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?

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

  

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

        

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

The Resurrection of Lady Gray, The Great Gigante Dog Roundup, and Running Water at the House

To start things off today, Lady Gray is back in action.  We're so happy to be mobile again.  We had a mechanic named Douglas come up from Rivas to take a look at the clutch and it turned out to be a cracked seal.  He returned to Rivas that morning, found the part, and four and half hours later, we drove to Amarillo for an evening session and sunset beers.  All said and done, eighty dollars.  The parts were forty and he only wanted twenty-five for the labor.  We gave him the extra fifteen and assured him that he was officially "our guy."  Douglas also brought his friend along who is a jack of all trades.  While the car was being repaired, he fixed Chanelle's water pump, a couple of busted fans, and one of the electrical sockets in our casita.  All and all, it was a very productive day.

If you may recall from earlier posts, the woman whom we are renting from, is one of the world's biggest animal lovers.  She had recently informed us of an organization named World Vets that do free spay and neuter clinics in foreign countries.  This week they were in Rivas and it was Chanelle's goal to round up some stray Gigante dogs and get them fixed.  So, on Tuesday morning, we went down to a couple of local eateries and asked the owners if we could take their patio pooches and get them checked out and fixed up by some volunteer vets.  The Nica families handed us over a couple of girl pups, and a male pup named Tarzan.  We also had Chanelle's four month old boxer pup with us too.  We transported the dogs in Lady Gray and checked them into the clinic around noon.  We did some shopping in Rivas and while we were at the Texaco, Chanelle came back to the car with a mangled street dog wrapped up in a sheet, looking like a scene straight out of ET.  The poor dog was the worst case the clinic had seen yet.  His nose was caked with mucus, he was covered in ticks and the poor guy seemed like he hadn't eaten in months.  Well, wouldn't you know it, "Tex" is here at the house today.  Chanelle opted to stay at the clinic to make sure Tex checked out, and we returned to Gigante with the dogs from Margarita's and Gaviota's.  Ian and I were a little concerned about the interaction we were going to have with the local families when we handed over their drugged up puppies but, his Spanish proved worthy enough because the smiles the Nicas gave us were priceless.  Five new fixed dogs in Gigante equals a hundred unborn, uncared for puppies.  Thanks to Chanelle for being the motivation in what turned out to be, a very cool day.

Check in at the Rivas School of Agriculture and the World Vet Clinic

Gaviota's pup, Tarzan - also one of Lea's beach lovers

Tarzan getting tagged

Tex getting poked and prodded

Tex - look at his nails!

Recovery Room

Surgery Room

Tarzan and Taj on their drugged-up ride back to Gigante

In house news, we have water!!!  We also have walls, a shower, and a couple more plants in the ground.  It sounds like we'll have windows and doors by next week too.  The guys were working on a leech line for the septic tank when we stopped by yesterday.  We had our first porch Toñas to celebrate.  La Vista is so green now.  It rained a ton last night.  I can't wait to lay in a hammock on the front porch with a breeze coming through the valley, hearing only the sound of rustling leaves.  Ahh, serenity.  

 

Ian in our bedroom window

Shower

Our little Plumeria Tree

Water!!!

walls

Leech line coming from the septic tank

Our first porch Toñas

This week in surf, Melly finally scored good waves at Pangas.  It actually dropped to a size where I could sit inside and feel comfortable and I got one really good left and a handful of fun rights.  Pangas and I are now friends.  Well everyone, I'm finally getting bagel making down and today I'm experimenting with onion topping.  The dough has risen and I'm off to the kitchen.  Cheers!