cocktails and do things like replace silverware in anticipation of the next course.  Melissa believes that they could use this type of help at Indigo.  Our total bill - forty two dollars including tip.

930pm - we debate whether or not to take a cab the two blocks to our hostel because we question the safety of the neighborhood.  Then we question the safety of a cab.  We choose to run the first block, then fast walk the rest of the way.  We make it unscathed and unrobbed.

945pm - we watch cable in English until we fall asleep.  Melissa notices a pubic hair stuck into the paint on the wall next to her head and a mysterious dried-up brownish splash accompanying it.

300am - Melissa screams, and I mean screams, out of a dead sleep.  She is having a bad dream.  A very bad dream indeed.  Ian holds her and tells her everything is going to be ok.  He turns the TV back on to purge the demons from the room and Melissa tells Ian she thinks someone has been murdered in this room and that it is for sure, haunted.

Friday July 9th

800am - we get the fuck out of the hostel that we will never come to ever again.

830am - McDonald's again.  Mmmm.  Egg Mc Muffins and hash browns with piping hot coffee.

840am - Melissa clogs McDonald's toilet and we leave immediately thereafter.

900am - arrive at Metro Centro again to check out the passport scene.  A line of people occupying plastic chairs has already begun to form, an hour before they open.  We join the line of plastic chairs.

945am - the scene becomes very intense as more people arrive and start crowding the front of the line, indifferent to the crowd who had already been waiting for an hour.

946am - we question the morals of people in third world countries and hate on their line tactics.  We decide that Melissa will stand near the front in case a mad rush occurs, and Ian will remain in the line of plastic chairs.

1000am - a lady from the office comes out with forms and a mad rush occurs.  The line remains somewhat intact and we are thankful to be very near the front.  A horrible woman and her teenage child who both manage to bud their way to the front, get accosted by the Spanish women around them.  They are shamed and hang their heads but do not leave.  The women in front of us actually tattle on them to the lady in charge.

1100am - we leave with passports stamped.  Ninety more days in Nicaragua if our bank account allows it.  We are ready to get the hell out of dodge.

1130am - Ian begins to drive out of the city.  On the way out we stop at the Galleria which is Managua's fancy mall.  At a Macy's equivalent, Melissa falls to her knees in love.  They have all her missing kitchen items.  French Press, salad spinner, 9x13 pan, loaf pan, 9x9 brownie pan with fresh-top, measuring spoons, measuring cups, bread knife, a cookie sheet and some other random items.  One-hundred dollars later - Melissa can bake again.

1200pm - We stop at La Colonial.  Again, mind-blowing.  They have ten different varietals of lettuce and produce we haven't seen since we left - i.e. asparagus.  We seriously stock up because we are not allowed to do anything or go anywhere until we leave in October.  Two-hundred and forty dollars worth of groceries gets charged to our Visa, because we can.

100pm - we are officially on our way out of Managua.  We pull off the side of the road in Masaya to buy two hammocks.

200pm - we arrive in Masatepe to find that all the artisans have collectively decided to raise their furniture prices.  Our set that was $350 two months ago, is now $650.  We cannot afford this and nothing will bring these ladies down.  We are very disappointed and curse their business tactics.

230pm - we stop at one more shotty-looking shop in a last ditch effort.  They sell us a couch and coffee table for $250 and we are pleased.  The couch gets strapped to the roof with twine and the table gets wedged into the already full car.

430pm - we arrive in Rivas to purchase one more propane tank for our oven.  The tank only fits at Melissa's feet and she is now pancaked to the front seat.

445pm - we are relieved that we are close to home.  We buy some beers and drink them on the very slow, very bumpy road home.

600pm - we arrive at La Vista and unload the car.  Seth and Lindsey come up from Iguana to help us.  They have tequila in them and are very anxious to help.  We love them very much for this.

700pm - we drive back to Gigante to drop off some Pricemart items for Swell and eat dinner before heading back up to Chanelle's.

800pm - We arrive back home to the dogs who are both surprisingly calm with no signs of defecation on the floor.

Nacatamales, 4th of July at Chele's, and Keys to our Castle

We finally experienced the mystical "nacatamal."  We've been hearing about this Nicaraguan culinary delight since our arrival and have been dying to get our hands on one, but for some reason, they never appear on restaurant menus.  We've seen them in the Rivas park centro, but I've been pretty weary of street food since our recent bout with pupseando and my vivid memories of reoccurring sickness in Peru.  So, when Juana asked us yesterday if we've ever had nacatamales and we said no, the following morning on her way to iglesia, she stopped by with these.  Two tightly wrapped food gifts looking just like Hawaiian laulau.  What a lady, that Juana!  She is my Nicaraguan mother and she's only a year older than me.

Mmmm - pork, rice, tomato, onion and corn - steamed to perfection.

Two days ago, we got the phone call from Arial saying that our house was finished - the moment we've been waiting for!  We headed over the next day to take a look and it's so beautiful with the floors varnished and the walls painted white and the bamboo trim along the edge of the ceiling.  The beds and oven are being delivered as I write this and we're headed up to Masatepe to buy some furniture this week.  Two hammocks on the front porch have been deemed mandatory.  Here are some pics of the finished product.

  

outdoor shower

our first keyed entrance

solar setup - four marine batteries, inverter

view from the loft

Yesterday was the Fourth of July, and as I mentioned in the previous post, Chele Palmado's got it together in their hectic week of moving, to put on a richter celebration.  Homemade corndogs personally sealed the deal for me and after a couple of those badboys, a cheeseburger, and some jungle juice, my insatiable appetite was finally satisfied.  In the late afternoon, I ran up to the house to grab the dogs and half a pan of brownies with a drizzled peanut-butter topping that I had made the night before.  (Thanks to Rachel for teaching me that brownie baking trick!)  The sweets went over well and mother nature shortly there after, provided yet another beautiful Nicaraguan sunset.  Thanks for the party boys!

Arial, mixing up the jungle juice

Steve

Macho, my fav Nica dog

Puna going for a sunset swim

And a couple of randoms .....

Nicaraguan traffic jam