Family Alive

Bicycling is a major form of transportation here in Nicaragua. And it is not just one person on a bike – you can see an entire family on a bike with the dad pedaling, the mom, sitting side saddle on the frame holding a toddler and then an older child sitting behind the dad or on the handlebars. Couples go on dates with the man pedaling and the woman sitting side saddle on the frame. I was lucky enough to experience this when I was last here in 2003 on the way back from a baseball game with one of Kristine’s English as a second language students. I straddled the frame while my friend pedaled the bike. He rode me out to the street where I could pick up a taxi the rest of the way home.Cars are expensive here especially with very large import taxes so the majority of Nicaraguans either walk, take public transportation (which is quite extensive with everything from express buses, local “chicken” buses also called “la bomba”, camionettas, in addition to many taxis. Not to be left out, horses, and horse drawn carts are popular too. We saw a guy wearing an Ironman finisher t-shirt driving a horse-drawn cart on our first day in Leon!

On this visit I wanted to pick up a bike to use to help with errands around town to save some time as the long walks can get tedious as well as having a cheap form of transportation to explore the town, make it to meetings without having to pay for a taxi each time. This used bike cost me $40, but the first ride only lasted 1.5 miles with the left pedal arm falling off the bike. I was able to ride back to the “mercado” where I bought the bike pedaling with one leg and they were able to fix it free of charge. Hopefully my next rides will be more successful!

Here is our typical morning routine at the hotel. Analise is sleeping in Abigail’s room, but Analise will wake up with the sunrise (about 6AM) and then make her way across the hall to our room by herself! She’ll knock on the door, we let her in, and she crawls into bed with us. In the process of all this, she will of course wake up Josiah so we’ll put in a movie on our DVD player and then Kristine and I can catch a few more minutes of “half-sleep” while the kids either snooze (Analise) or giggle and watch the movie (Josiah). Our kids are not ones to tire very easily of the same movie, so we just keep Wall-E handy or leave it in the DVD player and they have watched it just about every morning since we have been here!

Here is another picture from our hotel – this is of the “paintings” on the wall which are actually paintings literally painted on the wall and then a frame placed on the spot where the painting has been made on the wall. These are very well done, and this one show Vulcan Concepcion which is a volcano that is well over 5000′ tall forming an island in Lake Nicaragua.

Speaking of volcanoes, this picture is of Vulcan Casitas – the volcano that caused so much misery during Huricane Mitch when the caldera filled with water (70+ inches of rain fell in some parts of Nicaragua) and then part of the caldera wall collapsed causing a massive mudslide that completely erased some villages killing over 2000 people. Much of the work of Nuevas Esperanzas centers around villages on Volcanoes like these. I have edited the photo to remove some of the haze so you can see where the landslide is still visible 10 years after the hurricane hit in 1998. This is not a particularly good angle to see the mudslide because it is partially obscured by a bulge in the mountain. There is a better view from just north of Leon and I am hoping to ride out there and get some good pictures on Tuesday.

The volcano shown here is called Vulcan San Cristobal, and it is the highest volcano in Nicaragua topping out at just under 6000′. It is adjacent to the Casitas volcano and it is quite active. The white “cloud” on top of the volcano is smoke coming from the crater.

Leon is only about 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The one and only road to the beach is currently undergoing “improvements” and has been completely removed so that only the dirt/rock underneath is left. Road reconstruction is in progress and within the next year, the road will be excellent and hopefully increase the amount of tourism at the local beach towns of Poneloya and Las Pilatas. Yesterday afternoon we had some down time so we thought it would be the best time to go to the beach since our upcoming week is going to be pretty packed.

Josiah was so full of energy – running non-stop except to engage in “wave-jumping” with Analise. The undertow here on the Pacific coast is VERY strong and it is very dangerous unless you are a good swimmer. We kept a close eye on the kids but there was one or two times when the undertow grabbed them and the only thing keeping them from sweeping out to sea was my firm grip on Josiah and Abigail’s firm grip on Analise. We didn’t see any other kids go anywhere near the water. There were a few people surfing and a few adults swimming and jumping in the waves – but no kids. The other
thing about the beach here is the large tides. When we arrived, the tide was starting to come in. We put our stuff way back from the edge of the water, but as the tide came in Kristine suddenly realized that our stuff might not be far enough back. I ran over dragging Analise who didn’t want to go and literally as I was standing over our stuff getting ready to bend down to pick it up (it was still dry at this point), a large wave came in and swept everything out from under me. I was furious with Analise because if she had not been fussing and carrying on and stopping and saying she didn’t want to go, then I would have been able to get there and get our stuff. This sorta ruined a perfect afternoon at the beach because now everything was wet and covered in sand. Fortunately though I was able to recover everything and none of it got swept out to sea and our camera amazingly stayed dry.

One of the fun things that we did was climb onto a rock outcropping and look for crabs hanging onto the sides of the rocks as well as investigating all the tidepools on top of the rocks.

Josiah and I look like twins in this picture with our long, curly hair!

Finally, the volcanic ash and smoke in the air makes Nicaraguan sunsets spectacular every day. I managed to catch a picture of the sun setting with a wave splashing into a rock outcropping.

Our Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday plans are up in the air, and they may depend on what is decided during the team meeting tomorrow. We would like to visit La Palmerita and one of these days might be the day for that.

Wednesday – we may be able to go part of the day with Mike and Maria to see one of their projects with Food for the Hungry.

Saturday – in the afternoon, we will take a taxi or “microbus” back to Managua to be ready for our early morning flight back home on Sunday.