Big Waves

Rob Machado was all the buzz this week. As I mentioned in the previous post, he was staying at Mark and Dave's beach front surf lodge along with his family and a couple of big wigs from Hurley including, Bob Hurley himself.  (Anna, your favorite company!)  Ian had the opportunity to split a peak with Rob at Panga Drop's one fine afternoon and I got to feed him.  The baking job was a success.  I whipped up some puffy blueberry muffins on the first morning, my mom's delectable Russian teacake the second morning, banana bread the third morning, and for the grand finale on Friday, homemade cinnamon rolls that came out PERFECT.  (and I mean perfect.)  Marie, the friend who hired me for this culinary endeavor, emailed me a quote from Machado stating that the rolls "raised the bar to a whole new level."  Needless to say, I'm satisfied with my first paid baking job and Ian is stoked that I let five of the twenty-six cinnamon rolls stay home.

The waves have been huge and it looks like it's going to stay that way for awhile.  Ian ripped a handful of double-over head rides at Pangas two days ago.  That same day, the Hurley crew brought out the jet-ski and used a step-off platform to tow the boys into sets.  Yesterday, the middlemen who loaned the ski to Machado and his crew, were driving the machine back to Gigante when they thought it would be fun to take it to heaving Colorado's.  Check out August 21st's nicaraguasurfreport.com for pictures of the jet-ski going over the falls after stalling out in a very precarious spot.  I'll bet the boss man wasn't too pleased about that little stunt!

Not much else this week.  We are quickly approaching broke and it is seeming more and more likely that we will be returning to Hawaii a little bit earlier than we planned.  Poor us.  Trading one paradise for the other.  I'm sure ya'll feel really bad for us.  Thanks for reading everyone.             

Waves, Garden Boxes, Baked Goods, and Cabbage Patch Dolls

I slacked on updates this last week.  To my small but loyal group of devotees, I love you and I'm sorry.  There were fun, small waves all week at Colorados and I'm really becoming quite fond of the spot.  Panga Drops still rocks my world, as it did yesterday, tossing me around like a sweatshirt on spin cycle.  I did have one fun, small day there and was able to catch some rights.  Then the tide changed, some bigger sets came through, and I got stuck inside for an eternity.  This inevitably took all my energy, and I paddled in, humbled as usual.  Poor Ian has had to endure my frustrated tears more times than once.  What a beautiful, empty beach though.  Incarnadine sunsets and sand dollar heaven.  Not to mention, it's a dog's paradise.

Ian and Juan Pablo completed the garden box this week.  It looks really cool with the varnished, bamboo frame.  We don't have any seeds yet, but we transplanted some basil and cilantro and made a nice pasta with fresh herbs the other night.  Hopefully, we can get some vegetables started that will probably be ready just in time for us to leave.  Juan Pablo is the cuidador (night guard) of La Vista and he is excited at the prospect of maintaining our garden while we're gone.  Our banana plants are really starting to take off and the orange tree and papaya trees are going strong.  Unfortunately, the avocado tree didn't make it but, Juan Pablo planted a new one for us.  Ian gathered some Bird of Paradise that he planted along the back part of the house too - a little touch of Hawaii for our Nicaraguan 'hale.'  It looks awesome.

So, while Ian spends his time in the yard, I spend my time in the kitchen.  I have been dabbling in all sorts of baked goods.  My bagel shapes have improved dramatically and I think I've perfected a mix of recipes.  Our friends Gustavo and Marie manage a beach front surf lodge and have thirteen guests coming next week.  They asked me to do some breakfast treats and desserts for them which would officially make this venture, my first job in Nicaragua.  On the menu - cinnamon rolls, muffins, bacon and cheese biscuits, Russian tea cake, banana bread, brownies, cookies and cakes.  One of the guests happens to be pro-surfer Rob Machado and luckily for Ian, I'm nervous - so I've been testing everything out on him.  I never claimed to be a professional.  Wish me luck everyone.  We could use some grocery money.     

And in totally unrelated news, in 1983, the state of Minnesota sold out of Cabbage Patch Dolls.  Weeks later while on family vacation in LA, my mom found them in a department store and we had to have them.  It didn't matter to us that we were the only white girls in MN with black babies.  I'm pretty sure this is where my obsession with Motown started.  Here is a picture of a picture. 

 

P.S. - Happy Birthday to Ian's mom, Kathy!

Good Surf!

It's been a great week of surf here in Nicaragua.  Colorados has been offshore and perfect for the last seven days, and a fun little sandbar has formed off to the right that some of the locals call "muffin tops."  The afore mentioned spot has been a nice option for me as it is much more mellow than the reeling, hollow barrels that the peak tends to throw nearing low tide.  Ian has been crushing Colorados proper all week long, surfing two sessions a day and scoring a ton of quality waves.

Right now, we have our eyes glued to the National Hurricane Center website as there is a tropical depression forming off the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua that is supposed to strengthen over the next couple of days, but then veer right towards the Bahamas.  Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't materialize.

Not much else.  I've been reading a ton.  Ian keeps joking that I have "book sickness."  I finally got my hands on some literature in Gigante and their pages have been keeping me pretty occupied.  Ian has been busy in the yard.  He found an endless supply of "cascaha" on the top of the hill in La Vista, so he's been shuttling the gravel in the back of the Trooper and making us a nice little walkway to our front door.  He and Seth also spent an afternoon gathering some plants along the beach and transplanting them at the house.  We've got a couple more plumeria trees and some really cool border plants that look nice along the pathway.  The night guard at La Vista also gifted us with five young banana trees.  Ian's friend Jaimie comes at the end of the month and we're stoked to have our first guest in the new house.  We've got a brand new queen size bed waiting for you girl!      

The Horse who Races Cars

I just found this video in our library.  My sister took it while she was here in June and I forgot how much I love it.  Now that I have the YouTube thing down, I'll start posting more appropriate videos, i.e. - surf/house/landscape.  This one was just too entertaining to pass up though.  It's a horse in Hacienda Iguana who loves racing cars.



Then there is this story.  A couple of days ago, after our second tank of propane ran out surprisingly quickly  on the fridge, we connected a new one, ignited the pilot, and a giant flame shot out of the bottom, setting the line on fire.  Seriously.  We quickly snuffed out the line, used the old soapy water gas leak test and sure enough, found that the crazy Tecnosol guys who "installed" our fridge, forgot to tighten one of the valves.  After replacing the shoddy  line they gave us with an industrial strength one instead, and tightening all important knobs and whatnots, we have a gas leak free appliance.  Now that's not too much to ask out of a brand-new, two-thousand dollar refrigerator, is it?  We've decided that in the future, when it comes to important tasks such as dealing with things that could potentially catch on fire, that maybe it would be more appropriate to deal with the matters ourselves, instead of entrusting shady movers with zero experience in the matter, to do it for us.  Lesson learned.

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?

The Rescue

After the truck found its way into the river, everyone in La Vista stopped what they were doing to either help out, or witness the events of the afternoon.  Marvin, one of the head builders for La Vista, is a ridiculously skilled tractor driver.  He managed to pull the half submerged truck to the edge of the riverbank in an hour, where it hence, became stuck in the mud.  Four hours of switching out different chains, the snapping of the proclaimed "unbreakable" tow strap, and one battery swap later, the truck actually started, and with the pull of the tractor, was able to back its way to the top of the hill.  What an impressively played out spectacle.  From the idiocy of attempting to cross, to the mastery of the dislodging, I have no words to describe the selfless rally that ensued.  Not your typical Wednesday.

The River takes its First Victim

Last night as we were settling into sleep, the steady rain intensified.  In fact, it rained so hard that we knew, without question, the car would officially be stuck on the La Vista side of the river until further ado.  At around four am it let up, and in the morning Ian walked to the crossing and there was no question.  

At eleven in the morning we got a call from our friend Jason, who also has a completed house and is living in La Vista, telling us that Lorena Cruz had come to deliver a bed and low and behold ..... they attempted to cross.

So, the river has taken it's first victim this season.  The boys are currently waiting for a tractor, yes a tractor, to pull them out.  I bring you this update live and will post pictures of the rescue, when the rescue occurs.