Lanie enjoys another boat ride. This time everyone else liked it, too.
A few days ago we went snorkeling on a coral reef. We took a boat out to where we were going to snorkel. The boat ride was really fun because it was so choppy. We climbed up waves and then slid back down. When we got in the water, it was so warm! Snorkeling was an amazing experience.
The reef was pretty close to the surface and the water was really clear, so we could see the fish really well. Most of the fish on the reef were pretty small.
We saw many more fish than we expected to see.
There were bigger fish in the gaps and alleyways in the coral. In the deeper water on the outskirts of the reef, there were huge schools of larger fish. Some of the fish in the schools were huge! Most of the fish in the schools were gray, but there were some colorful fish mixed in.
We saw so many cool fish! There were black fish with neon yellow tails and blue spots on their tails. The spots were so iridescent that they seemed to glow. My favorite fish was a greenish teal color. It had lots of other colors on its tail and fins like blue, purple and red-orange. We also saw lion fish, sea cucumbers, anemones, a giant hermit crab and a few sharks.
Cool coral. Our guide pointed out an octopus tentacle hanging out of the crack at the bottom.
There were also several really interesting types of coral. Some looked like they had mazes in their patterns. Another had projections that looked like a stag’s horns.
We found out later that the place we were snorkeling was part of an “underwater trail” connected to the nearby Cahuita National Park. When we were in the water we could still see the shore, and could swim in any direction and find things to look at. Most of the fish were in the places where there was lots of coral.
We decided to go rafting in a rather roundabout manner. I was looking into transit from the San Jose area to the Caribbean coast (about a 4-hour drive), and found that there was a rafting company that would pick you up in one place and bring you back to another — door to door service each way. Given the cost of a shuttle for the same distance, and the fact that we got breakfast and lunch thrown into the bargain, it was a pretty good deal. The only downside was that our hotel pickup time was 5:45am.
Natural water slide
We were initially supposed to raft the Reventazón river, because the Pacuare was for age 12 and up only. However, they let us know a few days in advance that due to low water levels this would likely be boring for all but little kids. After a bit of back and forth, we worked out a deal — they would take us to a separate section of the Pacuare, where there were no Class IV rapids. So, we were all alone in our one raft, with no photographers present — so sadly, no good rapids photos! We were too busy paddling.
We came back from our short hike to find this lovely snack laid out for us. When snacks are provided on outings here, they usually consist of a whole watermelon and/or pineapple fresh cut on the scene.
A couple of days ago we went white-water rafting. It was really fun. We got to swim and eat pineapple and watermelon. We also went for a hike.
There are five classes of rapids. Class I is the calmest. We did classes I, II, and III. When the guide yelled “Forward!”, we paddled. When he said, “Backward” we paddled backward. There were other commands like “lean in!” and “left/right back” and “get down!” If we didn’t act quickly enough, the boat could flip over. Lanie decided not to paddle so she only had to lean in and get down.
As if touching a sloth weren’t enough, on the very next day we got to visit an animal rescue center. The Web page said we would get to volunteer there, helping to feed the rescued animals. What kinds of animals would we get to touch there?
Well, we got to see many more than we could touch, but many of the animals at the ASIS Project were conditioned to human contact. Although they were wild animals, a lot of these guys came to the Project from private homes where people thought it was a good idea to have wild animals as pets. Of course, this is not a good idea, and it’s against the law. When police are called to one of these homes (usually by angry neighbors), they confiscate the animals and bring them to a place like the ASIS Project. The people who try to keep the wild animals as pets have to pay a steep fine.
We were able to pet Perla. Our guide said some Costa Ricans saw Americans on tv with potbellied pigs as pets and thought peccaries could be kept, too. Bad call.
Alternately, the person who brought home a baby peccary or spider monkey comes to realize after a time that a teenage peccary or spider monkey is not the best thing to have in a human home. These people tend to call the police themselves and say something like, “Hey, I found this teenage spider monkey in my living room.” These animals wind up at ASIS as well.
Although the goal of the center is to nurse animals back to health and return them to nature. most animals raised with humans cannot be released into the wild. They would seek human contact, and really freak people. Also, they would not be able to socialize with other wild animals of their species. Both of these situations would put the animals at great risk in the wild.
This spider monkey’s former owner taught it to hold hands.
For that reason we were able to help feed most of the animals, and some of the ones that were destined to spend the rest of their days in the rescue center we were able to touch.
Here’s Lanie’s account:
We went to ASIS. It was really fun. First, we saw a pig named Perla. Perla was nice and we got to pet her. Her hair felt like plastic.
Then we saw another pig named Pancho. He was wild. We could not touch him.
We also saw a raccoon. She loved water.
It’s only a little boa constrictor.
Then we saw some spider monkeys. Next, I got to hold the snake!
We saw lots of birds. We also saw coatis and white-faced monkeys.
The beautiful ocelot was set to get a bigger cage soon. It could not be returned to the wild.
Then we saw an ocelot.
After a coffee break we got to feed the animals. First we had to cut up papaya, mango, banana, corn, cucumbers, carrots, and cabbage. There was also bird seed.
The animals ate the fruit and the corn first, and only ate the vegetables when the other stuff was gone. The parrots liked the sunflower seeds best.
While we’re having a great time in Costa Rica, let us take a quick step back to Nicaragua for a minute. In particular, I’d like to consider Nicaraguan food. After conducting a family poll, I have found that the island of Ometepe is the dining sweet spot for most of our family in this Central American nation. Three of the five of us indicated our favorite meals and our favorite thing to eat in general came from Ometepe.
Ometepe, and Moyogalpa in particular, loomed large in our family dining poll.
In fact, Zoe, Lanie, Nadia and I all picked our dinners from the same restaurant as our favorites, even though we all ordered different meals. This restaurant was the unassuming La Galeria on the main street of Moyogalpa, where we ate on our last night before heading for the border. It was actually our second-choice dinner spot for the night — we were all set for the pizza place across the street from our hostel, but for some reason the pizzas were backlogged and we were facing an hour-long wait before getting our food. It was all to our benefit, as Lanie ended up loving her pasta marinara and Zoe rated very highly the two plates she shared with Nadia — four cheese pasta and terryaki chicken.
The Galeria’s menu was flexible enough to allow me to continue my pursuit of the traditional Nico dish, chicken with jalapeno sauce. Typically, I don’t go out of my way to eat spicy things, but this one caught my eye at the Nicaraguita restaurant in Leon and I ordered it a couple of times after that. It consists of a grilled piece of chicken smothered in onions and jalapino slices and a light cream sauce. It is usally accompanied by rice, slaw and plantains. The plates varied slightly every time I ordere it. At the Nicaraguita, the onions and peppers were uncooked, giving a nice crunch and a fresh flavor. On the pedestrian promenade in Granada they were pretty well sauteed, adding extra sweetness to the cream sauce. At the Galeria, the vegetables were lightly sauteed giving a little crunch and a little sweetness, but I have to admit, I liked this restaurant’s version the best because it was the biggest. It featured a really nice piece of chicken. Nadia felt the same way about her liberally seasoned terryaki chicken. There was a lot of food that night and no leftovers.
I should add that I liked eating chicken in Nicaragua because they know how to treat their chickens there. That is to say they let their hens, chicks and roosters walk around freely, scratching away in the leaves and twigs. These are happy chickens.
The breakfast, lunch and dinner table at Finca Ojos Lindos has seen the end of many a good pancake.
Jen has trouble deciding, but when pressed, she votes for the breakfasts at Finca Lindos Ojos in La Miraflor. The pancakes were excellent and the coffee was welcome in the chilly mountain air, but the steamed milk, fresh from the early-morning milking of finca’s cows, is what put these breakfasts over the top for Jen. She also says nice things about the Gallo Pinto and eggs put out by Marcial’s wife, the Lindos Ojos cook (she was also the bookkeeper). Remember, too, that the coffee itself was harvested at the finca, and we could see the bushes growing from where we ate our breakfasts.
Other meals mentioned during my poll were: the macaroni casserole on our first night at the Finca Lindos Ojos, all the fresh fruit that accompanies everything, the waffles at the Rancho Esperanza, the Japanese curry at the Rancho Esperanza, the banana pancakes at the Cafe Imperio in Meridia on Ometepe, and the club sandwich at the Casa Veccio in Esteli.
Nadia is pleased to meet the Casa Veccio’s club sandwich.
I know. You’re thinking: Pizza? Pancakes? Club sandwiches? They’re not in Central America, they’re at an Applebee’s in Central Florida. One look at that list confirms that not everyone got into the spirit of eating Nico food. We visited a lot of Italian restaurants and pizza places.
Besides my beloved chicken with jalapenos and a nod by Jen to the Gallo Pinto at the finca, the only other local dish to make our most-remembered list was the family plate at the swimming pool restaurant on our first night in Nicaragua.
Welcome to Nicaragua. Here’s a big plate of food: The family plate.
Perhaps this can be expected after two weeks of pristinely healthy food at the Mariposa School. I myself admit to being excited upon walking into the Hollywood Pizza in Leon and encountering a few pies, some beer and pitcher of orange soda. Oh, and breadsticks, too. I’m surprised that place didn’t make the list.
Good wife happily eating virtuous food on the patio at La Mariposa School
The food at the Mariposa should not be discounted, though. It was all grown locally and prepared well. It was mostly vegetarian and the fresh vegetables shone. Even Jen was eating beets there. The beets were so sweet! (Also, they were omni-present, so they might have just worn Jen down.) I have often heard of people going on purges at home, cutting out sugar, alcohol, caffeine, salt and/or processed foods. Eating at the Mariposa was like that for us (except for the caffeine and alcohol, of which Jen and I partook, but only moderately). We were served very little wheat or dairy. The mere absence of cheese help my waistline immensely. There were deserts, but they weren’t over-the-top with sweetness. It was a very easy way to accumulate two weeks of healthy eating.
Gallo pinto at our hotel in Granada. If it comes with eggs, it must be Jen’s.
One more thing before we move on to desserts. Beans and rice are very popular here — particularly for breakfast, but some people eat it for every meal. Our farm guide Marcial claimed to eat it exclusively. He never ate any fruit, he said, even though all around him trees were bursting with mangoes, bananas and papayas. I tried to eat Gallo Pinto very chance I got, and I have concluded that, while the dish is fairly standard and straightforward, my favorite version was served at the Cafe Luz in Esteli because it had more onions and peppers mixed in with the beans and rice. Marcial may not have liked it, but I did.
The only other Nico dish that I can remember trying was a Nacatamale, which I also tried at Cafe Luz. It was cornmeal cooked in a banana leaf with some pork thrown in. It was good. It maybe picked up a little banana flavor from the leaves. I did not feel the need to order it again, though.
We had to eat so fast we didn’t get a picture of the milk shakes. It was not far from this spot that we got them, though.
Ok, on to dessert, which is what gets represented when you ask my family what their favorite things to eat are and you don’t pin them down to an actual meal. Three of us still remember most fondly the banana coconut milk shakes we shared at the end of our waterfall hike in Ometepe. The idea of the milkshakes may have been as a bribe to keep everyone moving on the path. In reality, they were expensive, but huge and very good. Sweet, rich and refreshing after an eight-kilometer hike. (We have all decided that the last kilometer of the reportedly six-kilometer hike had another kilometer hidden in it.) I was not going to have any milkshake, but it was clear that as hungry as everyone was, they were going to have trouble getting through them. Also, our bus driver was waiting to bring us home. They were less milkshake and more of a consistency of a Blizzard at Dairy Queen or a Friendz at Friendly’s, and they were a perfect combo of big size and great taste. Using fresh ingredients surely helped.
Other dessert highlights mentioned: gelato in Leon, mango and chocolate ice creams at the Laguna de Apollo, and the banana cream pie at the Mariposa School.
Lastly, while we’re still in Nicaragua, I should recount a story that I’m surprised Jen left out of her account of our Volcan Maderas hike. While we were at the summit, peering into the crater, we spied the Shaman of the Volcano. Our guide said the Shaman, whose name is Tom, only appears on very clear days. If you see him, you can ask one question and he’ll answer it.
We approached the friendly looking man. His twinkling eyes beheld us from between his bushy beard and his Red Sox cap pulled low. Before we could even get a question out, he answered in slightly Manchester-accented English (that’s Manchester, NH): “You had 16 pounds of laundry in Granada.”
It was not exactly the answer to life, the Universe and everything, but it at least was pretty accurate. The truth is that we had 17 pounds of laundry in Granada. There may have been a wet bathing suit in there or something. It cost close to $20 to get it washed, dried and folded, but it was worth it.
That, friends, is why you should all hike up volcanoes when you get the chance. At least on clear days.
Editor’s note: Our host in La Fortuna, who was a great source of information on the area, highly recommended a tour with Giovanni. He said that Giovanni had an almost magical ability to spot animals, and that no one had ever failed to rave about his tour. So we signed up, even though it meant leaving at 5:30 am! We thought the price tag was a little steep (that pesky “per person” thing again), but when we saw what Giovanni was doing — preserving his own little section of the rainforest from development, reforesting it, and developing a path that will be handicap-accessible and tailored to the blind, we actually ended up making an additional contribution. And, we certainly got our money’s worth. When our morning tour had ended, Giovanni saw how much the girls loved the sloths. So he told us he’d meet us again in the afternoon and take us to a place where we could see babies up close and touch some iguanas. He led us on a drive about half an hour away and delivered on both promises! Giovanni told us he thought Lanie should be a tour guide, since she loves animals so much. And now, on to Lanie’s review:
Introduction
Mom booked a tour. It was from a guy who made paths in his own reserve. In the big reserves, the animals avoid the paths because of all the people. We woke up early to see the animals. Here they are!
Toucans
We saw about 5 toucans. They were so colorful! Our guide called them froot loops. We saw two different kinds together.
Blue jeans frog
Blue jeans frog (Strawberry poison dart frog)
They are venomous. The are small with blue legs and a red middle; that is why it is called the blue jeans frog.
Red-eyed tree frog
They are small. They are green. They look like Monty. (Monty is a stuffed animal that Lanie bought at the women’s craft cooperative store in Monteverde.)
Sloth
We saw 6 sloths in the morning. They were really fuzzy. Later we even saw a baby! We saw a three-toed sloth and two-toed sloths.
Basilisk lizard
Basilisk lizard (“Jesus Christ lizard”)
We saw a big green lizard. It is a basilisk lizard. They can walk on water. The one we saw was in a tree.
Sloth again
In the secret part of our tour we pet a baby sloth. Our guide looked in all sorts of small trees, then he found the sloth. It felt like a stuffed animal. It was so fuzzy! It moved and we left.
We’re settled into life here in Costa Rica, which has largely meant making peace with seeing the money flying out of our bank account. We sure ain’t in Nicaragua anymore.
Nadia contributes to the economy by adding another country to her growing toenail clipper/bottle opener collection.
To be fair, the two main places we’ve stayed thus far — Monteverde Cloud Forest and Arenal Volcano — are major tourist destinations. There are many, many things to do — and all of them cost big bucks. We were very happy that we’d done ziplining and some guided cloud and rainforest tours in Nicaragua. The main thing that’s killing us is that here, everything is charged per person. This makes sense to us for some things, but perplexes us when it comes to hiring a tour guide. If one of us wanted a guided tour, the guide would take that person around for $18. But if five of us want to tag along — well, now we’re up to $18 * 5.
For obvious reasons, we don’t have many good pictures from the night tour. This is a phosphorescent beetle, kind of like a firefly, on Lanie’s head.
So, we’ve been pretty selective on which of the vast array of available activities to pursue. In Monteverde, we signed up for a night tour of the cloud forest, but skipped the guided daytime tour and just walked around on our own. The night tour was pretty cool, and we saw some interesting animals — a sloth, an olingo (which apparently is related to the kinkajou), a tarantula, a porcupine, and a glowing beetle — but the place we did it was mobbed with groups of tourists, all crowding around the same trees and bumping into each other in the dark. (We also did the El Trapiche tour, as previously described, and this was unanimously felt to be worth the hefty price tag based on the food samples provided.)
Our first view of Volcan Arenal.
We set out for our next destination, Arenal Volcano, with some trepidation. I think we may have failed to describe the drive to Monteverde because we’re trying to block it out of our memories, but “harrowing” would be a good word to describe the boulder-strewn barely-a-road through the mountains (surrounded by beautiful scenery that we were unable to appreciate because of (a) motion sickness, and (b) the terror that at any moment the car would break an axle or get a flat tire). When we finally arrived, we parked the car in the driveway and pretty much didn’t move it again until it was time to leave.
It’s five o’clock somewhere.
If you look at a map, Monteverde and Arenal seem to be quite close together. However, because the drive involves 45km on a dirt road followed by a long drive around a lake, it takes 3-4 hours. Bob and I focused our thoughts on the microbrewery that we had read was halfway to our destination, and forced ourselves into the car.
This drive, though terrible by ordinary standards, turned out to be a little easier than the previous one, so we were pleasantly surprised. The car only made horrible clunking noises (as it hit the rocky road) a few times, and we only stalled a couple. For the most part, we didn’t need to shift into first and chant, “I think I can…” to make it up the hills. And oh, that magical moment when we got to Lake Arenal and the pavement began.
Things went so well that we actually arrived at the brewpub, our planned lunch destination, about 10:30. Fortunately the owner was friendly, and happy to have us sit there for a while using their free wifi — and Bob and I decided to stretch a point on “appropriate hours for beer consumption.” The brew pub was gorgeous, with huge windows overlooking the lake, but the beer was rather disappointing. (I tried a pineapple beer, which sounded quite exciting, but turned out, like the other beer we tried, to not taste like too much.)
And our apartment in La Fortuna, at the base of the dramatic Volcan Arenal, turned out to be terrific. The minute we arrived, the owner William, who lived the next apartment over, had brought his dog out to play with the girls and was proudly showing us all the edible plants that were growing in the yard and up for grabs. The apartment was just a block or two from the town center, easy to find (probably the first time we didn’t have to reverse
La Fortuna
our tracks multiple times!), and had everything we needed. The volcano photo at the top of this post is the view from our living room window. The town was cute (though very touristy), with a lovely town square featuring lots of flowers and dramatic views of the volcano rising above the pretty church.
We took our first day pretty easy, getting some schoolwork in and walking to a nearby (free!) swimming hole. (This was absolutely beautiful, with twin waterfalls gushing into a deep blue pool under the trees, but we were warned so thoroughly about theft that we didn’t bring our camera
Also, our apartment has iguanas in the yard.
with us.) On the advice of our host, we’d booked an animal-watching tour the next day — 5:30am sharp! Read all about it from Lanie tomorrow.
Today we visited Agricultural Disneyland. In touring La Finca el Trapiche we got to observe the cultivation and processing of three of the world’s most beloved foods. Nadia will explain a little bit about all three:
What we saw at El Trapiche:
Sugar cane
Nadia snaps off the sweet insides of a cane that has been peeled.
Sugar cane grows in a plant that looks a lot like bamboo. The sugar is the inside of the stalk. To eat it, you cut off the outside layer, then you pull of a piece and suck the juice out of it. It tastes really sweet.
Coffee Coffee grows on bushes. There are three types of coffee. The first type is premium. That is when there is only one bean per berry. The next type is first quality. That is when there is two beans per berry. The last type is second quality. That is when there are three beans in a berry.
Three grades of coffee beans: second grade, first grade, and peaberry
You can eat the red coffee fruit. I tried some. It doesn’t taste like coffee, it tastes sweet.
Cocoa
Lanie shows off a cocoa pod.
Cocoa is grown on a small tree. It grows in a pod. The seeds are coated in white paste called cocoa butter. Cocoa butter is used to make white chocolate and beauty products. White chocolate has no cocoa in it at all. After the cocoa butter is washed off the beans they are dried, roasted, shelled, and ground up with sugar. When you make chocolate, you have to choose what percent of cocoa and what percent of sugar. You also have to decide if you want to add milk.
Sample tastings were everywhere at El Trapiche. Here the adults try moonshine made from cane juice.
Lanie chimes in about coffee production:
Zoe learned she would get $3 for every basket full of beans she picked. Also, sometimes there are snakes in the bushes.
The El Trapiche tour was awesome! First we went around and picked some coffee and ate it. The coffee tasted really good. Zoe had a basket tied around her waist so she could pick red berries off the tree with both hands. Coffee comes in small red berries. If there is only one seed inside, it is the best kind. It is called peaberry. If it has two beans, it is called first quality. If has three seeds, it is second quality.
Everyone was a coffee drinker at El Trapiche.
After you pick it, you dry it. To dry it, you put it in a greenhouse. Once it’s dry you peel it. The peel can be used to make parchment paper. At the end we got to taste the coffee. It was delicious.
With apologies to our friend Carol, who trudged around Costa Rica for a week with one particular quarry in mind, and who left empty-handed, we can report that we visited the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and saw her prized Quetzal before we even left the parking lot.
“Like a waterfall of teal” See what I mean? Kudos to Zoe for getting these pictures with our point-and-shoot camera.
It’s true. We walked to the reserve from our house, about 700 meters away from the front gates, and saw about 20 people standing in the parking lot looking up. Being a veteran of the US National Park System, I sensed something exciting was afoot. I asked a man who looked like a guide: “At what are everyone seeing here?” (This is an approximation of my Spanish now that I’m not speaking it every day. Many people here speak fine English.) And he replied, “Why, the resplendent Quetzal, senor.” “Resplendent” almost always modifies this bird in these parts.
The girls didn’t ignore the coati.
Sure enough, like a waterfall of metallic teal feathers from a high branch in a tree, serenely sat the bird that brings thousands and thousands of expensive cameras with long lenses to Costa Rica. Moreover, as I was inside buying our tickets and inquiring if there was a chance of getting a guide through the preserve, Jen and the girls spotted two more Quetzals (slighly-less-resplendent females). Anyone who bothered to look down saw a trio of coatis, which are like mild-mannered racoons with long noses, practically doing synchronized acrobatics in a empty parking space trying to garner some attention.
Cool, yes. Resplendent? Maybe not.
It was almost too much. As it turned out, it was almost everything we saw for the day. If animals were so easy to find you were in danger of parking your car on top of them, who needs a guide? Am I right? Actually, no. We guided ourselves through the preserve enjoying lovely scenery and appreciating the well-marked, well-maintained trails, but all we managed to observe of the fauna was a big millipede and several nondescript birds. To be sure, we must have walked by dozens of lovely specimens invisible to our un-trained and un-magnified eyes.
Now, a waterfall of water
A suspension bridge gave a view into the top of the canopy.
We might have opted for a guide — they are highly recommended here — if we could have used a credit card to pay for his services, but all of the reserve’s guides were booked and the mercenary squad only accepts cash. Our visit to the Bank of Costa Rica was scheduled for the afternoon. Also, it seems that the pricing system here does not favor our family. One person can rent a guide for $18, it seems, but a family of five has to pay $18 per person, which sounded a little steep for us. Even after the guy told us he’d waive the fee for Lanie it was a little steep.
The reserve turned out to be a nice place to stroll. We saw a waterfall, lots of cool flowers (which also might have benefitted from a guide’s description) and nice views from a lookout point.
After visiting the reserva, we headed back to our house. (The Quetzals had migrated, but the coatis were still scampering around the parking lot.) Nadia and I walked a few kilometers into town to visit the cajero automatico, then we met the rest of the family at a pizza place that turned out to be several degrees nicer than we expected or were dressed for. Who puts a nice restaurant two miles out past where the paved road ends? At least we were there early enough that there were few people to offend with our emphatic lack of resplendency.
During our walk, Nadia and I also checked out a store run by a cooperative of local artisans. It was a Monteverde version of Durham’s own Main Street Makery. It’s good for us that our travel schedule restricts us from buying large items. The furniture, particularly the hand-made wooden chairs in Nicaragua, were beautiful. The hammocks are appealing, too, but even these are just too big for us to haul around. Save our money for more tours, that’s what I say.
Tomorrow we’ll take the rest of the family to the coop to see what they think.
Now that we have left Nicaragua behind, below is a round-up of the favorite Nicaragua experiences of each member of the family. There is a bit of overlap, but not as much as you might think! To read our original posts on these subjects, click the underlined link.
Bob’s List
None more white.
Tour of Leon Cathedral roof: This surpassed any expectation I had by at least 1,000 percent. Never have I seen such a pristinely white environment (at least one that did not involve snow). The sight of it was shocking. The sensation of walking barefoot on the clean roof, with its warm — but not hot — surface was a pleasant experience and also a good lesson in why things in sunny places get painted white. If the roof were black, it would have been at least 30 degrees warmer up there and significantly less comfortable inside the cathedral. The contrast between the crumbling facade of the cathedral (it was still beautiful, in a rustic way) and the gleaming roof was also interesting. It is pristine like nothing else we’ll experience in Central America — certainly the antithesis of the nearby (and scarringly sordid) folklore museum. At $9 per adult, this is expensive for Nicaragua, but to me it was definitely worth it.
Crew at La Mariposa. There’s a real diversity here — people young and old, from various countries of origin.
Dinners at La Mariposa School: I think I’ll comment on the food at Mariposa elsewhere, but the environment at the school reached is high point, in my opinion, at dinner time. It was quiet and calm once the teachers and day students went home. Those staying at the hotel gathered at the sound of a bell and enjoyed conversation (almost entirely in English), a $2 Tona or two, and whatever food they served up on a given night. There was no troublesome plowing through menus and ordering. We got what we got, and at it all up. I did, at least. Usually, I ate some of the girls’ leftovers, too. If the Spanish classes, excursions and interactions with staff helped us get used to Central American culture, the dinners helped us acclimate to the physical environment, eating outside in shorts and t-shirts in February was a palpable, if slightly guilty, pleasure. The warm silky breezes and “tranquilo” atmosphere helped soothe any culture shock we experienced during the day. We happily noted the absolute absence of mosquitoes. The compound’s dogs and cats were always close by, often enjoying the attention of a pet-starved child. These dinners also allowed the girls to display a previously hidden talent: conversing with adults. This is something they tend to do at home only under extreme duress. Without other children to talk to, ZN+L chatted happily with our fellow adult guests, many of them grandparents who clearly delighted in talking to young people. Jen and I enjoyed multiple compliments about them.
Picture the UNH Outdoor Pool with a tarzan swing.
Ojos de Agua: I thought swimming in this natural spring-fed pool was enjoyable until Jen commented on its similarity to the now-destroyed UNH Outdoor Pool. She was onto something. There were surely differences: palm trees, a slack line and tarzan rope, waiters carrying trays of food (we never found out how to order any). The similarities became more obvious as I looked for them. The clear, bluish-tinted water was cool and comfortable. The sides of the pool were concrete and stone (and a little muddy at points). People were there to swim and socialize and relax. It should be noted that this attraction featured the best mix of tourist and locals of any place we’ve visited in Central America. We even saw a car with a Costa Rican license plate in the parking lot. One of the workers at our hotel told Jen that the Ojos de Agua is one of his favorite places in the world. My favorite part, though, was that I felt a little like a time traveler, able to skip back into the near past to snatch one more afternoon of an experience that I never thought I’d get to have again. Anyone missing the UNH pool can find solace that it still exists, in spirit at least, on Ometepe.
I’ve already written about this extensively, but it remains a highlight in my memory. I think part of the appeal was that we had no idea what to expect. If we had arranged (and paid for) this tour ourselves, we would have known what to expect every step of the way. But since this was done through La Mariposa, the extent of our preparation was signing up on the whiteboard. And as it turned out, it was one fabulous experience after another: the steam pouring from the active crater, the beautiful sunset from the highest point in the park, the awe-inspiring spectacle of thousands of bats issuing forth for the night, the cool walk deep into the mountain through a lava tube. It was a magical evening.
Our hotel on Ometepe (La Omaja) has to be one of the best places in the world to watch the sunset. Located in the lower slopes of a volcano, it features an open-air restaurant (with great mojitos), fronted by an infinity pool and hot tub, with Lake Nicaragua stretching away in the distance. To the right is the dramatic cone of the Volcan Conception, rising 1,600 meters above the lake. Behind the restaurant, Volcan Maderas rises in green waves.
It was the latter that we’d hiked that day, and it was an extreme challenge to us. Having left the hotel at 7:30 am, we staggered back in at 5:30, just in time for the nightly display. Sinking our exhausted bodies into the warm hot tub as the sky glowed with every color of the rainbow was an exquisite pleasure. Later we would eat enormous dinners poolside, then return to the hot tub as the colors faded and thousands of brilliant stars (far more than we have ever seen at home) emerged above our heads.
Though we loved our time at La Miraflor cloud forest, Granada presented a welcome contrast – hot, sunny, full of people and life. In the late afternoon, the glare of the mid-day sun would soften, and cool breezes from the lake seemed to blow away the day’s heat in the blink of an eye. Around the corner from our hotel was a pedestrian thoroughfare with a grand old church at each end. The street was lined with colorful buildings housing bars, restaurants, and shops, with café tables scattered across the cobblestones outside. The air was filled with laughter and the sounds of roving musicians playing traditional music (and thrilled to serenade you for a $1 tip). For another $1 we could enjoy a mojito made with fresh mint, lime and Nicaraguan rum. It felt graceful and old-fashioned, like something out of a Hemingway novel.
Part way through our trip, we hiked to a giant strangler fig in the cool, misty cloud forest of La Miraflor. The fig had killed the tree it had lived on long ago, and was completely hollow in the center. We ducked through an opening in the interlocking vines and into the cave–like space inside. It was cool and damp and filled with shafts of sunlight from holes in the web of tendrils. I grabbed a vine and started to climb. The fig’s bark felt cool and rough beneath my fingers, and the different strands were the perfect size for me to wrap my hands around. When I looked up and down, the fig was like a vertical tunnel made of intricate patterns and designs. I could see my family standing in the small circle of packed earth far below. I felt as if I could keep climbing all the way up to the tree’s topmost branches high above. I peeked out of the small windows made by the fig’s stems and waved to my dad standing on the ground outside the tree. When I climbed down, I wanted to do it again.
In the city of Granada, Mom booked us a tour of a chocolate museum, but not just any tour. This was a workshop where we got to see how chocolate is made and make some ourselves. This was the perfect tour for me because I love both chocolate and cooking. It was really cool to see how one of my favorite foods is made. Central American chocolate is different from the chocolate we have in the U.S., which is made from beans grown in Africa. It has a darker, richer flavor. I liked it. Even the plain roasted Central American beans taste good. We got to try them after roasting them ourselves over an open fire and peeling them by hand. Then, we ground them using a mortar and pestle. The whole beans seemed dry, but once they were ground, the oily cocoa butter seemed to appear from nowhere. After that, we used the cocoa paste to make two chocolate drinks. The first was made by the Aztecs. It had chili peppers in it. It was much too spicy for me! I liked the second though. It was made by the Spanish and tasted like hot chocolate. At the end, we got pre-churned chocolate to make our own bars. We could put anything we wanted in them. I put coffee, sea salt, almonds, and nibs (pieces of roasted cocoa beans) in mine.
My whole family learned to surf in Jiquilillo, a town on the beach. We all took surfing lessons. I loved surfing and rented a board for the next couple of days. I surfed a lot during those days, but one time stood out. Jiquilillo had beautiful sunsets and we would go to the beach to watch them, but I wanted to keep surfing. So I surfed during the sunset. It was amazing. When you watch a sunset over water from land, the glows orange from the reflected sun. While I surfed, that color was all around me. It was like surfing on the sun.
It was my favorite because I really missed riding and I had a lot of fun because I got to canter a lot. The ride went through the countryside, a village, and some woods. I rode the same horse but I can’t remember his name. He was a brown and white paint.
It was my second favorite thing because the gelato tasted really good. It also reminded me of Italy. The flavors were also very unique. It was special because there isn’t much gelato in Nicaragua.
Zip-lining was my third favorite thing because it was really fun. I was a little scared at first, but by the end I wasn’t. It was special because it was a really unique and singular experience. We also got to fly with a guide, go upside down, and swing on a long rope.
On our last day at La Mariposa, we had a party with great music in Spanish, dancing and piñata breaking. Zoe, Nadia and I made the piñatas with our teachers and went into town to buy candy for them. I felt happy, excited and good. I liked the taste of the candy and the smell of the fresh air. It was special to me having my friends from La Mariposa all gathered around me.
I felt as light as a feather. I was zip-lining at Volcan Mombacho. It was special because I felt a good sense of accomplishment. I tried going upside down, and the guy was jiggling my legs as we zip-lined.
The volcano hike was hiking up a volcano to see the sun set, then hiking to see two caves. I felt very good. It was nice to walk in to a nice cool cave. It was one of the best experiences of my life because I got to see so many cool things.
After this I didn’t walk anywhere at night without my headlamp.
Our second-to-last day in Nicaragua, we found a tarantula in our hotel room. The next day, we found a scorpion attempting to hitch a ride in Lanie’s backpack. Apparently we were no longer welcome in Nicaragua, so it’s just as well that we headed to the border the next day.
Look who wants to come home with us.
Costa Rica logistics have already proven to be far more complicated, for some reason. For the few days preceding our travels, I was spending much of my time hunched over the computer, trying to figure out where we were going to go and how we were going to get there. In the end, we were forced to conclude that we’d need to rent a car for a while.
Our travel day looked like this:
9 am ferry from Ometepe to the mainland
Taxi ride to the border (we’d been planning to take a taxi to the bus terminal and the bus to the border, but for $25 we decided to take the shortcut)
Walk across the no-man’s-land border area, which involved having our passports checked three times by Nicaragua and three times by Costa Rica.
Bus to Liberia, Costa Rica.
Taxi to the Liberia airport where we picked up our rental car. (In shock from the price of the cab ($40! For 9 km! Nicaragua, we miss you already), we go the cheaper route and do not get an SUV. We will regret this decision later.)
Drive for a couple of hours to the place I’d managed to rent last-minute for the night, from airbnb. It was not exactly a palace, and was in the middle of nowhere, but the drive was beautiful.
Drive back out to the nearest town to stock up on groceries, since we have a kitchen.
Drive back to the house because Bob forgot his wallet.
Drive back to the store again and back to the house again. (For the most part we haven’t lost/forgotten things too much on this trip. But this house proved to be some kind of Bermuda-triangle type location with a magnetic pull over our belongings. This will also come up again later.)
I guess the novelty of restaurants really has worn off, because the kids were thrilled to shop for groceries and cook dinner. Bob and I were instructed to sit down and mostly stay out of the way while they worked together to whip up pasta with chorizo, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, and cheese. (Afterwards, they fought bitterly for about four hours about who would sleep where. But it was nice while it lasted.)
In the middle of the night, Bob and I were abruptly awakened by a very loud, very strange sound. It sounded like someone saying, “HHHHHHahhhhh” in this raspy voice, and must have been right outside the window. (It was so loud, we initially thought it was inside the house.) Bob asked the caretakers here about it the next day, and it turns out we heard an ocelot! (They called it a “tigrillo”.)
Being more aware of the road conditions, we decided we were too far to attempt our original plan of spending a day in Rincon de la Vieja National Park. Instead, we went to a nearby resort that featured hot springs, mud baths, and pools, plus hiking along a beautiful canyon in the forest, with a warm thermal river running through the middle.
It was a very fancy place (though bizarrely, as it was even more in the middle of nowhere) with fluffy white towels and deferential waiters. However, the price for a day’s admission seemed exorbitant. We elected, therefore, to forgo add-ons like zip-lining and white-water tubing. It was very pleasant soaking in the hot river in the middle of the woods, and took the last of the soreness out of our muscles from our previous hike.
Dinner brought another misadventure. We thought we were buying salt in the grocery store, when we saw a packet of white crystals labeled, “Sal ingleterre”. Nadia put some into her signature guacamole, then grimaced as she tasted it. We quickly determined that whatever it was that we’d bought, it was not edible (Epsom salts, maybe?) It was horribly wrenching for us to throw away that big bowl of otherwise perfect guacamole. (Luckily there was another bowl that was untainted.)
As we packed up and headed out the next day, the Bermuda triangle effect struck again. About 20 minutes into our journey, Bob asked, “Did you take the water bottles out of the fridge?” Nope, even though I’d checked the place about 20 times, we’d forgotten all our water and bottles. Back we went, down the rough dirt road, to the amusement of the caretakers. On the road again! Except, about 15 minutes later, Nadia: “I don’t remember packing up my kindle!” After a check of the bags, AGAIN we headed back. This last time, Bob told them, “Anything else we left here is yours.”
been right outside the window. (It was so loud, we initially thought it was inside the house.) Bob asked the caretakers here about it the next day, and it turns out we heard an ocelot! (They called it a “tigrillo”.)
