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| Welcome to Totoco |
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| Meet your new neighbors: Mean Pig and Fat Pig |
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| Stop and smell the flowers |
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| Eat some chilies |
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| And get attacked by GIANT papayas! |
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Finca de Totoco
On a dark mainland highway...
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| You really can stay and leave Hotel California, I did it and so can you. |
My life right now in 21 statements
The days here seem to breeze by at sonic speed. More importantly though I’m no longer certain what seems interesting. Life seems to just fly by. I fed pigs, I watered. I fell asleep. I woke up. I ate. The same things (perhaps minus the pigs) that you did today. All I can offer I suppose are some of my observations or interesting conversations. Thus here is what I have to say:
1. Piglets drinking water out of the puddles on the street is somehow intensely adorable. Probably because they are piglets. The bigger they get the less adorable and the more annoying.
2. I’m really starting to resent the pigs here. They require a ridiculous amount of work to keep up. You have to feed them three times a day, the food has to be cooked down because they are “picky”. This cooking bit involves lighting a fire. And it gets difficult to do with limited resources.
3. To further add to my pig rant, the little mean one likes to chew at things on my person. He untied my shoe. He’s nipped at my pants too. And he is a bully about food in general, as proven by the yelps of the big pig.
4. Yelling at the pigs is strangely cathartic. It’s as close to kickboxing level release since I left my hometown. While it is no where near kickboxing levels, it is just enough to make me smile.
5. Watching a four-year old play with an inflatable ball while his father and older sister try to put the electricity back on is definitely better than the television they had on previously. It is especially adorable when this four-year old doesn’t speak proper Spanish. So you can really only catch about one in every twenty words...
6. Spending time in the house of your farm manager is probably one of the most rewarding moments. You may be surrounded by bags of rice, but you will never feel closer to the locals than that moment. 7. You will also never see a closer glimpse into how they really live. It is both eye-opening and completely humbling.
8. Fourteen year olds should not gyrate. Ever. Not for a dance with their friends. Not for their nations Independence Day. Just. Don’t. Do. It. Thanks.
9. Being woken up on a Sunday at 8:18 am for an emergency green harvest is both hilarious and mind-boggling. Mostly because I just want to crawl back into bed.
10. There is nothing than being given permission from your colleague that you can go back to sleep on a Sunday and not do the morning chores.
11. The slight fly into the ointment of sleeping in on a Sunday until 11:00 am is that when you are half-naked changing into your dirty clothes your farm manager walks by. And looks up. Seeing you have nude. Apparently he just had to pop by after eating lunch with his wife.
12. While walking back from town Dukie was finally seen by the locals attacking their chicken. This resulted in the lady coming up to Totoco and asking for Martijn to pay for the chicken.
13. This same chicken was then killed to put it out of its misery. Something I never thought I would see as a vegan. However there you have it. I have seen a chicken be beheaded, in real life.
14. Realizing that there is a world of difference in watching a chicken be killed on the same wooden stump we use to chop wood than a typical factory farm.
15. Being grateful I am a human and not a chicken in Nicaragua
16. Talking to a local expat about the difficulties of living in Balgue. This ranged from weather, changes in the season, limitation of resources, and never really integrating into the community.
17. Getting emails from friends and family are completely wonderful. They are guaranteed to brighten your day. Especially when they are from your best friend and your Grandpa.
18. Finding a dead gecko in a grease trap is not pleasant
19. Cold showers are made so much better when you curse like a sailor.
20. Balgue may not have a lot of splendor or fine architecture, it will never be similar to Granada or Antigua, but there is a beauty in the simple concrete stone structures and the dirt roads. Or perhaps it is just the beauty of being somewhere with kind hearted people.
21. Realizing that a better name for this blog would have been “the walking cliche of a gringa traveler”
22. I have decided to stay in Balgue for one more month. This year I’m spending Christmas here in Balgue, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua.
1. Piglets drinking water out of the puddles on the street is somehow intensely adorable. Probably because they are piglets. The bigger they get the less adorable and the more annoying.
2. I’m really starting to resent the pigs here. They require a ridiculous amount of work to keep up. You have to feed them three times a day, the food has to be cooked down because they are “picky”. This cooking bit involves lighting a fire. And it gets difficult to do with limited resources.
3. To further add to my pig rant, the little mean one likes to chew at things on my person. He untied my shoe. He’s nipped at my pants too. And he is a bully about food in general, as proven by the yelps of the big pig.
4. Yelling at the pigs is strangely cathartic. It’s as close to kickboxing level release since I left my hometown. While it is no where near kickboxing levels, it is just enough to make me smile.
5. Watching a four-year old play with an inflatable ball while his father and older sister try to put the electricity back on is definitely better than the television they had on previously. It is especially adorable when this four-year old doesn’t speak proper Spanish. So you can really only catch about one in every twenty words...
6. Spending time in the house of your farm manager is probably one of the most rewarding moments. You may be surrounded by bags of rice, but you will never feel closer to the locals than that moment. 7. You will also never see a closer glimpse into how they really live. It is both eye-opening and completely humbling.
8. Fourteen year olds should not gyrate. Ever. Not for a dance with their friends. Not for their nations Independence Day. Just. Don’t. Do. It. Thanks.
9. Being woken up on a Sunday at 8:18 am for an emergency green harvest is both hilarious and mind-boggling. Mostly because I just want to crawl back into bed.
10. There is nothing than being given permission from your colleague that you can go back to sleep on a Sunday and not do the morning chores.
11. The slight fly into the ointment of sleeping in on a Sunday until 11:00 am is that when you are half-naked changing into your dirty clothes your farm manager walks by. And looks up. Seeing you have nude. Apparently he just had to pop by after eating lunch with his wife.
12. While walking back from town Dukie was finally seen by the locals attacking their chicken. This resulted in the lady coming up to Totoco and asking for Martijn to pay for the chicken.
13. This same chicken was then killed to put it out of its misery. Something I never thought I would see as a vegan. However there you have it. I have seen a chicken be beheaded, in real life.
14. Realizing that there is a world of difference in watching a chicken be killed on the same wooden stump we use to chop wood than a typical factory farm.
15. Being grateful I am a human and not a chicken in Nicaragua
16. Talking to a local expat about the difficulties of living in Balgue. This ranged from weather, changes in the season, limitation of resources, and never really integrating into the community.
17. Getting emails from friends and family are completely wonderful. They are guaranteed to brighten your day. Especially when they are from your best friend and your Grandpa.
18. Finding a dead gecko in a grease trap is not pleasant
19. Cold showers are made so much better when you curse like a sailor.
20. Balgue may not have a lot of splendor or fine architecture, it will never be similar to Granada or Antigua, but there is a beauty in the simple concrete stone structures and the dirt roads. Or perhaps it is just the beauty of being somewhere with kind hearted people.
21. Realizing that a better name for this blog would have been “the walking cliche of a gringa traveler”
22. I have decided to stay in Balgue for one more month. This year I’m spending Christmas here in Balgue, Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua.
Super hombre
Same routine this morning with a new twist. Today we are making another new bed, this time for the chile seedlings. However this involves literally making a entirely new bed rather than just changing over the dirt as before. Pablo had already started on it, but we were able to help out with somethings. The greatest part is that Pablo rarely really explains what’s happening. He sort of just walks over and says “vamos” and then wanders off toward the back of the property with a chainsaw in hand. Now although this may sound terrifying, mostly it is just how Pablo is. The sweet, funny, hard-working guy who cares about this farm.
As we walked to the back of the property Pablo cuts these two massive trees into sections and asks us to carry them down to create a temporary retainer for the dirt that needs to vacate the new bed we’re making. However it is rather difficult to walk down a hill with no path and you cannot see the floor. So Pablo decided to upstage us entirely by essentially hauling down four of the five logs on his shoulders while we looked on in awe. Some of these had to have weighed over 70 pounds and he makes it look as if it’s nothing as he walks back down the rough path toward the new bed. So his new nickname is Superman.
That afternoon we just sort of chilled out in our kitchen while Pablo continued working. I ended up sitting in the hammock and Donald, the resident cat, opted to join in on the fun. He sat on me for about 30 minutes. One thing I probably failed to mention about Donald is his tendency to drool instead of purr. Purring is adorable, drooling is not. I can assure you being covered in cat hair and gecko drool is not my favourite thing. You see earlier that day Donald caught a gecko and I probably don’t even want to contemplate what else he had eaten today that is now residing on my t-shirt.
However close to the time he should be done work he was still peeling green plantains for the pigs. I offered to help. While I continued peeling he got the kitchen scraps cooking by lighting the fire. This time he didn’t use gasoline, instead he used some random unknown liquid from our kitchen. I suspect it was oil of some kind. Somehow we got talking about our plans for the weekend and Pablo invited Sara and I to join him for Saturday evening at his house. It’ll be nice to have a proper conversation with his wife.
Pablo also opted to teach us some seemingly innocent words that were considered inappropriate here in Nicaragua. Two examples were bicho, which can mean insect or a very nasty word for women, and chucho which apparently refers to people having sex. However in Guatemala the significance is a slang for a dog. Glad to have all that cleared up though.
This afternoon once Pablo left, Sara headed into town. I had the farm to myself which was rather nice. I was able to have a cold shower which somehow managed to make me feel human again. I was just feeling like a dirt, drool, and hair collector and I was delighted to have a shower to wash off the day. Plus there is just something so magical about this farm and the view from the shower. Being able to see Lago Nicaragua and the banana trees while you shower is just such an exquisite thing. I was completely happy for this time to appreciate this farm by myself.
I then made my way up to the Lodge to enjoy the use of the Internet when the rain started falling. Martijn said this morning that the rain was likely over and I suppose Mother Nature wanted to show him how wrong he could be. I decided that I could use some more fresh squeezed juice and I just sat and enjoyed it. I also talked to the Canadian family I met yesterday about the type of work they did (turned out to be shoe distribution) as well as the man’s new project regarding new technologies in wind power. It was good to see someone so inspired by this new technology. I hope for him and our sakes that it is as awesome as it sounds like it could be.
Hunger finally overtook me and I decided to head back to the volunteer area. Sara had already started cooking rice and we ended up having curried rice with lentils for dinner while we listened to Nina Simone. I had a pang of missing my Dad, for he is the one who introduced me to Nina Simone, but all in all it was an entirely blissful evening. That was until Donald decided to play with my leg and bit me.
A few days ago he treated Sara in the same way and now it was my turn. I felt particularly stung after I had endured the cat drool and hair all over my person earlier that afternoon. Additionally Donald had decided to leave us a further gift, cat poop with a partially digested gecko. As you can probably imagine, we really were less than impressed with his attitudes toward our house and our bodies. Now there is a significant love-hate relationship developing.
On the other hand, I am pretty much madly in love with the dog here--Dukie. I perhaps cannot properly explain it in so many words, but he is quickly becoming my favourite thing here. Every time you say his name he wags his tail and is plainly excited that you are acknowledging his existence. Additionally I love walking with him into town and up to the lodge, he loyally follows and joyfully walks with you. Pretty much melts my heart.
Pablo’s wife worked this evening and he surprised both of us when he seemed to magically appear out of the darkness. In fairness we were also blasting some of my rock music at a loud decibel. Wearing a jacket (which I felt was totally unnecessary in the heat) he joined us for a moment in our kitchen, this time sharing with us some good words in Spanish. He said in particular that it was common in the countryside it is rare for people to greet each other with “hola”. Apparently “hola, hola” is fine, as is “buenos dias”. Apparently we have been doing it all wrong this time, greeting people with holas and regular buenas dias. Useful information when we walk through town.
I capped off the night by listening to my music while writing down some Spanish vocabulary.
As we walked to the back of the property Pablo cuts these two massive trees into sections and asks us to carry them down to create a temporary retainer for the dirt that needs to vacate the new bed we’re making. However it is rather difficult to walk down a hill with no path and you cannot see the floor. So Pablo decided to upstage us entirely by essentially hauling down four of the five logs on his shoulders while we looked on in awe. Some of these had to have weighed over 70 pounds and he makes it look as if it’s nothing as he walks back down the rough path toward the new bed. So his new nickname is Superman.
That afternoon we just sort of chilled out in our kitchen while Pablo continued working. I ended up sitting in the hammock and Donald, the resident cat, opted to join in on the fun. He sat on me for about 30 minutes. One thing I probably failed to mention about Donald is his tendency to drool instead of purr. Purring is adorable, drooling is not. I can assure you being covered in cat hair and gecko drool is not my favourite thing. You see earlier that day Donald caught a gecko and I probably don’t even want to contemplate what else he had eaten today that is now residing on my t-shirt.
However close to the time he should be done work he was still peeling green plantains for the pigs. I offered to help. While I continued peeling he got the kitchen scraps cooking by lighting the fire. This time he didn’t use gasoline, instead he used some random unknown liquid from our kitchen. I suspect it was oil of some kind. Somehow we got talking about our plans for the weekend and Pablo invited Sara and I to join him for Saturday evening at his house. It’ll be nice to have a proper conversation with his wife.
Pablo also opted to teach us some seemingly innocent words that were considered inappropriate here in Nicaragua. Two examples were bicho, which can mean insect or a very nasty word for women, and chucho which apparently refers to people having sex. However in Guatemala the significance is a slang for a dog. Glad to have all that cleared up though.
This afternoon once Pablo left, Sara headed into town. I had the farm to myself which was rather nice. I was able to have a cold shower which somehow managed to make me feel human again. I was just feeling like a dirt, drool, and hair collector and I was delighted to have a shower to wash off the day. Plus there is just something so magical about this farm and the view from the shower. Being able to see Lago Nicaragua and the banana trees while you shower is just such an exquisite thing. I was completely happy for this time to appreciate this farm by myself.
I then made my way up to the Lodge to enjoy the use of the Internet when the rain started falling. Martijn said this morning that the rain was likely over and I suppose Mother Nature wanted to show him how wrong he could be. I decided that I could use some more fresh squeezed juice and I just sat and enjoyed it. I also talked to the Canadian family I met yesterday about the type of work they did (turned out to be shoe distribution) as well as the man’s new project regarding new technologies in wind power. It was good to see someone so inspired by this new technology. I hope for him and our sakes that it is as awesome as it sounds like it could be.
Hunger finally overtook me and I decided to head back to the volunteer area. Sara had already started cooking rice and we ended up having curried rice with lentils for dinner while we listened to Nina Simone. I had a pang of missing my Dad, for he is the one who introduced me to Nina Simone, but all in all it was an entirely blissful evening. That was until Donald decided to play with my leg and bit me.
A few days ago he treated Sara in the same way and now it was my turn. I felt particularly stung after I had endured the cat drool and hair all over my person earlier that afternoon. Additionally Donald had decided to leave us a further gift, cat poop with a partially digested gecko. As you can probably imagine, we really were less than impressed with his attitudes toward our house and our bodies. Now there is a significant love-hate relationship developing.
On the other hand, I am pretty much madly in love with the dog here--Dukie. I perhaps cannot properly explain it in so many words, but he is quickly becoming my favourite thing here. Every time you say his name he wags his tail and is plainly excited that you are acknowledging his existence. Additionally I love walking with him into town and up to the lodge, he loyally follows and joyfully walks with you. Pretty much melts my heart.
Pablo’s wife worked this evening and he surprised both of us when he seemed to magically appear out of the darkness. In fairness we were also blasting some of my rock music at a loud decibel. Wearing a jacket (which I felt was totally unnecessary in the heat) he joined us for a moment in our kitchen, this time sharing with us some good words in Spanish. He said in particular that it was common in the countryside it is rare for people to greet each other with “hola”. Apparently “hola, hola” is fine, as is “buenos dias”. Apparently we have been doing it all wrong this time, greeting people with holas and regular buenas dias. Useful information when we walk through town.
I capped off the night by listening to my music while writing down some Spanish vocabulary.
Saying thanks with pizza
To my American readers and family, I want to wish you a Happy American Thanksgiving! I hope you eat pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes until you are content with life. Because I have an American in my midst today we did our best to celebrate Thanksgiving. This included trying to make banana pancakes in our humble abode for breakfast, or rather Sara made them. I just enjoyed them. They were a good way to start the morning.
Another way to start the morning was learning a bit more about how this farm runs during the dry season. In particular one of the new tasks will be to water the plants. This task isn’t particularly a pain, considering most of the garden operates on a drip tape system. However it’s the parts not attached to this which are finicky, especially with warrior ants wandering around.
For reasons unknownst to me, the combination of what feels like lack of sleep, random food, and work made me incredibly tired. Once Pablo told us we were done, I could not help but crawl into the hammock and pray to the sleep gods to bless me. And off into a two hour sleep I fell. Although it wasn’t a solid two hours, it was just enough that we missed Tobias, the ice man, come around. Tobias was so concerned about us that I could hear him gingerly walk around the kitchen in order to avoid waking us up.
When I did finally haul myself out of the hammock Pablo and I shared a look and we both burst out laughing. I think we both knew how ridiculously tired I was and the sight of me bleary eyed finally waking up while he toiled away this afternoon was somehow intensely amusing. To celebrate my general laziness and two hour nap, I ended up heading to the pool to cool off and clean off. Today however we were blessed with a near perfect view of Volcan Concepcion. The clouds had cleared and you could see the top and we had fantastic vistas of the surrounding Lago Nicaragua as well. We stayed up there until sunset fell and that sunset was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed the sunset with some guests from the Hotel who were from Toronto.
To finish off the Thanksgiving festivities we opted to head to Finca Zepilote for pizza. Last night Francisco, a local guide, had opted to take us and we decided not to use his services to find our way. However when we arrived we found him sitting at reception! I felt terrible when he mentioned he came to Totoco for us and then headed to Zepilote to wait for us there. However I really wasn’t in the mood to be surrounded by people and I found myself having many moments of quiet contemplation rather than partaking in the conversations around me.
In part my lack of sociality this evening was due to my tiredness but it was also due in part by my need to go out and explore alone. Sometimes the problem with being around someone 24/7 is that you end up doing everything together. And that wasn’t what I set out for on this trip. I wanted to enjoy meeting new people without feeling like I was bound to sit next to a certain person or talk to those I came with. Tonight I didn’t want to talk to the people I see all the time at Totoco. Tonight I wanted to talk to people with some privacy. A conversation between me and them and was not influenced by additional parties.
In the end I did get my wish in part, I ended up reuniting with two women I had met my first trip to Zepilote, Tani and Acha. Tani even had a dream about me where apparently on her way back to Australia there were a group of people who wanted to parachute out of the plane to get home. I apparently was one of the people in that group who opted to jump out of the plane (which is probably true). We also talked about San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, a place both of us had spent some time in.
However the best part of Thanksgiving for me was talking to Acha. While we probably differ on certain aspects of how to live, I will say that I was really inspired by her belief to live out your emotions. If you are angry then be angry, if you are happy be happy, even if it means you go from one to the next perhaps at a scary pace. I suppose it demonstrates more than anything the power of living in the moment and not hiding your displeasure or anger. How many times do we wish we had spoken up or said something? I know it happens to me often and typically it happens with the most important topics. I keep promising myself that perhaps one day I’ll be bold enough to really just say what is on my mind in the moment. And one day I will. It is merely a question of when and following through.
I was really grateful for that conversation with Acha. While perhaps we had led very different lives to reach this point, I think we both had a lot to learn from each other and at the end of the night it made all of it somehow seem worth it.
Another way to start the morning was learning a bit more about how this farm runs during the dry season. In particular one of the new tasks will be to water the plants. This task isn’t particularly a pain, considering most of the garden operates on a drip tape system. However it’s the parts not attached to this which are finicky, especially with warrior ants wandering around.
For reasons unknownst to me, the combination of what feels like lack of sleep, random food, and work made me incredibly tired. Once Pablo told us we were done, I could not help but crawl into the hammock and pray to the sleep gods to bless me. And off into a two hour sleep I fell. Although it wasn’t a solid two hours, it was just enough that we missed Tobias, the ice man, come around. Tobias was so concerned about us that I could hear him gingerly walk around the kitchen in order to avoid waking us up.
When I did finally haul myself out of the hammock Pablo and I shared a look and we both burst out laughing. I think we both knew how ridiculously tired I was and the sight of me bleary eyed finally waking up while he toiled away this afternoon was somehow intensely amusing. To celebrate my general laziness and two hour nap, I ended up heading to the pool to cool off and clean off. Today however we were blessed with a near perfect view of Volcan Concepcion. The clouds had cleared and you could see the top and we had fantastic vistas of the surrounding Lago Nicaragua as well. We stayed up there until sunset fell and that sunset was absolutely beautiful. We enjoyed the sunset with some guests from the Hotel who were from Toronto.
To finish off the Thanksgiving festivities we opted to head to Finca Zepilote for pizza. Last night Francisco, a local guide, had opted to take us and we decided not to use his services to find our way. However when we arrived we found him sitting at reception! I felt terrible when he mentioned he came to Totoco for us and then headed to Zepilote to wait for us there. However I really wasn’t in the mood to be surrounded by people and I found myself having many moments of quiet contemplation rather than partaking in the conversations around me.
In part my lack of sociality this evening was due to my tiredness but it was also due in part by my need to go out and explore alone. Sometimes the problem with being around someone 24/7 is that you end up doing everything together. And that wasn’t what I set out for on this trip. I wanted to enjoy meeting new people without feeling like I was bound to sit next to a certain person or talk to those I came with. Tonight I didn’t want to talk to the people I see all the time at Totoco. Tonight I wanted to talk to people with some privacy. A conversation between me and them and was not influenced by additional parties.
In the end I did get my wish in part, I ended up reuniting with two women I had met my first trip to Zepilote, Tani and Acha. Tani even had a dream about me where apparently on her way back to Australia there were a group of people who wanted to parachute out of the plane to get home. I apparently was one of the people in that group who opted to jump out of the plane (which is probably true). We also talked about San Marcos La Laguna, Guatemala, a place both of us had spent some time in.
However the best part of Thanksgiving for me was talking to Acha. While we probably differ on certain aspects of how to live, I will say that I was really inspired by her belief to live out your emotions. If you are angry then be angry, if you are happy be happy, even if it means you go from one to the next perhaps at a scary pace. I suppose it demonstrates more than anything the power of living in the moment and not hiding your displeasure or anger. How many times do we wish we had spoken up or said something? I know it happens to me often and typically it happens with the most important topics. I keep promising myself that perhaps one day I’ll be bold enough to really just say what is on my mind in the moment. And one day I will. It is merely a question of when and following through.
I was really grateful for that conversation with Acha. While perhaps we had led very different lives to reach this point, I think we both had a lot to learn from each other and at the end of the night it made all of it somehow seem worth it.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Salud, amor, y dinero
No real crazy things happening other than the fact that I continue to eat like I have never seen food before in my life and I am really tired. I go to bed tired and I wake up tired.
Yesterday we worked in the morning (nothing wild to report) and in the afternoon we returned to Finca Zepilote for more nutella. I need to start making this stuff. To my intense disappointment they were out! So I settled for a chocolate and banana muffin, two loaves of bread, peanut butter, and tahini. Dukie once again joined us on this excursion and thankfully no chickens were harmed in the purchase of these goods.
That evening to celebrate our general awesomeness Sara and I ventured into town to the British expat’s restaurant for some delicious food. I had a potato, chickpea curry--with real chickpeas!!! For someone who profoundly loves chickpeas, I was delighted to have the real deal. Additionally the restaurant had a sweet mural and a really lovely vibe. When the power went out (a common occurrence here) we ate by candlelight. The Nico taxi driver chatted with us a bit before taking the Norwegian family back to Mayogalpa for the evening. They all seemed to tolerate Dukie’s mooching for food and chasing away other dogs.
Today we finally finished changing over the new bed, it only took us three days to do. It took a surprisingly long time to get all the old dirt out, new compost in, and just generally get everything done. It didn’t help that the compost pile we were using happened to be above the volunteer area and heated our shower water. We now have cold showers and a lot more work than was expected. We had to carefully break apart the compost pile so as not to destroy the coiled tubes. Then we had to cart the wheelbarrow an additional 50 feet downhill...However I now have a healthy appreciation for the work that Pablo does here.
One thing that you will hear frequently here is when someone sneezes here you first say “salud!” If that person sneezes again you say amor (love) and then dinero (money) if they grace you with more bacteria. In Guatemala the order is salud, dinero, amor. When I told him about that he said things like “life is nothing without love” or “you can buy a lot of things but it is nothing without love”. This man speaks the truth.
This afternoon I finally came to check out the pool up at the lodge. I swear to the heavens above, it was the most glorious thing since sliced bread. After moving what felt like thousands of pounds of dirt, it was amazing to slip into the slightly cool water and just bask a bit. Plus the clouds had cleared on Volcan Concepcion and I was able to see the top! Absolutely breathtaking view from the pool of the other volcano and basically had another “I’m in a pool, in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua staring at a volcano. How lucky am I?” moment. All I can say is that view today alone made all the bugs, spiders, sweat, blood and tears worth it.
Yesterday we worked in the morning (nothing wild to report) and in the afternoon we returned to Finca Zepilote for more nutella. I need to start making this stuff. To my intense disappointment they were out! So I settled for a chocolate and banana muffin, two loaves of bread, peanut butter, and tahini. Dukie once again joined us on this excursion and thankfully no chickens were harmed in the purchase of these goods.
That evening to celebrate our general awesomeness Sara and I ventured into town to the British expat’s restaurant for some delicious food. I had a potato, chickpea curry--with real chickpeas!!! For someone who profoundly loves chickpeas, I was delighted to have the real deal. Additionally the restaurant had a sweet mural and a really lovely vibe. When the power went out (a common occurrence here) we ate by candlelight. The Nico taxi driver chatted with us a bit before taking the Norwegian family back to Mayogalpa for the evening. They all seemed to tolerate Dukie’s mooching for food and chasing away other dogs.
Today we finally finished changing over the new bed, it only took us three days to do. It took a surprisingly long time to get all the old dirt out, new compost in, and just generally get everything done. It didn’t help that the compost pile we were using happened to be above the volunteer area and heated our shower water. We now have cold showers and a lot more work than was expected. We had to carefully break apart the compost pile so as not to destroy the coiled tubes. Then we had to cart the wheelbarrow an additional 50 feet downhill...However I now have a healthy appreciation for the work that Pablo does here.
One thing that you will hear frequently here is when someone sneezes here you first say “salud!” If that person sneezes again you say amor (love) and then dinero (money) if they grace you with more bacteria. In Guatemala the order is salud, dinero, amor. When I told him about that he said things like “life is nothing without love” or “you can buy a lot of things but it is nothing without love”. This man speaks the truth.
This afternoon I finally came to check out the pool up at the lodge. I swear to the heavens above, it was the most glorious thing since sliced bread. After moving what felt like thousands of pounds of dirt, it was amazing to slip into the slightly cool water and just bask a bit. Plus the clouds had cleared on Volcan Concepcion and I was able to see the top! Absolutely breathtaking view from the pool of the other volcano and basically had another “I’m in a pool, in Isla de Ometepe, Nicaragua staring at a volcano. How lucky am I?” moment. All I can say is that view today alone made all the bugs, spiders, sweat, blood and tears worth it.
Monday, 21 November 2011
Fun times to be had WWOOFing
I am sitting and writing this in what can only be described as a torrential downpour this afternoon. So it clearly is the perfect time for reflection of my morning tasks, which included harvesting and feeding the pigs as per usual. The fun tasks today involved walking all of the produce up to the lodge. This time I went with Pablo and he showed me a sneaky back way to get not only to the Lodge’s pool and kitchen without walking through the reception. Mostly I just enjoy talking about random things with Pablo, like where I had travelled and my plans for once I leave here.
I also really enjoy watching Pablo interact with the kitchen staff, which includes his wife. Watching him shoot the breeze in rapid fire Spanish and being so light-hearted with them just made me so happy. Plus we got fresh squeezed juice as a treat for bringing up the produce. So really how bad can life be?
On the way back down we harvested more natural string for the recently planted vainicas (similar to green beans) and pre-existing kalala (passionfruit) plants. This involves wandering slightly off the road and pulling these vines off of the forest floor. This time however Pablo was without his machete and I without my knife. We made do with his one knife/sharpener and I with my bare hands. While we worked, Pablo told me that I should stay in Nicaragua forever. I told him about how my Grandma told me not to fall in love with a local in Central America and he laughed. He just said I didn’t need to love someone here, just the place.
The best part however was when I tried teaching him how to say the names of my family members. The best two were Bob and Irene. Apparently these names, for slightly obvious reasons, are not common here. Just watching him attempt to comprehend these alien sounding names and then give up on even attempting to pronounce them was just priceless. Bob he could almost muster, but Irene he just couldn’t wrap his Nicaraguan mind around. He asked me if I would spell them later, which I did and I could see the comprehension dawn. Pablo is fast becoming one of my favourite people here.
Pablo also finally showed us how to make the bug deterrent here. They call it “pesticide” however in no way does it equal its “conventional” counterparts. Today while we harvested limes Pablo cut down the adjacent tree branch saying “neem”. Neem leaf oil is the main ingredient in our pesticide. We also chopped up three onions, three heads of garlic and 30 small chilies (which we grow on site) to be included in the mix. All of these ingredients ferment and there you have it. An all natural method of ensuring the health of the plants and beneficial animals while slowly reduce the insect population.
Pablo set Sara up with a large bucket half filled with water and a rock inside. I had no idea why this was all set up, however I soon found out that this was how we collected the neem leaf oil. You rub the leaves against the rock and collect the oil in the water. How ingenious! I helped out a little bit but I was distracted when we let out the pigs to eat some of the overgrown weeds around the property.
In fairness they were fairly harmless, but I followed them anyway to make sure they didn’t destroy our garden beds or kalala plants. They would frolic around in the weed beds and eat the greens they found. Occasionally they would dig their noses into the earth and rummage around for non-existent tubers as well. You could tell they were enjoying themselves immensely. That was until Dukie decided to come and ensure my safety, or more likely entertain me. He would run at the pigs when they got too close.
Part of this may be because I yelled at the pigs yesterday. I was mostly curious what they would do if I yelled as loud and hard as I could. Dukie then came running to ensure we were ok. Indeed no harm had fallen upon us, except for the arduous task of feeding the pigs while they attempted to knock you off your feet. However the most impressive moment was when Pablo returned the pigs to their pen. While the pigs were happily grazing, I had snuck into their pen to grab their feeding tubs. I had cleaned them out and was about to fill them when Pablo came by, grabbed one of them and walked off. He just started wandering back to the pen and those darn pigs just followed him right back in. As soon as they were fully inside the pen, Pablo just walked right back out. Tub in hand.
One regularly occurring event every day is when Pablo lights the fire to cook down the pig grub for the next day. He usually managed to construct these monstrous fires which seem to burn all night. Due to our failure to create such an impressive flame as Pablo, I asked him if I could watch how he did it. Other than using about three times as much wood, not much else was different. Except today I suppose Pablo was feeling cheeky. Pablo is supposed to light the fire with paper, but today he opted to use gasoline wearing a grin normally seen on mischievous children.
After he had constructed the piles of wood he tipped the red coloured gasoline onto the wood and prepared a stick to ignite the piles. The whoosh of ignition was both impressive and absolutely ridiculous Pablo and I started cackling like little kids while I told him “estas tramposo ahora”--essentially that he was being a trickster. Which only made his mischievous grin grow wider.
In less exciting news, I also got new pants to be worn as my “clean” pants. If you have ever visited Balgue and their brick building lined streets and mud road, you might understand why this was such an achievement. Especially ones that fit! However success was had and I had a companion, Dukie joined me on my pant excursion. He is fast turning into a very faithful companion here. He likes to sleep in the same room as me, will accompany me on my journeys whether for pants or peanut butter, and he has the cutest reaction to his name.
All in all I feel this was a successful day. Tonight we celebrate our continued awesomeness with a movie and popcorn.
I also really enjoy watching Pablo interact with the kitchen staff, which includes his wife. Watching him shoot the breeze in rapid fire Spanish and being so light-hearted with them just made me so happy. Plus we got fresh squeezed juice as a treat for bringing up the produce. So really how bad can life be?
On the way back down we harvested more natural string for the recently planted vainicas (similar to green beans) and pre-existing kalala (passionfruit) plants. This involves wandering slightly off the road and pulling these vines off of the forest floor. This time however Pablo was without his machete and I without my knife. We made do with his one knife/sharpener and I with my bare hands. While we worked, Pablo told me that I should stay in Nicaragua forever. I told him about how my Grandma told me not to fall in love with a local in Central America and he laughed. He just said I didn’t need to love someone here, just the place.
The best part however was when I tried teaching him how to say the names of my family members. The best two were Bob and Irene. Apparently these names, for slightly obvious reasons, are not common here. Just watching him attempt to comprehend these alien sounding names and then give up on even attempting to pronounce them was just priceless. Bob he could almost muster, but Irene he just couldn’t wrap his Nicaraguan mind around. He asked me if I would spell them later, which I did and I could see the comprehension dawn. Pablo is fast becoming one of my favourite people here.
Pablo also finally showed us how to make the bug deterrent here. They call it “pesticide” however in no way does it equal its “conventional” counterparts. Today while we harvested limes Pablo cut down the adjacent tree branch saying “neem”. Neem leaf oil is the main ingredient in our pesticide. We also chopped up three onions, three heads of garlic and 30 small chilies (which we grow on site) to be included in the mix. All of these ingredients ferment and there you have it. An all natural method of ensuring the health of the plants and beneficial animals while slowly reduce the insect population.
Pablo set Sara up with a large bucket half filled with water and a rock inside. I had no idea why this was all set up, however I soon found out that this was how we collected the neem leaf oil. You rub the leaves against the rock and collect the oil in the water. How ingenious! I helped out a little bit but I was distracted when we let out the pigs to eat some of the overgrown weeds around the property.
In fairness they were fairly harmless, but I followed them anyway to make sure they didn’t destroy our garden beds or kalala plants. They would frolic around in the weed beds and eat the greens they found. Occasionally they would dig their noses into the earth and rummage around for non-existent tubers as well. You could tell they were enjoying themselves immensely. That was until Dukie decided to come and ensure my safety, or more likely entertain me. He would run at the pigs when they got too close.
Part of this may be because I yelled at the pigs yesterday. I was mostly curious what they would do if I yelled as loud and hard as I could. Dukie then came running to ensure we were ok. Indeed no harm had fallen upon us, except for the arduous task of feeding the pigs while they attempted to knock you off your feet. However the most impressive moment was when Pablo returned the pigs to their pen. While the pigs were happily grazing, I had snuck into their pen to grab their feeding tubs. I had cleaned them out and was about to fill them when Pablo came by, grabbed one of them and walked off. He just started wandering back to the pen and those darn pigs just followed him right back in. As soon as they were fully inside the pen, Pablo just walked right back out. Tub in hand.
One regularly occurring event every day is when Pablo lights the fire to cook down the pig grub for the next day. He usually managed to construct these monstrous fires which seem to burn all night. Due to our failure to create such an impressive flame as Pablo, I asked him if I could watch how he did it. Other than using about three times as much wood, not much else was different. Except today I suppose Pablo was feeling cheeky. Pablo is supposed to light the fire with paper, but today he opted to use gasoline wearing a grin normally seen on mischievous children.
After he had constructed the piles of wood he tipped the red coloured gasoline onto the wood and prepared a stick to ignite the piles. The whoosh of ignition was both impressive and absolutely ridiculous Pablo and I started cackling like little kids while I told him “estas tramposo ahora”--essentially that he was being a trickster. Which only made his mischievous grin grow wider.
In less exciting news, I also got new pants to be worn as my “clean” pants. If you have ever visited Balgue and their brick building lined streets and mud road, you might understand why this was such an achievement. Especially ones that fit! However success was had and I had a companion, Dukie joined me on my pant excursion. He is fast turning into a very faithful companion here. He likes to sleep in the same room as me, will accompany me on my journeys whether for pants or peanut butter, and he has the cutest reaction to his name.
All in all I feel this was a successful day. Tonight we celebrate our continued awesomeness with a movie and popcorn.
The quest for mantequilla de mani
Today I slept in and Sara got started on feeding the pigs. Which is fine by me, as it is basically my least favourite thing to do. The pigs however have now a fear of me because I use the tactic of fear mongering. Apparently it’s all in the noises you make. The “shh shh” noise is critical. And holding a stick just in case to brandish is also important.
The real surprise today came with the arrival of two people while I was in the shower. In my haste to get ready I failed to check my pants for insects and subsequently thanks to the unwelcome addition of one warrior ant, I now have two significant ant bites. When I arrived in our kitchen I realized it was one of the Canadian girls I had traveled with from San Pedro Sula on route to Managua. She had made it to the Island and was looking for a farm to WWOOF at for the next week. We talked about some of the other farms, including Finca Zepilote which was recommended to me by another traveler on that same bus. She ended up heading there and informed me of the products they make there. Including bread, humus, their version of nutella, and peanut butter. I was sold. So Sara and I, equipped with a map that Martijn drew and Dukie (the resident dog), we headed to Zepilote. The path was something like
“cross the first fence, walk directly across, walk alongside the fence, walk through the plantain field, walk past a cemetery, head through what appears to be someone’s backyard”, and pass another plantain field and end up at Zepilote”.
Dukie managed to lead us most of the way there with an inspiring confidence. That was until he decided the best thing to do was to chase the chickens who hid in the plantain fields. Subsequently we lost our way, back tracked and finally made it to Zepilote. A 30 minute trek took us one hour. Awesome. But frankly it was totally worth it. Not only was Zepilote a really fascinating place, when we arrived we climbed up the mirador to see the views of Lago Nicaragua. Then we meandered through the property, before finally making our way to reception, which we were told was were the delicacy of peanut butter was.
When we arrived at this impossibly small building, inside we managed to find the following: liqueurs of many different flavours, muffins, oils, granola, shampoo, cookies, peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut spread (aka nutella), mead, juices, organic honey, marmalade, and much more. In short, it was both inspiring and daunting. The options seemed endless. In the end I settled for the following: hibiscus lemonade, nutella, peanut butter, humus, a chocolate muffin, a banana muffin, and bread. Totally worth the trek.
We decided not to try to retrace our steps through the fields again and opted to take the road. In this way, we managed to see Zepilote’s new store, a converted cheese wagon. Quite inventive! Then after a relatively quick jaunt, past lots of colourful and massive barnyard animals, we were back home. For dinner, pineapple fried rice with hibiscus and spinach leaves. Delicious.
The real surprise today came with the arrival of two people while I was in the shower. In my haste to get ready I failed to check my pants for insects and subsequently thanks to the unwelcome addition of one warrior ant, I now have two significant ant bites. When I arrived in our kitchen I realized it was one of the Canadian girls I had traveled with from San Pedro Sula on route to Managua. She had made it to the Island and was looking for a farm to WWOOF at for the next week. We talked about some of the other farms, including Finca Zepilote which was recommended to me by another traveler on that same bus. She ended up heading there and informed me of the products they make there. Including bread, humus, their version of nutella, and peanut butter. I was sold. So Sara and I, equipped with a map that Martijn drew and Dukie (the resident dog), we headed to Zepilote. The path was something like
“cross the first fence, walk directly across, walk alongside the fence, walk through the plantain field, walk past a cemetery, head through what appears to be someone’s backyard”, and pass another plantain field and end up at Zepilote”.
Dukie managed to lead us most of the way there with an inspiring confidence. That was until he decided the best thing to do was to chase the chickens who hid in the plantain fields. Subsequently we lost our way, back tracked and finally made it to Zepilote. A 30 minute trek took us one hour. Awesome. But frankly it was totally worth it. Not only was Zepilote a really fascinating place, when we arrived we climbed up the mirador to see the views of Lago Nicaragua. Then we meandered through the property, before finally making our way to reception, which we were told was were the delicacy of peanut butter was.
When we arrived at this impossibly small building, inside we managed to find the following: liqueurs of many different flavours, muffins, oils, granola, shampoo, cookies, peanut butter, chocolate hazelnut spread (aka nutella), mead, juices, organic honey, marmalade, and much more. In short, it was both inspiring and daunting. The options seemed endless. In the end I settled for the following: hibiscus lemonade, nutella, peanut butter, humus, a chocolate muffin, a banana muffin, and bread. Totally worth the trek.
We decided not to try to retrace our steps through the fields again and opted to take the road. In this way, we managed to see Zepilote’s new store, a converted cheese wagon. Quite inventive! Then after a relatively quick jaunt, past lots of colourful and massive barnyard animals, we were back home. For dinner, pineapple fried rice with hibiscus and spinach leaves. Delicious.
The difficulties of making Pizza with no oven...
Today can only be accurately described as “the day we spent 14 hours trying to make pizza”. Considering the dough we made yesterday, we knew that today we had to use that dough or it was all a waste. After completing our chores of feeding the pigs and spraying our pest deterrent we embarked on pizza making. While I made us breakfast, Sara read up on how to use the cobb oven. She started making the fire and eventually needed an extra pair of hands. The trick apparently is to start the fire on the large spatula and slowly move it back when you had a fire going.
We spent a good two hours trying to get the fire to keep going and eventually realized we would have to start over. This time we made sure we had lots of small pieces to build the tee pee formation around the wood chips and some sturdy logs which would burn afterwards underneath. Sadly this took us until about 1:00pm to get the fire at a constant burn and enough to generate some much needed heat. We got the ingredients for the pizza ready as well (onions, garlic, basil, oregano, cheese, and pre-made tomato sauce) and the pizza crusts ready by around 3:00pm. This was partly due to the fact that we needed time for the oven to heat up and chores to do. Namely feed the pigs and de-shell the Ecuadorian nuts I harvested my second day here.
Finally at around 4:00pm we had our first successful pizza ready to eat. Martijn seemed impressed and surprised at our ability to even cook the damn thing. I would argue that it was definitely not the easiest process with neither of us really knowing what we are doing. But the feeling of success of eating that first pizza was complete and utter bliss. After a celebratory high-five we knew we had finally accomplished a successful pizza in an oven in the shape of a tortoise shell. Totally eco-friendly as well.
While the second pizza cooked, Sara and I decided to head into town. I was running low on peanut butter and decided I needed another pair of pants, Sara needed beer. Before leaving I checked on the pizza one more time, to discover that our slight opening in the oven door (due to the handle of our giant pizza spatula poking out) had a gecko friend hanging out inside. This little bugger decided to take a quick run inside before making a flying leap for freedom. He ran right at me before I stepped out of the way, then he took a leap off of the oven for the grass. Scared me senseless.
Our trip into town was a complete success for Sara and an utter failure for me. Not only does no one here eat peanut butter (typically gringo fare), I don’t even think I saw a pair of pants either. I know people where them here, but no clue where they buy them. I will have to do some more investigation. Mostly I just enjoyed wandering through the town, seeing the people riding their bikes and pissing just off the roads, as well as the kids playing on the stoops of the homes and tiendas. All in all it was a delightful adventure and we even found perhaps the best looking (for foreigners standpoint anyway) restaurant in town.
Once we made it back we finished off the second pizza, which was completely warm and perfect. It was a delicious way to end the evening.
We spent a good two hours trying to get the fire to keep going and eventually realized we would have to start over. This time we made sure we had lots of small pieces to build the tee pee formation around the wood chips and some sturdy logs which would burn afterwards underneath. Sadly this took us until about 1:00pm to get the fire at a constant burn and enough to generate some much needed heat. We got the ingredients for the pizza ready as well (onions, garlic, basil, oregano, cheese, and pre-made tomato sauce) and the pizza crusts ready by around 3:00pm. This was partly due to the fact that we needed time for the oven to heat up and chores to do. Namely feed the pigs and de-shell the Ecuadorian nuts I harvested my second day here.
Finally at around 4:00pm we had our first successful pizza ready to eat. Martijn seemed impressed and surprised at our ability to even cook the damn thing. I would argue that it was definitely not the easiest process with neither of us really knowing what we are doing. But the feeling of success of eating that first pizza was complete and utter bliss. After a celebratory high-five we knew we had finally accomplished a successful pizza in an oven in the shape of a tortoise shell. Totally eco-friendly as well.
While the second pizza cooked, Sara and I decided to head into town. I was running low on peanut butter and decided I needed another pair of pants, Sara needed beer. Before leaving I checked on the pizza one more time, to discover that our slight opening in the oven door (due to the handle of our giant pizza spatula poking out) had a gecko friend hanging out inside. This little bugger decided to take a quick run inside before making a flying leap for freedom. He ran right at me before I stepped out of the way, then he took a leap off of the oven for the grass. Scared me senseless.
Our trip into town was a complete success for Sara and an utter failure for me. Not only does no one here eat peanut butter (typically gringo fare), I don’t even think I saw a pair of pants either. I know people where them here, but no clue where they buy them. I will have to do some more investigation. Mostly I just enjoyed wandering through the town, seeing the people riding their bikes and pissing just off the roads, as well as the kids playing on the stoops of the homes and tiendas. All in all it was a delightful adventure and we even found perhaps the best looking (for foreigners standpoint anyway) restaurant in town.
Once we made it back we finished off the second pizza, which was completely warm and perfect. It was a delicious way to end the evening.
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Misadventures on the farm
The days are starting to take on a nice routine. Feed the pigs. Harvest the vegetables and fruit. Bring the vegetables up to the lodge. Spray the natural pesticides. Etc. However as per usual, some elements of hilarity ensued. The first began with Pablo relinquishing the responsibility of the harvest to me. As per usual I managed to get most of it correct, except for one glowing error. Sara and I embarked to find limes from the producing trees. Except Pablo never properly explained what exactly he was looking for.
We found the first two trees I had visited the last harvest with little problem. However without a real notion of what to collect, we ended up with only a few limes. Then we spent about 30 minutes trying to find the other trees in a large area. We sort of wandered through the thicket with little success (although we found other trees they had no fruits on them).
In the end I had to return and ask Pablo to help. Instead he took me back to the exact same trees and looked at us like we were idiots. This is because all the limes on the trees were ready for harvest. I also spent a good portion of time pre-Pablo trying to replicate the hook stick needed to harvest the limes and avoid getting hit by the thorns on the tree. This instrument is absolutely critical to successful lime harvesting.
After the lime debacle, Sara and I were talking to Pablo about bringing up the harvest. It took us about five minutes to understand that he wanted us to take up his wife’s lunch. Finally between Sara and I’s Spanish we figured it out and we headed off with Yolanda’s lunch and also the request to ask the kitchen staff for a big pot to cook food for the pigs. However we needed him to repeat it several times before we had more or less committed it to memory. He looked on dubiously as we walked off mispronouncing the word. I definitely believe he doubted our ability to gain the new pot.
Sara and I embarked up the hill to the lodge with our collection of produce and finally made introductions with the kitchen staff. They were nice enough again to supply us with lemonade to quench our thirst. We asked, correctly, for the big pot but the kitchen staff explained that they only had one and they needed it. It was time to collect the big jeffe (boss) and get him to explain why exactly we volunteers needed a giant pot. In the mean time we supplied Yolanda with her lunch and had a brief chat with the kitchen ladies as well.
The only other thing to note was the random conversation I had with Pablo’s wife. I was asking her about how long she was married to Pablo, which she said 18 years. Then she was explaining something about how Pablo had another woman before, however we only interpreted this after. At the time I was incredibly confused why she was telling us about his other woman, when I realized it must be before. I was trying to explain this in Spanish, when Sara (who was doing dishes) asked me if we were talking about pancakes. This pretty much made me lose my train of though and start laughing. To which Yolanda looked surprised. Then I had to explain in Spanish what had just happened. Apparently “antes” and “panqueques” sound similar, and Yolanda didn’t quite get what was so funny.
Lastly Sara and I were led to believe that Fridays are Pizza night. In preparation Sara had prepared some pizza dough using the flour we had and also the random bag of “active yeast”. With the dough ready to go, Martijn arrived but was communicating with us while talking on the phone. There was a miscommunication and we ended up heading up to the lodge and forgot about our grand plans for the pizza dough. And by the time we returned to our house it was far too late to use our earthen oven to cook the pizza. So tomorrow we have some experimentation to do!
We found the first two trees I had visited the last harvest with little problem. However without a real notion of what to collect, we ended up with only a few limes. Then we spent about 30 minutes trying to find the other trees in a large area. We sort of wandered through the thicket with little success (although we found other trees they had no fruits on them).
In the end I had to return and ask Pablo to help. Instead he took me back to the exact same trees and looked at us like we were idiots. This is because all the limes on the trees were ready for harvest. I also spent a good portion of time pre-Pablo trying to replicate the hook stick needed to harvest the limes and avoid getting hit by the thorns on the tree. This instrument is absolutely critical to successful lime harvesting.
After the lime debacle, Sara and I were talking to Pablo about bringing up the harvest. It took us about five minutes to understand that he wanted us to take up his wife’s lunch. Finally between Sara and I’s Spanish we figured it out and we headed off with Yolanda’s lunch and also the request to ask the kitchen staff for a big pot to cook food for the pigs. However we needed him to repeat it several times before we had more or less committed it to memory. He looked on dubiously as we walked off mispronouncing the word. I definitely believe he doubted our ability to gain the new pot.
Sara and I embarked up the hill to the lodge with our collection of produce and finally made introductions with the kitchen staff. They were nice enough again to supply us with lemonade to quench our thirst. We asked, correctly, for the big pot but the kitchen staff explained that they only had one and they needed it. It was time to collect the big jeffe (boss) and get him to explain why exactly we volunteers needed a giant pot. In the mean time we supplied Yolanda with her lunch and had a brief chat with the kitchen ladies as well.
The only other thing to note was the random conversation I had with Pablo’s wife. I was asking her about how long she was married to Pablo, which she said 18 years. Then she was explaining something about how Pablo had another woman before, however we only interpreted this after. At the time I was incredibly confused why she was telling us about his other woman, when I realized it must be before. I was trying to explain this in Spanish, when Sara (who was doing dishes) asked me if we were talking about pancakes. This pretty much made me lose my train of though and start laughing. To which Yolanda looked surprised. Then I had to explain in Spanish what had just happened. Apparently “antes” and “panqueques” sound similar, and Yolanda didn’t quite get what was so funny.
Lastly Sara and I were led to believe that Fridays are Pizza night. In preparation Sara had prepared some pizza dough using the flour we had and also the random bag of “active yeast”. With the dough ready to go, Martijn arrived but was communicating with us while talking on the phone. There was a miscommunication and we ended up heading up to the lodge and forgot about our grand plans for the pizza dough. And by the time we returned to our house it was far too late to use our earthen oven to cook the pizza. So tomorrow we have some experimentation to do!
Donde es el gato?
I’m beginning to feel like my days have a regular routine, but this morning was slightly different. With a new volunteer I was suddenly the expert, and I had to show Sara the ropes. Although she spent the first little while getting her orientation from Martijn, I at least had to feed the pigs by myself. A daunting task when they don’t fear you. I made the same “shh shh” noises and brandished the same stick as Pablo, yet they don’t fear me as they fear him. Apparently I need to whack them a little harder.
On top of my lack of heart in terrorizing the pigs, the farm was over ridden by warrior ants. They are the meanest little buggers I have encountered. Yesterday one got my toe, but today they had claimed part of our house. Before we started working, Sara scared me by implying that the ants were on the ladder up to my bed. I was concerned because that ladder is the only way up or down and if it was taken over by ants I would have to be crafty to avoid injury, either by the ants or of my own misadventure. Luckily they had only invaded one of the pillars of the building and during the course of the day avoided my living space. Something I appreciated immensely.
By the time I finished feeding the pigs and mucking their pen I showed Sara how to prepare and spray the plants using our made-on-site organic pesticide. This all was complicated by the continued presence of the ants. Although Pablo just bulldozed his way through the lines of ants, my shoes did not permit such brave actions. Therefore I had to circumvent the entire house pretty much every time I wanted to do something. Like clean the pig dishes or prepare the pesticide. Everything took me longer to do thanks to this added complication. Sara and I sprayed the plants and discussed composting toilets, folk and blues music, and other such topics. We also weeded the verdolaga beds (a plant similar to purslane) and cleaned out a new bed.
We didn’t end up finishing the bed thanks to the warrior ant invasion. They had one line going directly through the beds we were working on. Instead we transposed the young hibiscus plants, pulled the former cilantro plants out of the beds, and generally avoided contact. Instead Sara and I started harvesting the seeds of the verdolaga plants so that they could dry and be used soon to plant in the freshly weeded verdolaga bed. Ultimately it was Pablo who had to finish off the hoeing of the new beds. Partially because we were told to stop working as well.
One thing I have an issue with is that we don’t continue to help Pablo. In part I don’t mind, because I’m ready to eat at that point. But it’s strange. Like I am willing, able and ready, yet I’m sitting there reading a book and stuffing my face while he continues working. I’m sure he is used to it, but I sure as hell feel lazy when you hear him slaving away cleaning another bed or something else similar.
Afternoon was another day of lunch, eat, read. Pretty easy going, obviously. I sent some of my dirty laundry to be addressed. Sadly this did not include my dirty pants I was currently wearing. I had to be satisfied that at least my bathing suit would no longer smell like mould and my first t-shirt I wore here was being cleaned! Then Sara, Martijn and I pilled into the blue pickup here and headed to another farm, Finca Magdelina, in search of Martijn’s cat. Apparently Donald loves the company of humans so much that when there is a lull in people here he escapes to Finca Magdelina for some companionship.
The road to and from the Ecolodge/farm is atrocious. It’s actually fine if you are walking (and don’t have high blood pressure), but in an old pickup you need to be prepared for some jostling. I was practically sitting on Sara in order to give Martijn enough space to change gears. Somehow we made it work and with no problems arrived at the farm to search for this red cat. But what really happened is that Martijn enquired with the staff there about Donald while Sara and I explored the gardens of Finca Magdelina.
While the farm is well established (i.e. oldest) and has some charm, it certainly doesn’t compare to Totoco Lodge. Nor does it compare to the farm here. Albeit it is larger, however the only “farm” I saw there was coffee plants. Which frankly isn’t what I’m interested in. Although perhaps staying in their hostel would be more typical than living in my little loft. However, I did enjoy the gardens at Finca Magdelina a lot. They had some shrubbery with incredibly coloured and curly leaves, beautiful flowering shrubs, and the tallest marigold plants I have ever seen. I even saw my first fire flies. Strangely something about walking in the farm at dusk with the fire flies all around it was just one of those magical moments that I always treasure.
We took a walk through the coffee processing on the farm and then headed back to the restaurant and ordered fish in hopes of luring Donald out from the grounds. Sadly we were unsuccessful, however apparently the fish was amazing and sort of made up for the fact that we didn’t end up leaving +1 cat.
The last thing that happened this evening was that the power went out. Sara and I stood looking at the stars while Martijn fiddled with the wires. I have never seen so many stars in my life and it was fascinating to see some of them fade away with the now invisible clouds. To cap it all off I saw a shooting star. Just to cap off the entire day.
On top of my lack of heart in terrorizing the pigs, the farm was over ridden by warrior ants. They are the meanest little buggers I have encountered. Yesterday one got my toe, but today they had claimed part of our house. Before we started working, Sara scared me by implying that the ants were on the ladder up to my bed. I was concerned because that ladder is the only way up or down and if it was taken over by ants I would have to be crafty to avoid injury, either by the ants or of my own misadventure. Luckily they had only invaded one of the pillars of the building and during the course of the day avoided my living space. Something I appreciated immensely.
By the time I finished feeding the pigs and mucking their pen I showed Sara how to prepare and spray the plants using our made-on-site organic pesticide. This all was complicated by the continued presence of the ants. Although Pablo just bulldozed his way through the lines of ants, my shoes did not permit such brave actions. Therefore I had to circumvent the entire house pretty much every time I wanted to do something. Like clean the pig dishes or prepare the pesticide. Everything took me longer to do thanks to this added complication. Sara and I sprayed the plants and discussed composting toilets, folk and blues music, and other such topics. We also weeded the verdolaga beds (a plant similar to purslane) and cleaned out a new bed.
We didn’t end up finishing the bed thanks to the warrior ant invasion. They had one line going directly through the beds we were working on. Instead we transposed the young hibiscus plants, pulled the former cilantro plants out of the beds, and generally avoided contact. Instead Sara and I started harvesting the seeds of the verdolaga plants so that they could dry and be used soon to plant in the freshly weeded verdolaga bed. Ultimately it was Pablo who had to finish off the hoeing of the new beds. Partially because we were told to stop working as well.
One thing I have an issue with is that we don’t continue to help Pablo. In part I don’t mind, because I’m ready to eat at that point. But it’s strange. Like I am willing, able and ready, yet I’m sitting there reading a book and stuffing my face while he continues working. I’m sure he is used to it, but I sure as hell feel lazy when you hear him slaving away cleaning another bed or something else similar.
Afternoon was another day of lunch, eat, read. Pretty easy going, obviously. I sent some of my dirty laundry to be addressed. Sadly this did not include my dirty pants I was currently wearing. I had to be satisfied that at least my bathing suit would no longer smell like mould and my first t-shirt I wore here was being cleaned! Then Sara, Martijn and I pilled into the blue pickup here and headed to another farm, Finca Magdelina, in search of Martijn’s cat. Apparently Donald loves the company of humans so much that when there is a lull in people here he escapes to Finca Magdelina for some companionship.
The road to and from the Ecolodge/farm is atrocious. It’s actually fine if you are walking (and don’t have high blood pressure), but in an old pickup you need to be prepared for some jostling. I was practically sitting on Sara in order to give Martijn enough space to change gears. Somehow we made it work and with no problems arrived at the farm to search for this red cat. But what really happened is that Martijn enquired with the staff there about Donald while Sara and I explored the gardens of Finca Magdelina.
While the farm is well established (i.e. oldest) and has some charm, it certainly doesn’t compare to Totoco Lodge. Nor does it compare to the farm here. Albeit it is larger, however the only “farm” I saw there was coffee plants. Which frankly isn’t what I’m interested in. Although perhaps staying in their hostel would be more typical than living in my little loft. However, I did enjoy the gardens at Finca Magdelina a lot. They had some shrubbery with incredibly coloured and curly leaves, beautiful flowering shrubs, and the tallest marigold plants I have ever seen. I even saw my first fire flies. Strangely something about walking in the farm at dusk with the fire flies all around it was just one of those magical moments that I always treasure.
We took a walk through the coffee processing on the farm and then headed back to the restaurant and ordered fish in hopes of luring Donald out from the grounds. Sadly we were unsuccessful, however apparently the fish was amazing and sort of made up for the fact that we didn’t end up leaving +1 cat.
The last thing that happened this evening was that the power went out. Sara and I stood looking at the stars while Martijn fiddled with the wires. I have never seen so many stars in my life and it was fascinating to see some of them fade away with the now invisible clouds. To cap it all off I saw a shooting star. Just to cap off the entire day.
Counting leaves and other fun farm tasks
Last night I did go to bed at a reasonable hour and had the brainwave to spray my mosquito net with bug spray. Surprise, surprise I was able to get a good nights sleep as well as minimize bug interaction! Definitely a marked improvement to the bug bites of my first night here.
My day started in the same as yesterday. Woke up, got ready, and listened as the days activities were discussed. Today’s tasks included feeding the pigs and cleaning their pen, harvesting the greens and cilantro for the restaurant, weeding, and collecting nuts. I will say that the weeding I found particularly amusing. But first I need to explain a bit about my younger self.
When I was a teenager, my Mom used to offer us a lot of money (well, for a teenager anyway) if we weeded her garden. I know she will argue that the garden was enjoyed by all and thus we should have all put in some work. However, I would argue that because I had little/no input in said garden, it was really my Mothers. Being a particularly stubborn kid I weed that garden only when I was strapped for cash but I would hate every minute of it. I complained of the mosquitos, about how sore my legs were, how uncomfortable it was, how early I had to wake up for it, etc. Considering all my bitching and complaining, it really is a wonder why I decided to go work on an organic farm in the first place.
After I fed the pigs, I ended up going with Pablo to harvest limes. And I knew that we were harvesting today, however I had little idea as to what exactly we would harvest. So Pablo sort of just comes up to me as I’m working and says “vamos”. But I don’t really know where we are going. So we wandered to the “fruit” area and started looking for lime trees. We managed to find two trees with limes to harvest and Pablo found a handy stick with a hook at the end to bring down the limes. I learned the lime tree is thorned, and therefore very difficult to harvest. Plus they don’t use ladders here. Human power only.
The other amusing part of harvesting the greens here was counting them up. Apparently it is necessary to prove the productivity of the farm, however you feel a bit silly counting 110 leaves of Okinawa Spinach, or 100 Hibiscus leaves. After I harvested these items, and more, I took them up to the restaurant in the Lodge to be used for that evenings meal. I was rewarded with passionfruit juice, which was heavenly after the hike up the hill.
That afternoon I didn’t get up to a whole bunch except for reading more of the Organic Gardening book and making myself lunch. After I had finished my work for the day I looked forward to the vegetable trucks arrival. With new produce I was able to make peanut satay sauce with broccoli! I don’t know about you, but the combination of peanuts and broccoli is absolutely heavenly. It was so good in fact that I ended up making it for dinner as well. And it was good I did because we had the arrival of a new volunteer. Finally I wasn’t the only one Pablo can laugh at!
Sara actually has experience however WWOOFing as well as working on organic farms, community collectives, and with school programs. I sort of envied her knowledge. However I guess that is what I am here to acquire. Poco a poco.
And it was an early night once again.
My day started in the same as yesterday. Woke up, got ready, and listened as the days activities were discussed. Today’s tasks included feeding the pigs and cleaning their pen, harvesting the greens and cilantro for the restaurant, weeding, and collecting nuts. I will say that the weeding I found particularly amusing. But first I need to explain a bit about my younger self.
When I was a teenager, my Mom used to offer us a lot of money (well, for a teenager anyway) if we weeded her garden. I know she will argue that the garden was enjoyed by all and thus we should have all put in some work. However, I would argue that because I had little/no input in said garden, it was really my Mothers. Being a particularly stubborn kid I weed that garden only when I was strapped for cash but I would hate every minute of it. I complained of the mosquitos, about how sore my legs were, how uncomfortable it was, how early I had to wake up for it, etc. Considering all my bitching and complaining, it really is a wonder why I decided to go work on an organic farm in the first place.
After I fed the pigs, I ended up going with Pablo to harvest limes. And I knew that we were harvesting today, however I had little idea as to what exactly we would harvest. So Pablo sort of just comes up to me as I’m working and says “vamos”. But I don’t really know where we are going. So we wandered to the “fruit” area and started looking for lime trees. We managed to find two trees with limes to harvest and Pablo found a handy stick with a hook at the end to bring down the limes. I learned the lime tree is thorned, and therefore very difficult to harvest. Plus they don’t use ladders here. Human power only.
The other amusing part of harvesting the greens here was counting them up. Apparently it is necessary to prove the productivity of the farm, however you feel a bit silly counting 110 leaves of Okinawa Spinach, or 100 Hibiscus leaves. After I harvested these items, and more, I took them up to the restaurant in the Lodge to be used for that evenings meal. I was rewarded with passionfruit juice, which was heavenly after the hike up the hill.
That afternoon I didn’t get up to a whole bunch except for reading more of the Organic Gardening book and making myself lunch. After I had finished my work for the day I looked forward to the vegetable trucks arrival. With new produce I was able to make peanut satay sauce with broccoli! I don’t know about you, but the combination of peanuts and broccoli is absolutely heavenly. It was so good in fact that I ended up making it for dinner as well. And it was good I did because we had the arrival of a new volunteer. Finally I wasn’t the only one Pablo can laugh at!
Sara actually has experience however WWOOFing as well as working on organic farms, community collectives, and with school programs. I sort of envied her knowledge. However I guess that is what I am here to acquire. Poco a poco.
And it was an early night once again.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Adventures of a newly inducted WWOOFer
Last night was a complete gong show. Having never slept under a mosquito net, or set one up, I definitely set it up too low. I had a net in my face the entire night. And to try to prevent creepy crawlies from entering my backpacks I slept with them at my feet. This meant that I had approximately four feet to sleep in. Not exactly comfortable. Additionally I could hear the gecko’s calling, the monkeys hollering, and the crickets chirping the entire night. Perhaps the most unbearable was the insect which buzzed in my ear. Frankly I was too exhausted to do anything about it, and subsequently woke up with 56 bites. Only on my left hand.
You can imagine my surprise when I woke up with that many bites, which are completely isolated to one small portion of my body. According to both Martijn and Pablo I probably slept with my hand too close to the mosquito net, and that’s as good an explanation as any. Also I was woken up at 5:00 am thanks to some nearby howler monkeys and just couldn’t really fall back asleep. Thus when I had to be up and ready by 7:00 am to meet Pablo, I was already thinking about sleep again.
To top it off, I’m still adjusting to my surroundings. I was under the impression that the shower area had a sink. Which it doesn’t. So I wandered all that way with my toiletries bag to brush my teeth and ended up with an ant bite on my baby toe. Not too impressed. Although I did enjoy brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink.
Martijn arrived and explained what he believed needed addressing in English and then once Pablo arrived I was ready to start working. We started by feeding the pigs yesterdays kitchen scraps which had boiled over night and turned into what I can only imagine is a delicious pig meal. Pablo did the work while I took note of what he did. Martijn told me yesterday to try to feed the pigs banana leaves or greens everyday as well, so I found these items while Pablo gave the pigs the scraps.
I will admit that these pigs already make me incredibly happy. Mostly because they have a very entertaining dynamic. The older, bigger pig (or friendly and fat--his name) and the younger, slimmer pig (mean and skinny) are quite the opposites when it comes to meal times. Friendly and fat is passive and just wants to eat, while mean and skinny has a bad attitude and forces friendly and fat to leave the food. Mean and skinny always feels like he’s missing out on something if friendly and fat is eating it. However when they aren’t eating they are best of friends. Martijn even says that at night you can see them snuggled together. I am just hoping that they don’t decide to kill them while I am here.
After this I learned how to prepare and “fumigate” the plants using a natural pesticide. Apparently the pesticide affects the reproductive systems of the insects rather than outright kill them. It’s an interesting notion and they seem to have some success with it. I sprayed the plants while occasionally getting tips from Pablo. Which admittedly I found rather entertaining, I thought spraying would be a relatively simple thing. Apparently I did admirably because he left me to my own devices after a while.
One of the biggest tasks of the day was the destroy and re-construct one of the long bean beds. I won’t bore you with the details, but it took a few hours to complete all the parts. The destruction of the original bed, hoeing the dirt and picking out roots, going into the forest to collect “string” for the stakes, and finally assembling the stakes again for the new crop. I really enjoyed the work and talking to Pablo. Although most of it is light and friendly, he cracks me up. For example, by the time we were nearly finished the clouds left the sky and it was absolutely scorching in the sun. I was sweating as I always do and he was saying “tengo frio” with a deadpan expression. Jerk. It is not cold!
The last thing we did together was to feed the pigs once again. After that Pablo told me I was done (I only work five hours) and that he was off to enjoy his lunch. I was so thoroughly dirty, sweaty, and sleep deprived that I couldn’t really function. I could barely contemplate cooking, I couldn’t muster the will to go shower, so I sat at the table and read the Organic Gardening book. Pablo came back to work while I looked like a zombie and then Martijn showed up. We chatted for a bit and then he decided we should eat. And who was I to disagree.
Martijn cooked once again and similarly my contribution was left to collecting and washing the greens. Then I sat and watched him cook. Again, not going to complain. We sat and talked about his vision for the farm in five years time and about Nicaragua in general. Martijn returned to work and I continued my zombie impression. I sat and read for a bit, still contemplating showering. My real issue with this was the hassle of getting all the pieces I would need. Clean clothes, shampoo, my towel, etc. Each of these items was in a separate part of my backpack and I really couldn’t be bothered. Then it started raining.
I actually really love the rain here. It is so temperamental; at times it is calm and misty and then it is a raging storm and then it is somewhere in between. I started contemplating stripping and running around in my underwear rather than go through the effort of taking an actual shower. However with Pablo still around, I felt this perhaps not the greatest way to go about it. Instead I chatted with him for a bit while the rain raged and he figured out to risk going home in it. He also invited me to spend some time in his community on Friday, an invitation I gladly accepted.
After being generally a lazy bum, I finally got my ass in gear and grabbed my shower stuff. The shower is an open space, where you can look down at the rest of the farm. The water was just warm, the view was incredible, and I enjoyed the novelty of showering outside...in the rain.
Spent the evening up at the Lodge taking advantage of the Internet and will likely have an early night. Que bueno!
You can imagine my surprise when I woke up with that many bites, which are completely isolated to one small portion of my body. According to both Martijn and Pablo I probably slept with my hand too close to the mosquito net, and that’s as good an explanation as any. Also I was woken up at 5:00 am thanks to some nearby howler monkeys and just couldn’t really fall back asleep. Thus when I had to be up and ready by 7:00 am to meet Pablo, I was already thinking about sleep again.
To top it off, I’m still adjusting to my surroundings. I was under the impression that the shower area had a sink. Which it doesn’t. So I wandered all that way with my toiletries bag to brush my teeth and ended up with an ant bite on my baby toe. Not too impressed. Although I did enjoy brushing my teeth at the kitchen sink.
Martijn arrived and explained what he believed needed addressing in English and then once Pablo arrived I was ready to start working. We started by feeding the pigs yesterdays kitchen scraps which had boiled over night and turned into what I can only imagine is a delicious pig meal. Pablo did the work while I took note of what he did. Martijn told me yesterday to try to feed the pigs banana leaves or greens everyday as well, so I found these items while Pablo gave the pigs the scraps.
I will admit that these pigs already make me incredibly happy. Mostly because they have a very entertaining dynamic. The older, bigger pig (or friendly and fat--his name) and the younger, slimmer pig (mean and skinny) are quite the opposites when it comes to meal times. Friendly and fat is passive and just wants to eat, while mean and skinny has a bad attitude and forces friendly and fat to leave the food. Mean and skinny always feels like he’s missing out on something if friendly and fat is eating it. However when they aren’t eating they are best of friends. Martijn even says that at night you can see them snuggled together. I am just hoping that they don’t decide to kill them while I am here.
After this I learned how to prepare and “fumigate” the plants using a natural pesticide. Apparently the pesticide affects the reproductive systems of the insects rather than outright kill them. It’s an interesting notion and they seem to have some success with it. I sprayed the plants while occasionally getting tips from Pablo. Which admittedly I found rather entertaining, I thought spraying would be a relatively simple thing. Apparently I did admirably because he left me to my own devices after a while.
One of the biggest tasks of the day was the destroy and re-construct one of the long bean beds. I won’t bore you with the details, but it took a few hours to complete all the parts. The destruction of the original bed, hoeing the dirt and picking out roots, going into the forest to collect “string” for the stakes, and finally assembling the stakes again for the new crop. I really enjoyed the work and talking to Pablo. Although most of it is light and friendly, he cracks me up. For example, by the time we were nearly finished the clouds left the sky and it was absolutely scorching in the sun. I was sweating as I always do and he was saying “tengo frio” with a deadpan expression. Jerk. It is not cold!
The last thing we did together was to feed the pigs once again. After that Pablo told me I was done (I only work five hours) and that he was off to enjoy his lunch. I was so thoroughly dirty, sweaty, and sleep deprived that I couldn’t really function. I could barely contemplate cooking, I couldn’t muster the will to go shower, so I sat at the table and read the Organic Gardening book. Pablo came back to work while I looked like a zombie and then Martijn showed up. We chatted for a bit and then he decided we should eat. And who was I to disagree.
Martijn cooked once again and similarly my contribution was left to collecting and washing the greens. Then I sat and watched him cook. Again, not going to complain. We sat and talked about his vision for the farm in five years time and about Nicaragua in general. Martijn returned to work and I continued my zombie impression. I sat and read for a bit, still contemplating showering. My real issue with this was the hassle of getting all the pieces I would need. Clean clothes, shampoo, my towel, etc. Each of these items was in a separate part of my backpack and I really couldn’t be bothered. Then it started raining.
I actually really love the rain here. It is so temperamental; at times it is calm and misty and then it is a raging storm and then it is somewhere in between. I started contemplating stripping and running around in my underwear rather than go through the effort of taking an actual shower. However with Pablo still around, I felt this perhaps not the greatest way to go about it. Instead I chatted with him for a bit while the rain raged and he figured out to risk going home in it. He also invited me to spend some time in his community on Friday, an invitation I gladly accepted.
After being generally a lazy bum, I finally got my ass in gear and grabbed my shower stuff. The shower is an open space, where you can look down at the rest of the farm. The water was just warm, the view was incredible, and I enjoyed the novelty of showering outside...in the rain.
Spent the evening up at the Lodge taking advantage of the Internet and will likely have an early night. Que bueno!
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Hotel California versus Totoco Ecolodge
Today was a day of drastic differences. I started my day with a knock at the door by one of the employees who told me the deal of our room included an important caveat. We needed to leave by 7:30 am, which I didn’t quite understand the previous night. I thought he was just telling me the times the ferry left! So Janice and I had to quickly get ready and leave. Although we didn’t end up leaving until around 8:00 am anyway...
We made our way to the dock, a three minute walk and searched for a ticket for the ferry and breakfast. Janice met up with some friends she was continuing her travels with and I headed for the ferry alone. I enjoyed the ferry ride over and in particular enjoyed watching the Nicaraguans slowly nod off to sleep. Including some of the employees!
Once I arrived in Mayogalpa I headed straight for the public bus bound for Balgue. However the longer we waited the more I felt it would be useful to go and get some Nicaraguan currency. Apparently there are only two ATMs on the entire Island and definitely not near my neck of the woods. The bus just pulled by as I left the ATM and managed to catch it (unlike back at home where buses just drive past you...).
I enjoyed watching the locals interact with one another and seeing the school girls talking to each other in rapid fire Spanish. I ended up sitting next to a guy who lives in Costa Rica but has family who lives here in Nicaragua. He was telling me about some of the stuff I could do here on the Island and generally being a nice human being. I was a bit frazzled due to lack of sleep and pretty much felt like a zombie.
The bus driver was nice enough to stop the bus at the Totoco Lodge sign where I needed to get off and made my way to my temporary home. On the way I was stopped by three little kids who seemed very curious by me, the only gringa. Then I was on my merry way up the 800 metre hike towards the lodge. This in fact though only got me to the volunteer area. I left my stuff locked up with Pablo and then headed up another 700 metres to the Ecolodge to meet Martijn, the owner.
Naturally though, it is incredibly hot and humid here and I was sweating something fierce. Even without my backpacker bag I was definitely struggling to remain dry. And by the time I met with Martijn I was almost soaked in sweat. A great first impression. Martijn was nice enough to give me my orientation of the place. As we walked down he was pointing out the Howler Monkeys in the treesHe gave me a lay of the farm, introduced me to the two pigs, and introduced me to Pablo (officially). He also showed me my sleeping area, which pretty much made my jaw drop to the floor.
I should note here, that I was forewarned that the lodgings here were “camping” in nature. What I failed to realize was that camping essentially means that you are at one with nature in many awkward ways. Like having gecko poop on the floor of your “room”. Although not the end of the world, still not something I had mentally prepared for. Nor would I have EVER thought it necessary. However, there I was. Broom in hand, gecko poop on the floor and a sudden realization that I was about to have one hell of a interesting experience. Did I mention that my new room was a loft? With only the roof as walls. And I get there by a ladder.
Don’t get me wrong, it sounds cool. And it is, but I am curious if the novelty will wear out. In particular when I have to get ready for bed and I am not the only inhabitant/volunteer here. However I must admit that there were a lot of things here that made me so impressed. First is that this farm is quite small. Although productive and having amazing produce, I was shocked at how much they were doing in such a small space. Bananas, greens (hibiscus leaves, spinach, and a bunch of tropical greens), pineapples, aloe, long beans, basil, oregano, mint, lemongrass, turmeric, taro root, ginger, and more.
I also appreciated Martijn’s frankness about how they are still trying to figure out what works, how the ecolodge is run, why the farm was important, and the other pillars of his business. Including the micro-financing program they support. One of their recent micro-loans was to someone who set up the first Internet cafe in Balgue (the nearest town). Thanks to this program this business now has one computer with Internet. Additionally the lodge hires only local people and also teamed up with an educational program to train the staff for hospitality jobs. All in all, I definitely admire what they are trying to do here.
They use a lot of the green technologies that I heard about, but for practicality reasons was never able to try. They use a grey water system for the sink water, they have a shower heated by the soil, they compost, they have pigs to eat the waste from the restaurant, they recycle, and the buildings are built to provide natural air conditioning. And they have composting toilets! I know that for most of you, you will not understand why that sentence warrants an exclamation mark. But for me, and those who understand, I was completely enthralled to see some of these sustainable techniques in practice.
While I did sweep my room and set up my bed, it was not my favourite part of the day. After Martijn finished with his lodge obligations he came back to the volunteer area and basically cooked me dinner. I tried to help, but was completely useless because I had no idea where things were or strangely what to do! Obviously with the greens I was able to help pick them out and wash them. I was also able to cut them, but otherwise Martijn took over and seemed content just cooking away while I talked.
Our conversation has to have been one of the most in depth conversations I have had in a long time. We talked a little bit about our lives, but mostly we talked about environmental issues, how we felt they needed to be addressed, books that influenced us to challenge the status quo, and how we thought the world would change in the next few years. It was really refreshing to talk about things with someone who at least had a similar passion for sustainability.
I even enjoyed our debates over how we each thought the world needed to change in order to achieve sustainability. Was it a matter of corporations and regulations fueling the shift or was it the people? Although I was exhausted, I was exhilarated to be discussing things that are important with me and with someone who was trying to put passion into action. I also now have a new list of books I must read.
We ended the night on a light hearted moment when the toad who had decided to sit in the corner of the kitchen moved its way toward Dukie (Martijn’s dog) and he flipped out a bit. Martijn picked up the toad and goaded Dukie with it. When Martijn put the toad down, the toad decided the next best place for his body was my right foot. I definitely nearly kicked the thing across the room with the quick shake of my leg and let out a slight yelp. After all, it’s not everyday you have a toe on your boot.
Finally it was time for me to head to my mosquito net covered bed.
We made our way to the dock, a three minute walk and searched for a ticket for the ferry and breakfast. Janice met up with some friends she was continuing her travels with and I headed for the ferry alone. I enjoyed the ferry ride over and in particular enjoyed watching the Nicaraguans slowly nod off to sleep. Including some of the employees!
Once I arrived in Mayogalpa I headed straight for the public bus bound for Balgue. However the longer we waited the more I felt it would be useful to go and get some Nicaraguan currency. Apparently there are only two ATMs on the entire Island and definitely not near my neck of the woods. The bus just pulled by as I left the ATM and managed to catch it (unlike back at home where buses just drive past you...).
I enjoyed watching the locals interact with one another and seeing the school girls talking to each other in rapid fire Spanish. I ended up sitting next to a guy who lives in Costa Rica but has family who lives here in Nicaragua. He was telling me about some of the stuff I could do here on the Island and generally being a nice human being. I was a bit frazzled due to lack of sleep and pretty much felt like a zombie.
The bus driver was nice enough to stop the bus at the Totoco Lodge sign where I needed to get off and made my way to my temporary home. On the way I was stopped by three little kids who seemed very curious by me, the only gringa. Then I was on my merry way up the 800 metre hike towards the lodge. This in fact though only got me to the volunteer area. I left my stuff locked up with Pablo and then headed up another 700 metres to the Ecolodge to meet Martijn, the owner.
Naturally though, it is incredibly hot and humid here and I was sweating something fierce. Even without my backpacker bag I was definitely struggling to remain dry. And by the time I met with Martijn I was almost soaked in sweat. A great first impression. Martijn was nice enough to give me my orientation of the place. As we walked down he was pointing out the Howler Monkeys in the treesHe gave me a lay of the farm, introduced me to the two pigs, and introduced me to Pablo (officially). He also showed me my sleeping area, which pretty much made my jaw drop to the floor.
I should note here, that I was forewarned that the lodgings here were “camping” in nature. What I failed to realize was that camping essentially means that you are at one with nature in many awkward ways. Like having gecko poop on the floor of your “room”. Although not the end of the world, still not something I had mentally prepared for. Nor would I have EVER thought it necessary. However, there I was. Broom in hand, gecko poop on the floor and a sudden realization that I was about to have one hell of a interesting experience. Did I mention that my new room was a loft? With only the roof as walls. And I get there by a ladder.
Don’t get me wrong, it sounds cool. And it is, but I am curious if the novelty will wear out. In particular when I have to get ready for bed and I am not the only inhabitant/volunteer here. However I must admit that there were a lot of things here that made me so impressed. First is that this farm is quite small. Although productive and having amazing produce, I was shocked at how much they were doing in such a small space. Bananas, greens (hibiscus leaves, spinach, and a bunch of tropical greens), pineapples, aloe, long beans, basil, oregano, mint, lemongrass, turmeric, taro root, ginger, and more.
I also appreciated Martijn’s frankness about how they are still trying to figure out what works, how the ecolodge is run, why the farm was important, and the other pillars of his business. Including the micro-financing program they support. One of their recent micro-loans was to someone who set up the first Internet cafe in Balgue (the nearest town). Thanks to this program this business now has one computer with Internet. Additionally the lodge hires only local people and also teamed up with an educational program to train the staff for hospitality jobs. All in all, I definitely admire what they are trying to do here.
They use a lot of the green technologies that I heard about, but for practicality reasons was never able to try. They use a grey water system for the sink water, they have a shower heated by the soil, they compost, they have pigs to eat the waste from the restaurant, they recycle, and the buildings are built to provide natural air conditioning. And they have composting toilets! I know that for most of you, you will not understand why that sentence warrants an exclamation mark. But for me, and those who understand, I was completely enthralled to see some of these sustainable techniques in practice.
While I did sweep my room and set up my bed, it was not my favourite part of the day. After Martijn finished with his lodge obligations he came back to the volunteer area and basically cooked me dinner. I tried to help, but was completely useless because I had no idea where things were or strangely what to do! Obviously with the greens I was able to help pick them out and wash them. I was also able to cut them, but otherwise Martijn took over and seemed content just cooking away while I talked.
Our conversation has to have been one of the most in depth conversations I have had in a long time. We talked a little bit about our lives, but mostly we talked about environmental issues, how we felt they needed to be addressed, books that influenced us to challenge the status quo, and how we thought the world would change in the next few years. It was really refreshing to talk about things with someone who at least had a similar passion for sustainability.
I even enjoyed our debates over how we each thought the world needed to change in order to achieve sustainability. Was it a matter of corporations and regulations fueling the shift or was it the people? Although I was exhausted, I was exhilarated to be discussing things that are important with me and with someone who was trying to put passion into action. I also now have a new list of books I must read.
We ended the night on a light hearted moment when the toad who had decided to sit in the corner of the kitchen moved its way toward Dukie (Martijn’s dog) and he flipped out a bit. Martijn picked up the toad and goaded Dukie with it. When Martijn put the toad down, the toad decided the next best place for his body was my right foot. I definitely nearly kicked the thing across the room with the quick shake of my leg and let out a slight yelp. After all, it’s not everyday you have a toe on your boot.
Finally it was time for me to head to my mosquito net covered bed.
The long day to Nicaragua
Today was an incredibly long day. Woke up at 3:30 am and was at the bus station around 4:20 am. Sadly the line up for the bus was moving incredibly slowly, even though there was only about 10 people. And to add to the adventure there was only one man working and he was operating at full speed. Unfortunately for those of us who arrived “late” those who reserved their bus tickets needed to “check in”. This meant that those of us who still needed a ticket were pushed to the back and had to wait. I got my ticket at exactly 5:01 am and although it was unnecessary to sprint for the bus, it was a nerve wracking moment waiting for a ticket and thinking I may miss that bus! However my travel buddy and I ended up with the final two proper tickets and made it just in time for the bus.
The bus ride itself was fairly uninteresting, other than the sleep I tried to catch up on and the incredible views of the passing country. Our first stop was at 9:20 am in Tegucigalpa the capital of Honduras. We spent a grand total of 20 minutes in Tegucigalpa before heading South again. Our border crossing was equally smooth and all we had to do was go through the Nicaraguan customs, which really wasn’t an issue. Plus it was nice to get off the bus again and stretch our legs.
I will say that I think I fell in love with Nicaragua at first sight. Something about this land and this place is completely magical. Granted I could also just be sleep deprived. Either way, I was immediately put at ease here. The disappointment however was that we arrived in Managua too late to take the last bus to Rivas. Instead I spent an hour of my precious time debating with my fellow travelers about whether we thought we should try to negotiate with a taxi (who originally wanted $100 US to get from Managua to Rivas). We also looked at some of the “hostels” nearby, which I’m not going to lie were fairly ghetto.
We finally found a taxi driver who agreed to take me and Janice to Rivas as well as two other Canadians we met on our bus to Granada. Janice and I paid $20 each to get to Rivas, which considering the hour was likely a unbelievable price. We made a quick stop at a gas station for some food, which included two apples for me and hot dogs for everyone else. I was incredibly happy to eat something fresh after the other meals I had had today.
During our drive we shared our opinions on places we had traveled too and our lives. The two guys happened to be from Vancouver and had traveled to India last year. Perhaps the most entertaining conversation was when they revealed that the interesting part about traveling to India is that you will see people literally shit on the street. He said that when he first landed he was walking down a street in Delhi when this man pulled his pants and went to his business. This guy started to stare and almost laugh when apparently the guy turned to look at him and gave him a stare of “what are you looking at?” Which admittedly is not typically something that Canadians are used too, yet is the sort of travel story that is hilarious for its absurdity.
Our driver, Orlando, didn’t quite know Rivas and he ended up inadvertently driving us to San Jorge. San Jorge is the jumping point for Isla de Ometepe and we were very fortunate to get a ride all the way there. We stayed at Hotel California and the man who worked there offered us a room at the price for only one person.
Janice and I got situated and ended up watching some of Return of the King before we fell asleep.
The bus ride itself was fairly uninteresting, other than the sleep I tried to catch up on and the incredible views of the passing country. Our first stop was at 9:20 am in Tegucigalpa the capital of Honduras. We spent a grand total of 20 minutes in Tegucigalpa before heading South again. Our border crossing was equally smooth and all we had to do was go through the Nicaraguan customs, which really wasn’t an issue. Plus it was nice to get off the bus again and stretch our legs.
I will say that I think I fell in love with Nicaragua at first sight. Something about this land and this place is completely magical. Granted I could also just be sleep deprived. Either way, I was immediately put at ease here. The disappointment however was that we arrived in Managua too late to take the last bus to Rivas. Instead I spent an hour of my precious time debating with my fellow travelers about whether we thought we should try to negotiate with a taxi (who originally wanted $100 US to get from Managua to Rivas). We also looked at some of the “hostels” nearby, which I’m not going to lie were fairly ghetto.
We finally found a taxi driver who agreed to take me and Janice to Rivas as well as two other Canadians we met on our bus to Granada. Janice and I paid $20 each to get to Rivas, which considering the hour was likely a unbelievable price. We made a quick stop at a gas station for some food, which included two apples for me and hot dogs for everyone else. I was incredibly happy to eat something fresh after the other meals I had had today.
During our drive we shared our opinions on places we had traveled too and our lives. The two guys happened to be from Vancouver and had traveled to India last year. Perhaps the most entertaining conversation was when they revealed that the interesting part about traveling to India is that you will see people literally shit on the street. He said that when he first landed he was walking down a street in Delhi when this man pulled his pants and went to his business. This guy started to stare and almost laugh when apparently the guy turned to look at him and gave him a stare of “what are you looking at?” Which admittedly is not typically something that Canadians are used too, yet is the sort of travel story that is hilarious for its absurdity.
Our driver, Orlando, didn’t quite know Rivas and he ended up inadvertently driving us to San Jorge. San Jorge is the jumping point for Isla de Ometepe and we were very fortunate to get a ride all the way there. We stayed at Hotel California and the man who worked there offered us a room at the price for only one person.
Janice and I got situated and ended up watching some of Return of the King before we fell asleep.
Back to the Mainland
Today I was supposed to catch the 6:20 am ferry bound for La Ceiba. Instead, I ended up taking the afternoon ferry thanks to a torrential downpour in the morning that prevented me from wanting to leave my bed. It didn’t help that the streets were flooded. So I stayed in bed, waited for the rain to abate and then embarked for Captain Morgan’s again to use their internet.
One of the dive masters, Bogdan, was kind enough to offer me some guidance on how to reach Nicaragua. He gave me a contact in San Pedro Sula, somewhere I could stay for the night and who would arrange transportation for myself to and from the bus terminal as well. However as my plan had changed I needed to contact Luis and ask him if he could still pick me up in the evening. The fly in the ointment was that he needed to pick someone up from the airport, so he said he wasn’t available from 7:15 to 9:00 pm. Right when I should have arrived. But he did inform me of what a taxi should cost, L80.
I spent the afternoon just hanging out in the Dive Shop. Just before I headed to buy my ticket I saw a friend from Antigua walk by. I managed to stop him and chat for a bit. He had been on the island for about two weeks and was volunteering at the Iguana Station. I had just enough time to go see it before catching the ferry. It was about a 10 minute walk away from the center of Utila and it was through a nice part of the island.
When I got there I was shown the boa constrictors, small geckos, and the iguanas. My favourite part was when I saw the iguanas in the open pen run away and scurry up a tree. One even appeared to run on water. So after my quick tour, he walked me back toward the ferry. I had to pass on a visit up a hill to see the amazing vistas of the island. I still had a ticket to buy.
I said my final farewell and departed to buy my ticket. However I still had about 30 minutes to wait for the ferry to arrive. I ended up talking to Udi, one of the dive masters I had dived with here in Utila. I asked him about what brought him here and he mentioned that back in Spain he would have been forced to pay for the debt of others who didn’t pay their taxes. It was a burden he felt he didn’t need to bare. He has been in Utila for six months and hopes in a few years time to open up a dive shop in Myanmar.
Before long I was on the ferry and finally bound for La Ceiba. The ferry was a little bit late, but hey it’s Honduras! I ended up sitting with my stuff this time and sat next to a fellow Canadian who also happens to be headed for Isla de Ometepe. Both of us are solo travelers and opted to join together for the journey to Ometepe. It’s a nice feeling knowing that you are never alone when you travel.
Upon our arrival in La Ceiba, the taxi drivers again tried to drive up the price to L50. It should be L40 for the tourists, but frankly they all present a hard line when they all say they’ll only take L50. When we made it to the bus terminal in La Ceiba, we went and bought our tickets and even managed to find some food to eat. I had an entertaining time trying to ask the women for rice and beans--no carne, no queso!
Once on the bus, it was a mere five hour drive to make it to San Pedro Sula. I have no idea why it took so long, however it was raining and these buses are not known for being in great working condition. However the bus was comfortable enough and I spent the good majority of my time halfway between sleep and awake.
It was 8:50 pm when we arrived in San Pedro Sula (we caught the bus at 4:30 pm) and I wanted nothing more than to call Luis and get to the hostel. However I soon found out that none of the phones work at the station. I asked a security guard who said that we could use one of the taxi drivers cell phones. There were six of us trying to figure out lodgings. The Canadian girl had a friend of a friend who lived in San Pedro and there were another four people traveling with me. After making some calls, I finally talked to Luis. He was on his way to pick us up.
It was a beautiful moment when I saw Luis pull up in his white van and about 15 minutes later we arrived at Dos Molinos. Frankly I would highly suggest you stay here for the sheer fact that Luis was so agreeable and that he comes to pick you up and drops you back off where you need to go. I am definitely thankful for him tonight.
Tomorrow is an early start with a 5:00 am bus ride, but a 3:30 am wake up call to get to the station in time for my Managua bound bus.
One of the dive masters, Bogdan, was kind enough to offer me some guidance on how to reach Nicaragua. He gave me a contact in San Pedro Sula, somewhere I could stay for the night and who would arrange transportation for myself to and from the bus terminal as well. However as my plan had changed I needed to contact Luis and ask him if he could still pick me up in the evening. The fly in the ointment was that he needed to pick someone up from the airport, so he said he wasn’t available from 7:15 to 9:00 pm. Right when I should have arrived. But he did inform me of what a taxi should cost, L80.
I spent the afternoon just hanging out in the Dive Shop. Just before I headed to buy my ticket I saw a friend from Antigua walk by. I managed to stop him and chat for a bit. He had been on the island for about two weeks and was volunteering at the Iguana Station. I had just enough time to go see it before catching the ferry. It was about a 10 minute walk away from the center of Utila and it was through a nice part of the island.
When I got there I was shown the boa constrictors, small geckos, and the iguanas. My favourite part was when I saw the iguanas in the open pen run away and scurry up a tree. One even appeared to run on water. So after my quick tour, he walked me back toward the ferry. I had to pass on a visit up a hill to see the amazing vistas of the island. I still had a ticket to buy.
I said my final farewell and departed to buy my ticket. However I still had about 30 minutes to wait for the ferry to arrive. I ended up talking to Udi, one of the dive masters I had dived with here in Utila. I asked him about what brought him here and he mentioned that back in Spain he would have been forced to pay for the debt of others who didn’t pay their taxes. It was a burden he felt he didn’t need to bare. He has been in Utila for six months and hopes in a few years time to open up a dive shop in Myanmar.
Before long I was on the ferry and finally bound for La Ceiba. The ferry was a little bit late, but hey it’s Honduras! I ended up sitting with my stuff this time and sat next to a fellow Canadian who also happens to be headed for Isla de Ometepe. Both of us are solo travelers and opted to join together for the journey to Ometepe. It’s a nice feeling knowing that you are never alone when you travel.
Upon our arrival in La Ceiba, the taxi drivers again tried to drive up the price to L50. It should be L40 for the tourists, but frankly they all present a hard line when they all say they’ll only take L50. When we made it to the bus terminal in La Ceiba, we went and bought our tickets and even managed to find some food to eat. I had an entertaining time trying to ask the women for rice and beans--no carne, no queso!
Once on the bus, it was a mere five hour drive to make it to San Pedro Sula. I have no idea why it took so long, however it was raining and these buses are not known for being in great working condition. However the bus was comfortable enough and I spent the good majority of my time halfway between sleep and awake.
It was 8:50 pm when we arrived in San Pedro Sula (we caught the bus at 4:30 pm) and I wanted nothing more than to call Luis and get to the hostel. However I soon found out that none of the phones work at the station. I asked a security guard who said that we could use one of the taxi drivers cell phones. There were six of us trying to figure out lodgings. The Canadian girl had a friend of a friend who lived in San Pedro and there were another four people traveling with me. After making some calls, I finally talked to Luis. He was on his way to pick us up.
It was a beautiful moment when I saw Luis pull up in his white van and about 15 minutes later we arrived at Dos Molinos. Frankly I would highly suggest you stay here for the sheer fact that Luis was so agreeable and that he comes to pick you up and drops you back off where you need to go. I am definitely thankful for him tonight.
Tomorrow is an early start with a 5:00 am bus ride, but a 3:30 am wake up call to get to the station in time for my Managua bound bus.
Final days in Utila
Yesterday I finished my PADI Open Water skill dives! YAY! Tomorrow I have my fun dives and marking of my exams and then it’s official! A big thanks to my instructor Juju (hailing from New Zealand) and Shane the assistant instructor and my diving “buddy”. Thanks for your patience and for not laughing at my mistakes, at least to my face.
My dives yesterday had significantly less skills to demonstrate and much more enjoying of dives. We went to Moon Hole & Jack Neil Beach, south of Utila. I saw peacock flounder, cleaning shrimps (very cool), smooth trunkfish, French angelfish, goatfish, upside down jellyfish, a juvenile Queen triggerfish, cow fish, a hermit crab, and a fish called slippery dick. The most impressive thing though was seeing a pregnant seahorse! I couldn’t believe how tiny it was and just how incredibly beautiful they are. This one was about the size of my index finger in length and was red, black and white. Incredible.
I also made some preparation for my ongoing travels. In order to reach the first farm I’m WWOOFing at, I need to leave here Saturday headed for Managua before making it to Isla de Ometepe. I’m taking the 6:30 am ferry from Utila to La Ceiba, then a bus from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula. I have to stay a night in San Pedro Sula in order to make it to Managua in Nicaragua. Kind of a weird route, but supposedly it is cheaper and safer than almost any other way. Plus I don’t have to spend a night in the Honduran capital (something I never wanted to do).
Today though is a very important day: Remembrance Day, 11/11/11, and my last day of diving here in Honduras. Although I didn’t take my fun dives with Juju and Shane, I ended up going with Jutta. Which was no disappointment! I have enjoyed her company while spending my time in the Jewel Cay and although she didn’t appreciate being woken up on her day off she was happy to be diving.
Today I saw trumpet fish, parrot fish, cow fish, angel fish, juvenile drum fish, a large school of fish, gruper fish, and eagle rays! The eagle rays were by far the coolest, with a wing span of one metre and with beautiful dark backs with white spots. I was also able to dive at 18 m or 60 ft next to these grand reefs. It was truly an inspiring experience. Although I don’t think I have the passion to become a dive instructor I have really enjoyed learning how to dive. The sheer novelty of it perhaps will never wear out.
I made my way back to Utila with all of my possessions and headed in search of accommodations. I went back to Hotel Bavaria and on my way there I helped a young lad trying to transport two mattresses on a bike. It was pretty funny to watch this 12 year old kid struggle, but it was nice to finally see him with a balanced load--with the help of two other kids sitting on the mattresses. Then I bought some other rations for my early starts both tomorrow and Sunday in order to make it to Managua. While I sat and ate my lunch, I enjoyed watching a man on his bike ride past with a red macaw on his shoulder. I also listened to a man in the restaurant talk to me about depleting fish stocks here, environmental degradation, and farming. All of which are topics that would normally interest me. However I just couldn’t get over the smell of marijuana coming from this man. So I sort of politely nodded and added in “yes” and “no’s” where necessary. However I will say he was very gentleman like when my food arrived he let me be.
From here I meandered back to ‘Treetanic’, one of the funkiest bar/restaurant/hostel I have ever been too. While I didn’t eat, drink or sleep there, I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos of the mosaic sidewalks and decor! I believe only photos will do it justice.
I ended up having to return to Captain Morgan’s Dive Shop to get my final exam graded and get the official “I passed” moment. The unfortunate downside is that by the time I had to make my way down to the shop there was a torrential downpour. So bad that the streets turned to rivers. My shoes were soaked by the time I reached the shop. Juju wasn’t there when I did, so I ended up talking to Pedro for about an hour and a half about why we were traveling, organic farms, tipping points, and where man came from. It was one of those conversations that made me grateful to be traveling. I love meeting like minded people with whom I can converse with about these topics.
Overall, on the eve of my departure from Honduras I have to admit that it exceeded my expectations. I spent far longer here in Honduras than I thought I would. I have loved the time I spent in the Copan Ruins and I have definitely loved the time I spent here in Utila & the Cayes. I met some wonderful fellow travelers who made this trip worthwhile. They turned a country I was planning on passing through a worthwhile adventure. Thank you!
My dives yesterday had significantly less skills to demonstrate and much more enjoying of dives. We went to Moon Hole & Jack Neil Beach, south of Utila. I saw peacock flounder, cleaning shrimps (very cool), smooth trunkfish, French angelfish, goatfish, upside down jellyfish, a juvenile Queen triggerfish, cow fish, a hermit crab, and a fish called slippery dick. The most impressive thing though was seeing a pregnant seahorse! I couldn’t believe how tiny it was and just how incredibly beautiful they are. This one was about the size of my index finger in length and was red, black and white. Incredible.
I also made some preparation for my ongoing travels. In order to reach the first farm I’m WWOOFing at, I need to leave here Saturday headed for Managua before making it to Isla de Ometepe. I’m taking the 6:30 am ferry from Utila to La Ceiba, then a bus from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula. I have to stay a night in San Pedro Sula in order to make it to Managua in Nicaragua. Kind of a weird route, but supposedly it is cheaper and safer than almost any other way. Plus I don’t have to spend a night in the Honduran capital (something I never wanted to do).
Today though is a very important day: Remembrance Day, 11/11/11, and my last day of diving here in Honduras. Although I didn’t take my fun dives with Juju and Shane, I ended up going with Jutta. Which was no disappointment! I have enjoyed her company while spending my time in the Jewel Cay and although she didn’t appreciate being woken up on her day off she was happy to be diving.
Today I saw trumpet fish, parrot fish, cow fish, angel fish, juvenile drum fish, a large school of fish, gruper fish, and eagle rays! The eagle rays were by far the coolest, with a wing span of one metre and with beautiful dark backs with white spots. I was also able to dive at 18 m or 60 ft next to these grand reefs. It was truly an inspiring experience. Although I don’t think I have the passion to become a dive instructor I have really enjoyed learning how to dive. The sheer novelty of it perhaps will never wear out.
I made my way back to Utila with all of my possessions and headed in search of accommodations. I went back to Hotel Bavaria and on my way there I helped a young lad trying to transport two mattresses on a bike. It was pretty funny to watch this 12 year old kid struggle, but it was nice to finally see him with a balanced load--with the help of two other kids sitting on the mattresses. Then I bought some other rations for my early starts both tomorrow and Sunday in order to make it to Managua. While I sat and ate my lunch, I enjoyed watching a man on his bike ride past with a red macaw on his shoulder. I also listened to a man in the restaurant talk to me about depleting fish stocks here, environmental degradation, and farming. All of which are topics that would normally interest me. However I just couldn’t get over the smell of marijuana coming from this man. So I sort of politely nodded and added in “yes” and “no’s” where necessary. However I will say he was very gentleman like when my food arrived he let me be.
From here I meandered back to ‘Treetanic’, one of the funkiest bar/restaurant/hostel I have ever been too. While I didn’t eat, drink or sleep there, I thoroughly enjoyed taking photos of the mosaic sidewalks and decor! I believe only photos will do it justice.
Overall, on the eve of my departure from Honduras I have to admit that it exceeded my expectations. I spent far longer here in Honduras than I thought I would. I have loved the time I spent in the Copan Ruins and I have definitely loved the time I spent here in Utila & the Cayes. I met some wonderful fellow travelers who made this trip worthwhile. They turned a country I was planning on passing through a worthwhile adventure. Thank you!
Thursday, 10 November 2011
PADI Open Water Course...Day 1 & 2
Yesterday I woke up feeling slightly rotten. A possible combination of the veggie plate I had last night and lack of sleep. Luckily it was mostly theory review before working on my skills in the water. We did all the skills just off of the dock here at the Hotel. This included full mask clear, hovering, neutral buoyancy, swimming with no mask, removing and replacing my weight belt and BCD, etc. I also had to do a relatively short swim to prove I could swim and a 10 minute float. Then I was done for the day.
That afternoon I watched some tv, talked to some of the other people here, and mostly just chilled the hell out. Although it hasn’t been a strenuous last few days, for some reason I am exhausted. Perhaps it is all the sand fly bites I have, but something is kicking my ass. So it’s easy to say that in the evening I didn’t get up to much other than movie watching. For example, I watched Independence Day and fell asleep. Life is grand.
Today however followed similarly, I had my Open Water Dives 1 & 2. I covered more skills from yesterday but mostly we just enjoyed the dive. I saw tuna, parrotfish, scrawled filefish, ceole wrasse, trumpet fish, and gray angel fish on my first dive. The second I saw snapper, blue chromis, tuna, and a porcupine fish. I highly suggest you google image the above! Absolutely amazing.
Finally when I returned to the dock I cleaned up my gear, had a shower, and went in search of food. I found quesadillas and banana bread at Myra’s (a restaurant on Jewel Cay with a typically delicious meal of the day). That afternoon I spent generally lazing about again. A tough life, I know!
I have also been making an effort to sit and watch the sunsets while I’ve been here. Around 5:30pm you can head out and see it, plus it is a full moon right now and the moon is showing off. Either direction you look it is a sight too grand for my camera, but it does its best. Here is an example of what I watched today:
I finished off the day by watching Monty Python and The Holy Grail and Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, & A Close Shave. Seriously what do I have to complain about??
Also apparently “Tis but a flesh wound” in Spanish is “Es solo una herida superficial”. Somehow I like the English version better...
That afternoon I watched some tv, talked to some of the other people here, and mostly just chilled the hell out. Although it hasn’t been a strenuous last few days, for some reason I am exhausted. Perhaps it is all the sand fly bites I have, but something is kicking my ass. So it’s easy to say that in the evening I didn’t get up to much other than movie watching. For example, I watched Independence Day and fell asleep. Life is grand.
Today however followed similarly, I had my Open Water Dives 1 & 2. I covered more skills from yesterday but mostly we just enjoyed the dive. I saw tuna, parrotfish, scrawled filefish, ceole wrasse, trumpet fish, and gray angel fish on my first dive. The second I saw snapper, blue chromis, tuna, and a porcupine fish. I highly suggest you google image the above! Absolutely amazing.
Finally when I returned to the dock I cleaned up my gear, had a shower, and went in search of food. I found quesadillas and banana bread at Myra’s (a restaurant on Jewel Cay with a typically delicious meal of the day). That afternoon I spent generally lazing about again. A tough life, I know!
I have also been making an effort to sit and watch the sunsets while I’ve been here. Around 5:30pm you can head out and see it, plus it is a full moon right now and the moon is showing off. Either direction you look it is a sight too grand for my camera, but it does its best. Here is an example of what I watched today:
I finished off the day by watching Monty Python and The Holy Grail and Wallace and Gromit’s A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, & A Close Shave. Seriously what do I have to complain about??
Also apparently “Tis but a flesh wound” in Spanish is “Es solo una herida superficial”. Somehow I like the English version better...
My day of discovery
Today was an early start, I had to be at the dive shop around 7:00am to catch my boat over to the Cayes. Specifically the Jewel Cay, where I am apparently staying and start off my diving experience. This morning I was taking the “Discover Dive” with Captain Morgans and is essentially a crash course in how to dive.
The boat ride to the Jewel Cay was really beautiful. While I don’t have any photos, I will say that the sunbeams poking through the rain clouds was impressive. Especially considering the immensity of the storm clouds themselves. By the time we got to the Cay I had just enough time to drop my crap off in the room and head to pick up my gear. My dive instructor is Juju and her assistant instructor is Shane; these guys will be showing me the ropes today. My partner in crime was Dave, the newbies together to attempt diving.
Together Dave and I learned some key skills like partial mask fill, recovery of your regulator, and more fun/terrifying things. Then we were able to embark on an actual dive. I definitely felt a bit like I was in Finding Nemo as I cruised past the reef walls, minus the location and clown fish. But I saw a lot of fish, some really impressive coral, and just getting over the novelty of being able to breath underwater. Overall, I had an absolutely wonderful first experience and was quite sad to get out of the water.
With a significant lack of clean clothes and no bathing suit I opted to return to Utila in order to rectify these errors. Unfortunately my laundry wasn’t ready yet, so I had to meander around for a bit. I managed to find a bathing suit shop which had a bathing suit that not only looked great, but was a decent price. And just because I could, I bought an interesting handmade necklace which featured a natural stone and a coin with sanskrit on it. The owner also happened to be from Victoria, Canada and has been living down there for the past four years. She was incredibly friendly and even had some vegetarian restaurant places to recommend. One of which was the Indian Wok.
As I was about 20 feet from the restaurant I ran into a Barbara, a former student from Antigua. We ended up not having a proper goodbye the first time so I was very glad to run into her. Although at first we both almost failed to recognize each other, but after long and almost awkward eye contact, we figured it out. We had a good laugh and started swapping stories of our travels during the weeks apart. Including the fun gossip about the people we knew in Antigua. In particular I was able to discuss to her the man who reached infamous status in Antigua. We both discovered we were headed in the same direction (Nicaragua) and we decided to stay in touch and see if we could be travel buddies for a while.
To get back to the Cay, I ended up catching a ride with the marine guards. Victor was the one I chatted with the most and told me about their job. Apparently they parole the waters to prevent fishing in protected areas and other illegal activities. He also told me about the biggest problem on Utila which is overpopulation and unemployment. Victor believes though that tourists are still good for the Island because at least it creates jobs.
For dinner tonight we all headed to a local restaurant and ended up having an entirely wonderful conversation with Yolanda. We talked about the things which I love the most: veganism, the environment, corporate and political corruption, and finally books. This conversation continued when we got back from the restaurant and thus I ended up not getting my homework done. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!
The boat ride to the Jewel Cay was really beautiful. While I don’t have any photos, I will say that the sunbeams poking through the rain clouds was impressive. Especially considering the immensity of the storm clouds themselves. By the time we got to the Cay I had just enough time to drop my crap off in the room and head to pick up my gear. My dive instructor is Juju and her assistant instructor is Shane; these guys will be showing me the ropes today. My partner in crime was Dave, the newbies together to attempt diving.
Together Dave and I learned some key skills like partial mask fill, recovery of your regulator, and more fun/terrifying things. Then we were able to embark on an actual dive. I definitely felt a bit like I was in Finding Nemo as I cruised past the reef walls, minus the location and clown fish. But I saw a lot of fish, some really impressive coral, and just getting over the novelty of being able to breath underwater. Overall, I had an absolutely wonderful first experience and was quite sad to get out of the water.
With a significant lack of clean clothes and no bathing suit I opted to return to Utila in order to rectify these errors. Unfortunately my laundry wasn’t ready yet, so I had to meander around for a bit. I managed to find a bathing suit shop which had a bathing suit that not only looked great, but was a decent price. And just because I could, I bought an interesting handmade necklace which featured a natural stone and a coin with sanskrit on it. The owner also happened to be from Victoria, Canada and has been living down there for the past four years. She was incredibly friendly and even had some vegetarian restaurant places to recommend. One of which was the Indian Wok.
As I was about 20 feet from the restaurant I ran into a Barbara, a former student from Antigua. We ended up not having a proper goodbye the first time so I was very glad to run into her. Although at first we both almost failed to recognize each other, but after long and almost awkward eye contact, we figured it out. We had a good laugh and started swapping stories of our travels during the weeks apart. Including the fun gossip about the people we knew in Antigua. In particular I was able to discuss to her the man who reached infamous status in Antigua. We both discovered we were headed in the same direction (Nicaragua) and we decided to stay in touch and see if we could be travel buddies for a while.
To get back to the Cay, I ended up catching a ride with the marine guards. Victor was the one I chatted with the most and told me about their job. Apparently they parole the waters to prevent fishing in protected areas and other illegal activities. He also told me about the biggest problem on Utila which is overpopulation and unemployment. Victor believes though that tourists are still good for the Island because at least it creates jobs.
For dinner tonight we all headed to a local restaurant and ended up having an entirely wonderful conversation with Yolanda. We talked about the things which I love the most: veganism, the environment, corporate and political corruption, and finally books. This conversation continued when we got back from the restaurant and thus I ended up not getting my homework done. Oh well, there is always tomorrow!
Wednesday, 9 November 2011
Day 1: Discover Utila
Technically I was supposed to be up for 7:00am in order to catch the boat to Water Cay. I opted instead to sleep in. Which turned out to be a good call because it rained this morning and the water was incredibly rough. So rough that we couldn’t reach our accommodations. By the time I made it to the shop and heard the news I was given the opportunity to watch some “informative” videos about how awesome it was to have your PADI certification. Tomorrow I go for my discover dive, to figure out if I want to get my open water certification. So stay tuned.
I spent my afternoon investigating the town itself, even though today is Sunday and pretty much everything is closed. I was able to walk around most of the South side of the island and see the restaurants, shops, supermarkets, and people who inhabit this island. I loved looking at the homes here; they are built on stilts with these big southern style wrap around decks. Everything here has a laid back vibe, yet I get the impression that there really isn’t much to do here if you aren’t working or diving. Or something connected to these activities.
I stopped for a bottle of water at an interesting place called “Rehab,” a bar. From there I went to Munchie’s for lunch. After that I pretty much ran out of things to do and headed back to my room to watch “The End of the Line” documentary about overfishing. Interestingly here a lot of restaurants have a sustainable fish board and advertises that they do not use fish from this area. Which I suppose is good, but I do wonder then where this fish they are eating comes from. If you haven’t seen the documentary I encourage you to do so. It raises the question of how far will humans push nature to the brink without thinking sustainably, something I have been contemplating a lot lately.
The Canadian girls who I met the other day in Copan invited me out with a big group of other travelers they have met here. While the meal was great, I do occasionally have difficulty dealing with the types of people who travel. In particular the type who party every night and use drugs. I don’t care how “awesome the weed is” here. Not including the serious impacts that drugs like cocaine are having in places like Honduras, why the hell is it common place to talk about that when I just met you? For starters it’s not like I am able to join in on this, short of telling you that I think you are being stupid. Additionally, no story in my life will ever top the idiocy of the shit you did when you were high. But thanks for sharing. I’m really glad to know that you drive while high.
Perhaps I am in a judgmental mood, but is it really so difficult for people in my generation to stop and think? About the impact of their actions, about the world around them? Indeed these are heavy topics, but frankly I love talking about serious things with people I will likely never see again. I’m going to talk to you for a night, can’t we make it about a serious topic? After all I will learn more about you in a story of your opinion on religion, politics, environmental issues, or even your own personal history then the amount of alcohol you consumed last night.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that it is a personal choice to have a glass of wine or even one to many. We are each capable of making decisions about our lives. What I don’t understand is how our society when from talking about topics of substance to talking about the last time we were wasted. I want to know about you. What you stand for, what you believe. If all we are going to discuss is the last time you were drunk we are not going to have a lot to say to each other. After all when is there a better time to talk about abstract topics then when you are liking only going to spend a few days together.
On this trip I have been fortunate to have the majority of my conversations surround substantial things. Or at least avoid moments of total “I was so drunk” tales. Nor would I only want to talk about heavy topics. Sometimes I wish that it was less rare for people in my generation to not drink, to not do drugs, and for people in general to consider consciously about the impacts of their actions.
Okay, rant over. Sleep now.
I spent my afternoon investigating the town itself, even though today is Sunday and pretty much everything is closed. I was able to walk around most of the South side of the island and see the restaurants, shops, supermarkets, and people who inhabit this island. I loved looking at the homes here; they are built on stilts with these big southern style wrap around decks. Everything here has a laid back vibe, yet I get the impression that there really isn’t much to do here if you aren’t working or diving. Or something connected to these activities.
I stopped for a bottle of water at an interesting place called “Rehab,” a bar. From there I went to Munchie’s for lunch. After that I pretty much ran out of things to do and headed back to my room to watch “The End of the Line” documentary about overfishing. Interestingly here a lot of restaurants have a sustainable fish board and advertises that they do not use fish from this area. Which I suppose is good, but I do wonder then where this fish they are eating comes from. If you haven’t seen the documentary I encourage you to do so. It raises the question of how far will humans push nature to the brink without thinking sustainably, something I have been contemplating a lot lately.
The Canadian girls who I met the other day in Copan invited me out with a big group of other travelers they have met here. While the meal was great, I do occasionally have difficulty dealing with the types of people who travel. In particular the type who party every night and use drugs. I don’t care how “awesome the weed is” here. Not including the serious impacts that drugs like cocaine are having in places like Honduras, why the hell is it common place to talk about that when I just met you? For starters it’s not like I am able to join in on this, short of telling you that I think you are being stupid. Additionally, no story in my life will ever top the idiocy of the shit you did when you were high. But thanks for sharing. I’m really glad to know that you drive while high.
Perhaps I am in a judgmental mood, but is it really so difficult for people in my generation to stop and think? About the impact of their actions, about the world around them? Indeed these are heavy topics, but frankly I love talking about serious things with people I will likely never see again. I’m going to talk to you for a night, can’t we make it about a serious topic? After all I will learn more about you in a story of your opinion on religion, politics, environmental issues, or even your own personal history then the amount of alcohol you consumed last night.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe that it is a personal choice to have a glass of wine or even one to many. We are each capable of making decisions about our lives. What I don’t understand is how our society when from talking about topics of substance to talking about the last time we were wasted. I want to know about you. What you stand for, what you believe. If all we are going to discuss is the last time you were drunk we are not going to have a lot to say to each other. After all when is there a better time to talk about abstract topics then when you are liking only going to spend a few days together.
On this trip I have been fortunate to have the majority of my conversations surround substantial things. Or at least avoid moments of total “I was so drunk” tales. Nor would I only want to talk about heavy topics. Sometimes I wish that it was less rare for people in my generation to not drink, to not do drugs, and for people in general to consider consciously about the impacts of their actions.
Okay, rant over. Sleep now.
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