Hola mi madre!
We are almost finished with our first week of classes in Granada, boy Spanish is muy difficile! I love Nicaragua, much more than Costa Rica. There is a real passion in the people, the streets, the culture that contrasts with Costa Rica’s gringo influence. Nicaragua is country with is fatigued with much internal fighting and the corruption of politics and in general, the people here are very poor. On the other hand, they are so rich with passion, culture and history. There is almost a silent knowing among one another that they’ve gone through the worst, and things ARE getting better.
There are crazy types of fruit here, that I”ve never seen before in my life. We’ve been having juiced granadas and another fruit that I can never remember the name, but the juice is like the color of beets and it tastes like a cross between pair and jicama. Weird, but delicious! We are staying with a family , rather a single woman in her home and she cooks for us. Miro and I are totally hooked on her rice and beans and her pescada sopa. She is an out of work grade school teacher in her late 30s and likes having us around. Miro and I are likely going to stay with her just 1 more week (making a total of 2 weeks in Granada) and we are going to go to another school in a small village called Vera Cruz.
Before we came to Granada, we spent 4 days in Ometepe.. It was so great! The island is really beautiful and it´s a little strange being on an island with 2 volcanoes. Our first night there, there was a large family of Nicaraguan – Americans sitting around one of the tables in the hotel restaurant One of the guys had a Mt. Sac. shirt on!!!! I asked him if he went to Mt. Sac, and he said yes, introduced me to his whole family who come to Nicaragua every year as a family since that´s where their dad is from. I struck up a great friendship – conversation with the father of the some of the kids and we´re going to stay in touch. They are all now back in Hacienda Heights… Turns out, they are the Sotamayor family and this trip, they did not take with their other sister, because, well, she´s serving on the supreme court right now!!! Cool right?
The other interesting meeting I had was with a man named Enrique. He´s from here, Nicaragua, is an amazing jewelery maker (he was in Ometepe working ) and is very interesting. I’m surprised to have found a native yogi, veggie, and someone who meditates daily. He’s sorta been ¨courting¨me and I am not sure yet, if it’s just the Latin charm… In Ometepe, Enrique, Miro and I took a 3km hike up a mountain one day to go to a waterfall. It was a challenging hike to say the least, but at the end, we were paid off with the most beautiful waterfall I’ve ever seen. We had a great time and Miro and Enrique bonded a little too. We shall see if anything happens… (Don’t I sound like a college kid? Yikes!)
Anyway, that´s all the updates for now, will keep you posted. Hope you had the chance to see some of our earlier pics. Next week, I´ll upload a new batch and send you the link.
Much love, hope all is well.
lainie
