Mes de los Padres has begun!

Mes de los Padres, or Parent Month, is what we've called the time our parents will visit us in Nica! And it's started :) My mom, Teresa, is here for 10 days! It's been three months since I've been home, since I've driven a car, and since I've seen my mom. The latter has been tough. Me and my mom are very close (and very similar). She arrived in Managua last Thursday, Aug. 27, in the evening. We rented a car here for the first time to pick her up, and it felt like we were driving a boat through the narrow streets of San Juan. We're so used to the convenience of a moto; easy to park, maneuver around potholes and having to stay extremely alert the whole ride. It was pretty relaxing taking a two-hour ride and singing along to music in a car after 90 days without it.

My mom loved the place; she said my description of our place in the jungle didn't include how beautiful the surroundings are. The first night, the three of us stayed up chatting until nearly 2 a.m.; eating snacks, tasting local rum and catching up.

The last few days, we've shown my mom the town, a couple beaches and went zip-lining, which has definitely been the highlight. We've all done it once before, but the San Juan coastal views high above the jungle canopy were awe-inspiring to say the least. Plus, we "zipped" 16 lines back-to-back; landing on platforms high in the trees in between. It was the most extensive zip-line course I've ever seen.

We made a trip to the fish market the first morning and were given the entire fish to cook, including the head! We'll be making a soup with it tonight as per my Aunt's recipe. We'll see how it comes out.

During my mom's stay, we have plans to see local live music, take salsa lessons, yoga, and visit Granada, Laguna de Apoyo and Mombacho Volcano. If we have time, we'll take a trip to Matagalpa, the coffee central of Nicaragua.

My mom is in the process of writing a novel, so she likes to sit outside on the porch with her coffee in the morning and write away. Brandon and I still have to work a few hours while she's here, so that works out perfectly.

A week after my mom returns, Brandon's parents, Joann and Gabe, will come to visit! By then, we'll be two weeks into our new, larger place in town and will have plenty of space for all of us to be comfortable and close to shopping, groceries and swimming. We have some fun stuff planned for when they arrive as well. It seems there's a never-ending list of fun things to do in Nicaragua at a reasonable price.

We're grateful to have parents who share our adventurous spirit and want to travel 2000 miles to visit us and see a new, relatively untouched country. Cheers to Mes de los Padres!

Becoming Locals

It has been a while since I've posted about our adventures, I know. We've been caught up in work, making our way through the challenges of getting acquainted and balancing it all with fun. Just over two months in, Brandon and I feel like we know the ropes now; the best places to eat, which beaches are the most fun, how to ride on just about any road on the moto (yes, we learned our limit!) and have even made some new friends. 

When we're not working, we've taken to adventures like scaling beach cliffs, snorkeling from beach to beach, night rides under the stars on the moto and discovering completely untouched coves. We've been scouting awesome beach locations and activities in anticipation for our visitors in Sept/Oct. AND, we found our next casa!

Although we are extremely grateful for getting a fantastic deal with our current place at Pelican Eyes Resort, we found that there are some unnecessary unpleasantries that we've been enduring up on our hill. One; the Internet. It has been nearly impossible, save for a few days to have an unlimited, reliable internet connection, which at times affected my work flow. Another is the bugs! We're surrounded by foliage, so we get all the critters that come with it, including the occasional gecko poop falling from the ceiling... But we should be covered in all above areas at our new place! http://www.vrbo.com/626975

San Juan Festival and Playa Ostional

We've officially been out of the country for over a month! It's so strange yet awesome that this is really our life now. It's past the point of feeling like a long vacation and we have gotten used to the geckos chirping, speaking Spanish often, and are less shocked when the incredibly LOUD firecrackers occasionally go off from the church in the town square. After looking at a few options, taking to property managers and doing some exploring, we decided we'll be staying in our two-bedroom casa through October 15th. It is quickly becoming home :)

A couple of weeks ago, the town is held its annual San Juan Bautista Festival; a religious ceremony followed by days of partying in the streets, live music, tons of food and, of course, fireworks til 2 a.m.! We had the pleasure of people watching and tasting incredibly delicious street BBQ and listening to live Latin music energizing the nighttime fiesta. It was so much fun to observe!

The highlights since our last post have been taking some awesome self-guided tours on the moto, which we still have and really like! It's about $8 a week to fill up.

We found the sweetest beach ever. Playa Ostional is the second-to-last beach on the south-pacific side of Nica, and minutes from the Costa Rico border. It's a long, secluded beach, best for finding shells, jumping from rock to rock amidst calm, warm waves to watch swimming tropical fish (some are huge!) and beach-hiking; climbing wave covered cliffs and looking into caves.

We could only make it so far because the tide was much too high that day. Luckily, we packed a couple of cans of Tona (the local beer) and snacks and hiked our way to a stunning chill spot. We were there until the tide was high enough to surprise splash us! We'll be back to try and conquer it sometime soon...

Isla de Ometepe

Yesterday, we took a day trip to the island called Ometepe. It's an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, an enormous body of water six times the size of Lake Tahoe! Here it is relative to 

Juan Del Sur and the rest of Nicaragua. 

It takes about 30 minutes on the moto to get from SJDS to Rivas. Then we boarded a small ferry along with our moto for about $4. The first half of the ferry ride was full of excitement; there was a lot of wake and splashing going on! I was nervous to say the least and white-knuckle gripped the railing. Brandon, of course, was un-phased, cool and collected :) 

Here's a clip of the latter half of the boat ride; the waters were calmer and I actually had the guts to remove my hands from the railing to get my phone.

Once we got on the island, we decided to ride around and get a feel for the roads, the size of the island and see the two breathtaking volcanoes all the way around. The roads were rough in some spots, to say the least, but Brandon's a champ at handling giant rocks, huge puddles of water in the road and maneuvering around cows on the moto. My job, (which I think I do well), is to not freak out and knock us off balance when we're inches from a barbed-wire fence or zooming through mud, rocks and water. So much fun!!!

Here's a clip of us on a relatively smooth dirt road, cruising the island :)

We've been on the hunt for a fresh coco and we finally found it on the island. A sign right out of a local's house said they sold cocos, so we stopped feet from the road and watched a man use a saw on a stick cut us down two huge cocos, machete them open and hand them to us for less than a dollar. Although they were older coconuts, the water was light and the coco meat was a perfect snack before lunch. 

FOOD

Here it is! A quick report of our experience in fodder so far... 

Local Restaurants:

Most locals' restaurants are inexpensive, delicious and feature easily some of the best service I've had. Inside El Mercado, or the market, we can get a breakfast for as cheap as $5 for the both of us. Includes "comida typica" or typical Nicaraguan breakfast; rice and beans mix, avocado, cheese, tortilla and eggs. We haven't gotten tired of it yet!

Yesterday, we took the moto for a long drive north to Playa Popoyo, a world-class surfing location. We had lunch at a beautiful hotel there on the beach. Brandon likes Nicaragua's jalapeno chicken; I think he liked it here best!

Grocery Shopping:

This is where the challenge is! We were expecting one-stop-shop, veggie heaven, coconuts everywhere. In reality, El Mercado has a ton of fruits and some veggies, but beware the eggs! I had the privilege of buying extremely "expired" eggs from the market, which I discovered by cracking it open (YUCK). We buy our expire-able provisions at Pali, the local supermarket owned by Walmart (big surprise) and have had only good experiences on eggs, meat and chicken. Milk comes in unappealing bags, so I haven't had enough of a craving to buy a pouch. Although beef is one of Nicaragua's main exports, only one market in town specializes in meat, and it wasn't exactly what we were expecting. It tastes a lot like grass-fed beef, but a little tougher. We have yet to cook and buy pork...

Check out the size of the avocados and mangos from El Mercado! 

Week 1: Work, wildlife and surf!

Wow, it's been a crazy-awesome week and a half! So much to tell. We love our new place, despite the occasional critters, and we have been extra-productive at work and have seen the ocean at least once a day. 

Our typical days have been waking up early and having delicious Costa Rican coffee from our decided breakfast spot called Cafe Tico. There we get a typical Nica breakfast and coffee for under $10 for both of us. Next, we either make El Timon Restaurant on the beach our office, or we head home to put a full day's work in. Here's our view from El Timon:

Yesterday we made our first attempt at surfing here at Playa Ramanso, a well-known surf beach with plenty of breaks. We were recommended that beach by an avid surfer who gave us tips before we ventured out... In short, we got our butts kicked at this turbulent, extremely rocky beach and I was stung by a jellyfish, (the locals poured vinegar on it and said I'd survive) but it hurt enough to remove my surfing motivation for the day. Brandon rode a couple waves in, which was fun to watch. I still need more practice!

The wildlife here keeps it exciting! From giant scary bugs and huge frogs to kittens and baby monkeys, there is always the background sound of the jungle. It's a constant reminder that we're not in Sac anymore. 

Food-wise, we've been trying a lot of local food stops. On Friday, we had dinner, a "media" or 1/2 of a fifth of rum, and appetizers for $14. This could be dangerous! Our next post will probably focus only on food; there's so much to share and we LOVE to eat. The Alley Kats can vouche :)

Pelican Eyes Resort; our new home.. Who's coming to visit?!

The view from the restaurant/bar at Pelican Eyes Resort:

It's been a mix of incredibly stressful and completely wonderful the last five days. We feel lucky, excited, and motivated to live here, but we're definitely still fighting with two airlines to get us our luggage. For now, we've taken to buying cheap street clothes and hand-washing our chonies. Eek! (It is what it is.. Whattaya gonna do). Apparently, our bags are now in Managua as of this morning and should be delivered to us by 3 pm today. Thank goodness!!

On the awesome side of things, we found where we'll be staying for the month of June! A two-bedroom villa in Pelican Eyes Resort. The manager of our current rental in Congo Hills connected us with the owner of this villa inside the resort. Includes gorgeous interior design, wifi, a generator for black-outs, a workspace, monkeys above us in the mango trees, maid service and 24-hour security. All for under $1200 a month. Not to mention we're in view of the pacific. It's exactly what we were looking for and more. We move in on Tuesday!

Here are some photos in case the link doesn't work:

This past weekend, we spent time getting to know the town. Every beach around here is different; Playa Remanso is small, rocky and serves great coffee, Playa Marsella is relaxing and low-key and Playa Madera is the surfer's spot that bumps reggae and island music and sells tacos. All are beautiful!