Weekends

Photo update highlighting the last couple of weekends

September 14th and 15th were holidays here celebrating Nicaragua's and Central America's Independence days. This meant a 4 day weekend for me and a festival at school to celebrate!

Independence Day Celebration at School

Giant Traditional Doll Dancer

Students dancing in their traditional dress

Hopped the border to Tamarindo, Costa Rica for the long weekend:

Tips for crossing the border:

-DO take some sort of service to make border crossing quicker

-DO carry small bills of dollars or local currency

-DON'T take your own vehicle!

-DO make sure you get your passport stamped exiting AND entering

-DON'T look for duty free. Not everything on an internet blog is true.

Bimbo! It's everywhere!

I had dejavu of my old school and Bimbo soccer jerseys

There was a big race here over the weekend. My new athletic friends participated. I took a surf lesson.

Surfing spot in Tamarindo before it got super crowded

Witch's Rock

Drinking a fresh coconut in Tamarindo - $4 well spent!

Monkey crossing!

--Three days later, another weekend!--

Mombacho, Nicaragua for some hiking

Volcano!

All of those black blobs are monkeys!

This was on the way up. 5.5K uphill to the trailhead = desperation

My first experience hitching a ride with strangers!

Crazy looking centipede.

New fact learned: centipedes are mean, millipedes are harmless decomposers

View from Crater Trail. Those are the isletas of Granada.

New friends!

In need of a non-landscape photo

Tropical plants!

Crane chandelier

The Garden Café in Granada

Mi Cocina Nicaraguense

I've been pleasantly surprised by the kinds of ingredients that I've been able to find here in Nicaragua, but have found that imported food here is so expensive. 

So...

New goal in Nicaragua: Learn how to cook local ingredients!

Below are some things that I've tried...

 

Fruit from the local fruit stand guy.

Dragon fruit. It can be white too, but I guess pink meat is pretty common here.

Plantain chorizo hash. First time using plantains to cook!

TIP: Green plantains are good for savory cooking.

Tostones con queso

The tostones weren't too difficult to make (basically smashed/2x fried plantains)

Fried cheese: I used chontaleño which was pretty delicious and not too salty

 

Pipian (left) and Chayote (right)

both squash-like vegetables

Pescozones: sandwiches with the above veggies + cheese

The pipian was basically Korean hobak-jun

Weekend...

I also went to a new beach called Playa Gigante. It was super beautiful with a cool tide that would go super low/high only on sand -- great for laying on the beach. Also had a cool little community that was for locals and not tourists.

Weekdays...

And a picture from my classroom! Last week's star student aka Ms. Lee aka just Miss.

This week I got called "Mister" for the first time. My partner teacher is a male teacher so he just gets called "Mister" instead of his full name.