Today we lit one thousand dollars on fire.  Two beds, an oven, a bunch of kitchen stuff, three liters of Toñas to ease the pain and poof!  Reality came tumbling down.  These purchases compounded with the discovery of our propane refrigerator costing significantly more than we anticipated has prompted a new feature on this blog - the Paypal Donate Button.  In an effort to not sound like total dirt bags, we are calling this our solar fund.  We realize that not everyone can live out their dreams in a far away country off the grid, so we are giving you the opportunity to help us do it, but enough of our digital third world pan handling.

In other news Ian's parents Jon and Kathy have requested that I no longer put pictures of bugs on the blog if we ever expect anyone to come visit. So I will leave you with the last critter photo you will see on here (for at least a week.)

The tarantula in our kitchen

A correction to start things out today - "pupuseando" is the proper spelling from an earlier post.  It is from the verb pupuser - which means to diarrhea and pupuseando is the gerund, which means diarrheaing.  We are not sure if this verb can be reflexive but we think it's funny to put "se" on the end of the infinitive form, giving you pupuserse, meaning "to diarrhea yourself."  I have yet to find any form of this word anywhere else but Nicaragua - our dictionary shockingly, does not have it, and I haven't seen it used online.  If anyone has more information on this highly entertaining Spanish verb, please leave a comment at the end of this post.

A handful of visitors this week.  Ryan Mudd came in from Oahu on Wednesday.  He was faced with crappy surf because of another tropical storm in our region.  I tried to make up for the weather by feeding him copious amounts of food.  We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, also the day that Allegra and her sister Aislinn arrived from Costa Rica.  After excessive amounts of rum and some bomb fried chicken katsu curry, we ate vanilla cake with chocolate frosting - especially delicious because the sisters gifted me with some good old fashioned American vanilla.  It's the little things that you miss.

The wind seemed to calm down this morning - just in time for a big swell to roll through this week.  I sprained my ankle about five days ago and my cankle is officially released most of its swelling and should be good to go by tomorrow.  How did I sprain my ankle, you ask?  I stepped in a deep rut in the road while I wasn't paying attention.  Awesome.

In house news, locks on the windows and doors tomorrow, varnish for the downstairs floor, the solar panel should be coming this week and Managua is really going to happen.  We have managed to avoid the city for almost three months but it has finally become mandatory.  We need to extend our passport stamps as our ninety days is almost up and visit the solar store to purchase our propane fridge.  We are excited at the notion of going to an air-conditioned movie theater and eating McDonald's in between our errands.  Ian has said, (and I quote) "I would run over a chicken for a McDonald's double cheeseburger right now."  I wouldn't run over a chicken, but I am pretty excited to eat a double cheeseburger.  Again, it's the little things that you miss.

And here are a couple of random photos.

A couple of baking endeavors - homemade bagels and cinnamon rolls

a preview of our house color

shower floor - we collected all the rocks

Ryan Mudd, headed to Costa Rica - he got a seat inside.

San Carlos, my favorite grocery store - Ian "shopping"

Mabel, the slowest checker in the history of checkers

Canon Macro Setting

Bless my sister for finding the macro setting on my camera.  Here are a variety of mostly unidentified creatures that have graced us with their presence.

  

Unknown shiny creature that wears a see-through circular cape and suction-cups itself to doors, windows, what-have-you.

Red-wasp, dead, - known to cause fever.

Blister Beetle, aka "Maya bug" to the locals - urinates on your skin and leaves an acidic burn - it's urine is, in fact, documented in this photo.

Pretty spider

Big, fuzzy spider - inside.

Cocoon?  Shiny.

Our bedroom light and the bug colony surrounding it - door closed.

Pupuciando

Again, it's been a while and as always, much has happened.  The internet has been acting quite shady lately and I'm going to try and slap up as much as possible while the little icon below this text box keeps saying "draft saved."  As I mentioned in the last post, my sister was in town for about twenty days and I am proud to report that Ian made it.  Hanging in the close confines of this casita with two Bonte sisters is worthy of recognition for any who dare try (or are forced to try, for that matter.)  Kisses babe.  We played a ton of Scrabble and Ian finally caught on to the poker-aspect of the game that Sarah and I grew up on - slapping down a word that may or may not exist, with complete confidence.  Eventually, he wised up and started playing words like "que" and "fe" and "ge" and other random two-letter concoctions that are always shady when the Scrabble Dictionary is on hand.  Chances are, it's in there.  (i.e. "mo" - meaning, a moment.  I know.)  I won most of the matches and Sarah blames it on the fact that I got to go after Ian all the time, but failed to acknowledge my degree in English or her blatant inability to spell. 

In other news, we finally experienced our first bout with third world sickness.  We learned a new Nicaraguan word during the course of it - the word is "pupuciando."  I'll give you one guess.  For those who are stumped, it means diarrhea.  I will spare you the details but let's just say that, Ian got it the worst.  Pupuciando was accompanied with vomiting, lower back-ache, chills, dizziness, fever and sore muscles.  There were google moments in the middle of the night - searches included excessive diarrhea, flu symptoms, back break fever and of course, Dengue.  At one point it got scary enough that the only thing that kept us from believing it wasn't Dengue, was the absence of a full-body rash.  Ian's bout lasted a solid forty-eight hours with another full-day recovery.  I got it the next day - mine involved more vomiting, but didn't last as long.  Then Sarah got it.  Over the next few days we came to find out that the entire town of Gigante had gotten it and that the locals were saying it's from the excessive amounts of flies that have been around.  Flies.  Let me just say that one more time.  Flies.  I have already had my personal breakdown moments with these filthy creatures invading our living space.  So what do I proceed to do after hearing this?  Wikipedia house flies for an hour.  Don't, I repeat DON'T do it.  We've resorted to toxic powder in a dish on our counter to keep them away and it's working.  I am one of the last people on earth who would want to put toxins next to our food - the trade-off however, is no longer an option.  Just today, Ian read on one of his frequented Nicaraguan forums that two towns up north have recently experienced town-wide sickness from flies also.  This is no joke people.  There are pigs, cows, chickens, goats, horses, and dogs shitting everywhere in this town and we are ready to be up the valley, in our house, away from the barnyard that is the main street of Gigante.  Bless this little pueblo - but get me out of here.  This was the straw, indeed.  


Okay.  And on to more pleasant things.  Isla de Ometepe.  For Sarah's last days, we embarked on a mini vacation to two beautiful volcanoes in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua, the tenth largest fresh water lake in the world.  Recently dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ometepe's landscape reminds me very much of Hawaii.  There are steep volcanoes covered in lush green plant life, flowing rivers, beautiful tropical flowers and a zillion different kinds of butterflies.  Before leaving, we booked two nights at a new eco-lodge called Totoco that had been recommended by a friend, and made a reservation to bring the car over on the ferry.  We decided that we wanted to check-in to the lodge before seeing the sites so we cruised over the paved roads, crossed the isthmus between the two volcanoes, veered left at the split, then the ground turned to jagged rock.  And we thought the road to Gigante was bad!  Slowly but surely, we slammed our way to our destination as Lady Gray's anger swelled.  When we reached the sign for the lodge, our slow ascent up their driveway proved disastrous.  Halfway up the steepest incline we've driven in this country yet, a loud rattling occurred and Lady Gray's idle began sputtering in and out.  Again and again she sputtered and finally we killed the motor and let her rest for a bit.  We fired her up after a couple of minutes and proceeded the rest of the half- kilometer to the top while chanting a Buddhist protection prayer.  Luckily, it was only the radiator cage that had rattled loose and fallen into the fan but man, was it stressful!  Broken down on a steep upgrade with no parking break in the middle of someone's driveway on an island?  When we got to the desk we were told to sit down for our complimentary drink which ended up being some kind of tea made from some find of flower.  Thinking it would be rude to ask for a shot of vodka in their hippie tea, we bit our tongues, then awkwardly sat while their so-called "concierge" struggled through an English introduction and proceeded to pressure us into deciding what activity we wanted to do that afternoon so he could tell their hired guide whether or not he should stick around.  We told him we needed more time to decide and "could we please see our room?"  Noticeably irritated he showed us to our cabana, taught us how to use the compost toilet, and how to convert their twelve volt energy-saving system to 110 so we could charge things if needed.  Then he asked us again, what activity we'd like to do.  We picked none.  Shaded out by the car's status and slightly annoyed by our pushy concierge and the absence of a fan in our room, we had already decided that we weren't staying there both nights, that we were going to get a bottle of rum, get smashed, and make asses of ourselves at dinner.  We enjoyed a lovely afternoon of Scrabble and Flor de Caña on our porch.  Then we went to dinner and ate a ridiculously over-priced version of dried-up beef nuggets with white rice and a sugarless, minuscule brownie for dessert.  Fifteen dollars!  We spared them the scene and decided bed was the best option for us.  I forgot to mention that their website promised a pool and satellite television, neither of which they had.  The next day's quest was to find a place with ESPN so we could watch game 7 of the Lakers series.  On the eco-lodge's behalf, their property was stunning, the rooms were beautiful and if they weren't trying so hard, they might really have a good thing going.  They did forget to add our bar tab to the bill.  So that was nice.  Day two on the island brought us to a nice fresh water spring with the clearest water I've ever seen and a cool little walk around a lagoon and up onto a ridge overlooking the lake.  We found a clean, inexpensive place on the lake that had satellite TV and we were able to watch the Lakers defeat the Celtics in game 7 with only one minor power outage in the fourth quarter.  In the morning, we hopped the earliest ferry and headed over to San Juan del Sur.  Ian and I walked the beach and Sarah arranged a surf at Maderas.  We had plans on eating at a nice Mediterranean restaurant when I was stricken with another sickness.  I was so bummed.  By about ten o'clock I was feeling better and I attempted dinner with Sarah downstairs.  I managed to get down a little bit of chicken and rice while she sipped a cocktail.  It was lovely despite the circumstances.  She's back in Denver now, about to embark on a trip to China and Australia for her summer job and I miss her already.            

            

So, not much else.  They're painting the outside of the house this week and the solar panel will hopefully arrive in the near future too.  Lady Grey finally has windshield wipers but today we discovered a leak in the gas tank.  The car is currently in Rivas being welded.  One thing after the other.  We have more guests coming on Thursday.  Allegra and her sister are at the start of their round the world trip and southern Nicaragua is on their itinerary.  Woohoo!  Another girl to surf with.  This post is officially too long so I'll wrap it up.  Thanks for reading everyone.  

Our mechanic Douglas - the guy who gets all of our money

Douglas' entourage

It's Been A While ...

Well, it's been far too long since the last update and there is plenty to talk about.  First off, Sister Sarah flew in from Hawaii last Monday.  She opted to take a flight into Liberia, Costa Rica and hop a couple of buses to Rivas where we met her and took her the rest of the way to Gigante.  We prayed that she would bring sun and good waves and sure enough, two days after she landed, the rain stopped and the two-week stint of onshore winds finally shifted back to offshore.  The inclement weather created a series of problems including the complete destruction of beach front plants due to salty air blowing directly onshore, to the fishermen having to pull their boats out of the bay, leaving the entire town fish-less.  It's good to have sun, peeling waves, and red snapper again.  Sarah gifted us with more Sticky Bumps board wax, a couple of dearly missed spices and the oh so essential, Deep Woods Off containing 25% Deet.  Needless to say, the mosquitoes have been in full effect with the continuous rain and after only one week, the Off is almost gone.

Lady Grey had her first, official, complete breakdown this week.  As we were driving into Iguana to go surf Pangas, she sputtered out.  We started her up again, and she drove, only to sputter out again.  And again.  And again.  The three of us pushed her into a parking spot at the neighborhood pizza joint, surfed, hoping that it was something electrical, and that the car just needed to dry out.  When we returned, we were still out of luck.  Our friend Seth came down, helped us clean the connection to the battery, just as the sky turned dark grey.  After that didn't work, a couple of local guys came down in the pouring rain, cleaned the carburetor, and when they realized it wasn't that, pulled out the fuel pump.  Sure enough, that was the problem.  Seth gave us a ride back to Gigante and in the morning Ian walked back to Iguana, to intercept the new part that our friend Roger delivered from Rivas, only to realize that it was the wrong one.  That was Saturday, and again, since no Nicaraguans work on Sunday, we waited until Monday, Ian's Birthday, to take care of it.  Our mechanic Douglas, told us he'd be at Iguana at 9:30, so we all set off on foot to go meet him.  A big swell had come in the previous day, and Ian brought his board to score some Birthday waves.  (Incidentally, I took one of the biggest poundings of my humble surfing career the previous day - duck dive gone awry on large set, slammed to the bottom, ears ringing, the whole nine - fear and "being worked" is relative on your own, pathetic scale.)  When we got to the clubhouse, Colorados was big and perfect.  We waited around until 9:30 and Ian walked up to go meet Douglas.  A half hour later, he came back and told us that Douglas wasn't there and that he'd be another hour.  We waited some more, walked up around eleven to have some lunch, and still, no Douglas.  Ian called him again, and Douglas said he'd be there at one.  Twenty past one, Ian calls him again, tells him he'd been waiting for four hours and pulled the birthday card on him.  Finally, at 2:15, Douglas arrived.  Ugggh.  Poor Ian, waiting around all day on his birthday to deal with the stupid car.  Twenty minutes later, Lady Grey had a new fuel pump and we were mobile again.  And we thought Hawaii time was bad!  Four hours of pool and Toñas at Don Eloy's was plenty for the day, and we headed up to La Vista where Ian received one of his birthday gifts - windows!  The much-talked about, and long-awaited windows had finally arrived, and they are awesome.  Screens on the outside, glass on the inside and both sets open like French doors.  The doors also went in and we're currently deciding on a paint color for the outside of the house.  We're getting so close!  We picked out some new beds in Rivas last week and are going to purchase them this week - they just went on sale, so we decided on a King sized bed for us, and a Queen for the guest room.  A trip to Managua will soon be upon us for household items and the propane fridge.  The plants are doing really well and yesterday I found out that you can get gardenia in Catarina.  It's been a slower process than we expected but, each stage is so exciting and one step closer to a dream's reality.

And in critter news, check out this dead Boa with it's belly full.  We were also blessed with the discovery of a yellow-bellied sea snake washed up onto Amarillo beach a couple weeks ago.  (Unknowingly to us, one of the deadliest sea snakes in the world - we actually saved it, by putting it back into the ocean with Puna's Chuck-it)  Awesome.

"Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone." -G.B. Stern

To Ian, the creator of this incredible life we have, I haven't said thank you enough lately.  

Puna's Birthday present - sunset Chuckit session (Puna and Ian have the same b-day)

Birthday drinks at Chele Palmado's

Sunset Amarillo Pics

          
guest photog - Sarah Bonte ... awesome pics seeeeeeeees!