I need a ladder to kiss you

A few weeks ago C.J. and I were joined by 4 new volunteers from University of Dayton, Ohio: Pete, Matt, Dan, and Anna. The Dayton kids decided that they were going to take a trip to Granada this weekend and we figured it was a good opportunity to go, since Granada is a must see tourist spot in Nicaragua and we enjoy our travels 10 times more if we have other people to hang out with besides ourselves. Even for our honeymoon, we made sure we went to a resort with lots of young, fun people (mostly other honeymooners) to hang out with. So, we headed off to Granada on Friday afternoon, picking up Vince, another Dayton guy, in Managua on the way.

We got in to our hostel at about six on Friday, and fortunately there was a private room available for me and C.J. - it even has a bathroom (without a shower, but hey... better than nothing). I am just not a fan of the dorm living, we´ve done it twice so far, and I am definately more than willing to pay the extra cash to not have to change in the shower and to be able to wear whatever I want to bed. I think it was like $4 bucks more, so really a no brainer. Our hostel is actually quite nice, after all it is called Oasis. They have free internet, free coffee and tea, a cool little pool, and lots of seating areas and hammocks in the courtyard. There are also tons of young people around to chat with if you feel inclinded. Those college boys like to take advantage of this feature, but I haven´t really. This is partially due to the fact that I started a cold on Friday and my voice is all scratchy. I just don´t like the sound of it, so I´ve been keeping it to myself.

Yesturday, Saturday, we took a bike tour of the city. Granada is right on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, so we rode through the park and along the lake which made for a quite scenic and idealic ride. We took lots of breaks for cervesa and mojitos and just enjoyed how awesome the weather is. Well, it was actually a little too hot, but I would trade that for rainy anyday. We had a few bike problems, namely C.J.´s chain kept falling off, so Matt, C.J., and I headed back a little early. That part was the most grueling because C.J. couldn´t stop pedaling or his chain would fall off and he was on a pretty hard gear. All three of us were drenched in sweat when we finally stopped for tropical fruit smoothies. Those were quite tasty.

As we were heading to the bike shop we noticed a cute little shop that sells cigars, hand made in Granada, and.... CUBA. We were pretty excited for the prospect of smoking Cubans, so we picked up a few for the evening. Strangly, the cigar shop did not sell lighters or cutters, so we went in search for those around the city. We found a really cool lighter that flashes red and blue lights whenever you use it, but we couldn´t find a cutter. As a result, when it came to cutting the cigars I mutulated mine in a way that is too disrespectful to the anyone who loves cigars that I can not even mention it in the blog. And then, since the tobacco was then spilling out the poorly cut end, I just decided to smoke it backwards. This was working for a while, but then at some point my cigar went out and could not be relit. I realized the magnitude of my error when I smoked some ofMatt´s and discoverd how much smoother it is when you actually smoke it right. So basically, my first attempt at cigar smoking was somewhat botched, but still fun and flavorful... after all, it was a Cuban.

After a late night of Flor de Caña and Cubans, the group rallyed for a mornining trip to the tobacco farms for a canopy tour. Since I´ve already done the canopy thing twice, I decided to just chill here and do a little shopping. I was in the market for a new shirt since I always feel like I have no cool clothes. Pretty much all I have are boring t-shirts and polos, because as C.J. told me when we were packing for Nicaragua "It´s not like we´re going to be going out." This has of course proven to be completely untrue. Unfortunately, I am a really bad shopper. This problem is enhanced by the fact that the shop owners in Nicaragua hover and stare the entire time you´re in their store. This, I cannot stand. The other problem today was that I was so sweaty from walking around in the heat that I couldn´t imagine trying anything on, if they even had a changing room, which is unlikely. So, I came back empty handed, which is typical. I have yet to buy a single article of clothing in this country.

The walking around was nice though. There are a lot of markets open, and in central park I stopped to pet some cute little kittens. The woman tried to sell them to me, but I quickly explained that I already have FOUR cats a home, and therefore do not need any more. Speaking of which, our kittens are getting cuter every day and have started running around and playing this past week. Anyway, walking around Nicaragua alone makes me an easy target to all sorts of cat calls and harassments. Depending on how they´re said, they can be amusing or infuriating. Normally, I think the stuff guys says is funny, though I have to pretend I don´t hear or understand what they say, because looking, smiling, or laughing just encourages their behavior, which to be honest is quite disrespectful. I guess I´m too light hearted because I get a kick out of it sometimes, especially when someone says something creative. I´m kind of used to the "mi amor" (my love), "muñeca" (doll), "chela" (fair skinned girl), "mi corazon, preciosa, bonita, guapa..." (my heart, precious, pretty, beautiful), but today I got one that really made me laugh (on the inside of course) -"Una escalara necesito besarte" which means "I need a ladder to kiss you". I´m sure he thought I wouldn´t understand, but 11 months has taught me a little español and I couldn´t help but crack a smile. Ah, well, I never did have much of a poker face.

Our Kitten Had Kittens!

So about a month and a half ago Jenny and I were thinking, man Virginia (our kitten) is really growing strangely. She is really skinny in the shoulders but very pear shaped, fat at the bottom. A couple weeks later as she got fatter we decided to take her to the vet again to see what’s up. We couldn’t imagine she was pregnant because she was only 6 months old. The vet said she surely is pregnant and here we are now, on May 13th we helped deliver three healthy kittens, two boys and a girl. Its kind of shocking for both us and our cat. Our little kitten, still with her tennis ball sized head, only 8 months old, is now mother to three really tiny, squeaky, wiggly-tailed kittens.

So we figured out how it all happened. Jenny and I went to Costa Rica for a week to renew our Visas in mid March. We left our little brother Marcel to feed and watch over Virginia while we were gone. He did a good job, but when we returned they told us about how one night Virginia had a big fight with some other cat and they got inside the locked house and it was an all out brawl for about 10 minutes. How traumatic for our six month old kitten! So this sneaky tom cat got our innocent kitty pregnant in the first heat cycle of her life. I saw him sneaking around our house a few times at night and at least he was a good looking cat, had nice stripes like Virginia but more of a copper color rather than gray and black. The kittens are beautiful, two of them look just like Virginia with black and gray stripes all over and the other is bright orange and white striped. Since one orange one was a boy and one of the black ones was a boy Jenny had the idea to give them temporary names for the next two months until they are weaned from their mom and we give them away to our friends. So Sean, we named the orange one after you since he has your hair and naturally since he has a black brother we named him Sean Black, after our other buddy from college. The girl we named Amelia after our new volunteer friend Emily, who goes by Amelia in Spanish.

The whole birthing process was an adventure. Virginia had been especially more affectionate over the last few weeks and yesterday she was even more so. When I woke up she was stuck to me like glue. Where ever I walked she would follow and when I sat down she would be in my lap immediately. I was sitting having our morning quiet time when I noticed she was having contractions. This was a little alarming for me because I was afraid she might just start popping kittens out in my lap. Jenny had read up on kitty births on the internet and assured me that Virginia would climb down before they came. Jenny prepared a little nest of towels underneath one of our shelves and coaxed Virginia on in so that she could be calm and comfortable. She was in labor for over an hour when she couldn’t stand the pain any more and started running around the house with half a kitten hanging out. She had it standing up in the middle of the floor and scampered under the bed totally freaked and bewildered by what happened. Meanwhile Jenny was upset because the stupid articles she read said that the cat would know what to do and take care of her kittens with little intervention. I was watching this slimy sack on the floor with something inside it that looked like it came from the movie alien and I yelled to Jenny, who had retreated to the other side of the room to get the scissors and cut that kitten out. Jenny suddenly got her senses back and valiantly rushed back with the scissors and cut the kitten free, then began stroking it until it breathed for the first time. What a hero! By this time Virginia returned out of curiosity and her mother instincts took over. She quickly started licking her first born and he came alive with squeaks and wiggles. She laid down right there in the middle of the floor and began cleaning and nursing her baby. The other two were much less stressful since by then we were all experts. It was pretty gross at times but still amazing to see kittens born in front of my own eyes.

The plan is still that we will take Virginia home with us when we come back on July 21st. Now the whole name Virginia doesn’t sound so clever since we will have a cat named Virginia living in Virginia, o well. The same day I announced that we were expecting kittens I had found three takers so we will give away all three kittens just before we leave so they will have at least nine weeks to nurse. Until then it will be fun to see the furry rat-like kittens grow up.

A rewarding experience

Our German volunteer buddy, Martin, lived with one of the poorest families in Sabana Grande. He lived with a middle-aged single mother, Dona Elia, and her 12 year old daughter, Alba Rosa. They were a little bit off from the main pathway of Sabana Grande and none of the houses on their path have electricity, except for Mauro, one of our solar panel experts and more recently Dona Ilda and her family of 12, who just got their own solar electric system a few weeks ago. All the other volunteers knew that Martin had it rough. He was the only one with a true dirt floor, the only one who had no form of modern lighting, and even more unfortunately he lived with the consensus-worst cook of all the Mujeres Solares. This was on top of all the discomforts that the rest of us deal with also.

To Martin’s credit, he stuck it out for the whole 5 months. He knew it was rough, but that is what life is really like for the poorest of poor, and the last thing he wanted to do was move because he was uncomfortable and deny Elia the $50 a month income he was providing. Martin made the best of it and kept a smile on his face. However, he did take the opportunity to escape when he could. He came over and watched corny telenovelas with us and our family every evening. When he wasn’t with us he would go over to Noel’s place and plug in to his outlet so he could use the computer. Martin watched our house for us while we were away in the states for a week. It was convenient for him because he could enjoy the lights, electricity, and even watch DVD’s on our laptop. It was convenient for us because he enjoyed it so much that he would stay nearly all night, which kept away the critters and mischievous neighbors. As a thank you Jenny and I brought back a LED crank lantern for Martin, which was a God-send for him.

As hard as it was for Martin to live with Elia and Alba Rosa for five months, I could imagine how hard it is for Elia and Alba Rosa to live like that their whole lives. Martin decided he wanted to do something really special for his family before he returned to Germany. He was working on a project with a Canadian group who ordered a bunch of tiny five watt solar panels to assemble into small LED home lighting systems for some of the rural families in Nicaragua who don’t have lights. Martin was able to convince his business partners to donate a system to Grupo Fenix. When he asked Elia if he could install a small lighting system in her house she told him it was her dream.

On Martin’s second to last day in Sabana Grande I got the honor to help him install the novel little solar lighting system. Martin purchased all the supplies with his own money and we installed the five watt solar panel and three LED lighting fixtures, which combined only consume 500 mA off a 15 volt battery, thats only seven and a half watts! Go look at one of our incandescent bulbs to see how many watts it consumes and you will understand what seven and a half watts means. Along with the lights we also put in a seven amp-hour battery, which allows all three lights to stay lit for nine hours continuously with no input from the panel. Needless to say it was a pretty rewarding way to spend the day. It was especially nice that I got to lend a hand because Elia and Alba Rosa are the ones who gave us our kitten, Virginia. They have three grown cats and who just had six more adorable kittens!

Ometepe and Katie´s Visit Pictures

Sorry it took me so long to post these, but here they are.
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More Costa Rica Photos

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Costa Rica is Rica

C.J. and I just got back from Costa Rica on Monday. We needed to renew our visas (which were already 24 days overdue) and we figured we´d take the chance to have a little vacation. We would have gone sooner, but we´re so American that we feel guilty taking vacation from our volunteer responsibilities. We just can´t do it, Martin. (Martin is our German friend who spends more time vacationing than working... just kidding :-) )

So, we set off to Costa Rica last Wednesday. The plan was to take the express bus to Managua (3.5 hours) then the Tica Bus to Liberia, Costa Rica (5 hours), spend the night and then figure out how to take local buses to Monte Verde, our final destination. Tica Bus is supposed to be the quick, comfortable way to travel because it is a real express bus that only stops at the border, has air conditioning and movies. We were looking forward to a stress-free trip, but when we arrived in Managua to catch our Tica Bus, we found out that the guy in Ocotal never actually called in our reservation and we didn´t have seats! Fortunately, the boss got us on the bus with no problem but a little added stress our our side. It also turns out that the air conditioning was broken, but they wouldn´t let us open the windows because the air conditioning was on, so we cooked all the way to the border. How TIN.

At the border, we had no problem with our expired visa we just payed the $1 a day fine. The guy was actually very chatty, especially when his friend came in to show him the passport of the guy he swore was Jean Claude Van Damme. It clearly wasn´t him, but they were convinced. They went on and on, looking at the guy´s visas and saying ¨Look, he was everywhere that there was a Van Damme movie made.¨ TIN, seriously.

At the border we also met a couple who had a newer version of the tour book we were using, and it didn´t have any information about busses from Liberia to Monte Verde. We kind of paniced and decided to take Tica Bus all the way to San Jose (4 extra hours) so that we could be sure to get an express to Monte Verde the next morning. Fortunately the air conditioning worked for the Rest of the bus ride (how unTIN... ironic isn´t it), and we watched a Jim Carey marathon in Spanish.

When we got to San Jose, we shared a cab with a backpacker couple and we got unwittingly tricked into staying at a backpacker place with dorm rooms. Ick. I´ll never do that again, I´ll always pay more for a private room, thank you. The next morning we took the 4 hr. express to Monte Verde and arrived at our final destination only 28 hours after we left home! When we got off the bus we were imediately bombarded with people selling tours and handing out maps, but we quickly slipped away to the Tica Bus office to make our return researvations. We found out that you can take Tica Bus directly to Monte Verde (WHAT?!), well sortof, and so we faxed in our reservation, since they wouldn´t pick up the phone at the office.

Then as we were walking around town I suddenly realized we left our bags on the bus!! Ahhh! How could we have been so stupid, we were so distracted by all the people in our face that we forgot our luggage! Crap, we quick took a taxi to the bus station, where luckily our bus was still being serviced for the return trip and claimed our bags, and we only paid double the normal taxi fare. Whew!

The following morning we went for our zip lining canopy tour. Now that was awesome! We zipped from the top of a tree on one mountain, over the valley, to the top of a tree on another mountain. We saw the most gorgeous views of the rain forest and we had so much fun. We also have tons of pictures to share later. Zip lining wasn´t scary for me, it was an amazing experience that I would do again in a heart beat. We also took a walking tour over a set of suspension bridges in the forest, which was neat because we got to see the forest up close. One of the cool things about Costa Rica toruism is that everyone speaks English and since C.J. and I speak Spanish we get special treatment everywhere... just for asking nicely in Spanish we got to see the Hummingbird exibit for free!

Since, we were planning to take a more direct route home, we were able to stay another night in Monte Verde, and go on a canyoning tour - that is repelling down waterfalls! That´s me at the tippy top of the waterfall on the left! Now that, my friend, was scary! You have to really rely on your rope and you have to actually know what you´re doing... which is why I have a huge scape on my left shin. We went down six water falls, and after about two, I was like, ¨OK, been there, tried that, ready to go home.¨ But no, there were four more to go! I made it out alive thankfully, and I do have to admit that it was really fun. I would definately recommend it to anyone who likes adventure and adreneline!

The next morning we took the recommended 6AM bus to the highway to catch our Tica Bus. Our bus driver took his sweet time getting us there, he even took a five minute snack break at one point. That´s actually very unTIN, because the busses in Nicaragua are serious business. Anyway, we arrived at the highway at 10 minutes to 8, and apparently just after the first Tica Bus passed. We waited there until like 9:35, when the 2nd Tica bus came. We yelled, we held up our tickets, we ran after them and waved our hands like maniacs, but the Tica Bus passed us by, leaving us on the side of the road in Costa Rica with no plan an no more Tica Busses coming until 2PM.

Ok, 1, 2, local busses to the border, then an express to Managua. Not actually that bad, if we had been planning for it. Unfortunately all the time we wasted waiting for Tica Bus got us to Managua too late to get home, so we were delayed until the next morning. We stayed near the Tica Bus office so that we could give them hell in the morning... which we did and we were reimbursed for our return ticket. We were still ticked though because we had spent twice that to get to Managua and to stay an extra night, plus we were stressed beyond belief.

So in summary... travelling was horrible, but the activities were fun (yet ridiculously expensive). We´re glad to be back in Sabana Grande and we have lots of pictures and videos to share later!

Our secret weapon

Jenny and I reached our limit. The mice and bats have been invading our house on and off since we got here. I had the mouse on the inside of my sweatshirt (while I was wearing it), Jenny found that a mouse had eaten a bunch of holes in our dirty laundry, and the bats have been swooping through our house every night, between 2:30 and 5:00 am. We tried using some rat poison to get rid of the mice that would make mi casa su casa. That didn’t go so well. It killed the mice alright; it just didn’t get rid of them, then after a week or so the stench would reveal a favorite hiding spot. I have been in the process of putting up some plastic screen material between the top of the wall and the roof around the house to prevent the bats’ nightly squeaky visits. This idea was good, but the screen cost me a fortune (in nica money) and it has taken me hours to put up, still not totally done. We noticed that it cuts down on the number of bats, but there are some areas that I just can’t seal off and we are worried that one will come in and not be able to leave so easily. Short story long, as I like to do on my blog here, Jenny and I have been pushed to the edge and it was time for a secret weapon.

Our secret weapon is a cute cuddly 4 month old kitten. She is adorable, and very effective. The day before we got here we were being taunted by a little mouse that was running around the top of our walls; now we haven’t seen a single mouse, or found evidence, in a week. I have never had a pet before, aside from the goldfish Spike for 2 weeks. I always thought I was a true blue dog lover, but I never knew how cool a cat could be—especially a little kitten. She doesn’t even have to kill any mice, she just showed up and they are gone. Her innocent little meows and purrs are all it takes. Or maybe she has already killed tons and completely eaten them with out a trace, but I doubt it. And the bats, they were pure bonus; they just don’t seem to want to fly through our house any more with the ferocious 4 lb kitty we have hanging around.

We named our snuggly little weapon Virginia, pronounced in Spanish as Veer-hin-ya, because we only speak to her in Spanish. I figure its only fair since we will probably not take her back to the states with us and she needs to be used to Spanish. We decided this name was perfect since she would make our home more like it was in Virginia without mice. Virginia loves to be pet and cuddled, which is great for us because both Jenny and I love cuddling her. She especially loves it if you tickle her under her chin, she will move her chin forward following my finger if I try to pull it away. The other day she jumped up on Jenny while she was in the hammock, then curled up and napped with her; lets just say Jenny is totally won over.

Even though she is small and sweet Virginia is total force to be reckoned with. She is very curious and loves exploring all the nooks and crannies of the house, where she would find any lingering intruders if they are around. She also climbs up on top of the walls and patrols around the top of the house and outside like a sentry. She will go after spiders, moths, and especially ping pong balls. Ping pong ball + kitten + hard concrete floor = fun! I gave her a ping pong ball the other day and she loved it. She will smack it with one paw and then follow up with other as she chases it around the room. Its really bouncy on the concrete floor and she totally shows off her ¨cat-like reflexes¨. She will play with it for 20 minutes straight at full speed sprinting around the house. If she gets lost outside in the evening when we want her to come in all we have to do is open the door and bounce that ping pong ball; Virginia comes darting in the house like a torpedo and the poor little ping pong ball never even had a chance. I think our mouse problems are as good as over.

Mortifying

I had an experience a few nights ago that I don´t know how to describe except as mortifying.

It gets chilly in the evengings here during this time of year. By chilly I mean 60-70 degrees; I know, we are total wimps but that´s cold when you are used to mid 80´s and no a/c all the time. We were getting ready to head down to the main house to have dinner with our family so I figured I´d throw on my sweatshirt. My sweatshirt was hanging from a wire that I strung across the ceiling so that we could put up towels to dry and hang a couple jackets and sweatshirts for easy access. I pulled down my favorite VT hoodie and threw it on. I walked across the room to put away a few things before leaving and I noticed that it didn´t feel quite right. I quickly noticed it was my right shoulder and when I reached around to adjust it I felt a soft lump on the back of my shoulder inside of my sweatshirt! I totally freaked and instantly knew it was some kind of animal. Instinctually, I clenched it with my left fist so that it couldn´t scurry across my back or bite me. While still squeezing the fist-full of soft lump and sweatshirt I threw it off of myself and onto the floor as fast as possible. I stared hard at it waiting for something to come crawling (or flying) out of it. Nothing happened. I poked and jabbed at it a little but still nothing. Then I carefully shifted it around and pulled one arm inside out. Still nothing. Then I shifted it some more and saw a furry brown and white mouse tucked into the folds. It was already dead. I had crushed it with my bare hand in the heat of the moment.

I still can´t believe a mouse got on the inside of my sweatshirt while it was hanging on a line in the middle of the room. The little rascal had nibbled a good sized hole in the left arm pit and then cuddled right up at the top of my right sleeve. He had to crawl up a vertical wall then across a smooth metal wire about 2 mm diameter to get to my favorite sweatshirt in the middle of the line. Of course it was my favorite one. He had good taste, it is the coziest. Even Marcio and Alejandra shuddered a little when I told them what happened. Marcio consoled me with a little advice: He went into his room and came out with his jacket in his hand and said when ever I take clothes off the line I give them a good shake (snaping his jacket in the air) before putting them on. Thanks alot for the tip.

Now I have a new chore; I have to shake out Jenny´s sweatshirt whenever she pulls it off the hanger. It was pretty freak having a mouse on the inside of my sweatshirt with me; but I figure I got the better of the deal than him.

Vacation (Adventure) in Ometepe

Jenny’s sister Katie came to visit us for New Year’s and to participate in the January solar culture course given by Grupo Fenix. She came a week early to hang out with us so we decided to take the opportunity to go some place cool, la isla de Ometepe. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It is in the shape of a figure eight because it was formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. Our travel book said it had beautiful beaches and tons of cool outdoorsy activities so we figured we should check it out.

No matter what kind of traveling you are doing in Nica, it can always be a challenge and an adventure, our little vacation was no exception. Katie flew into Managua at 9pm so Jenny and I took the second to last bus out of Ocotal to Managua, it was at 2:30 pm. We packed up our stuff that morning, and left the house at 12:20 pm, we walked a mile with our bags to the bus stop, took the 12:45 bus to Ocotal (20 min ride), then we got on a 4 hour “express” bus to Managua. Upon arrival to Managua we negotiated with the taxi drivers trying to give us gringo prices to take us another 30 minutes to the neighborhood where we stayed with some nuns which was arranged by Grupo Fenix. Then we had a little luck, my friend Douglas who takes me on the solar panel installations, has a pick up truck and offered to drive us the last 15 minutes to the airport to meet Katie. It didn’t hurt that we told him she was a cute single muchacha in her 20’s. It just so happened that Douglas had just returned from an installation with 3 of our other volunteer buddies so we all piled into the pickup together. On the way to the airport we got pulled over, not for having 3 dudes riding on the highway in the back of the truck—that’s legal, it was for having 3 dudes riding in the back incorrectly. We finally arrived back at the nuns’ house with Katie at about 10:30pm, what a day. If we were to take that trip in the states it would have taken about three hours instead of ten. We capped off the day nicely by going through all of Katie’s luggage, which was full of gifts and goodies from the states for Jenny and I.

We woke up at 5:30 am to get a jump on our next day of travel from Managua to La Isla de Ometepe. We had a wonderful breakfast of huevos rancheros cooked by the nuns and paid only 300 Cordobas ($15) for the 3 of us for the night and breakfast, it was also the nicest home I had been to since leaving the States complete with a modern bathroom and running water—what a deal! Traveling was the same drill as the day before. We cabbed to the bus stop, then “express” bus for 2 hours (standing up in the aisle) to Rivas, then bus to San Jorge, then Ferry across Lake Nicaragua to Ometepe, then cab to the hotel (because busses don’t run on Sunday on the island). When we got on the first bus to Rivas it was totally packed and the three of us took our positions standing in the aisle, I told Katie that it was about a 2 hour ride and she was like “yeah right C.J., quit messing around”. Well, I said, this is Nicaragua, this is normal; and our bus ride actually took nearly 3 hours. Our acronym of the vacation was birthed from that moment TIN(This Is Nicaragua), which is pronounced tin, like the metal, because Nicas all like to say all their acronyms like words, which is kinda fun. The TIN theme carried on throughout our whole trip, but it was good for us to have the mindset of TIN, because that way we were more prepared for all the new experiences and silly screw-ups that are part of vacationing in the third world.

We stayed at the Villa Paraiso, which means paradise villa. It was the nicest, most expensive hotel on the island, for US$63/night. Not bad. The hotel pretty much lived up to its name. We were in this cute little cabana right on the beach with electricity, a/c, running water and a modern bathroom, and direct TV, totally sweet. (Thanks Mom, Dad, and Grandma!) Taking a real shower was totally glorious. It was kind of a let down that they didn’t have hot water, but it was awesome none the less. I butted heads with the owner at the front desk until they gave us a discount for not delivering on the hot water, which they advertised, but TIN. The Direct TV was also a total crock, it only had 6 channels, and they were direct TV feeds, but only 6 channels and all in Spanish, TIN. The hotel restaurant was great. I had some delicious spaghetti bolognese with actual meat sauce made with real tomatoes, not ketchup and mayonnaise. The ladies sucked down some margaritas and I had so-cold-it-will-give-you-a-headache beer, again, it was glorious.

Our vacation consisted of hanging out on the beach, eating good food at the local restaurants and partaking in the outdoor activities. On our first day we decided to start the day off by doing a zip line canopy tour that was nearby, so we figured we should walk. We had a leisurely breakfast and then got to hiking at about 9:15am because the lady at the desk said that the canopy tour place opens at 9. We ended up walking for about 2.5 kilometers in the wrong direction before turning back and we realized it was only about 100 yards from the front door of our hotel. It turned out that it was just a small booth, and we arrived at 10:30 but it still wasn’t open. We went into the hotel next door to ask about what activities they had and we ran into the two guys that run the zip line. They were like “oh, you want to ride it? I guess we will open then.” TIN. The zip line was cool, but kind of anticlimactic because it was only 4 lines and it took all of 15 minutes to do. For the afternoon we decided to schedule a personal horseback riding tour for the 3 of us to see some of the Nicaraguan petroglyphs, which are 800 to 1200 year old carvings in rock that have been preserved. The ride was pretty cool, it was the first time I ever rode a horse. My horse was a total ego maniac and he would refuse to let any of the other horses get in front of him the entire trip. He even got to the point where he would break into a full speed gallop just to keep the other horses behind. Unfortunately due to this being my first time on a horse and that I had no freaking clue what I was doing, I pulled a muscle in my back that still hurts. It was still a pretty fun 4 hour excursion though. Katie said she was unimpressed with the petroglyphs because other civilizations had been writing books already and these were just stick figures carved into rock, my response was ¨TIN¨. Later in the week we went kayaking with all 3 of us on a 2.5 person kayak to a small island off of Ometepe inhabited by monkeys. Katie and I paddled while Jenny got a free ride and took some pictures. It was ok, but we couldn’t get too close because the monkeys are apparently aggressive and would even go as far as jump in your boat from overhanging branches if we got close. We rented mountain bikes one day and rode around the area of Playa Santo Domingo and stopped off at a natural watering hole in the forest where a lot of the locals like to go. It was called Ojo del Agua and it was beautiful and even had a cool rope swing that you could get to from climbing part way up a tree, then swing into the deep water. Jenny and Katie were like the only women there in actual bathing suits and there was plenty of staring going on. I felt like the lucky dude but it was a little awkward.

New year’s eve was pretty cool. Our hotel had a big party that they planned for the guests and anyone local that wanted to reserve a table. They had a late buffet and live music all night with a cash bar. We learned about the Nicaragua tradition that when you want a rum and coke you don’t just get a glass with some coke and a shot of rum. They bring you a 375ml bottle of rum with some ice, limes, a shot glass, and 355 ml bottle of coke. Lots of rum, not much coke. It was a good night. Being that I am a total light weight now and Jenny and Katie always have been, the bottle of rum along with a few other drinks had the 3 of us ¨happily¨ celebrating the New Year.

Our original plan was to book 3 nights at Ometepe, then decide if we wanted to stay for a 4th night or head back to main land and go see Granada for our last day. We were enjoying Ometepe so much that we opted for a 4th day there. Unfortunately our hotel didn’t have any rooms for us to stay in so we got bumped to another hotel two doors down. Everything looked nice, the rooms were big, had modern bathrooms, a/c, TV, and all that, but the price was 50% less and we couldn’t figure it out… until later. Our last day was so windy that going to the beach was torture; we would get pelted by sand, our towels blew all over the place, and tossing around the frisbee was out of the question. We kept ourselves busy by taking a bus ride into the nearest town to tour around and have dinner; I even caught a little bit of one of the bowl games at a bar. When we got back to our hotel for the night we discovered why it was so cheap. We were the only ones staying at the place so they had made special arrangements for one of the staff members to stay in a guest room for the night in case we needed something. We did. When we got back to our room I felt something fall onto my shoulder, it was a really small baby frog. Then I looked at the wall and it was covered with them. I pointed it out to the girls and they freaked. The frogs were inching their way up the walls, and when one would get almost to the top, it would slip and fall all the way to the floor. This made Jenny scream, because she thought they were splatting on our floor, and occasionally they would fall off the wall near the bed and land on it. This was unacceptable; I had to go wake up the staff guy. He moved us to another room, that was frog free, but it had a large ceramic frog lamp on the table--weird. The frogs weren’t all of it. There was a TV in the room, but I turned it on and they didn’t have a single channel, suddenly 6 channels of Direct TV Spanish looked good. Why in the heck did they even have a TV in the room if they have no channels? I looked outside and could see that the room next to us where the staff guy was staying had a hole cut in the screen window with a wire running out of it that went up the wall and was wrapped around a make-shift antenna on the roof. TIN. Also, the water in the bathroom didn’t work and we had to ask them to turn it on. The reply was that we needed to wait 20 minutes for the pump to kick in and fill the tank. There was also no hot water here, there was a hot water knob in the shower and on the sink, but they didn’t do anything. Only in Nicaragua.

Remember how I said that it was really windy on our last day? Well it was still really windy the next morning, but we didn´t think anything of it until after our expensive cab ride to the ferry port 30 minutes away. We got to the ferry to find that there was a ton of people and other tourists all waiting at the gate to the ferry. We heard from some of the people in line that none of the ferries had left all day due to the wind. A ferry came into the port full of passengers after about 30 minutes of waiting, and we all boarded the boat. We waited for about an hour an a half, then finally got official word through the gossip channels that the authorities were closing off the ports for the rest of the day due to wind. I had never heard of this before, its not like we were going in a sail boat, or like we were going to cross the sea, it was just a 1 hour ferry ride to shore. We luckily caught a bus that was passing by as we got off the boat and headed back to the same town as the night before. We stayed the night and I went back to the same bar so I could watch the VT bowl game. It was great that I could see it live, but pretty depressing that we lost our 4th BCS bowl game in a row—the last two being by only 3 points each. The next day we got up at 530 and hustled to the bus stop to get the first bus back to the ferry and when we arrived we found out that they had already cancelled all boat traffic for the second day in a row. We took the 1 hour bus ride again back to the town of Altagracia to get an available hotel room one more time. We found out that we could skip the one hour bus ride the next morning if we took a 6 am ¨lancha¨ out of the local port about a 20-30 minute walk from town. We stayed the night again and got up this time at 4:30 am to check out of the hotel and get to the port in time to catch the plantain lancha. We walked about a mile and a half with our bags, which were heavy as heck by the end and happily found a small boat loading up to leave. We were the only gringos around and they spent the next 45 minutes loading plantains by hand. When they were done the boat was chock full of plantains. They only took about 10 passengers and we set off. It seemed just as windy as the two previous days but for some reason the ports were opened again. The ride on the lancha was 3 hours of the rockiest boat ride I have ever been on. I would look out the opposite side of the boat and see nothing but sea, then I would see nothing but sky, sea, sky, sea sky, ugh… Lucky for me I was smart enough not to eat breakfast that morning; I had nothing to barf up. We had already spent 2 extra days in Ometepe and Katie had missed the first day and a half of her solar culture course in Sabana Grande. So, we took a cab straight from the ferry port for 2.5 hours to the bus station in Managua, then we took another ¨express¨ bus to Ocotal and finished off our 13 hour travel day with a 1 mile up hill walk from the bus stop to our cozy mud home in the mountains. It was a fun vacation but maybe a little too heavy on the adventure. At least we got a chance to show Katie the real Nicaragua.