It's the weekend: Granada

It is hard to believe that we have been in Nicaragua for almost a week,
it feels like yesterday that we got here,
to this beautiful countries filled with lakes and lots of wildlife.
On our last night in La Concha,
Sadie's homestay family had a piñata party for us.
They gave us some sort of chocolate drink with cookies
We all took turns trying to hit the piñata that was shaped like a small animal
of some kind.
I guess piñatas are fairly popular in not only Nicaragua,
but other parts of Latin America too.

Today, 
we are in Granada,
in the streets, there is always a person trying to sell us something,
sunglasses, hammocks, little ceramic whistles
all they want is to make a bit of money.
Back home, they would never be that persistent in selling something.
They would accept the refusal of a purchase
and that would be it.
It is very sunny in Granada.
It is way more touristy than the place where we have spent the last week.
So many gringos
I can't even count them.
All the signs are geared towards selling the tourists something
a meal, a t-shirt, a canopy tour.
This town doesn't feel like the real Nicaragua.
I mean, it is geographically
but not culturally.
In the town we were in, La Cancha,
there weren't people always trying to sell stuff.
There were people who were curious about us and wanted to talk to us.
In Spanish, not English.
There also seemed to be more gringo type food in Granada.
Like steak and waffles and hamburgers.

The sign says it all.

Where is the rice and beans?
Mom, I need an adult!
The most that was advertised for sale was fruit and bread.
It was so rich and flavorful!

 Here are the vendors that sold fruit to passersby and locals in La Concha. We passed them everyday that we went to Ruben Dario the first week. The fruit was so colorful it looked like a festival of colors.








Besides the constant vendors, Granada was filled with beautiful architecture.
An old bright yellow cathedral, spreading its beams into the clear blue sky.

Even though the photo is slightly obstructed by a tree, the big yellow cathedral in Granada can still be seen.









Granada looks like a very Spanish town with all the different architecture styles of the buildings.

Later in the day, we took a boat ride to venture to the islands.
Granada is situated on Lake Nicaragua.
On the lake, there are hundreds of tiny islands.
Some of them have people's vacation homes on them
some of them are unpopulated
The one that we stopped had is inhabited with 7 or 8 monkeys.
There was a boat next to ours
and one of the monkeys with a baby on her back had decided
to climb on to the other boat
it was climbing on the poles and over people
it was very cute.
The guide on our boat said that he didn't appreciate the monkeys coming on the boat.
Sometimes, monkeys can be aggressive and bite people
and no one wants to have to go home early because they were bitten by a monkey
Warning: this monkey may be aggressive towards you even if it looks cute and cuddly.
Don't say that I didn't warn you.
It was nice to see a part of the world that hadn't been infiltrated by construction and technology
just the monkeys on their own private island

in the middle of a beautiful lake.
The lake was so big that you can't see from one end to the other
however, you can see across it to the other side.

Quote from Journal Entry:
3/22/15
"I think it's cool/
fascinating how you can
go from a low-key laid
back town like La Concha
and less than 2 hours
later be in a touristy town
like Granada with nice
restaurants in hotels and
the hotels themselves."

How quickly the landscape changes,
from slow paced and laid back,
to a place with a lot of foreigners,
and then to a place that is way out
in the countryside to say the least.

Tomorrow,
we head to Terrabona.
Where we will be staying while we do our water project.
It will not resemble the landscape or feel of Granada.
Here we go.

Hasta mañana.

The Cave: a semi-hole in the Earth

View of the sunset from the bottom of the volcano. 

 When we all reached the bottom, we loaded into the van and drove down the volcano to the head of a stone lined trail with a little bamboo stick structure next to hit. Another guide handed us hardhats and flashlights. The sun and sky were pink and blue which looked spectacular next to the silhouette of the volcano. We all put on the hardhats and switched on the flashlights for out journey to a cave. A little ways up the trail, we turned off and descended some rocky (literally) stairs.

 

We entered the cave and the air was completely still. Humid too. We walked in and stopped. The guide showed us some small stalactites hanging from the ceiling. He also showed us the difference between new and old lava. New lava has some orange in it with no stalactites and no orange-ish coloring. We kept on walking.

 

The wall from the inside of the cave featuring 

hardened lava in cool patterns.

We had to tread carefully because the ground was really uneven and the ceiling was very low in some places. Thank goodness for the hardhat or I would have really hit my head hard on a low under hanging rock. When the cave stopped/we couldn't go any further, the guide had all of us turn our flashlights off so the cave was pitch black. I couldn't see 3 inches in front of my face. I closed and opened my eyes and there was no difference. The guide said he had us turn the lights off to prove the bats living in the cave didn't attack humans. He shined his flashlight to the ceiling to show us a part of the rock that legend had it was a woman who was sacrificed in the cave or volcano or something. The rock did appear to mostly look like a(n) (ugly) women's face. 

Then we all switched out flashlights on and made out way back out of the cave into the night. 

While we were in the cave, it had gotten darker. We walked back up the trail to another cave. We walked down the stairs leading to it and stopped. 

The guide shined his flashlight to show a snake consuming a bat. The bat wasn't moving but it was still sticking halfway out of the snake's mouth. Lovely...NOT. 

 

A snake in the midst of consuming a lifeless bat. Delicious.

We returned to the van and headed back to La Cancha.

Volcano: a big hole in the Earth

This photo was taken by Kara.

It captures the rim of El Volcan Masaya and the smoke spewing out of the crater.

Finally, the most interesting part of the day: going to El Parque Nacional Volcan Masaya. First, we drove up about an hour (actually much less, more like 35-40 minutes) and stopped to look around the visitor center museum. I find most museums to get pretty boring after not being their for very long. We did see monkeys in the trees outside thought which was cool.

A black and white monkey can be seen in this photo as it climbs through the trees.

Taken near the base of El Volcan Masaya.

We took some photos of the group and surrounding landscape then we were off. Then, we drove to a parking lot. We had a guide who was telling us about how the Volcano had erupted 3 times in recent history: 2001, 2008, and 2011 I believe. 

As we looked over the edge, we could see the crater was humongous. It was emitting so much smoke (sulfur) that I couldn't see the bottom or the other side. It also smelled like the worst rotten eggs ever imagined times 100. It was a little hard to breath. The sun looked pale and reddish through the smoke.

On our way to the path that led to the top of the volcano, we passed this broken down view point structure. The sun can be seen in the background. Zoe is standing inside the broken structure.

Then we ascended the road and trail some more. Pretty soon, it turned very steep. It was afraid that I was going to fall as I have a slight tendency to do that. Eventually we reached the top and I couldn't help remembering the climb to the top of Dog Mountain at Camp Arrowhead and the Climbing Song to go with it. The view was 150% worth the climb. 

Photo of all of us at the top of El Volcan Masaya.

This photo was captured by David.

Beyond the smoke, we could see other volcanoes and both the giants lakes. Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua or possibly one of the lagoons. I am not quite sure. Some of the volcanoes we saw from the top were classified as inactive and had no smoke, just green plants and a few scattered trees. The cool wind felt amazing on top of the mountain cause we had been so hot all day long. Going down was scary and hard. I hung on to Zoe for stability which helped a lot and went slow. 

Off to go explore a cave. 

Last day of school

Today was our last day at Ruben Dario and Rincon La Mariposa. At Ruben Dario, we listened to 3 kids each (we were in 2 groups) practice reading.

Then, we helped some others make the round puzzle. We tried yesterday but not very hard. Today, we made an effort to work together and finish it. It was really cool when it was complete. It pictured a bunch of people from different countries dressed in their traditional clothing. They all encircled a picture of the world.

They all came together even though they all come from different places. I thought it was a good representation for the trip. A group of people from the U.S. and Nicaraguans coming together to help/benefit the community.








This photo shows the children encircling the completed the puzzle of the world. Featuring the children's feet and Bridger and Aviva's feet.

La Escuela!

This photo was taken by Bridger.

I went with my classmate Bridger and Elena, an intern from Britain, to the school where we would be working. The public bus was another van that was packed with people. Everyone was basically sitting on each others' laps. We drove up the road and arrived at the school. The school was pretty small for the number of children attending. Oh and the school was called Escuela Ruben Dario. 

We met the teacher who would be telling Bridger and I what things needed to be done. We went into a small room unattached from the classrooms that had a sign that said "Biblioteca" on the outside. "Biblioteca" means library. In the room, there was a table and several bookshelves and drawers for supply storage. The person who was showing us what to do was named Julia. Also, Austin's Mom Sue had joined us in working at the school for the day. Sue was working at the bakery but they weren't open on Mondays. Julia told us were were going to be making 10 sets of letters glued on to fish in alphabetical order to help decorate the classrooms. 

Julia told us that the classrooms have kids of different ages and grades. One of the signs above the door to the classrooms said 1st and 4th grades. I find this set up similar to the one I had at my elementary school in Portland. In both cases, there were mixed grades and it worked very well. I am pretty sure the other classroom was younger students. Maybe kindergarten or preschool. It was fun making the letters and fish. When the children came out of the classroom to greet us, they held their hands together as a sign of saying hello. I guess the custom was to shake the child's hands while they held them together. I had never seen this gesture back home. I think I like it. Also, it was considered good manners to greet people this way. If only this was true in the classroom where the students made a lot of noise. 

I would have enjoyed the morning even more if we had gotten the opportunity to read and interact with the students. When we were about the leave to go back to El Pescacho for lunch, we asked Julia if we could read and interact with students the following. She said yes but we still had to finish making the fish to decorate. Yay!

Adios.  

Llegando en un avion

Esa foto fue capturado desde el avión cuando fuimos volando desde Houston a Managua.

Ayer fue muy largo. Me despiertó a las 3 en la mañana a comenzar el viaje del día a Nicaragua. No parece real que fuimos actualmente en el camino. Siempre he pensado que puedes ver el ancho de América Central desde el avión porque lo que parece muy pequeño y estrecho en cualquier mapa lo que miras.

Llegamos en Houston y jugamos cartas cuando fuimos esperando por 5 o más horas.

Fue oscuro cuando llegamos en Managua. Despues de las aduana, la gente de La Mariposa fue localizado. La Mariposa es una escuela que provee lecciones de español por extranjeros. Tambien, se apoya unos proyectos en la comunidad como una panederia de mujeres, Los Pipitos (una escuela por los niños con capacidades diferentes), y ayudando niños en una escuela que no era tan lejo.

Uno por uno, nos hemos cargado nuestros mochillas y un hombre que se llamaba Oscar atado al encima de la camionetta. Entremos en la camionetta y comenzemos a conducir a San Juan de la Concepcion. Parecio como Ecuador con los estilos similar de concreto, casas hecho de metal, y tiendas pequeñas en las esquinas.

Cuando llegemos en San Juan, Oscar se dejo nosotros a nuestras casas. Me fui quedando con Peri en la misma casa. Dijimos 'hola' a nuestra familia anfitriona y nos hemos dormido. Fuimos muy cansadas de nuestro viaje del dia que se comenzo a las 4 en la mañana.

Adios

Introduccion

Hola, me llamo Aviva y esa blog es una representacion y recuentra de mi experiencia en Nicaragua. Este primavera, me fui en un viaje con personas de mi colegio hacer servicio en algunos pueblos en Nicaragua. A traves de esa experienca, aprendi sobre un otra cultura como viviendo alla y ayudando a mejorar la comunidad. Disfruta!