There´s a first time for everything!

We have sailed to, conquered, and returned(kissed by the sun, well I was uncomfortably ¨handled¨ by the sun...Tylers lookin like a desert babe) from our journey out to the Corn Islands. Our boat out lasted about 6 hours. It was a little choppy but, luckily, we were amongst the majority of foriegn passengers who did not have to utilize the barf bags that were passed out in the bay. We saw some dolphins right off the bat and had premiere seating to enjoy the view a repeat puker hanging off the side of the vessel with a romantic Caribbean backdrop. He apparently didn´t get the plastic bag memo...or his moneys worth from breakfast. Stay strong weak stomached stranger man with unavoidably noticable hat hair...Im sure your ride back to the mainland will be a different variety of breath taking wonder!

We had an spectacular vacation out on Las Islas de Maiz. We actually just stayed on Big Corn and really got to know it and some locals while we were there. I think all the white folk caught the first boat out to the Little Island and fried there skin in unison on the said overcrowded beaches(word from the fishmerman at our little dive bar by the Pier. Big Corn was so surprisingly rid of wandering tourists that every beach looked a little like this and pedestrian crossing signs were non existant. Those crabs have aLOT of rights.. a little something that could be brought up to the federal governemt..maybe us two legged creatures could get a little more swing, ya know!?

We stayed at Silver sands. Its kid of a secret hotel off the road on the less visited side of the Big Island. If I could deliver anything EVER to our blogs I wish I had a photo of Ira, the extremely interesting bearded piratey Caribe that ran the place. Maybe I´ll sketch a picture one..but nobody will ever really know. He was a small guy that sounded like he was screaming all the time and only in the morning did he wear pants. I caught him eating bananas and milk- spitting it through his beard as he scruffed at me instructions for stove use. He drank all of his water from a well he dug out in the back... Tyler became a master of bucketing our water out very day. By the end of the week I hardley notcied the small bugs in it. Dame cinco baby! boom. ping. pow!

I experienced alot of firsts this week. My first Caribbean Island visit and exploration..boat ride in the ocean..my first time snorkeling..and the big dog daddy..my first Lobster. I would like to send confrontational energies through the computer to my folks(Happy Anniversary!!) for keeping this delicious edible under the ¨sea¨cret from me for so long!! OK back to good energies. ;)

Tyler found it nearly blasphemos that I hadn´t eaten a Lob before and given our convenient circumstances( stranding ourselves on an Island crawling with fisherman and Coconut Caribe Sauce!!) he decided to scout out and find a place to treat me to some. Oh. My. Sweet. Sunday. Morning....did we eat up some AMAZING seafood yesterday. You may be asking yourself..What is she doing to that pobrecito?? Those are the sick actions of an extreeeemely satified customer. We licked our shelld clean and just laughed at the table for a while in disbelief of what we were digesting. Thats Tyler up there next o the bone yard..all that remained of our feast. I feel like just typing about it puts the taste back in my mouth but I have to stop! I know I know...You can taste it to. But there is more!.....

We rented some gear and Tyler took me snorkeling all over the island for a few days!! I saw starfish, crab, all sorts of underwater plantlife, some shipwrecks and way of 30 different variety of fish!! It was awesome!! It was like be in the biggest fishtank ever...well..thats exactly what its like...and is. Thanks Tyler!! Something new that i LOVE doing! and not just for the Scuba Steve outfit and the pleasure of watching you try and walk up to shore in flippers!!

 

SCUBA STEVE!

I WANT PIZZA!!!

GIVE ME PIZZA!

------->

We went to see a baseball game which is HUGE on the island. That was fun! We also shared some beers with this really nice Colombian couple whom he had happened to meet on Isla Ometepe! Amongst those brews(cheapest in town...not bragging on that gem left undiscovered by most travelers) a local shared with us that apparently Corn Island is A point in the 8 point Cube that is said to make up the Soul of the World. Something to read about. I do know that the site offered a nice view from the highest point of the island and we went up to check it out. Interesting story and idea.

Last night we caught a boat back to the mainland. Luckily it only took a little over 14 hours! baaaaagh. Long ride! But we can´t complain..We slept on the floor in the understory of a cabin filled with slung hamocks and people piled on there back packs and fishing rope. After having to explain to a ton of strangers that yes we had boiled eggs in a peanut butter container. yes thats the smell...we finally crashed out. We woke up in the Rama river somewhere..and a few hours later hit some dirt-scarfed a lunch and bussed 3 hours to where we are now. Juigalpa, Nicaragua. Tomorrow morning we are border bound. Costa Rica will mark our 7th country visited and 6th currency exchanged this trip. One month left!!!!

Peace out Nica!! It´s been real its been fun...but it hasn´t been real fun!..Thats a complete lie.. and didn´t give this blog the finish I had hoped for... so here´s a picture of a toilet on the back of a ship. I feel like occupying this restroom could lead to a very awkward conversation on the water in passing...

yeah......awkward... -rachel.

Corn

After the news of our jobs hit, the realization came that our trip would be ending soon. Well not too soon, we´ve got 5 weeks and a couple days left here. But anyways, we finally decided we would have to get our butts in gear if we wanted to still do all the things we wanted to do in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and get down to Panama City to fly home in time (March 29th). So we booked it towards Granada, which turned out to be a pretty town but nothing worth sticking around too long for. Lots of gringos, a serious lack of cheap street food, too many nice cars on the street, it all felt a little to clean for Central America, it being the doody capital of the world and all (this will be explained in a future blog). In Granada, we went to a cool museum in an old convent that had a bunch of statues carved by the natives sometime between 800-1200 a.d. and a really nice looking old church that you could go up in the lookout tower of for $1, we didn´t pay that, but from below it looked like the people were enjoying themselves.

We only stayed one night in the city and the rest of the time was spent walking the streets, enjoying happy hours, and watching the International Poetry Festival that was was going on.

The next morning we headed off for Isla de Ometepe, an island formed by 2 volcanoes that emerged from the Lake of Nicaragua. It was a fun boat ride to get out there, although the boat itself was a little creeky. Here are the views from inside and outside of the boat.

Immediately after getting off the boat, as expected, we were bombarded with a hundred people trying to get us in taxi´s, hotels, tours, and just about anything else you can think of. This always puts me in a foul mood for a little while, Rachel got so mad she told one of the guys to shut up. Their favorite thing is for 2 or 3 of them to get in your face when you stop to collect your thoughts as they are shouting over each other. But, we got outta there and found a nice little spot to camp right on the water. Here is the view from our campspot, and me the next day practicing my escape from an erupting volcano.

We headed to the other side of the island, with plans of hiking up the volcano. Everything we could find says you HAVE to have a guide to go up it, but after Rachel did a bit of asking around we found out it wasn´t actually illegal to go up without a guide. Apparently a couple years back some people got lost and died, and everyone decided to make guides mandatory for the saftey of the tourists, right uh huh. Needless to say, we went up without a guide and had a very good time not getting lost and not dying. Rachel was sooo excited to get to a volcano with a lake on top. The hike up was great, not very hot but extremely humid

The hike down was nice, the skies cleared up and we saw this view and this little guy.

After coming down, we used the money saved by not using a guide to buy some beers. We Win! We left the island the next day.

Now the fun journey of reaching our next destination, the Corn Islands, begins. 1 hour ferry ride, 2 hour buse ride to Managua, 7 hour overnight bus ride to El Rama, and a 1 1/2 hour ride down the river to our beautiful Hotel El Dorado in Bluefields (only 6 dollars a night). Only 4 more hours on a boat tomorrow and we´ll be on the Corn Islands!

Back to da beach baby! boom. ping. pow!

WOW...I havn´t written since we were in Jinotega. So prepare to feast your eyes on a piece I should have spilt into three Acts. Travels have only gotten better since Jinotega. As we did enjoy that town, it seemed sort of like the Zombieocolypse had just infected that region in the hills. We grabbed some local grown coffee and headed torwards the Pacific Coast. ¨I´m talkin about a little place called Asssssspen.¨ Anybody catch that quote? What movie? Come on! Anyway...just tryin to keep you on your toes and write through a weak cup of community coffee at 6am(to beat the line for the 1 free computer) in an crowded hostal.

Didn´t go to Aspen. We went to Leon! I wish it had an ¨s¨ in the name so I could announce it dramatically!

Whoop whoop! We loooove Leon. This is Tylers spazmatic ¨are you friggin kiddin me??!¨ face. I couldn´t even try to tell you what he got riled up about. We just get like this at the Central Park because Leon emotes us so!

Leon is one of the oldest cities in the country and lent us the cheapest bed we´ve stayed on, a bustling plaza in front of the Cathedral, lots of 24 cent promotion icecream, a cheap movie theater for the night time, a sweet bar with live music for Tyler to whip out his Spanish, several museums, miles of city murals, new street food, new books(i swear we started a backpack library), and good ¨atmosssssphere¨ to wander around in.

We visited the Museum of Legends and Traditions which was more than comical. They had someone translate alot of the stories into English but I think they just put the whole shpeel into a freetranslator and printed it. Some of it didn´t make since but luckily they had huge dressed up mannequins behind the information in an attempt to paint visitors a mental picture. Like this picture öva theya¨!---->

Dont they just speak for themselves?! yeah...Nicaraguan Folklore..we give you an 8.5! Oh yeah and the building used to be a prison...so they painted old torture techniques all over the walls. Nauseating but innovative, the images. I´m happy I didn´t live in prison here back then...but now..seriously look at this fun house!! Not too bad if you can tummy up the plastic prop food.

We went to another Heroes and Martyrs Museum. There wasn´t as much memorabilia here but a good reminder of where we are and where these people are since then. We went to the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art which I´m surprised we weren´t removed from. They are just always watching you and I feel like we look sneaky as we try to muffle our laughter. Before that was the Ruben Dario Museum. He´s a pretty important and influencial Latin American Poet and is actually entombed next to the alter in the Cathedral at Central Parque. We saw El Tamarindón. Its a huge tree where Adiáct, cacique (chief) of the Subtiava tribe during the Spanish conquest, was unceremoniously hung so his people would see him as weak. Today 'The Big Tamarindo' is a rallying point for indigenous locals. It was a nice walk 30 minutes out of the city and in lou of checking it out we stopped to see the oldest church in the city and ate these icey caramely street vendery roadsidey yummy treats-ies. :) It had some red fruit gummy stuff on top which we dropped on the ground...twice..and ate. mmmm.. we have little shame. sick.

      

The family that runs the hospedaje we were staying in invited us to a family gals 15th birthdays party! It was by faaaar the most memorable night in town. The whole room was pink with balloons and ribbons and salsa music filled the air. Tyler showed those old ladies what stateside guys are really made of on the dancefloor. I am certain that family will NEVER forget him. ever. As do all great things, our stay in our favorite colonial stack of cement had to end. We left the Lion and all of its splender to go a wonderful northern pacific coast retreat in Jiquilillo.

                              

We stayed a few nights on a Nature Reserve and celebrated our 6 month anniversary with a DEElicious fish dinner. Whoop whoop! 6 big ones! Imagine me holding my hands clasped together and shaking them from left to right like my team just won the World Cup. Also imagine that I follow sports. This together should sketch excited victory celebratory gestures into you brainvision.We got this amazing beach all to ourselves for a few days and took it eeeeasy. I also turn about 4927 sea shells looking for hermit crabs  and convinced tyler throught my open water phobia that that sea was dense with jellyfish planning lower leg ambush....sorry Tyler.

We made a day trip to Chinandega to return a fire job call I got and check our mail a such and ···start a drum roll on your lap right now please to build this up. thankyou··· Tyler and I were both offered jobs at Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Colorado for the summer. Same division, same scheduele, 3 day weekends...we are going to be doing some serious playing in the Rockies this season! In excitement..we decided to have just one more day in our paradise and head to Granada to scoot our winter along. 2 more countries to go ya know!

This week has been amazing. Our summer season job hunt frenzy is on the up and up. Last summer was the best of my life and we are plowing our way to Panama to return to the states and do it all over again somewhere new. Nicaragua by far is our favorite country in CA and the best place I could be today with my best friend. 6 months baby! Dame cinco! Boom. Ping. Pow. Bam! Bam!

Silly me..I almost forgot. Mid icecream snack, the other day, Tyler got pooped on by a bird...bahaha..you better believe he finished that cocoa cream stick before he wiped it off....nasty. Love him.

                                the end. -rachel.

Welcome to......Jinotega

Finally made it out of Matagalpa after 4 nights, we cut a deal with the hotel (which was ran by a 12 year old) and stayed for 5 bucks a night, which extended our stay a bit. It was a nice city, cheap street food, a coffee museum, yummy peanut brittle snacks within arms reach and our favorite bakery on earth. One of Rachel's favorite street foods was this pancake sort of thing with a crumble salty cheese on top of it, the same stand also sold corn pudding and corn on the cob. I was really corned out by the end of it.

Matagalpa is know for being the birthplace of the revolutionary Carlos Fonseca, he's a pretty big deal around here. We visited his childhood home that is now converted into a museum and a holding place for this beautiful statue of him.

One of the days we hiked to the top of the Reserva Natural Cerro Apante, an hour or two walk from town. 

We're in Jinotega now, about 1 1/2 hours from Matagalpa. It's a nice town but it's been sort of a strange experience so far. For example, within a few minutes of stepping off the bus Rachel was hissed at by an albino, semi hugged by a passing 15 year old, we were followed for a moment by a drunk psychopath stumbling around in the middle of the street, went into a hospedaje that asked us how many hours we wanted the room for and after we told them the whole night they led us past rooms full of pornography to a man who told us they were full (not like it mattered), it seemed like half of the people on the street were drunk (on a sunday afternoon), and to top it all off last night we heard a loud scraping/screeching/crashing sound and look out of our balcony window to see a guy crashed on a motorcycle on the doorstep of our hotel! He finally manages to get the bike off of him after a few passerbys help him, stands up, stumbles around, gets BACK ON the back and gets it started, takes off and within 15 feet crashes AGAIN. Again, he manages to get up and get the bike started, at that moment a guy a half a block away throws down his bicycle and runs over, gets on the bike with the drunk guy, and they both go speeding down the road, cutting off a few cars in the meantime. This place is nuts! But it really is a pleasant town, kind of, and has a very pretty surrounding area. Everything just seems so twilight zonish I feel like i'm the crazy one. Plus the bakery is really expensive. Here is the view out of our hotel room window, and also the sight of the crash. And on the right the market where numerous odd encounters have occured.

We were gonna hike up to a viewpoint that overlooks the city, the trail for it begins in this beautiful cemetery, but after a local guy told us that it was dangerous and that 2 days ago some people were robbed at gunpoint, so we settled for just a walk around the cemetery. I think we'll be taking off tommorrow.

One of these and one of those and 2 black coffees, thanks.

ESTELI and friends!!!

So we ended up staying in the Esteli are for quite some time. I feel that Tyler lent that blame to my cavities..but I assign blame to his future cavities. We landed in a quant in-the-process-of-being-painted hospedaje next door to a bakery that we´ve frequented and are taste rating in preparation for a Guide to Esteli Pastries book that we will never write. Needless to say, our hospedaje should thank the bakery for our room rental..they kept us there longer.

However, Esteli offered much more than dirt cheap friendly dental work, cigars, and cream filled donuts. We found some of the best coffee we´ve had all trip...mmmm, we used it as a launching point to visit 2 working Reserves, and we visited the Museum for Heroes and Martyrs.

¡Bienvenido a la Reserva Natural Miraflor!

We went to grab information and maps for Miraflor and lucked into abag of fresh coffee grown on the Reserve. We cheated on the bakery with our new brew, liked, and grabbed a bus for the hills. Miraflor was really beautiful and really super wet. I´m pretty sure people here think that we are the cheapest people alive. We definatly did not buy food and popped up our ¨casita¨(little house) and slept in the mud and rain to avoid paying more than a dollar each. Ok we aaare cheap. but..2 days of my hard boiled eggs, beans and crackers were probably better than there plate du jour anyway. We hiked through a small community to a waterfall and hit a wet trail on the families land. When we came back to our campsite soaken wet..we decided to wrap up the casita and go back to town..there we could dine in- guilt free- and visit our second cousins twice removed at the Pasteleria...we just love those cookiesgirlscookies...ok food.




Galeria Heroes y Martires de Esteli


Before my second dental adventure we went to the Museum. This is run off of donation by mothers of members of the National Liberation Sandista Front(FSLN) that fought and died during the Nicaraguan Revolution. It was a really moving Museum. We didn´t know a ton about these events before and were able to educate ourselves a little more through maps, newspaper articles, photos, journals, uniforms, artwork, and other relics from this movement. It´s crazy to walk through the streets today and think of what kind of atmosphere it would have been a only 30 years ago...to look at older folks and try and imagine what they see when they look out of there window. Very recent, drastic and unstable politcal changes in this country.

Reserva Tisey

After a night in the cozy(we'll say) Hospedaje Ramon, we woke up, applied for a ton of Park jobs, ate at our second mothers kitchen(bakery), and took off to grab a bus to Reserve Tisey. We bought the yummiest peanut brittle esque things for 15 cents each on the bus..I can taste them on my tongue riiight now. mmm. We found a Posada and pooped our tent up. Baghaghagh..i wrote pooped. Not changing that. ANYWAY •clearing throat•... Another case of the cheap gringo blues for these farm owners..Not only did we camp..but the second day a rushed Canadian couple dropped there room deposit and went back to town. They gave us the key to there cabin and we upgraded out of the wind!

Tisey was awesome!! Tyler really made me do my mandatory pre-meal exercises out there...We hiked up to the high point of the reserve to see a really great viewpoint of Northern Nica. Lots of wind..Burrito disaster..we got lucky..not a drop of bean spilled. whoo..We wandered around looking for this artist in the hills. Three sets of directions, two hours, and one huge Yucca plant later, we found him. Alberto Gutierrez is 73 and his lifes work is a a farm full of massive rock carvings inspired by his land, vistas, religions, encounters and the rich history of Nicaragua.  He was awesome!! He had an insane amount of energy about his work..his masterpiece. He also fed us fruits from his farm on the walk. Besides an hour long frightening stand off between Tyler and a huge spider in our cabin...seriously huge..it was a great day. OK. The spider thing was amazing too. Who knew an orange and tent posts could be so lethal...What a man. Love him.
On the ride down we got picked up by a farmer from Montana, living and running land on the Reserve. Lucky chance encounter. His life and ideas we good food for thought. He saved us a 5 hour walk and dropped us off right at the terminal. We are now in Matagalpa. We scored a cheap room and have been getting referred to alot of jobs..Tylers spanish is really coming along and he´s much quicker to jump into conversation and ask questions to people here. I´m really proud of how far he´s come. Weather is good. Beer is cheap...nothing could make us happier unless our bakery was here.. Shut your mouth! What was that?? Oh wait...they have a sister bakery..AND IT IS HERE. My fat little fingers could hardly write this blog after my pre-blog danish!! The boy will write more later...-Rachel.