Photo update

Here are a few photos from when my sister Kari visited recently in March. So she gets the credit for the good photography. We went to Granada, the island of Ometepe, and San Juan del Sur. It was super hot and went fast. I´m on a little trip right now to Matagalpa (coffee growing area) and hoping to tour a organic chocolate factory tomorrow (and buy a ton of course:) ) . Its about to start the rainy season here and all the farmers are going to start planting again. Everything here is going well, and I´m looking forward to my trip home in June.

Cathedral in Granada

San Juan del Sur

Monkey Island on Ometepe

Concepcion Volcano on Ometepe

Church in Granada

Peluche and me outside my house

A crazy spiny plant

View from my town- of a little house there

Photo update

Here are various photos (in reverse chronological order- I´m not sure why) of my parents´ visit here and Christmas and New Years celebrations

at midnight we doused him with a little gas and lit him up

Saying goodbye to 2008

The gang of kids at the New Years party

Making our Año Viejo...a stuffed dummy that is filled with dry grass and fireworks

Killing the poor snowman

Another piñata we made for a New Years celebration

A Purisima celebration, which are very common in all of December

A piñata we made for this girls graduation party

A trip to find elusive strawberries

Taking freshly baked rosquillas out of the oven

Photos from my parents trip here in early December

Relaxing with our wonderful tour guide at the Laguna de Apoyo

Family photo

The celebration of the Griteria (conception of Mary)

Our fresh caught lunch...Guapote, rice and plantains

The islands off Granada, one has friendly monkeys

Orchids, Mombacho

Butterfly house, Mombacho

A stop at a Coffee finca...the different roasts

View of Granada from Volcano Mombacho

A parrot at our hotel in Granada eating his breakfast

Playing endless games of memory

My mom and dad

Me and my host family

My mom reading to Nurian and Mauda

The coffee is ready for harvesting Dec., Jan.

My beautiful tortillas

The chickens and Peluche eating corn

Stong women....carrying the water for the day on their heads

Getting water from the well

IPiglet eating one of his last meals

Trip up the Mountain

Mauda climbed a tree to bring me some flowers that smell kind of like lilacs to put in my house

View from a little plot on the side of the mountain

sugarcane



Cut sugarcane or caña, ready to be eaten. You suck and chew on the fibers to release the sweet juice and then spit them out.

Sugarcane, which it a common treat for kids here around Christmas time

Green papayas, I´m looking forward to ripe ones, though

These are called bananos cuadrado (square?), which are best eaten green and fried

The beginnings of a bunch of bananas

Another group of baby bananas, they are about the size of my finger

I´m loving having a camera again, I must say. This past Sunday I went up the nearby mountain with some kids to look for papaya that´s coming into season. They were still really green, but we brought one back to make a candy they call Piñonato. There´s quite a few families in my community that live at the base of the mountain but have small plots with various crops like coffee, beans, and different fruits further up. They loaded me down with a bunch a free food to take home: squash, green bananas, sugarcane, jocote. Generosity is a very common trait here, one I´m trying to become better at. Many times I´m what they call pinche, which basicly means cheap/ stingy. That´s all for now, I´m just trying to be better at posting pictures when I have the time. Adios.

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Trip to Leon and the circus?

Resting beside a little mountain stream

Peluche and me on a hike in June

Cute little furry donkey

Naptime in my house, all animals are welcome, pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks, cats, etc.

My pig, his name is Piglet, its very amusing how they pronouce it here, unfortunately he´s not this cute anymore, and he´s going to grace someone´s dinner table for Christmas

Yes, I agree this is weird, but I was in Managua for a doctor visit and on an early morning walk I ran a across a circus that was visiting town and wanted to take a picture of the animals outside to show to the kids in my community, but was invited in by the workers to take some better closer shots- here´s a tiger staring me down

The friendly Mexican animal trainer 

The main cathedral at night

Mosaics in Leon

The final days of my camera, before its untimely drowning in Sept., were spent in Leon which is a beautiful old city with many cathedrals and is close to the beach. I just spent 2 days there, but it was very relaxing. I´m hoping to have to have some new pictures to add as a very nice person has sent me another one. The people here have definately missed my taking pictures for them. They´re always asking when I´m going to have it again. Alright thats it- oh here are some other random older pictures too. This posting pictures takes forever!