My Day In Nicaragua!

So as I mentioned, after the wedding we just went home (to Nieves's sister's house) and went to bed.  The next morning, we got up bright and early, had breakfast and just hung out for a bit.  It was raining off and on, so we were all just sitting on the patio in the delightful rocking chairs or chatting in the house (let's be real, I did and have been doing a lot more listening than speaking lately.  Shocking since I talk a lot in English, but my lack of Spanish vocabulary means I spend a lot more time just trying to understand what is going on around me!)  Here is a pic of the view from the patio of the house where we stayed:

While I was sitting outside, I also became besties with another cutie patootie named Daniella.  She is the daughter of one of the cousins, and is just adorable.  (Actually, he's the cousin in the picture with Cece in a previous blog post, but I can never remember his name!)  There was an umbrella drying on the patio that she was having a blast playing with and she showed a particular interest in my sunglasses which I of course let her borrow.  She was also one of the flower girls in the wedding:

Throughout the morning, family members stopped by and when it was done raining, one of Nieves's nieces, Diana, was going out with another Cousin, Julio, to run some errands downtown and asked if I'd like to join them.  Diana lives in Liberia and I met her once before at Cece's house, and jumped at the chance to see more of Nicaragua (also, I really like Diana.  She's super friendly/sweet and she speaks to me slowly in Spanish and knows just a smidge of English).  It is apparently very common for people to get around in Nicaragua on those little bikes that have a bench on the front of them, and that's what Julio was taking us around town in.  I originally didn't have my camera with me, but later in the day I was driving around town with my host family and got pics of most the places we went!  Hooray and you are welcome.  So, here is a pic of me and Julio on the bike:  (Diana took the pic, and wouldn't let me take a picture of her, so I'll have to get one at a later date!).

[A note on this picture: during the course of the day, I managed to get sunburned just on the top of my knees and feet, and I was joking with the family that I was "rosa, blanca, rosa" and that I need to go to the beach so I can get a tan, but that really means I'll just end up all sunburned/red.  The family thought that was hilarious and Diana and another cousin offered to go with me to the beach. I think we might be going on Sunday!  Also, I don't think you can tell in any of my pictures, but my arms are a SOLID two-three shades darker (brown/red) than they were when I left, thanks to my bike ridding around town.  I don't think I've been this tan in forever!  I'm slowly saying goodbye to my Casper-ness! :) woo hoo]

Our first stop was the outdoor market.  It's more or less a bunch of store-fronts that spill over into the street and there is just a ton of stuff going on.  Some streets are combrised of food goods like beans, rice, fruits, veggies, etc., and other streets have clothes, shoes, belts, etc.  There was so much going on and it was very cool to watch.  In addition to the bikes with the benches, there were a ton of horse-drawn carts, cars, bikes, colorful old-school buses, etc.  By the time I actually got to take pics, a lot of the shops were closing, but here are some pics anyway:

Because I had never been to the town before, Diana also drove us by the central park and church.  We went in to the church, which was super pretty/cool inside.  I'm really glad we were able to check it out.  Here's the church:

When we were done with our little adventure around town, we stopped by Diana's dad's house for a bit, where I met more family, and then we headed back to the house where I stayed so I could meet up again with my host family.  We all piled in to the car and went off to check out the town of San Jorge and the Lago de Nicaragua.  Two volcanos make up an island within the lake, and though I was told that Lake Nicaragua is the third largest lake in the world, Wikipedia disagrees.  Here are some pics of the lake, one of the ferries that dock at San Jorge, and the first monkey I've seen so far in CR, which was sadly chained to the side of a building, so I don't think it really counts:

 These pics are at the entrance to San Jorge and I just thought they were funny:

After San Jorge, we took another detour and visited a house that Don Hernan owns in Nicaragua.  It's up in a hill area and the house is super cute and has an amazing view:

The only downside to the house is that there is no running water.  We had bought some fruit before heading up to the house and when I was washing my hands after eating all the yummyness, I found it odd to wash my hands in like a bucket.  It definitely made me appreciate indoor plumbing!  One of Don Hernan's nephews lives in the house, and one of his sisters and other relatives live in the houses near his, so we stopped by and hung out with his family for a little bit too.  Since it was later in the afternoon by this point, everyone was hungry for lunch so we headed out to find a little place to eat.  We ended up at a random cafe, which was operated out of someone's house.  The great thing about being in a random small town is that you don't have to worry about ending up in "tourist traps" and you know you're getting legit local cuisine.

A Note on Food

I just want to take a little detour and discuss food in general for a second.  Being in Costa Rica/Nicaragua has afforded me the opportunity to try a bunch of new foods/fruits/veggies/drinks/flavors, etc.  As I mentioned, we stopped and grabbed some fruit on our way to Don Hernan's house, which included Sapote (similar to papaya in texture, but very very sweet-tastes like you're eating sugar.  It was good, but also odd and I think would take some getting used to!), oranges (slightly different from the ones we have here, but super yummy!), and Mamoncillos which were super yummy and fun to eat. (Here's a link to a site with a lot of the foods I've just mentioned including some I've seen but haven't tried yet!)  At lunch, I had a drink made out of the Pitaya fruit (pic below - that is it's natural color which so pretty and so tasty - also known as dragon fruit), and for dinner, I had cooked chayote with cotija cheese and a drink made out of granadilla juice/seeds (passion fruit).  In Nicaragua, they tend to serve a side salad and red beans with their rice instead of black beans.  While I generally like beans, I LOVE black beans, so I'm glad I'm staying in CR where those are the standard instead of Nicaragua :)

I'm excited to continue eating my way through my 6 months here, and want to continue to try all the yummy food!  I have definitely not been disappointed yet!

After our adventures travelling around Nicaragua, we stopped for one last time in the market (pic below of Nieves and Elba while we were waiting for Don Hernan), said goodbye to the family again (they are really so great!!  Everyone was trying to chat with me and I promised to come back and visit again.  Nieves goes to Nicaragua about once a month to visit her mom, so I'll probably make the trip with her again at some point) and then we set out for home.

I had a great time in Nicaragua and had so much fun seeing new things and meeting more family members, but after all that, I was really excited to get back to the house in CR.  To me, that is a testament to how much I've settled in to life here in Liberia so far.  It's always fun to go away, but it's also always nice to get back to your house :)  Pura Vida!