The Granada Hipica!!!!!!!!

Today was the Hipica in Granada!! The Hipica is where all the people who owns horses dress up in nice cowboy clothes and dress their horses and ride down the streets of Granada.  It is very cool because you see many different types of horses and people. You will see tall horses, short horses, skinny, fat or just really big. Also rich families in Nicaragua like the Pellos family bring their best horses and dress them in very nice tack.  Also many girls will wear big dresses and put part of the dress over the horse. After all the horses go by people drink and party hard. It can be very crazy and a little bit scary.. I really enjoyed watching all the horses go by.

Grande horse The biggest horse at the Hipica.

A little girl with her dress over the horse!!

Posted by Nielsen Guy

Running in the lluvia aka Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ayer which is yesterday my padre and I went for a run in the late afternoon!! As we started to walk out of the house we looked up and saw that there was a huge dark purple cloud above us!! We started to run down to Lago de Nicaragua which is where we run to!! As we were about 200 yards away from the lake we started to feel drops of rain coming down!! We also noticed lightning and heard thunder!! So we get to the lake and hide under this bridge thing while the rain comes down really hard.  We wait with a bunch of people for the rain to stop.  Under the bridge taxis go by really fast and you think they might hit you.  After about 5 minutes the rain still did not stop. My dad didn't want to run in the rain. Joking!! So we decide to run back in the rain and after about ten minutes it finally stops. Very frio but nice! I really enjoyed running in the rain!

Wow this was a big storm huh

Posted by Nielsen Guy

Painting a Picture*********

Here is my painting. We didn't take any pictures this morning so my brother just held it up and took a picture for the blog!!

Today I painted a picture. I was the only young girl there! I painted a picture with lots of colors.  It has orange, yellow, blue, green, light blue, red, and brown. I also mixed a lot of colors together like orange and yellow, which made a golden yellow. I first put a color on the paper and then I get the paint brush and put it in water and then I swept the paint brush from the left and it turns into white!! I also put a horse in the middle of my painting which is azul. I wanted to do it in purple but the lady said it would look really good as azul. Which is blue in Spanish!

Posted by Andie Guy**

Balance

Balance: When opposing forces harmonize. It sounds so simple—yet we all spend considerable time seeking balance in nearly all aspects of our lives.

In Nicaragua, it has been fascinating watching various displays of balance. Women heading for the Mercado can balance large baskets on their heads and walk down a street in crowded spaces with an ease and gracefulness that is majestic to watch. Families of four all ride on the same standard bicycle and you can see that they all have their sense of both their individual balance and the overall need for collective balance to keep the bicycle upright. Nicaraguans effortlessly take a siesta in a hammock as if they were born in one. People can stand on the chicken buses (old US and Costa Rica school buses) without holding on, while the buses start and stop and weave through traffic. Reading Nicaraguan poet laureate Ruben Dario’s prose has a cantor and a certain balance that you can simply feel from the words.

Thinking toward Yosemite National Park, accomplished climber Dean Potter earlier this year visited the Yosemite El Portal School to spend time with the students in navigating slack lines. The timing coincided with Dean being featured in National Geographic (May 2011), where there are several crazy pictures of him, one acrobatically climbing an inverted wall below Glacier Point without a rope, and the other walking a slack line over the top of Yosemite Falls. I have also watched his films with interest as he walks a slack line across the top of Yosemite Falls or across the void between Yosemite Falls and Broken Arrow. You can see his incredible focus and can almost imagine the feeling of floating in space that he must feel as he keeps himself balanced across these death defying walks.

As I watched Dean explain and show the students balance, I was struck by the elegance of his balance and watching him stand on a one-inch slack line and slowly and gracefully walk down the line. If you have not walked a slack line, try it! It is both challenging and difficult and it takes tremendous practice. For many years climbers in Yosemite and other places, during their down time between climbs or “projects” as they call them, have taken chains and webbing and challenged each other to various tricks, all involving balance. There is a great photo of legendary climber Chuck Pratt in Yosemite in the Sixties acrobatically walking a fence at the top of Nevada Falls--while juggling. I am guessing this balance comes clearly into focus when gripping a granite wall a thousand feet above the ground.

Balance enters our daily lives in various ways. We all balance the checking book; we seek to find the right balance between our professional and personal parts of our day; and all daily activities require physiological balance to avoid injury. The President and Congress are now struggling to address our nation’s debt and seek balance in the federal checkbook. In resources management, water resources managers have a “water balance” and spend their days working to achieve that balance. We have a highly sophisticated and productive capacity to produce food, yet there are many places in the world suffering famine making our world out of balance with respect to basic sustenance. In our National Parks, natural resources managers strive to find the right balance between the landscape and the people that want to enjoy its splendor.  

In thinking about balance in this special place called Nicaragua, it appears there are few excesses that tug at people and seek to take away from their innate equilibrium. We are learning by watching. Largely driven by economics, but also a part of the culture and a function of limited resources, people only consume what is truly necessary for the day, whether it is water, food, electricity or gasoline to drive to the next town. Very different!

Posted by David

Nicaraguans

Families of five with three blond children are a rarity in Nicaragua.  Suffice it to say, we stick out like a sore thumb.  As we travel the streets of Nicaragua we frequently hear "Barbie, Barbie, Barbie" or "Muneca, Muneca, Muneca," which is doll in Spanish.  Nicaraguans are not used to seeing little blond girls with blue eyes that look like "dolls."  One little boy stared at Andie in amazement for several moments and then asked her "Why do you have ojos azules" (blue eyes)? While this initially gave me worry, it now puts a smile on my face thinking that this little boy had probably never seen blue eyes before. Nicaraguans see blond adult backpackers trekking around the Americas, but rarely children. Travelling throughout Nicaragua, we have learned Nicaraguans are the friendliest and most helpful of hosts.

While riding a very crowded public bus last weekend, a young woman got up from her seat and offered it to me so that Andie could sit down on my lap.  We were very close to the open door of the bus and it is very difficult to hold on while travelling at high speeds on the highway and then stopping rapidly.  The woman next to me then offered to have Andie sit on her lap so that Maren could sit on mine.  She was very worried about Maren's safety.  Earlier this week we were offered $200 USD by Oscar, our driver to San Juan Del Sur, to pay for our accommodations.  Unfortunately, the local bank in the small town would not let us wire funds from the U.S. and the travellers checks we brought were no longer accepted in the entire town. (Thank god for ATM's.) David and I were blown away that this man we had met for only 1 1/2 hours would offer us so much money.

On the public bus to Masaya (we are usually the only "gringos" on the buses) the "conductor" made sure we knew how to get to the center of town.  He was very concerned that we were headed in the correct direction. Additionally, on another bus trip, the bus was so crowded David and I could no longer see Nielsen or Maren.  The bus driver stopped the bus for a prolonged period (this is not considered acceptable) so that Nielsen and Maren could exit via the door instead of the window like some other folks.  I was never worried that the bus would take off with them still on board!

My fondest memories of Nicaragua will certainly be its people.  I have made many new friends that have helped me to understand and appreciate this country's customs, culture, language and history.

Posted by Ingelise

Claro o Movistar

Nicaraguans love their cell phones; on the bus, on their bike, on their horse or walking down the street.  Billboards advertising cell phone providers "Claro" and "Movistar" speckle the landscape and in cities the largest edifices are its towers.  Their adverstisments grace baseball stadiums, movie theatres and everywhere people gather. In Granada there are more cell phone recharge sites than there are coffee shops in Seattle. From our balcony we have a wonderful view of the cathedrals and Volcan Mombacho in the distance--only broken by the Claro tower.

Interestingly, Nicaraguans do not have monthly plans as we do, they simply go to stores on every half block and recharge their cell phone with a certain number of minutes. In every barrio and even the smallest pueblos you can recharge your phone.  Movistar seems to win the battle as it frequently provides promotions for doubling your minutes or texting.

It is fascinating that for many Nicaraguans they have never had land lines--so cell technology has brought them into the communications world. It seems Nicaragua has skipped an entire generation of technology and has embraced the era of mobile technology and mp3's that blare North American music through their earbuds.   Even familias pobre (poor) have cell phones.  They may not have water or electricity everyday, but they do have their cell phone.

Posted by Ingelise

Cordobas and Centavos

Last night we played a game where my mom asked questions and we had to answer in Spanish. If we answered the question correctly first, then we received coins that are either Cordobas or Centavos. There are 100 centavos in a Cordoba just like pennies.

The Cordoba was created in 1912 to replace the peso and $1 Cordoba was equal to $1 US dollar. The Cordoba was named after Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba who started Nicaragua. 22 Cordobas is now equal to $1 US dollar. All coins say En Dios Confiamos, which means In God We Trust.

We are going to keep playing the game and I am collecting all my coins.

Posted by Andie

Ocean!

Later today we went down to the beach and went far out to the big waves. We kept diving into them and going in the curl. Andie even figured out how to do it and she loved it. There were some really big waves out there, there were even people fishing out there. Then about a half an hour later my mom came down and went in the big waves with us but she only lasted ten minutes because she got salt water in her eye with her contacts in. We stayed about ten minutes more and then we went into the pool right on the ocean.


Posted By Maren Guy<3

Horse Back Riding!

Today we went horse back riding on the beach and in the mountains. We all had our own horses even Andie except she got tethered along. My horse's name was Katina, she was a big dark brown horse. All the horses ate plants along the way, except mine.   My horse held them in her mouth the whole time and ate them when we were done. Katina also liked to trot a lot and she trotted the most out of all of the horses. At the very end we bought sodas there and drove back in the back of a truck. My butt was really sore at the end.

Posted By Maren Guy<3

Surfing!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we went surfing at Playa Hermosa!! Playa Hermosa is a beach two coves off of San Juan Del Sur near the border betweeen Nicaragua and Costa Rica!! Survivor Nicaragua was in the next cove north. The beach was awesome, but very sunny!! The surf there is medium to small! The waves are very constant and are good for surfing. It is very shallow though, which made it so Andie could surf. That's right Andie is the newest surfer in our family!! Andie rocked at it!! I had a lot of fun surfing too!!  I also boogie boarded and swam!! The water here is so warm!! I could swim in it all day!!

Posted by Nielsen Guy