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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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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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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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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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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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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The game started at 6 pm, we arrived about a half hour late and the entire stadium was already almost full. There only three options for tickets: upper level seats $5 each, general seats $2 each and the standing area $0.50 cents each. When we got there the only tickets left were in the standing area so it only cost us $1 for admission. Personally I don’t know what the difference was between the standing and seating area because the standing area still had concrete stadium seats and a majority of people were sitting. But since we were late we ended up standing the entire game.

Just like America baseball stadiums they had vendors selling food and beverages in the stands. However the only food that was the same as back home was popcorn and cotton candy. No hot dogs, pretzels, peanuts or nachos. Instead they had typical Nicaraguan food and typically cheap. We had some tortilla, cheese, pickled cabbage wrap thing for $0.50 cents each and a mash potato, cabbage salad and fried pork dish for $1.50. We never did see a beer vendor though probably a good thing cause…..

Now about the game and the crazed fans. WOW! First of all there was a ton of police everywhere some dressed in full riot gear. At first it made me uneasy but nothing ended up happening. IF anything the people were all about having a good time. When Granada was up to bat the entire stadium cheered louder than I have ever heard. You would think they would have want to be some-what quite for the batter to concentrate but NO. If a Granada player got on base guys in the stands would run up and down the rows waving Granada Sharks vs. Leon Lions banners. And on top of all this the band played their trombones and drums really loud and the cheerleaders in their sparkly bra tops and short shorts did sexy booty shaking dances. Ryan thought it was funny that they even had cheerleaders for baseball. But I guess since baseball is the most popular sport in Nicaragua and they don’t have a football team it makes sense.

Unfortunately, even though the fans were going crazy Granada was losing. At the top of 8th the score was 3-1 and Granada was up to bat first. The first batter was walked with 4 balls. The second batter hit a pop fly to the middle of the field. Up, up and a Leon player was going to catch it when oh no or oh yes he dropped it. First and second base loaded. The third Granada player struck out. The fourth batter hit a line drive down the third baseline and got on base. SO bases loaded with one strike. This is it time for Granada to make a come back. Fifth batter. Ball, strike, ball, hit…. pop fly again to the middle of the field. The Leon player was a second late to catch it in the air but recovered quick enough to make a double play: second, third base out. And that was the game for us. We left at the middle of the 8th inning along with a half of the people in the standing area.

Even though I assume Granada lost we had a great experience. We really felt like attending the baseball game was another insight to Nicaraguan culture.

Granada, Nicaragua Baseball Stadium

Sunset in Tamarindo

With that said let me back up and explain how we got here. We left Granada, Nicaragua this morning as planned. Today was the last day of the San Ignacio summer school but we had to miss it because our vehicle permit expires today. Nicaragua only issues a 30 day permit (which Ryan had to extend once and that proved to be a huge pain). It is a $50 fine if you over stay the 30 days and a $1 for each day past. So we planned to leave today giving ourselves a week and half of free time before I start my English course in San Jose, Costa Rica. We headed to the Nicoya Peninsula in the northwestern part of Costa Rica known for its miles of beautiful beaches. So that was our simple plan to be on the beach watching the sunset by this evening.

Yeah sounds simple but of course nothing goes that smooth in Central America. On our way to the infamously difficult Nicaragua-Costa Rica boarder we got stopped by a routine police check in Rivas. We have been through this several times before so we thought nothing of it. UNTIL the police was looking at our insurance and vehicle permit and said it was expired by one day. WHAT?? No way, we are on the way to the boarder now cause it expires today. Nope. Low and behold the permit says 30 days on it but the expiration date was typed as yesterday, 29 days. Rule #1 never trust Nicaraguans for their math skills. Luckily the police let us go but now it meant we would have to pay the late fine at the boarder.

We got to the boarder at 10:30 am and a two hours later Ryan was on the last steps to check the van out of Nicaragua without paying the expired permit late fee. But just as the clerk was filing his paperwork she pulled it back to double check it and caught to late fee. Crap!! This equaled another two hours of standing in lines, collecting paper work, and paying fines. Finally we made it out of the horrible Nicaragua boarder and onto the Costa Rica boarder that thankfully only took an hour in total to stamp in and get our vehicle permit which was issued for 3 months.

Now in the clear we headed to Playa Brasilito in the northern part of the Nicoya Peninsula. Our travel book said Playa Brasilito is a budget traveler spot located near the luxury accommodation and real estate beach of Playa Flamingo both whom have white sand beaches. Budget travel is right. As we drove in we felt everyone was watching us with judging eyes and were not welcoming. The hostel recommended in the book was run down or being remodeled. It was definitely not what we expected and not where I wanted to spend my birthday the next day.

So we decided to head south to the next travel spot before sunset. That’s when we ended up here in the one spot we planned to miss Tamarindo. And what a good decision that was. We found a great hostel with really nice rooms with a kitchen and bathroom included in the room, checked out a sailing and snorkeling tour for my birthday and found the one delicacy we have been missing the most Sushi. Though it was hard we decided to save sushi for my birthday dinner tomorrow and instead are going to call it an early night. It has been a long day.

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 22, 2010 from Brasilito, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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Me on the Catamaran

Ryan on the Catamaran

It was pretty windy today and the tides were strong so unfortunately the snorkeling wasn’t that great. The water was not very clear but we did see some fish in the rocks. Anyways I was really looking forward to the sailing part so I was still happy. We started back to Tamarindo just before sunset so that we would be in the middle of the ocean when it declined. The captain turned off the motor to the boat so we could sit still and watch the brilliant sunset. It was beautiful!!!

Sunset Sailing

Sunset Sailing

Sunset Sailing

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 23, 2010 from Brasilito, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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We left fairly early in the morning knowing the road south is another bumpy dirt road. What we didn’t know was that this dirt road was also going to be a beautiful drastic insight to the still simple life of traditional Costa Ricans. As we drove along we saw vast fields and farmland inside the valleys surrounded by tropical mountains above.

Farmland of Nicoya Pennisula

Tic Tic Monkey

Lazy monkey

A sick Congo Monkey. Oh look at his eyes. One too many fights!!

Chiquimula crossing the rivers on the dirt of Nicoya Penn.

Chiquimula crossing the rivers on the dirt of Nicoya Penn.

Reading our travel book earlier in the day we knew there was camping in Samara so we thought this would be a good cheap place to stay for a few days. Right when we got into town Ryan found Camping Aloha. It is a really chill place right on the beach with several shade huts made from 4 tree trunks, a rebar roof frame and garden shade fabric above. The camping spots also have concrete circular tables and chairs, a 3 plug outlet, single light bulb hanging from the shade hut, concrete sink and shower basins nearby. Perfect what else do we need shade shelter, electricity and water.

Our camping spot at Samara Beach

Ryan starting a fire for dinner

Beach at Samara

After taking a refreshing dip in the water we relaxed at camp reading books while Ryan cooked rice and beans for dinner. At the end of the night we agree it’s nice to be on the road again!!

written by  ryan & debbrial on January 24, 2010 from Samara, Costa Rica
from the travel blog: Us Discovering the Latin Americas
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