Anyways, just when we felt like our plate was a little less full Pauline asked Ryan to be La Esperanza’s new baseball coach. I guess the Normal La Esperanza baseball coach decided he could not do it this year. It is a totally last minute deal cause before their first game THIS SATURDAY Ryan has to collect the baseball equipment (already owned by La Esperanza), order uniforms (being pay for by a donor) and most importantly recruit kids from San Ignacio and have a practice. Even though he is a bit stressed out with the limited time Ryan is super excited about it all. Full of enthusiasm and all smiles. He said he thinks the hardest part is going to be figuring out what rules they actually play here in Nicaragua cause they’re not the same as America Baseball; which we figured out when we went to play with the kids over the Christmas break. That and probably trying to coach in Spanish. Either way it should be a really fun challenge for him.

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 5, 2010 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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We heard it takes about an hour and half to two hours to climb the volcano. We started our walk at a fairly quick pace but soon found out why it takes so long to climb it. Though the road is paved with a nice block stone path all the way up to the top the road quickly becomes an intense switch back incline. For some nonsensical reason we kept hoping the road would level out just around the next corner. But is it didn’t. It just kept getting steeper and steeper. Fortunately ¾ of the way up to the top is the coffee plantation processing mill. We stopped to take a rest and take pictures of the massive rows of coffee lined out to dry. It must be harvesting season for the coffee cause as we were walking up the mountain we could see lots of locals picking the beans in the field and at the top there were even more with their empty woven baskets.

After our little break we continued up the steepest part of the volcano with some added bonuses. Mombacho is also considered a cloud forest reserve hence why this last part of the hike was in the clouds. It started drizzling here and there, the wind became more fierce and fertile moss covered some of the already slippery block stones. To make matters worse the tourist transportation trucks kept passing us up and down the mountain. BUT we were almost to the top and it was more of a fun, challenging accomplishment to know we walked all the way to the top. The signs started at 800 meters, 850 meters, 900 m, 1000 m, 1100 m, and lastly at 1150 m elevation there was another tourist hut and the start of the hiking trails around the top of the volcano carters. We took a hike around one of them but could see barely anything because of all the clouds.

Surprisingly it was actually pretty cold at the top of the Mombacho with the dense clouds and strong winds. And even though we had our windbreakers on we didn’t stay long. Ryan thought coming down the mountain was worse than climbing up it. He complained most of the way down and I my legs were definitely sore the next day. All in all climbing Mombacho is one of the must do’s while staying in Granada.

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 2, 2010 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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On the other hand the volunteers who stayed in Granada for the break all decided to go to San Juan del Sur for New Years Eve, us included. But before we left for the beach on Thursday morning Ryan wanted to stop by the firework stands for more fireworks. Again he got a huge bag full of a variety of fireworks for only $10. When we arrived in San Juan del Sur Ryan was so excited to surf we went straight to the beach instead of into town. And OH BOY it was packed!! More than any other weekend we had been there before. We hung around for a while then decided to go into town to find the rest of the our volunteer friends and make plans for the night.

The town was just as packed as the beach. After walking up and down the five main streets of town a few times we finally found our friends. Later in the night we all went out to the beach for some drinks and to set off Ryan’s fireworks. There were tons of people with the same idea up and down the beach fireworks lighting up the sky and firecrackers lighting up our ears. After that we walked down to one of the popular bars on the beach called The Pier. They opened their patio so the party could extended from the bar to the water. We hung out there most of the night around a big bond fire talking and drinking. Though we didn’t have an official count down we knew it was midnight when a group of fire throwers started their show and a professional firework show started along with everyone else’s fireworks on the beach. Everyone one went crazy yelling Feliz Año Nuevo!

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 1, 2010 from San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Christmas Eve Dinner

Christmas Eve Dinner with a Christmas Bear and Nicaragua Beer

Most of them are all from Europe so we had German potato salad, German vegetable salad, French cold soup, French some kinda of spice (curry-like) chicken and I made green bean casserole. My favorite though was dessert Fondue with pineapple, banana, cantaloupe, sweet bread and an Australian cake Pauline made for us.

Fondue dessert for Christmas Eve Dinner

After dinner Ryan and Peter (our roommate) got inspired by the Nicaraguans’ way to celebrate Christmas to go buy loads of fireworks. They bought everything from black cat stripes, large and medium bottle rockets, M 2000s, Roman Candles, tons of small loud bang ones, and a few shoot’em up in the air colorful ones.

Ryan & Peter trying to figure out how to light the Nicaraguan fireworks

Ryan lighting Fireworks on Christmas Eve

Ryan lighting Fireworks on Christmas Eve

Everyone in town were shooting off fireworks all night BUT at 12 midnight it was like nothing we expected!!! Every fifth house gave it all they got. It sounded and looked like our street was under attack, BANG, BOOM, another civil war, BANG, BOOM, POP, the Fourth of July on steroids, and a huge cloud like a volcanic eruption swept down the street. Everyone was cheering, hooting, hollering, laughing and dancing. All I thought was if this is how they celebrate Christmas then what will New Years be like. WOW. Scattered fireworks went off for another hour or so until they finally died out and we went to bed.

Debbs sparklers on Christmas Eve

On Christmas day we went up to San Ignacio to play baseball and soccer with the kids again. Again it was so much fun. Peter came with us this time and he too agreed this was a perfect way to spend Christmas. Time flew so fast before we realized it we were up there for three hours. And at the end the kids were again asking us when we would return. We told them in two days, Sunday. So today as promised we went back and today a lot more people showed up. There were more guys our age and even some older guys. We played baseball with almost two full teams though still Nica rules not quit like real American baseball. We played with a tennis ball instead of a baseball since no one has baseball gloves, only two bases instead of three and only six innings instead of nine. Whatever. Their country, their rules. Plus I don’t know enough Spanish to explain it to them otherwise. Instead we took enjoyment in practicing the Spanish we could speak, hanging out with the locals and again experiencing a little more traditional culture.

Some of the kids we played Soccer with on Christmas

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 27, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Pauline scheduled the lessons for two hours a day, one hour of English lessons and one hour of computer lessons, three days this week and four days next week. She gave us an overall idea to walk around town pointing at objects and naming them in English. And for the computers she said to practice using the Internet, Word and Excel. At first it was kinda funny to me to think that people my same age don’t know how to use these the Internet, Word or Excel but I guess if you didn’t grow up with a computer in your house since the age of 10, like most Americans, then I guess you wouldn’t know how.

Anyways so I started my lessons with one of the ayudantes, Tatiana, on Monday (not the same girl we sponsored for high school. Tatiana is a popular name in Nicaragua). I prepared a little by writing down a list of objects I figured we would see around town: park, church, car, tree, horse etc. Walking around town we added to the list. We went to an office supply store which I figured would be good for objects at the school, clothing stores and the market for food names. After the English lesson we came back to my house to use the internet.

Our first lesson went really well. Tatiana knows a little English and has pretty good pronunciation which makes it a bit easier. By the end of our time together on Monday we were both excited about continuing lessons. I went and picked up flash cards later that afternoon for us to use on Tuesday. I wrote out cards in groups of 10 per subject translated in English and Spanish. For example 10 objects in a school, 10 in a restaurant, 10 in a bedroom, 10 animals, 10 articles and helping verbs, Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, etc. etc. Tuesday morning we repeatedly went over all the flash cards. At the end of the lesson I told Tatiana I made them for her to take home and study. It was so satisfying seeing the HUGE smile on her face when she realized I was giving them to her.

Wednesday morning she came back knowing almost all the words on the flashcards. This was a good sign!! Yeah. In Wednesday’s lesson I continued to use the list of words we have obtained so far to start making new flash cards with simple sentences. Then we uses translation program on the internet to translate these sentences. It was a good exercise for her to practice her typing and learn a new resource for learning English. As we walked around town I added more flash cards with sentences and vocabulary words but only in English. At the end of our lesson I told Tatiana her homework for is to translate the only English flashcards into Spanish and practice as much as she could. I am very confident in her and believe she will come back next Monday knowing almost all of the flashcards we made this week. I am also proud of myself for planning and carrying out my first English teaching to a foreign learner!

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 23, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Now for Ryan’s last couple days…..His haven’t been as easy and relaxing as mine but all the same an experience.
Like I said before we are on a two week break from summer school so Pauline, the La Esperanza director, decided to take this opportunity to use Ryan’s skills and asked him to build a storage shed at one of the volunteer houses. Monday morning he started his search around town for building materials. Since there is no Home Depote in Central America, of course, he had ended up going to an actually lumber mill…fresh wood cut there on the spot, hot off the press. Then to the ferreteria (tool shop) for nails and bolts and stuff. Fortunately La Esperanza has saws, hammers, tape measures, etc. for him to use. After collecting all the materials he just had enough time to start the shed before our Spanish lessons. To be continued…..

Tuesday is where all the excitement comes in. Ryan had to go to the Nicaragua-Costa Rica boarder to renew our permit and car insurance to drive in Nicaragua. When we cross the last time we asked for a three month permit but they said they only give out 1 month at a time to regulate foreigners or imported cars staying too long. So here goes his adventure! Before he got to the boarder he came across a line of truckers parked waiting to get into the boarder. The boarder was extremely busy because of Christmas; mostly people trying to get home to their families from Costa Rica back to Nicaragua. Anyways then when he got to the boarder they told him he had to leave Nicaragua for three days then could re-enter (normal to renew a tourist visa). But of course he did not and could not do this. Instead he found a local Nicaraguan guy who spoke English to help him around this. It went like this…pay a bribe, stamp out of Nicaragua, stamp into Costa Rica, pay a bribe, stamp into Costa Rica, pay a bribe, stamp into Nicaragua, pay a bribe, get the car insurance, pay a bribe, get the driving permit, pay a bribe and lastly get the car searched by the police. Finally 6-7 hours later Ryan paid the local guy who helped him all day long, totally worth it, and ended up spending over $100.00.

All this and his day was not over yet. To gain some of the bride money back he met some backpackers at the boarder who wanted a ride to Rivas, a town an hour from the boarder on the way to Granada. Then in Rivas found some other backpackers who paid for a ride to San Juan del Sur. Though he definitely didn’t make the $100 back he made some. After all this back and forth Ryan finally came home exhausted but accomplished.

Wednesday Ryan worked on the shed some more. Built the frame and got it ready for outside paneling. Next weeks material search. Spanish lessons and finally some much need vacation relaxing.

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 23, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Today though, knowing me, I couldn’t sit still for another day doing nothing. Instead Ryan and I explored Granada; since we have been here for almost a month and haven’t seen the sights. We started off with a bike ride down to the Lake (Lago de Nicaragua) only a few blocks from the house. It was really windy, the water is brown, and there is not much around there expect tourist restaurants and shops so I guess we haven’t missed much there. Next we road to the San Francisco Museum. Its is said to the best museum in Granada though compared to the museums at home it was minimal. It has a handful of primitive archeological art, some carved stone hedges, a depiction of ancient life with papier-mâché Indians playing tribal games; which were comical cause they looked like kids made them for a school art project not to be displayed in a museum, and lastly an actually very impressive scale model of the entire city of Granada. The scale model was by far my favorite exhibit. That and the view from the museum over the surrounding houses made it worth coming to the museum.

After the museum we continued on our sight seeing bike ride to take pictures around Granada. We started with several churches then to cemetery and ended at the bell tower just before sunset. There are quit a few churches (iglesias) in Granada the more popular being: Iglesia de Guadalupe, the Cathedral of Granada, Iglesia de La Merced and Iglesia de Xalteva. Here are pictures of each….

Iglesia de Xalteva

Granada Cathedral

Iglesia de La Merced and Bell tower

Iglesia de Guadalupe

The Cathedral of Granada located in the Central Park was originally built in 1583 but has been destroyed several time from civil wars and most recently rebuilt in 1915.

Another impressive architectural aspect of Granada is the cemetery located at the entrance into town. When we first arrived to Granada we were immediately impressed with the cemetery because of the large ornate tombs. Some of the tombs are built larger than people’s houses, especially the people of San Ignacio. The larger tombs whom belong to past Nicaraguan presidents, diplomats, military leaders and wealthy families are located at the front of the cemetery. Then progressively get smaller toward the back till they become only crosses in the ground.

Cross graves at the Granada cemetery

Many of the larger tombs are (how I would describe) constructed like Egyptian tombs except not in a pyramid shape.

Gaint cemetery tombs in Granada

Tomb plaques

is placed or carved into the concrete with the deceased name, dates of life and message. On top of the larger wealthier tombs are statues of angels, crosses, saints, etc. We spent an hour or more in the cemetery going up and down the aisle looking around.

Statue on top of a tomb in the cemetery

After the cemetery we road to the our last sight seeing stop for the day: the bell tower at Iglesia de Merced. From the top of the bell tower we had a fantastic view of all of Granada. It was like the mini scale in the museum turned into real life. In a 360 degree walk around the bell tower we could see the lake, the cathedral, the other churches, the cemetery, and all the Nicaraguenses homes in Granada. A beautiful view!!!

View from the bell tower

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 20, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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In addition to organizing volunteers to work in schools around Granada throughout the school year and the summer school programs La Esperanza also organizes sponsorships for excelled primary school kids to continue on to high school. The sponsorships pay for the kids‘ uniforms, books and school. From what we have heard most of the high schools in Nicaragua are not free public schools, unlike most of the primary schools. It depends on the communities’ wealth and resources. Families have to pay up to $25 a month for high school; which doesn’t seem like a lot to us but for families who only make a few dollars a day it is. So La Esperanza has monitored some of the poorer schools and communities in Granada looking for excelled students. This means kids with good grades, good attendance and a desire to continue their education. La Esperanza picks one, two or three schools each year to select these excelled kids for the sponsorships called, Becas.

So on Monday morning we went to the La Esperanza office to choose one of the many kids on the waiting list for a Beca. First we looked at a list of the kids grades including math, language, social studies, geography, etc. up to seven subjects. Then choose the top two kids to read their short profiles. We decided on a girl named Tatiana. She is 12 years old, lives with her grandmother, father and younger two brothers. In her profile she said she likes to help her two brothers with their school work and wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

While we have been working in the summer school program at San Ignacio for the past few weeks La Esperanza also organized some volunteers to work in a high school preparation program for these sponsors kids. Tatiana started the high school prep classes today. And after our work at San Ignacio we went to the prep school to meet Tatiana. She is a really sweet girl with a bubbly personality. Although our meeting was kinda short since we have a language barrier. But we told her we would come back to check up on her before we leave Nicaragua and are expecting update letters from her over the next few years telling us about her high school experiences.

It was really satisfying for Ryan and I to meet her face-to-face so she knows the sponsorship money doesn’t come from “thin-air” and that there are really people behind it supporting her, hoping for her best.

Me, Tatiana, Ryan....the girl we sponsored for High School

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 16, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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In addition to organizing volunteers to work in schools around Granada throughout the school year and the summer school programs La Esperanza also organizes sponsorships for excelled primary school kids to continue on to high school. The sponsorships pay for the kids‘ uniforms, books and school. From what we have heard most of the high schools in Nicaragua are not free public schools, unlike most of the primary schools. It depends on the communities’ wealth and resources. Families have to pay up to $25 a month for high school; which doesn’t seem like a lot to us but for families who only make a few dollars a day it is. So La Esperanza has monitored some of the poorer schools and communities in Granada looking for excelled students. This means kids with good grades, good attendance and a desire to continue their education. La Esperanza picks one, two or three schools each year to select these excelled kids for the sponsorships called, Becas.

So on Monday morning we went to the La Esperanza office to choose one of the many kids on the waiting list for a Beca. First we looked at a list of the kids grades including math, language, social studies, geography, etc. up to seven subjects. Then choose the top two kids to read their short profiles. We decided on a girl named Titiana. She is 12 years old, lives with her grandmother, father and younger two brothers. In her profile she said she likes to help her two brothers with their school work and wants to be a teacher when she grows up.

While we have been working in the summer school program at San Iganico for the past few weeks La Esperanza also organized some volunteers to work in a high school preparation program for these sponsors kids. Titiana started the high school prep classes today. And after our work at San Igancio we went to the prep school to meet Titiana. She is a really sweet girl with a bubbly personality. Although our meeting was kinda short since we have a language barrier. But we told her we would come back to check up on her before we leave Nicaragua and are expecting update letters from her over the next few years telling us about her high school experiences.

It was really satisfying for Ryan and I to meet her face-to-face so she knows the sponsorship money doesn’t come from “thin-air” and that there are really people behind it supporting her, hoping for her best.

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 16, 2009 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Old Artesian Market in Masaya

Our next stop after Masaya was Volcano Masaya another 10 minute drive from the city. This volcano is famous for being one of the few volcanoes in the world where you can drive up to the crater edge at the top of the volcano. It is a super active volcano with constant sulfur gas and smoke spewing out the approx. 300 yard carter mouth. We tried to take pictures of the impressive hole but the smoke made it really hard. So instead I have downloaded some pictures from the internet. Supposedly the last time the Volcano Masaya exploded in 2000 a boulder landed on a tourist’s car (but no one got hurt). Now though they tell everyone to back-in to the parking spots “just in case”. Like it makes you that much safer. LOL. Anyways they also built some steps up the side of the volcano for a better look into the carter. We went up and actually found another massive crater right next to the first one, so there are actually two in Volcano Masaya. Pretty cool site.

Debb at Masaya Volcano

Masaya Volcano Crater

Masaya Volcano Crater

Masaya Volcano Crater

Steps to the top of Masaya Volcano

So our original weekend plan was to see these two places then head to Laguna de Apoyo, spend the night and enjoy the next day relaxing at the warm natural swimming hole. But…….not so much. What we thought was the right road from Volcano Masaya to Apoyo ended up being the back road back to Granada. We were looking for a sign for Laguna de Apoyo but ended seeing a sign Bienvenidos Granada (Welcome to Granada). Oooppps. Hence our day trip. So instead we decided to stay in Granada and go out to the bars with the other volunteers for Saturday night.
We will go to Apoyo another weekend, its just right outside of Granada, supposedly if we can find it. Haha.

written by  ryan & debbrial on December 12, 2009 from Masaya, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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