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

Granada and the Masaya Region

Last week as we were driving the dirt road to La Vista, we noticed that the hillsides had become spotted with golden trees.  A very special occasion indeed, the Cortez had bloomed, marking the start of the rainy season.  For two days, the landscape was abundantly bound with bright yellow flowers that would drop to the ground and become food for hungry iguanas.  I got a chance to snap a couple of photos but before we knew it, the gold was gone.  Cortez only flower once a year and now their delicate petals are shed, leaving only their barren branches again.  Until next year pretty trees ....

As car names randomly come about, so did Lady Gray's.  She's running better than ever after discovering that  she'd been firing on only two cylinders for over a week.  We couldn't figure out why all of sudden, she had lost much of her power.  That is, until Ian popped the hood and realized that two of the cords that connect to the spark plugs had rattled loose.  It was an easy fix and she's as good as new.  So, we decided to take her on the road again.  On Thursday, we headed to Granada, the colonial gem of Nicaragua.  Twice, we effortlessly passed by the national police and only once did we have to pull over because of a strange noise coming from the front right tire.  (another easy fix)  We arrived at lunchtime and dined at a mediocre establishment recommended by the Lonely Planet called Tercer Ojos that as Ian so eloquently put it, "was a jack of everything, but a master of nothing."  It should be a dead giveaway when someone offers Thai, Mediterranean, sushi, and pasta on the same menu.  Do one thing and do it well.  The sweet and sour chicken was okay but small, and the beef salad was just silly.  They dressed it with about two hundred whole peppercorns.  Who does that?  Anyways, after lunch we checked into a nice non-profit hospedaje called Hotel Con Corazon where our fuzzy little mutts were also welcome.  They have a lovely pool and we spent some time relaxing and drinking beers while trying to keep Puna out of their fern flowerbeds.  The remainder of the afternoon, we poked around the city which, reminded me so much of Salta, Argentina.  The square center was lined with restaurant patios and the middle was filled with artisan markets.  At sunset, Ian, myself and the dogs were escorted around the city in a horse-drawn carriage by a fine gentlemen named Mauricio.  We skirted the perimeter of Lago de Nicaragua and had a beer on the Puerto Asese.  We indulged in two dinners and a couple of cocktails after sunset, then headed back to the room, to find that our ceiling had incurred a fairly substantial leak from the room above it.  A quick switch resulted in an upgrade.  The new room's bed had four pillows instead of two.  Score.  In the morning, we cashed in on our free hotel breakfast which was by far, the finest desayuno we have had in Nicaragua yet.  Proper coffee, fresh squeezed juice, warm wheat bread from scratch, homemade chunky peanut butter, fresh jam, whipped butter, granola and milk, a fresh fruit plate, gallo pinto and huevos revueltos.  Seriously.  I wanted to put the rest of the peanut butter in my bag.  Four stars for Hotel Con Corazon.  After breakfast, we decided that we'd had enough of city life for this trip and were itching to see a little bit of nature and check out some of the locally-made furniture in the Masaya state, just north of Granada.  On the way out, we stopped at La Colonial, which has a fancy grocery store and appliance shop.  I finally found azucar glass (powdered sugar) and scored a fairly expensive bottle of oyster sauce for fried rice and other Asian delights.  We also got a peeler and a couple more ice cube trays which we're very excited about too.  

 

The Masaya region teems with lush, green plant life.  Butt up against two huge volcanoes, every little town has a unique facet.  Catarina offers incredible views of Lago de Apoyo and Lago de Nicaragua with Volcan Marumbacha off to the right.  This town is also known for its viveros which is the equivalent to a nursery.  Every flower, tree and herb under the sun is available for purchase at very minimal prices.  It's amazing how much life the vivid color of flowers provides against the mudded sides of homes.  This little town is simply stunning.  We bought our first plants here and got a chance to put them in the ground of our casita today.  After Catarina, we drove to Masatepe where Ian heard you can get good deals on locally made furniture.  He heard right.  You can get a beautiful wooden living room set for $250.  We'll be back when the casita is complete.  After Masatepe we decided to go back in the direction of home.  We needed to pick up some groceries in Rivas which we vowed never to do on a Friday afternoon ever again.  The grocery store was a mad house.  Quite the buzz kill after a pleasant afternoon in the country.

  

So, we're back home now.  Puna rolled in fresh cow crap this morning and we surfed Panga Drops after some coffee.  It's about time for Happy Hour, so I'm signing off.  Life as usual, here in Gigante.  

 

Road Trip

It sounds like our first real tropical storm will be rolling in on Tuesday.  Just as the locals have been saying, come May, the rain begins.  I don't know if I've done justice to a description of the heat yet, but as we were watching the National Weather Channel from the comfort of our air-conditioned hotel room the other day, (more on our mini vacation later)  Managua came in as the second hottest place in the world at 37 degrees Celsius, just a single degree down from New Dehli.  It is tremendously dry here.  The dirt collects in the most unsuspecting places, including the tops of door handles. When we slam the back gate on our Trooper, a dusty cloud gets hurled into the air and it reminds me of Pigpen from the Peanuts.  I'm excited for the cows.  They look so skinny right now.  All their pastures are bare and you can see them struggling to reach the lowest branch of any tree with foliage.  Soon, there will be green plants for them to munch on and the rivers will fill with water again.  Right now, the path from Chanelle's house to the beach looks like an endless moonscape.

As I mentioned, Ian and I took a mini overnight vacation to San Juan Del Sur this week.  Not nearly as sleepy as Gigante, SJDS sits in a beautiful crescent bay and has a beach lined with rickety bars including one named Pau Hana, that not surprisingly, features a Loco Moco on their menu.  We didn't take the opportunity to grace this establishment with our Hawaiian presence partially because it seemed a bit cliche for us to go there, but more so for its lack of business.  We picked a more happening joint just up from Pau Hana's that featured an upstairs deck with a nice view.  Part of the fun of our mini vacation was testing the limits of bringing dogs around Nicaragua and  I'm pleased to report that, even in the "city" of San Juan Del Sur, they continued their reign around town.  As we ate a meal of proper onion rings and homemade chicken fingers, they lazily laid at our feet without a single look of disgust from the patrons.  It really is a dream come true.  They joined us in the bookstore for an iced coffee and at the downstairs bar of our hotel room for afternoon Toñas.  We had no problem finding a room that welcomed them.  A/C and cable TV were important factors in our decision and we spent a good portion of the afternoon and all of the next morning basking in the glory of cold air and English movies.  Besides being total bums, we did take some time to visit SJDS's finest hotel called Piedras de Olas where Ian had heard that for ten dollars, you can use their infinity pools.  As my babe always says, "you know you've made it when you're sitting in a pool with the ocean in your vision."  We lapped up the sunset in luxury, sipping on margaritas and drooling over our first bites of steak in Central America.  Check out yet another, insane sunset in Nicaragua....

I finally got some good waves at Panga Drops.  We took a drive to La Vista today and walked the path from our house to the beach.  There were only two other people in the water this afternoon so I made myself balls up a little bit and got some good inside rights.  The faces weren't that long but I managed to get a handful of good drops.  I'm feeling stronger by the day and am stoked to be back in the water on a regular basis again.  Even if it's waist-high Amarillo, it's great to be riding some waves again.  

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot.  Apparently some inquiring Indigo minds wanted to know how Puna used the bathroom on the plane ride over here.  Well, on the morning of our departure, first we starved her.  Then, we deprived her of water.  Lea too.  (We didn't want her messing her kennel, even though she peed.  A lot.)  The seven and half hours to Houston she crammed herself into a very tight space between Ian's feet and the wall.  A nice gentleman on the plane gave her a small bite of chicken.  I gave her some cheese and halfway through, I let her eat some ice cubes.  When we arrived in Houston, I gave her a little bit of kibble and a bowl of water, then I took her outside and let her pee and play tennis ball.  We had to go back through security but, we didn't get hassled at all.  We had an eight hour layover in Houston and a three hour flight to Managua.  We got through Customs really fast, paid some hombre ten bucks for Lea and we were out the front door of MGA airport and into a small patch of grass which neither dog chose to use.  It wasn't until we were in the lawn of the Best Western that both dogs sprayed.  And I mean, sprayed.  Then they chased a cat and everything was normal.

Ok.  With that cleared up, more later ya'll.

  

Wheels

Hello everyone!  Let's try this again.  I just lost an entire post, pictures and all, twice.  Internet in Nicaragua.  I'm just thankful to have it.  My creative chi is almost drained but I've managed to get all the pics back up.  Let's start with this one of Ian and Brad.  Freakin' adorable.  I never thought I'd fall in love with a squirrel but let it be known, I have.  Lea is obsessed with Brad.  She sits at the base of whatever tree he is in, and anxiously awaits his descent.  Unfortunately for Lea (but fortunate for Brad), this little guy is way too fast and way too smart for our silly little mutt.   

To continue from the last update, we finally got our first storm.  Last Saturday, as I was finishing up a lime and cilantro marinade for a tasty chicken dinner, the sky opened up.  We quickly learned that with the rain, comes power outages.  We managed to whip up a quick meal by candle light (the stove is propane) and somewhere along the way, decided that it would be a good idea to indulge in excessive amounts of rum to help put ourselves to sleep.  (Bad idea.)  By the time the computer battery died somewhere in the middle of our fourth episode of "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia," we were pretty lit.  Between the stagnant, ninety degree air, the absence of a blowing fan and slight inebriation, sleep was not in our favor.  Then, just as we thought it couldn't get any worse, the monkeys chimed in from the trees outside our window.  They did their thing all, miserable night long.  At sun up, the electricity came back on.    

So, as many of you have noticed from our FB "status updates," we're mobile.  This is our '88 Isuzu Trooper that we bought for the lovely price of $2500 from a guy named David who lives in San Juan Del Sur.  She is rusty and old but we had Roger's mechanic take a look at it in Rivas, and she checked out.  The four-door option is nice, as there is plenty of room for boards and dogs.  Wouldn't you know it though?  Three hours after we bought the Isuzu, the Land Cruiser lady called and said she be willing to part with her baby for five.  I'm a strong believer in signs, and Ian and I had already discussed that even five grand would be pushing our budget at this point.  We both agreed that the Trooper came into our life that afternoon, to stop us from buying the Cruiser.  Plus, we wouldn't have been able to have the Toyota for another month and already yesterday, we were able to drive over to La Vista to check out the progress on the house, have a nice breakfast in Iguana, and surf fun, Melly-size Colorado's.  And today, we're going on an adventure to San Juan Del Sur.  We decided the extra $2500 is enough to fill our new house with furniture and appliances.  So be it.  And here are some pics ....  

I had to post this picture of what I call, a "Party Papaya."  Apparently this is a small one too.  I was skeptical as I cut it open yesterday thinking it's size would hinder its sweetness.  I was wrong.  The meat was as sweet and juicy as Hawaii's sunrise varietal.  We've been eating really well since we've been here.  Ian has been making a ton of guacamole and yesterday we fried up some corn tortillas and made fresh, homemade chips.  Yummy.

And here's one more cute pic of Taj.  He's getting bigger by the day.

Well, more later.  It's been such a struggle trying to get this one up that I should post while the internet is cooperating.