Indigenous pottery, Playa Pan de Azucar and scorpion visit

Playa Pan de Azucar

Since our last post, we have filled our week with school, homework, Spanish, Legos, feeding and cleaning up after 3 kids, plus a bit of local exploration.  Sullivan’s teacher told Nik last week about a sometime-island in Lago Arenal where there are many old indigenous pottery shards.  We wasted no time in going there to check it out.   Since we are now in the midst of the dry season, the lake is low, so there is a land bridge to the island.  It took a bit of exploring to find the correct road to access the island.  It so happened that a road crew was grading this road, so at first it looked impassible, due a huge mound of dirt and a bulldozer.  One of the workers assured us that we could pass.  Nothing is impossible in Costa Rica.  We made it past, and drove as far as we could, then walked onto the island.  The center of the island was tree- and grass-filled, and we did not want to venture there in our shorts and sandals.  We circumnavigated the island, finding many pottery shards, as well as lots of old horse poop.  Looks like many pottery hunters come on horseback.  Our little collectors filled their pockets and hats.  Of course we had some ethical concerns, but if Sullivan’s Kindergarten teacher told us we could collect things, we thought we were ok.  Also, the huge number made us feel ok about taking some with us.  Some of the pottery shards had simple designs, and Madeleine found one piece shaped like a monkey head.  Nik chatted again with the road crew on the way out, and one of our new friends said that a piece he found was 500 years old.  Seems like a reliable source!

Table for five

Sully's Lego land

Island collection trip

View from the "island"

Last week we also had the pleasure of hosting an overnight visit for the Kindergarten turtle pet, Princesa.  She was a very good guest and enjoyed wandering around our yard, cooling off with a hose bath on the driveway and eating lettuce and carrot.   Henry and Sullivan also collected some tiny fish from our local pond to keep for a while for observation.  

Princesa explores our yard

Sully admires our guest

This past weekend it was time to go on another weekend adventure, and we never seem to go wrong with the beach.  For out last beach day we attempted to go to Playa Pan de Azucar (sugar bread) but ended up at Zapotal.  This time we were armed with directions to the hotel on Playa Pan de Azucar, Hotel Sugar Beach, and we found it with no trouble.  On the way, we went past Brasilito and Playa Flamingo, where we stayed back in October.  Familiar sights, only drier this time of year.  We were completely delighted with Hotel Sugar Beach.  It is low key and gorgeous and reminded me of Asilomar in Monterey, CA, except with iguanas.  The beach is very secluded and quiet, with rocky areas for exploring at low tide.  We got our fill of playing in the surf, digging in the sand, corralling hermit crabs, dipping in the hotel’s pool and snorkeling at low tide Sunday morning.  Perfect.  

Beach crew

Boys at sunset 

Iguana on the hotel grounds

Hermit crab tracks

Tiniest crab

Lovely pool at Hotel Sugar Beach

Playa Pan de Azucar

Plenty of breathing room

After returning last evening and de-sanding and getting kids to bed, I was displeased to discover a scorpion on our kitchen floor.  Ugh!  This is the first we have seen in our house, and hopefully this is not a trend.  Maybe now we will finally get in the habit of checking our shoes, clothes and beds before getting in.  Nik effortlessly captured our scorpion friend in our critter observation chamber, which will be his home until we decide his fate.  Tomorrow Sullivan plans to take him to school to show his friends (which his teacher agreed to, to my amazement).

So grateful for Costa Rica's biodiversity…

Adios, Granada!

Our final day in Granada was appropriately filled with color and beauty, with occasional reminders of the challenges faced by contemporary Nicaraguans.  We met a very friendly local gentleman, Jorge, who was born in Granada but who was sent off to Houston with family during the struggles of the early 1980s.  His English was a testament to the veracity of his story.  He tugged at our heartstrings, explaining how he came back to his home country and started his own business giving boat tours of the 365 isletas in Lake Nicaragua just off the coast of Granada.  Because the price was right and we were looking to check out the isletas anyway, we hopped in a cab with Jorge down to the beach.

Walking the plank

Ever-friendly Jorge

It turns out that all of the isletas were formed by a large explosion of nearby Volcán Mombacho tens of thousands of years ago.  Nearly all are now privately owned, several by some of the wealthiest families in Nicaragua and foreigners from all over the world including a vacation home owned by the King of Spain.  It's ironic that the most iconic modern representative of the Conquistadors still vacations here.

Mombacho

Part of the King of Spain's complex.  We weren't invited in, though.

Apparently no trip to the isletas is complete without a trip to "Monkey Island", which apparently was originally stocked by an American veterinarian.  Lucy, a sweet and pregnant 5 year old spider monkey, even hopped onto our boat for a quick visit and a pet.  And nobody was bitten!

We love Lucy!

Erica stops to smell the national flower, Sancuanjoche.  Apparently a type of Plumeria and quite fragrant.

La Casa de Tres Mundos (house of three worlds) was our other adventure for the first part of the day.  Our expectation was that of a museum with some petroglyphs, but an art academy was more of the reality.  We were greeted by a (not visible) horn version of "The Girl from Ipanema" and four dancers in a class in courtyard.  Strolled through the grounds, finishing up with a large number of drawings and paintings for sale by students and local professionals.  Some were stunning and would have been tempting if we were in a collection phase of our lives.  And we didn't break anything!

A local beauty on the grounds of La Casa de Tres Mundos

We had a late lunch at a (not so) fast food but sit-down restaurant called "Tip Top".  This place could have been anywhere in the world, with its french fries and play area, but the fact that Toña was served clearly identified it as Nicaraguan alone.

Yes, gerbil-like play tubes even in Nicaragua

For all the beauty and modern conveniences, there is no paucity of reminders of poverty and other challenges faced by Nicaraguans at this time in their history.

A tired-looking horse waiting to work

Plenty of potential hazards on the sidewalks and streets

Plenty of lovely buildings

During another afternoon swim and siesta I finally managed to take a peek at the temperature:  97 degrees.  This is apparently pretty typical.  We celebrated our trip with a dinner at a locally famous and relatively fancy restaurant, Las Colinas.  Interestingly, it had very nicely raked dirt floors.  But, we came for its Guapote, a reportedly aggressive fish found in Lake Nicaragua (as well as Lake Arenal close to home in Costa Rica).  This particular guy was exceedingly tasty and the kids insisted on taking its upper jaw, full of teeth, home with us.

Tasty guapote with its toothy grin

After another good night's sleep, we gave the local economy just a little bit more support and then took a cab back to the Costa Rican border.  It was a great day for a cab ride, as several of the buses we saw were completely packed, sometimes with several folks hanging on the outside.  Possibly because it was Sunday?  There were no glitches during our return, though we waited an hour or so in the immigration line getting back into Costa Rica.  In line we met some Nicaraguan men coming back into Costa Rica to work after having had to return to their home country for visa reasons.  Though we'd left Costa Rica for the same reasons, there's no doubt we are in a much better situation, so fortunate to have been born in the US and to have had the opportunities we've had.  We decided to share a little good fortune with these men as a gesture of our thanks.

Arriving back to the lush environs of our house, it felt like we were home again, at least for now.

Granada horse cart tour, churches and baseball disappointment

After a leisurely breakfast, we ventured out to take the much-anticipated horse cart tour of Granada. Sullivan was most eager to actually ride on the horse cart and the rest of us were very interested in seeing some more of the city.

We passed a sculpture dedicated to the Sandinista government. On a side note, we had a nice conversation with a gentleman staying at our hotel. He and his wife are here from Minnesota. He fled Nicaragua in the early 1980s after fighting against the government. He had been imprisoned for three years in an old fort which was also showcased on the tour. This was his first trip back to Nicaragua. I was very interested in hearing more details but did not want to pry too obnoxiously.

I have to admit to being the most impressed by the sheer number of large and colorful churches that we passed. We went back and climbed up the tower of one of them later, which is purported to offer the best view in Granada. Our tour included a stop at Lake Nicaragua. At this point in time, our guide said that his brother operated boat rides and gave us a sales pitch for about a tour right then and there. We respectfully declined and he seemed to be okay with it, although a bit disappointed. We struggle with wanting to support all of the local folks that we meet and struggle a little bit with this balance.

We cooled off with some drinks and chocolate in a nearby café. It was here that a particular sign caught my eye. I opted to take a 15 minutes chair massage offered by a small group who employs blind folks as massage therapists. My massage cost five dollars. It was a fantastic and unique experience. During my 15 minutes of bliss, Erica and the kids perused the used books before finally settling on only the third Harry Potter book. A midafternoon siesta followed back at the hotel.

Feeling refreshed, we ventured out again, this time in search of views and food. We climbed the tower of a beautiful old church and did revel in the 360° views of this beautiful colonial city. We tested our luck with some street quesadillas and hamburgers in a small shop before hiring a taxi to the baseball stadium. We had heard that the Granada baseball team is very good and was playing at 6 PM. Unfortunately, the stadium was closed and empty when we arrived around 5:30. A man there told us that the next game was on Wednesday. I was really excited about seeing a professional baseball game here in Nicaragua. Fortunately, We made this discovery before we got out of the taxi. Our entire 20 minute trip cost about three dollars.

It was great that we had another plan for evening, however. We walked around the corner from our hotel to the local movie theater. We watched a version of Jack the Giant Slayer. It was not very well attended but was a unique experience in the auditorium style theater complete with a bat or two flying around during the movie. It was in English with Spanish subtitles. I think the movie was supposed to be in 3-D but we had no glasses. The popcorn was pretty darn good and we even splurged on some Coca-Cola simply as a cultural experience, as the Coca-Cola here is apparently made from cane sugar instead of processed high fructose corn syrup. It was still very sweet. We carried a very sleepy boy home and forced everyone to go to sleep.