Nicaragua

It was time for us to renew our visas, so we took a trip by bus to Nicaragua. Campbelle loved the bus--she was great! It was a long five hours to the border, and then another three hours at the border because the computers were down on the Nicaragua side. It was hot and dusty, so we were grateful to get back on the bus, although it was another three hours to Managua, a taxi ride to the airport to pick up our rental car, a ride to the car lot, then an hour and half before we made it to Granada. That is a long day!



I think Granada is officially my favorite Central American city--it was beautiful! According to what Steve has told us, traditionally, Granada is the conservative capitol of Nicaragua. We took a day trip out to Masaya, known for it's souvenir market, then a boat ride out to see the isletas on Lake Nicaragua. A volcano blew it's top and sent huge boulders into the lake, resulting in hundreds of little islands. You can buy a house and an island for about $450,000, so we've been told, in case anyone is looking for some real estate. We also visited Monkey Island and fed the monkeys.

Granada


Masaya


Isletas


Our next stop was Leon, which is the liberal capitol, and the center for the Sandenista movement (the Contras fought the Sandenistas in the 80's Reagan era and there is still a lot of anti-American graffiti left on the walls). On the way there, of course, we made a dirt road side trip (luckily not too long) to visit Lake Apoyo--a lake in the crater of an old volcano.



We also made a quick stop at the Masaya Volcano.



Leon had some beautiful old churches and a beautiful beach we had fun playing at while the sun went down. It is a little more rundown than Granada, but our hotel was amazing--it was called La Perla, which was fitting because it was a beautiful place with columns, archways, and a small garden area, right in the middle of otherwise plain buildings on a non-descript street. Unfortunately, they had misread Steve's reservation email, and when they took us to our room, there was just one double bed. Fortunately, they ended up giving us their presidential suite, which was beautiful! (Had to throw that in!) Here are a few pictures:



Steve, Aubree, and Brinnan got up early and hiked Cerro Negro, then slid down the other side. Supposedly, you can go boarding/sledding down, but they couldn't find anywhere to rent. Steve pulled up in front of a house on the way to the volcano and asked where he could find a guide. The dad hopped in the car and came with. When Steve paid him, he told Steve that he needed money to buy good milk for his little girls so they would grow strong.



We drove back to Managua, and the next morning, loaded up on the bus again for another long day. It was a fun trip, but we were grateful to be back!

Easter

They don't really celebrate Easter in Central America. They have Holy Week (Semana Santa) which starts Palm Sunday and goes until Saturday. They have processions all over the place, some cities more famous for their processions than others, and sometimes there are people crawling along with the procession as a show of devotion/penance. We went and watched one close by in Escazu on Good Friday. (We waited for one would be more accurate.) It's like a parade that everyone lines the streets waiting for, but nobody knows the actual route. After an hour and a half waiting, we gave up, but saw it as we drove off and got out to take a quick look. There are people dressed up like Roman soldiers and a small band (instruments) that walk in front of a "float" with what looked like a paper mache Christ carrying a cross. It has bars to carry it, and then two smaller "statue floats" of Mary and ?Joseph? that followed. I got out of the car, anxious to get home and out of the heat (Campbelle was hot and tired and wanted to be carried a lot and she only wanted me to carry her), so I would say I had impatient curiosity--see, leave--so it was surprising to me when I was hit with a sudden wave of emotion and teared up. There is a huge crowd of people that follow along, like as if one of our parades collected people as it went instead of just passing by. As far as Easter goes, they have a word for Easter (Pascua) and recognize it as the day of Resurrection, but overall, they celebrate the crucifixion, and Easter is the day after Holy Week. It was funny, because our friend Gabi and her daughter spent the day with us on Saturday, and she asked if we celebrated Semana Santa at our church. Steve explained that we focused more on the day of Easter and the resurrection and that that was the important day to us. When we went to church Easter Sunday, we didn't hear a single reference to Easter. It's just not a latin holiday!



We did have an Easter Egg hunt, though, because that is the proper way to recognize the resurrection, right?

Zoo Day

Aubree's Birthday

Just a few random photos from the day.

Happy Birthday, Aubree!

Happy birthday, Aub! It has been an amazing year for an amazing person! You are absolutely wonderful!