Thanksgiving in Granada

Our friend Clint gave us a ride into Granda this morning to scope out some leads on a new vehicle.  Ian is meeting with the gentleman now, and Puna and I are watching cable TV in our air-conditioned room at Hotel San Francisco.  We stayed here last year and were impressed with the nice rooms, friendly staff, and kick-ass free breakfast.  The only downfall to this joint is the noisy parrot in the courtyard.  Puna hides under the bed when he sqwuaks.  Cross your fingers that all goes well in the vehicle department because we're both ready to be mobile again.  Lady Gray is still getting patched up and we've decided to hold on to her and rent her out within the gates of Iguana so people can get around the development if they arrive without a car.  It will be a good way to make some extra cash.

We've hired a nice Nica lady named Marta who comes to the house three days a week to clean and do laundry. She does an excellent job and we know her sisters from Mark and Dave's Surf Camp.  She has three children and seems pretty happy to have some income.  Her and I are hashing out our language barrier which can be challenging when Ian isn't around to translate.  My Spanish isn't awful but, it certainly isn't stellar.

The fish guy stopped by this week - fresh prago (red-snapper) filleted on our front porch!  There is also a produce truck that comes by twice a week, as well.  We missed him this last week but, I'm pretty excited he'll be around as much of our need to frequent Rivas comes from the fact that produce generally only lasts around ten days.  If we can trim our trips to twice a month, Melly and Ian will be happy campers.  In a nutshell, Rivas is a soul-drainer.  It's hot, inconvenient, and plagued with torturous lines.  But, it is our hub and we're thankful for it.  Sadly, the new Maxi-Pali that just went in, is somewhat of a disappointment.  Half-owned by Walmart, we were hoping for a little more variety as far as food choices and household items go but, all it really is is a bigger version of the same crappy store in town.  It does however, have A/C and wide aisles and they do accept credit cards.  Not to mention, there is a secret ATM machine that doesn't have a line wrapping around the block to get to it.  Everyone keeps telling me that being pregnant in Nicaragua comes with privileges.  Allegedly, cutting is acceptable in my condition but, I have yet to work up the courage to try.

Here's another Facebook cut and paste that I took from our friend Kassidy's page - it's Ian on a little nugget at Colorado's.  I'll bust out some proper photos soon!