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

        

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!

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.

  

Monkeys and Spiders and Scorpions, Oh My

As we're slowly settling into a routine, there are a few adjustments that have taken some getting used to.  First off, we have a maid and a gardener that Chanelle employs Monday through Friday.  It took a while for me to relinquish my love of certain household chores, mainly dishes and laundry, but I've quickly realized that vacation time is valuable and can be filled with things like crosswords and surf and cooking and blogging.  Plus, it allows us to give extra work to a local family who seems more than happy to be helping us out.  Felix Mora is the gardener who constantly refers to himself in the third person and who is also, madly in love with Lea.  He asked if he could have one of Lea's puppies and was more than disappointed to find out that she no puedes tener hijos.   Felix is married to Juanita, our maid.  Two days ago, while Juanita was cleaning our kitchen, she found a scorpion in the box containing the dogs food.  Luckily, nothing happened and she removed it from our casita but warned us that if the dogs ingest one, they could die.  Poor Chanelle lost her two pound teacup chihuahua puppy not two weeks ago to a scorpion sting, which leads me into the other part of our adjustment.  The tropics.  As I was properly warned before arriving, this country has everything in the bug/reptile/bird/mammal department that you could possibly imagine.  Not only is Chanelle finding scorpions in her house daily, yesterday she came across a tarantula underneath her dog's towel.  This, compounded with the story of her house guest seeing a boa wrestling a bird at the end of the driveway in the middle of the night, and her dog Junior coming home with a face full of porcupine quills, has appropriately risen my guard.  Ian and I are both covered in mosquito bites and frequently remind each other that itching is not acceptable.  Howler monkeys are something new and different for everyone, including the dogs.  A seemingly large family congregated in a nearby canopy two night ago, and did their howler thing all morning long.  Last night, the dogs went nuts over a herd of cows that made their way into the yard.  After much barking, Ian went outside and threw rocks at them.  It seemed to solve the problem and sleep was finally had.

We've met some great people already.  Yesterday morning, a guy named Jason who helps run Chanelle's hostel, gave us a ride down to 2-4+ Panga Drops.  The paddle out was tough for me but, I eventually made it, then spent the next hour scratching for the horizon as the walled sets came plowing through.  The lineup was friendly though, and I got a second to talk to Panga's keeper, Jack.  After he jokingly noted that it was my time for a wave, I thought it would be in my best interest to balls up, get inside and catch a little one before I gained the quick reputation of crowding a lineup at my new home break.  Within a couple of minutes, I caught a fun little left and called it a session.  Baby steps.  Ian got a ton of great waves and is super stoked on the spot which is great because hopefully it means we'll be surfing there together more.

We were able to go see the house again and get a better idea of a timeline.  It sounds like we still have at least six weeks to go because the windows have just been made in Granada and need about a month to dry.  They were putting in the plumbing while we were there, and we were pleasantly surprised to see a septic tank.  The structure itself is looking amazing.  It sounds like the appliances are going to run us around two thousand bucks.  The refrigerator and stove can both run off propane and the solar panels are included in the cost of the house.  They're still experimenting with how much power the panels can store and there is still talk of a wind turbine going into the neighborhood.  All in all, we can't wait to call it home.    

Ian found a 4x4 Isuzu on craigslist today for $2500 and is going to check it out with Roger in the next couple of days.  Roger is a consultant for La Vista and was born and raised in Nicaragua and according to Ian, speaks better English than most Americans.  He has a reliable mechanic in Rivas and is willing to help Ian out with the process.  We had a serious conversation about a vehicle today and decided that if we want to start a business, transportation will be essential.  Money is the main issue and between the cost of appliances in the new house, food and the pending vehicle, we'd be cutting it pretty close by the time we leave in October.  Nothing is set in stone and I will always be plagued with concerns over money but only because it's been a personal issue of my own in the past.  Ian however, always takes the positive perspective which is why I love him so much, and will always make me believe that he's the Bodhisattva in this relationship.  

So, I'll slap up a couple more photos.  It sounds like we may have some visitors in the near future.  Our friends Kevin and Brett are interested in buying down here and we're excited at the prospect of having neighbors we already know.

The three pictures above, are photos from Clint's casita that is just about ready for move-in.  We like what he did with the shower and are considering copying it for our own bathroom.  These are local stones that he found on the beach.  I think it goes nicely with the natural elements of the wooden house.

Lea's hole.

View from the balcony of our rental casita.  There are some pretty awesome sunsets here.

More pics of our own casita, coming soon.  Pics are taking a while to load ....