My Second Trip to Nicaragua!

My host mom, Nieves, goes to Nicaragua once a month to visit her mom and her brothers/sisters who live in the area.  In part because it's her responsibility to take care of me (hehe) and in part because she wants to make sure I have lots of experiences while I'm here, she has offered to take me with her each month.  I'm not 100% sure I'll go every time, but I thought it would be fun to go another time, and visit her family again.

On the Bus
At the last minute, one of Nieves's sisters, Angelica, decided to join us on our voyage, so the three of us set out for Nicaragua around 2:30 on Friday afternoon.  Instead of driving, like we did last time, we took the very easy and cheap (only $3!) bus ride up to Penas Blancas (the last CR city), hopped off, filled out all our exit paperwork, and walked across the border to Nicaragua, where we again filled out all our paperwork and payed our $12 to enter the country.  We had picked up a cab driver in CR, and once we got through immigration, hopped in the cab and headed the rest of the way to Rivas.  Taking the bus and walking across the border was SO easy, cheap and relatively fast!  Definitely a good way to travel!

Friday Night
Nieves and I stayed again with her sister Ana at the same house where we stayed when we came to Nicaragua for the wedding.  It was kind of cool to come back and already know the "lay of the land" and to know everyone, even though my Spanish still kind of sucks :)  In the few weeks since we were last in Nicaragua, the family has been making some changes around the house.  They are re-doing the kitchen area and got a computer with wifi internet access.  They were really sweet and kept offering to let me hop on the computer, but I didn't really have anything that I needed to do, other than maybe check out facebook?  Other than that, we all just sort of hung out on the patio with the amazing rocking chairs (I'm kind of obsessed), had some dinner, and chatted (I mostly listened!).  I was also reading Emma on my Kindle, so I did a little of that too.  The running joke with my host family is that I have four loves: 1 (my biggest love) mi amor, cafe con leche; 2: agua (it's hot here!!); 3: reading on my Kindle and 4: sleeping.  Every time Nieves starts making the coffee in the morning, she asks if I am ready for my amor!  sooo funny!  (and so true!  I really can't get enough coffee!)

Saturday
The family in Nicaragua wakes up very early in the morning, so, with the help of new sounds, roosters, dogs, and people working outside, I was up bright and early as well :)  When I was about to hop in the shower, Nieves informed me that the water was turned off b/c of the construction they were doing, so for my shower they filled a bucket up with water, put it in the bathroom, and that was my shower.  haha, I definitely felt like I was camping since the strategy is the same: dump a bunch of water on yourself, soap up, and rinse.  Kind of funny and random, but just wanted to share as it's not something that (as far as I know?) occurs frequently in the states :)  I also want to mention what a small quantity of water is actually needed to take a shower.  I was afraid there wouldn't be enough water in the bucket, but I used maybe half of what was in there.  Definitely makes me a little more water conscious...

After breakfast, drinking a few cups of my amor, and hanging out for a bit, Nieves, Angelica, Nieves's mom and I hopped in a cab to head to San Juan Del Sur for the afternoon and for lunch.  San Juan Del Sur is only like 20-30 minutes away from Rivas and is a huge tourist destination in the big touristy months.  Once we got there, I could definitely see why.  Like many of the beaches I've been to, it's got it's own cove area, but this one's pretty big and absolutely beautiful!  Also like many beach areas, all the restaurants and shops are right on the beach, and our first stop was a restaurant at the end of the strip.  It's definitely owned by family friends (or family?) as the owners greeted, chatted and hung out with us for most of our time there.  Here are some pics of our view from the restaurant:

Here's a pic of Nieves's mom, and one with one of the restaurant owners:

(such a great pic!!!  I love it!)

After lunch, Nieves and I went to say a quick hello to her father's brother (her uncle) who lives close to the restaurant, and then we walked around by the shops and restaurants for a bit.  I bought some souvenirs for my friends (no pics - they are a surprise!) and we enjoyed some delicious melty ice cream.  Then I walked for a bit on the beach by myself.  Here are all the pics:

 Welcome to San Juan Del Sur!

 Proof that I'm there too :)

 Pic looking back at the restaurant from the water:

 When we were done hanging out, we called our cabbie to come back and pick us up.  I took a few impromptu pics in the taxi:
Nieves's mom, Nieves and Angelica:

 Our cabbie:

Before we could leave San Juan Del Sur, Angie had the cabbie drive us all the way down to the other end of the strip, where there is a miniature bridge that I immediately recognized as looking like the Golden Gate Bridge back home!  Obviously we needed pics!!!  I dunno if you can really see the bridge, but it's there nonetheless :)

And this is a random pic through the window of one of the volcanoes in Lake Nicaraguan, which I visited last time I was there:

Once we got back to the house, we chilled for a bit, and then I went with Angie and Roselba (another of Nieves's sisters) and a bunch of the kids to the central park area for a bit.  As I think I mentioned before, Nieves comes from a family of 10 (including her), and at least three or four of her siblings still live in Rivas (Ana, Roselba, and one of her brothers, whose name I can't remember, and maybe at least one more?).  With the siblings come their children and their children's children, so there are lots of cousins and grandkids around all the time.  Anyway, it was some of the grandchildren that we took to the park.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, and on our way back, we bought some ice cream from a vendor and all the adults and children were sitting on the curb eating, and it would have been a great pic.  Since I didn't have my actual camera, I made them all smile for a mental picture :)   I really like Nieves's family - her siblings and all the cousins and kids are really sweet.  I find that the kids and I find a way to communicate without understanding each other very well, which is pretty cool.

Speaking of kids, you may remember that when I was in Nicaragua for the wedding, I became best friends with Ms. Ana Nazareth Altamirana Martinez (whom I fondly refer to as Nesa!).  Needless to say, we picked up where we left off and had lots of time to hang out and be goofy.  Nesa shared her poprocks, fake tatoos and balloons with me, and we generally had a jolly good time:

What a cutie patootie!

 We had "matching" tats for a solid 24 hours :)

 Who knew one could have so much fun with a balloon?!?!  That sucker lasted us a solid half hour before it could take no more and burst...

Sunday
Sunday was a super chill day.  We got up a smidge later, had breakfast, hung out, chatted, I read a bit, and it was a delightful, clear, hot morning.  In the early afternoon I ran some errands with Nieves in the downtown area, and when we were done, we grabbed a "fresco" (melon flavor - it's what I'm drinking out of the bag!), and hopped in one of the bike carriages to head back to the house:

After lunch and our goodbyes, it was time to head back to Fronterra, so we could catch our bus back to CR.  As we were leaving Rivas, we were behind this bus, which I couldn't resist taking a pic of.  It reminded me of muni on crack:

 

Once we got to the border, we headed back through customs, paid our $2 exit fee, paid another $3 for the bus and were back in Liberia before we knew it.

All in all, it was a totally low-key and relaxing weekend, which is always nice.  I got to practice my Spanish a lot more, and got to know Nieves' family a little better.  Even though it wasn't action-packed, it was still fun to get away, and felt like I had a little adventure since I was in a different environment with different people.  Yay!