The world is a book...

& those who do not travel read only one page.
St. Augustine

Month two has been in full swing! I am taking two classes this month and it is a lot of work! In the mornings, I am in Spanish (advanzado uno) for four hours and I spent two hours in the afternoon in cultural photography. Last month, I started advanzado uno and did not felt prepared. This month I am much more confident in my ability to complete this class! The conversation class really did help my Spanish improve. I enjoy my teacher and the other students in my class. The class is challenging and we have a lot of homework, but I do enjoy it. The cultural photography class is not as advanced and I thought it would be, but it is still fun. I enjoy receiving the different homework challenges, as they invite me to take pictures I might not have otherwise.

Here we did light painting 

 Did you know Picasso was this first? Google it! This is my picasso.

 Teatro Nacional at night. I was downtown at dusk shooting and got this image!

 In the Biblioteca Nacional

 The inside

 I wrote a narrative off of this picture that I captured. I loved that look of pure awe.

 We played with different kinds of motion in photography, such as this motion blur.

 We took photos inside one of the local markets.

 We were looking for texture, patterns, colors, etc.

 And we interviewed people working at the stands!

 While shooting downtown, we got to watch these two doing some really cool tricks.

 We've been to several art museums and galleries around town.

 I loved looking at all the work.

 This is a cork tree!! They make cork from it! It feels so weird and cool. The tree is kind of squishy.

 We shot graffiti downtown.

 And different houses around Barrio Amón.

 Still life photography (of course I used Dr. Seuss and keys!)

 Black and white photography of lines (These are my bedroom blinds!)

 Photography of lines, dots, and curves.

We also got to meet this Costa Rican photographer! He showed us around his house and let us look at a lot of his work.

I stayed in San José for the first two weekends of the month. I was able to explore the city more and do some shopping. By one mall, there is a wine store. We went inside to ask if we could take some corks for free. The guy not only let us take as many corks as we wanted, but also gave us the full tour of their wine cellars.

I also visited with newborn (2 weeks old) kittens! They were so tiny they could have fit in one of my hands.

I also attended a flamenco concert. The school drove us to the restaurant that held the concert. It was definitely on "tico time" as the concert went casually on and off for almost four hours! There was music played and a male and female flamenco dancers.

I really love her dress

Pura Vida!

Lessons Learned: Nicaragua

Nicaragua is a beautiful country and I learned a lot there. It is so interesting to be in Central America. There is an interesting mix of the old and new. My friend who left early told us that she spent the whole time talking to a mom and her daughter in Spanish. The girl then looked at her and said in perfect English "Happy 4th of July, its trending on Twitter today."
The people in Nicaragua were so nice. There was only one time I felt even a tiny bit unsafe and the restaurant owner escorted out the man. Monolo told us that because the government was/is so corrupt and stole so much from the people, that now as it is slowly improving, stealing is one of the most despicable crimes in the eyes of the people. I never even felt as if someone eyed my bag. Everyone we met was willing to talk, share about their lives and their homeland.
I had a half an hour conversation with a man on the bus about the education system in Nicaragua and other random things (talk about a stretch for my Spanish!). The children only go to school for half a day, because there is not space for all of them to attend at once. The younger children went in the morning and the older students in the afternoon. I know that this may sound like a better deal, because we have all wanted to not sit in classes as long, but think of how much more education we are able to get because we can attend school for a full day. It really is a privileged to attend school as we do and to have the classroom resources that are available.
We met a woman here who said she lives in Germany, but is here working on building a hydroelectric plant here. She works 14 hour days, some others work longer. But she said "but it is so fun, everyone is always joking. The people here are so happy." Wow, to have such a great outlook after working that long is unbelievable! I have seen a strong work ethic time and time again both in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Yes, chores may not be pleasant, but try using a machete to cut the grass in your front yard or having to break up the old cement in a drive way using basically a stick with one sharpened end. There is also an interesting common courtesy to which I have seen people adhere. If you need a taxi and approach the waiting line of cars from the end, the last car in line will tell you to go to the first car, who has been waiting the longest for a passenger. I am by no means saying everyone in Central America works very hard and is perfect, but I have been blessed to view amazing examples of character.
There are so many great memories I couldn't capture with my camera. Two sisters doing laundry by hand in the river, a dad lifting his boy up onto the back of his motorcycle and kissing him, a group of children playing ball in their yard, and an old woman face full of wrinkles smiling a huge smile as we drove past. I wish everyone could have experienced all this with me and I know I already long to return to Nicaragua.

The vagabond adventures: leg three

The ferry takes one hour to travel between San Jorge and Moyogalpa on Isla de Ometepe. Isla de Omepete is in the giant Lake of Nicaragua. It flew by quickly as I chatted with the workers. They let Kendal and I drive the ferry! Such a cool experience.

 Driving the ferry like a pro

We landed and found our hostel The Landing Place. Clean beds, our own bath, and a room of hammocks upstairs. What more could a girl want?
The first day we rode a bus and walked to the ojos de aguas. They are springs of mineral water that are supposed to have healing properties. It was a little disappointing though, because it really just looked like a swimming pool with an entrance and exit for the water. They did however have a rope swing to fall into the water! That was pretty fun.

Ojo de Aguas

We ate dinner at Mar Dulce multiple nights. It is an Argentinian restaurant with the best smoothies ever.

Our second day had a late start, so all we had time for was a hike to a waterfall, but after that hike I don't know that I could of done anything else. It was 3 km straight up the side of a volcano; one of the hardest things I have ever done. The 350 feet waterfall at the top was spectacular and made it worth it. We waded in the very cold water pooling at the bottom and you could see out to the lake from it. My legs hurt a lot the next day, but it was good for me! At this point in the week, I reached the limit of my 16 GB memory card for the first time ever! The climb down was much easier.

 A picture trying to show how tall it was

My group

Day three on Ometepe held kayaking in store for us. We decided to rent dirt bikes for easy travel and some fun! I didn't know how to drive one, so Drake drove with me on the back. Thank you Drake for not crashing! There is one big road that loops around the island. It is nicely paved for about 2/3 of our journey, but then it is a dirt rode with rocks poking up haphazardly. It was a little scary, but Drake rode it like a pro!

Drake and I on our bike 

Kayaking worked out my arms, so between day two and three I had a full body workout. We paddled along the lake, up a river, back down, and back up the lake. In the river, we saw birds, alligators, lizards, monkeys, turtles, and sleeping bats. The ride back up the lake was very hard. My arms were tired and it felt at times like I wasn't moving anywhere. We all survived to tell the tale. 

One of the volcanoes in the background

Entering the river

Kayaking!

On the way back, we pulled into a field and they taught me how to drive a bit. I took a spin around the field on my own! I don't know how to shift gears yet, but hopefully someone will teach me soon!

The island is a pretty awesome place and we're all sad to be leaving.
Pura Vida!

The vagabound adventures: leg two

We left San Juan del Sur and traveled in Monolo's truck to Granada. We stopped along the way as he "wanted to show us his homeland." We saw fields and our first glimpse of the Volcanoes that make up Ometepe island. He drove us through Granada and pointed out the 4 huge beautiful Catholic churches. Monolo said "there are 4 churches here and if you have a lot of sins you go to all 4." We said adios and gracias to Monolo, found our hostel and settled down.

                                                                   One church

          Church Two                                                                                          Church Three

Church Four

We took a walk around town looking around and searching for a place to eat. We found a little used book shop instead with Troy who used to live in Seattle. I could have lived in his tiny shop (he did live in the adjoining space). Great books and he had beautiful original photography hung up. Troy directed us to the Garden Cafe where I had an avocado BLT. They put avocadoes on everything here, but it is so good!

                      Troy's bookshop                                         The Garden Cafe

 The next day was Christie's last day. She was just here for June and her flight home left soon from Costa Rica. We miss her! After a long time of deliberating over plans the 5 of us who would be staying decided to stay in Nicaragua instead of traveling to Panama. There was still so much to do here! I'm still very determined to make it to Panama before the summer is up.
We walked to the lake hoping for a beach and swimming, up it was pretty dirty and the water was rough. We found a tour instead around the Isletes just off the coast and said why not. The Isletes were fairly pretty and there were some for sale. Anyone want to buy me an island?

One of the islands

By the time we got back we were all wiped and hung out at our hostel for the night.
The next morning Christie left us :( but we all journeyed on to Masaya for the day. We spent hours bartering at their huge market. They had everything for hammocks and jewelry to souvenirs and clothes.
Our final hours of the day were spent on buses to continue our journey on to Isla de Ometepe. Unfortunately we were too late for the last ferry (they stop at 5:30) and had to spend the night in San Jorge instead. San Jorge was not my favorite place in Nicaragua and I'd recommend timing it so you can sail right through to Ometepe.
Pura vida!

The vagabond adventures: leg one

For whatever we lose (like a you and a me). It is always ourselves that we find in the sea. - EE Cummings

We have no classes this week, so we are traveling all over Central America.
We took an executive bus to Rivas, Nicaragua. The bus played a movie (although it was cut minutes from the end) and wifi. When we passed through the boarder, they were checking bags and we were at the end of the line. They got to us and said "we are done, you are fine." Haha. It took them about an hour and a half to do the paperwork for the whole bus. My group entertained the ticas and nicas as we sung, danced, and had Christie give us Spanish lessons.
Our first leg took us to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. We arrived in Rivas, Nicaragua and found a hostel for the night. We had an adventure getting to the atm and dinner. Surprise my card was rejected, meaning I was without money until Monday. Thankfully I have amazing friends who covered me until my dad could call the bank again. The next morning we ate pastries at a shop and strolled around a huge church.

Nicaraguan money, fun fact: it's waterproof

From Rivas, all 6 of us piled into a taxi and jammed out to the man's cd of Snoop Dog, Eminem, etc. It was an interesting ride with us quite on top of each other and at one point we had to get out of the car so it could make it up a very steep hill. All part of the adventure! We stopped by two very interesting hostels, one beautiful but full, the other just interesting and full, before we found our wonderful $8 views of the beach, breakfast included hostel.

Beach view from our hostel balcony

San Juan del Sur is a beautiful calm beach town. The ocean harbor is gorgeous and the city is watched over by a giant statue of Jesus up on the mountain. It reads Jesus en ti confio. How beautiful! We hiked up to the statue and it was miles of almost vertical roads. Our thighs were burning, but the views were incredibly worth it. The rest of the night was spent at an awesome cheap restaurant, swimming, and sleeping (after the girls had some Jesus time).

It was a really steep climb

Jesus

Me and the ocean from Jesus

 San Juan del Sur from Jesus

 The gang

Group love

 Sunset

 Beach moon

At dusk on the beach

Today we are our great breakfast and found a snorkeling tour. It was so awesome. We piled into a boat and drove out to a beach an hour away. We swam, snorkeled, fished (two people caught fish!) and enjoyed the ocean. We'll all be burnt tomorrow but it was worth it.

Now, we are making out way to Granada, Nicaragua for leg 2 of our journey. A market as big as a football field and more beaches await. Let the journey continue!