The girls’ Spanish class

We’re back in the thick of our Spanish classes again, and they are proving to be challenging. Today, one of my teachers gave me the terrifying news that tomorrow she and I are going to walk into town where I can practice by talking to random people.  I know from experience just how this will go: after much thought, I will slowly manage to put a sentence together (most likely in the wrong verb tense and with incorrect genders), and then I will nod, smile, and stare blankly as I listen to a reply that I don’t remotely understand.  I also discovered that apparently yesterday, while I was smiling and nodding, she was telling me that on Friday I have to give some kind of presentation.  I haven’t yet figured out what this entails, but I’m hoping to get some hints tomorrow without having to flat-out admit that yo no comprendo.

El mono!

This afternoon we traveled to a nature preserve, El Chocoyero.  (After initially seeing it on the schedule, we were a bit disappointed to realize that in fact it has nothing to do with chocolate.)  The ride was beautiful — we’re in the mountains here, with steep green hillsides rising and falling to the horizon, and an active volcano smoking in the distance — but we now understand why in Central America it can take an hour to travel a few miles.  After leaving the main road, we were on a rutted dirt track that descended steeply into a sharp valley — so sharp that at times we felt like we were driving through a tunnel, with almost vertical dirt walls pressing in on either side.  After bouncing around in the van for what seemed like forever, we arrived at El Chocoyero.

The holes where the birds nest

This place’s claim to fame is its bright green parakeet, the chocoyo.  They travel in large packs, and live in tunnels in a rock wall beside a waterfall.  We had a guided tour through the reserve, timed so that we would arrive at the waterfall to see the birds returning to their holes for the night.  During the walk, we also saw (and heard) our first wild monkeys!  There were also many interesting trees and plants, but I didn’t get to hear much about these because for some reason Lanie became obsessed with discussing the theme of her next birthday party (in September) and could not be silenced.

Upon our return, it was time for dinner and a small celebration.  Today being Bob’s birthday, I had asked the kitchen ladies if it would be possible to buy a cake.  One of them agreed to go home and make one during the day, to be ready for after dinner.  I was expecting something small and modest, but when it was unveiled it was quite impressive:

It fed the whole compound here, with plenty left over.

Granada cemetery (that’s a real bird!)

On Saturdays La Mariposa offers up full-day excursions for those with enough energy to take them on.  Accordingly, yesterday at 8 am we were piling into the butterfly-festooned van for a trip to the city of Granada.

The trip took about an hour in the van, but the girls kept themselves entertained by playing “Stop the Bus” through the whole alphabet.  (This game involves thinking up three categories, then picking a letter and seeing who can first think of something in each category that starts with that letter.)  Before long the whole back half of the van (none of whom were under 50) were playing along.  The nice elderly British gentleman sitting next to Zoe got quite enthusiastic and won several rounds before his wife told him to cut it out.  (His entries for “book character” were things like “Agamemnon” and “Beowulf,” while the rest of us were basically coming up with Harry Potter characters.)

Granada is a lovely Colonial-era city, with palm-lined boulevards and brightly-colored houses.   One side is bordered by the enormous Lake Nicaragua, so big that it looks like an ocean.  Another has the Mombacho volcano looming up over it.   Almost every building seems to have a beautiful open-air courtyard at its center, filed with greenery and sunshine and blue sky.

Bell tower at La Merced

It’s probably the most touristy spot in Nicaragua, and accordingly has a lot of tourist activities.  For the first part of the day, Richard from La Mariposa showed us some highlights — a gorgeous cemetery where the rich are buried (“mucho dinero”), an old fortress, the Colonial Merced church, where we could climb up in the bell tower and see sweeping views of the city.  Our family almost decided to skip out on the cigar factory tour, but in the end it was lucky we didn’t.  The “tour” consisted of a quick stop to watch two people rolling and wrapping cigars, but Lanie managed to charm the workers enough that when she noticed a huge parrot in a cage in the courtyard, they took him out and let him sit on our shoulders (adults only, sadly).

We did break off before the next museum, choosing a horse-drawn carriage ride around the city instead.  Our driver initially stopped at most of the places we’d already visited with Richard, but the girls just took the opportunity to get out and pet the horses (who incidentally were named “Mercedes” and “Benz”).  He also brought us down to the shore of the lake, where powerful winds swept into the city and whipped the water into whitecaps (making me glad we’d decided to skip the rather expensive boat tour later that afternoon).

We met up with the group again for lunch, and the restaurant did not seem well-equipped to deal with a group of our size.  Our food came at wildly varying times, and poor Lanie (who’d ordered the simplest of meals, pancakes) didn’t get her food for an hour and a half, after everyone else had finished (and I had reminded the waitstaff three separate times).  However, it was popular with Zoe, who’s grown a bit tired of rice and beans and greatly enjoyed her bacon cheeseburger.

Batta batta chocolatta!

Friday I googled, “what to do in Granada with kids” and one thing that kept popping up was the Choco Museo.  We mentioned this on the van ride in and many in the group seemed very interested in the idea.  In the end, Jane from Colorado decided to skip the boat ride and join us.  We arrived just in time to join in the 1.5-hour chocolate-making class, and soon we were wearing aprons and dancing around a fire chanting, “Batta batta chocolatta” (or something along those lines) while we stirred the roasting beans,  After we shelled them and ground them to paste with our mortars and pestles, the teacher used the paste to make two drinks — one like the Aztecs used to prepare (with honey, hot water, cinnamon, and chili pepper), and the other in the Spanish tradition (with sugar, hot milk, cinnamon, and vanilla).  And the crowning glory was when we were each given a bowl of chocolate and allowed to pour our own bar, mixing in our choice of a wide range of ingredients.  (Lanie went with peanut butter/marshmallow/sea salt, and Zoe and Nadia had some sort of concoctions involving coffee and cinnamon.)  The variety of chocolate down here is different than what we’re used to, but very good.  Even the roasted beans plain were pretty tasty.

Disaster threatened when he told us to return for the bars in an hour and a half, and we needed to meet our bus in 20 minutes.  Luckily, a quick trip into the freezer allowed them to expedite the process for us.  We made it back to the van only a few minutes late (and considerably stickier).  The boat trip people all regarded us enviously.

The girls head down the stairs from our room to explore

As peaceful as this place seems in the daytime, after dark the volume goes way up. Our first night’s sleep was repeatedly interrupted by birds squawking, dogs barking, and a rooster who crowed repeatedly ALL NIGHT LONG. (Last night we were smart enough to crank up the fan, not because it’s hot but to create some white noise.)

Despite this, Nadia and Lanie were up at 6am, clattering around unpacking their suitcases, looking out the windows, and talking in what they may have mistakenly believed were soft voices. Eventually we couldn’t contain them anymore and they, followed closely by Zoe, headed out to explore the gardens outside our room. There were large wire enclosures holding rescued birds and monkeys, and friendly dogs everywhere. (There are a lot of stray dogs here, and this place takes them in.) The grounds here are very secluded and private, and the kids have the run of the place. They were in heaven.

Bob is dutifully doing his homework right after class ended. The rest of us procrastinated.

At 7:15am we were called to breakfast. There are no other kids here at the moment, but in general everyone was very welcoming of them. (At breakfast time we were looking around for Lanie, to tell her to come and eat, and eventually found she was already at the head of the line, being helped by some random other guests.) Then it was time for Spanish class. The classes here are one-on-one, and we were each assigned two teachers — one for two hours of conversation practice, and one for two hours of grammar lessons. Then off we went with our teachers to separate corners of the compound. Our “classrooms” were little nooks with chairs and whiteboards tucked into the balconies and treehouses scattered through the grounds. The sun was shining, a breeze was blowing, and it didn’t feel much like work at all (except when I had to take a test that I’m sure I failed pretty miserably).

Not a bad life.

Fresh bananas for the taking!

The girls’ lessons were well tailored to their ages. Lanie played Uno with her teacher to learn colors and numbers, and they all got to walk around the grounds during their lessons as a break from sitting still. I think they’ll be happy to go back for more tomorrow.

Yesterday afternoon we signed up for the day’s excursion — a trip to the finca de pina (pineapple farm), a beautiful place tucked into the mountains. It was a far cry from the industrial farms of the US. Along the dirt track beside the field there were plantain, mango, and coconut trees, one of which held a nest with a mother bird and her chicks. Tomato plants grew in between the rows. When asked about pests, the farmer mentioned that foxes sometimes eat the pineapples — and when asked if he did anything to control them, the he shrugged and said, “Foxes have the right to eat too.” (Mind you, all of this was in Spanish. Bob was the only one in our group who appeared to understand most of what was being said, but fortunately the guide from our school provided some translations.) The girls were starting to drag a bit by the end, but were quickly revived by bowls of fresh pineapple. It was a different variety than we typically get in the US — paler, softer and juicier.

The next stop was what they were really waiting for — dinner at an open-air restaurant that had a pool. Our group from the school had some moments of confusion about the proper procedures, since our guide disappeared when we went in, but we soon sorted it out and had food ordered (and kids in the pool). We were all confused by the menu, so our family just ordered a “family platter” with some things that sounded vaguely familiar. It turned out to be delicious, and a great sampling of Nicaraguan cuisine. (All the meals served at the school are vegetarian, so this may have been the last meat we’ll have for a while.) Bob and I ordered local beers, which turned out to taste pretty much like Budweiser (but since they cost about $1, we didn’t complain).

Then back to La Mariposa for some family reading (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).  Bob made note of the fact that the temporally-challenged rooster did not start crowing until 10:14pm.  Tomorrow I’m tempted to continually poke him with a stick during the daytime so that he’ll sleep at night.

At the finca de pina