Nicaragua: San Juan del Sur

I have to take credit. When Maureen said she was looking to go to Guatemala for some intense Spanish, I suggested San Juan del Sur en Nicaragua. I had heard good things. It is on the beach, and you can get there on a bus for less then $15. She did some research and found a great school called Spanish Ya.

I loved that idea because then we could go visit her. I have never been to Nicaragua, and after a one week tour, I have to say I am in love. Go get a cup of coffee, sit back and relax, because I have a lot to tell you. Actually this trip will be broken into 3 posts, as I visited 3 different places in Nicaragua. I will not post all of the 800 photos I took in my one week trip, but I will post a link so if you are so inclined to check them out you can.

Maureen was there for two weeks of Spanish and we met here at the end. We followed her instructions and boarded a Transportes Deldu bus to the border (Peñas Blancas) at 730am. It took 5 hours and when we reached the border we had to pass through "immigrations" which included showing our passports, paying $2 and walking through this gate.

Since there were 4 of us (me, Neto, Kate and Lauren) we split a cab from there for $20 and arrived in 30 minutes to San Juan del Sur. We checked into Hotel Nina which I found in the Lonely Planet guidebook. $15 per room. We got the two upstairs rooms which shared a bathroom and a terrace. Besides the roof sounding like it was ready to blow off from the wind, the squeaky sign all night, and the surly owner Nina, I would say its a great place to stay. Clean, good location, and cheap! No hot water, but trust me, you don't need hot water when it is 100 degrees out.

I was so happy with this town. First, parrots were everywhere! These two babies were on the sidewalk outside a shop and when you pass them they say "hola y buenos dias"

I had no idea there would be cobblestone streets and bright colors on every building, I wanted to take pictures of everything...and I did. (hence the 800 pics)

We walked to the beach and sat down at Costa Azul, an open air restaurant, and ordered fish. Delicious fish! I had a grilled fish and Neto went for the whole fried fish.

We were serenaded by two men singing rancheras. It was a treat, they had such beautiful voices

We had made plans to meet Maureen for happy hour, so at 430 sharp we made the steep climb to the lush hotel Piedras y Olas where she was lounging in the sun waiting for us. It was a sweet reunion, she was happy to see everyone. I had missed my morning walking/running partner.

we enjoyed the 2x1 drink specials and a spectacular view.

There are many cute places to eat in SJDS. One of Maureen's friends from her Spanish school lead us to Asadas Juanitas, which turns out to be right across the street from Hotel Nina, where we are staying.

There you can order a huge plate of typical food, beans, rice, platanos and this delicious grilled chicken for $4. It is so big that Ernesto and I shared a plate. The grill is set up on the street, and Neto tried to get the grill masters recipe, but he says it is his mothers recipe and it is a secret.

The next morning Maureen suggested Gato Negro for breakfast and I was so glad. It is a book store/coffee house/restaurant and I could spend hours there. All of the creativity they used to decorate was an inspiration. Even the menus were handmade.

Maureen wanted us to meet the family she stayed with for the previous 2 weeks and collect her bags to stay with us at Hotel Nina. It was cool to get a glimpse inside of the typical Nica home

but even more interesting to meet the little girl that Maureen had be-friended there.

Maria is adorable, 10 years old and was "gifted" to this family by her mother. Her brother was "gifted" to another family. Maria is basically their little slave. She is not treated badly, but she is still 'the help' ...at ten years old! She has a separate bathroom [out-house] than the family. I couldn't believe it. I guess this is fairly common either for mothers who can't afford the child, or just do not want the responsibility. Makes me wonder what the adoption procedures are in Nicaragua. The son in the family was getting married that day, so right in front of the bathrooms (yes, outside), there were a couple ladies preparing the feast over an open flame.

The rest of the day we spent a cool little place on the beach called

It had a nice woven chairs in the sand and cold, cold Toñas and Victorias (the local Nica cervezas)

From those chairs you see the Cara India (Indian face) on the edge of the cliff. Do you see it? Here, I zoomed in...now do you see it?

On the north side of the beach, on top of a mountain there is a huge Christ statue being built. Body is complete and head is to be finished by Easter.

Maureen informed us that its a one hour hike to the statue if you wind through the beautiful houses that overlook the beach. At about 4p we started walking the steep road, and were amazed at the beautiful views of the bays.

We came across a beautiful home for rent (hmmm)

Neto was the first one to notice the monkey on a leash in the driveway. As we walked closer, he got so excited and was swinging between two trees doing tricks. The caretaker walked out and introduced us to Panchito. He was such a character. He wanted to hold all of our hands, sit on our laps and bite our shoes. He was so cute and his hands felt human. It freaked me out a bit at first.

We enjoyed another $4 meal at Asados Juanita then "Bam! We hit the city baby, dead on! For a little drinks, a little nightlife" -Weird Science. We picked Coquitos, a great outdoor bar where a live Nica band was playing some really catchy music.

We hung out until about midnight. We were leaving for Ometepe Island early the next morning (Sunday).

To be continued.......

Earth Hour/ La Hora Del Planeta

**I wish I had had a chance to post this last week, but since I was traveling I wasn't able.  

Maybe you already knew?  Last night was Earth Hour?  Ring a bell?  Everywhere in the world at 830pm, local time, people were encouraged to turn out their lights for one hour.   Earth hour was conceived by the  World Wildlife Fund in Sydney Australia in 2007 when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned out the lights for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change.  In 2008 in grew globally with 50 million people turning out the lights.  The goal for last night was 1 billion.  San Jose participated with an event downtown and it was really cool.  Hundreds of people came to show support, and WWF made sure everyone had candles.  

A band played for an hour [acoustically], artists were painting by candlelight, there were some puppet shows and fire slingers.   Had you heard about this?  Did you participate?  You can read more info here or watch this video.  If you didn't know about it, don't worry I will remind you ahead of time next year.

Parque Nacional Volcan Poas

Poas Volcano National Park is about 40k north of San Jose. It is the most visited national park in Costa Rica. Even though its last blowout was back in 1953, Poas is still an considered an active volcano. It was that year that an enormous crater formed. It's 1.3k across and 300 meters deep. There are two other craters, one is a lake. The fact that you can peer into an active volcano, without having to actually hike miles to get there must be attractive to the almost 300,000 people who visit annually.

I had been wanting to visit Poas all year. Im really facinated by volcanos, and its an easy day trip from San Jose. (Poas was actually the epicenter of the huge earthquake here on January 8th. I missed it by the skin of my teeth. I was in Atlanta and arrived that night, 6 hours afterwards)

My boss Steph asked if Ernesto would mind entertaining her sister and friend for a day while she was at work. (they are here visiting for spring break) When they decided to go visit Poas, I had to invite myself.

We used Steph's car and left as early as we could. (cough cough) There is a very strong smell of sulfur as soon as you enter the park. From the visitors center there is a short paved trail to the main crater. It was a bad sign that we could barely see the trail in front of us.

You really need to arrive early before the clouds come in at about 10am. Unfortunately, we arrived at 10:10am. So what was supposed to be a view like this

[pic from wikipedia] turned out to be a view like this: I took this picture. Really, all by myself.

ok, ok, we thought, even if we can't see down the crater, we still can hike the little trail in the dwarf cloud forest and enjoy the foliage right? We were surrounded by flowers, lichen, bromeliads, and moss covering curious shaped and twisted trees.

I finally broke out my new Canon XSi camera for a trip. I definitely need some classes, but Ill share my amtuer pics anyway. I love this one, but you can see that the focus is on the tree to the left, not Neto.

The 30 minute roundtrip trail called Sendero Botas leads to an extinct crater that has filled with cold water and is called Laguna Botas. The Volcano base is 8200 feet above sea level, and even though this was a wuss trail, I could feel that after one minute my breathing was strained. Come on, it's over 8000 feet! It was cold up there too, but "cold" for me now is low 60s.

At the top... Again Ugh!, nothing but clouds. But alas, after a few minutes the wind blew the clouds out of the way so we saw...something.

Ernesto tried to see what was over there in the clearing.

A minute later, we could see the marvilous lake. It made it all worthwhile. Can you believe this was a volcano?

We smiled for the obligatory pic. It a framer!

El Festival de Verano Transitarte

While living in Atlanta I had many online resources for finding out what is going on in the city. Daily Candy, Access Atlanta, Atlanta Entertainment. There are a few blogs that are informative, but I find the best info is in the local newspaper. Either that or I talk to friends who read the newspaper. Diana told us about San Jose's annual Festival de Verano Transitarte in Parque Morazan downtown. The festival is organized by the Municipality of San Jose with the goal of re-infusing the country’s capital with art and culture.  Actually the festival lasted three days, stretched between four parks and included literary readings, crafts, live concerts, visual and urban art, workshops and even a boxing championship. I think it was was one of the best cultural events I have seen in San Jose.

Although I didn't know any of the bands playing (mostly local rock) they were really good.  They had the best venue, a beautiful dome in the middle of the park, called the Templo de Musica, funny enough.  We got there at 5p, so it was still light out.  The jacaranda trees are in full bloom here (see purple flowers) making a perfect backdrop for the stage.  

 We met Diana and Samir 

As the sun went down, the lights on the stage changed colors.  

New band. New color.

My favorite part was a performance by the French group called Puce Muse.   They have been well known in France for 20 years, and put on a show of lights and music.  This is their first performance in all of Latin America. Way to go Costa Rica!

They created a one hour light show on the Edeficio Metalico, a building constructed in 1856 of cast iron sheets that were shipped in from Europe. Here is what the building looks like during the day.  It's an elementary school, can you imagine?   [this photo by Talavan]

I know we have all seen a light show, but this was a bit different, the lights and the music were controlled by 25 trained "musicians" with...Joysticks. Its called "Meta-Instrument" On their website they describe it as 'Live Visual Virtual Music'.

I describe it as trippy.

It was awesome and so precise, a science really.  Each person was controlling a part of the show with their joystick. All in perfect sync.

They even spelled out words and created pictures. It says CERRAR (to close)

Unfortunately, I didn't see this blog until yesterday.  It listed the 3 day schedule for the festival.  It turns out my favorite salsa band Son de Tikizia played an outdoor concert Friday night. Ugh!  We missed it.  Salsa dancing under the stars.  Oh well, next time.