Seder y Primos nuevamente

Meandering the pastoral landscape of Miraflor...


Flora in Reserva Miraflor


Batidos "estilo norteamericano" ... after an arduous campo road back from Miraflor, we encountered el Palacio de los Batidos, owned by a Nica entrepreneur whose concrete "palacio" seeks to create the perfect smoothie on the deserted Jinotega-Matagalpa highway. Cousins were not disappointed.


Becca and Josh continued their 6-year tradition of hosting Passover Seder, with the inaugural out-of-country event! Here Becca reads from the Haggadah, as Jonathan focuses on the 3rd cup of wine.

Several key substitutions on the Seder plate:
Lamb --> Pelibuey (tropical, wool-less sheep)
Matzoh --> Guirila (fresh, thick corn tortilla)
Orange --> Naranja agria (bitter orange)
Manishevitz --> Chilean Cabernet and Argintinean Malbec

Primos en Nicaragua

Lucky Primo Josh had the privilege of a visit from his beloved primos Kate and Jonathan in late-March. They spontaneously decided to tour Nicaragua, with their first stop in Josh and Lily's home base of Matagalpa. They proceeded to the Reserva Natural de Miraflor, roughly a 2 hour drive northwest of Matagalpa.

Our adventurecito included several spottings of the rare scissor-tail hawk (and many many many other aviary species!):


A baseball game, with certain obstacles in left field:


The rising moon in late afternoon:


An adventerous Pelibuey:

SPRING BREAK!

This year, I had three consecutive spring breaks. I'm pretty sure Ortega will appoint me to some high-level tourism position any moment now.

Spring break #1: The Visit of the Deb!

Deb came to visit us on her break from law school. We showed off Matagalpa and went to Esteli and the beautiful Miraflor Reserve. Miraflor is made up of a handful of rural communities that coordinate tourism in the area. It's a great model of community-driven development. Deb and I stayed in a rustic cabin at Fuente de Vida, one of the lodging options in the community of El Cebollal. It was lush, relaxing and had great gallo pinto! Here are some photos from our walks:

Matapolo Tree:

Spring break #2: Sister!

Then Rosie flew in and we went straight to Playa Jiquilillo, in the Northwest corner of the country, near El Salvador. A remote and beautiful dark sand beach. We stayed at Rancho Tranquilo, which is run by a San Francisco hippy. We met an interesting assortment of folks: the owner's ex-Navy Seal boyfriend, the intern at the hostel who will long live on in my memory for declaring that the owner of the hostel (who clearly hated working) was "too capitalist," the ex-pat from Northern California who seemed to live on vast quantities of rum.

Path to the beach:

Rosie on the beach:

After a stop in Matagalpa, Rosie and I made our way to Ometepe on a long journey involving many buses, a ferry and one last terrible bus ride. I'm pretty sure Rosie wanted to kill me. But she suppressed this desire and we enjoyed our time in paradise. Ometepe is one of my favorite places in Nicaragua. Its landscape is shaped by two volcanoes, one pictured here in the view from our hotel:

We spent a lot of time on the beach which is often used as a road by bikes/motorcycles due to the fact that it is 100 times better than the actual road. Women doing laundry in the lake:

We walked to Ojo de Agua, a swimming hole, on our last day. It was about an hour and a half and very hot so by the time we arrived the water felt incredible. A picture of Rosie on the walk encountering a herd of animals she doesn't see very often on the Lower East Side.

Happy in the water!

Spring break #3: The Return of Betsy!

Nicaragua missed Betsy and craved her return. Please see the previous posts on our trip to Little Corn Island.

Highlights:

-Coco Bread

-Waking up to the sound of wind and waves

-Walking most of the island - there are no cars or roads, only footpaths

-Finding "our" beach, a particularly gorgeous one where we never saw anyone

-"Iron Man" challenge to get to dinner. One night we went to dinner on the opposite side of the island. Our shortcut turned out to be rather treacherous and I arrived soaking wet after some unanticipated swimming became necessary. It was worth it because dinner was such a special experience at Ensuenos, an especially remote hotel. Take an eccentric Spanish owner, add an eccentric Italian chef and a couple of blissful newlyweds as employees and you get the idea. Luckily on the return trip we found the path we should have taken all along and encountered many enormous land crabs.

-Snorkeling boat with one man wearing jean shorts and the other only one flipper. We saw nurse sharks and a sting ray but the jean shorts really stick in my mind. From now on I will only go swimming in them.

-Our miraculous fishing trip

-Hanging out with Becca and Anand!

Spring break is over now.

It's a big one!

Lily shows off our biggest catch: a 23-pound kingfish!!! It was quite an exciting fish to land. And amazing eating too... This had to have been one of the most successful fishing expeditions in the lives of Lily, Betsy and Josh. We caught a whole bucket of fish, roughly two miles off the coast of Little Corn Island with Alfonso, our guide. In the late afternoon, as the sun was setting, Alfonso's wife cooked up our various catches in a variety of ways (grilled and fried). With rice, beans, tortillas and salsa we had a feast in the best hunter-gatherer fashion.


12-pound barracuda cuddles with the kingfish atop a stack of yellow-fin snappers (fryers!)


Aboard HMS Alfonso


Alfonso and Great Frigate

A Secluded Gem

Little Corn Island is a remote Caribbean island of 700 inhabitants off of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua. It is a full day's travel from Managua, via air, land and sea.

The destination is incredible. We encountered deserted beaches, clear waters, swaying palm trees, sharks, friendly locals and tourists, and much more...



Although there are no motorized vehicles on the island whatsoever, there are however a few speed bumps to restrain the speed of bikers and perhaps ... pedestrians. Welcome to Island Time.


Lily and Betsy meander along the windward shore of Little Corn.

Escape to Little Corn Island

Betsy and Lily brandish their Costena Airlines boarding passes. It was 5:30am after an evening on the town in Managua. We were not necessarily in top condition. They show a very respectable level of energy for this hour.


On the other hand... Al contrario ... Josh does not appear to have the same level of energy aboard the Cessna Caravan on the way to the Caribbean.


Betsy has purchased a sold quantity of Pan de Coco for our snacking purposes! She acquired said bread after a treacherous run in the dark.


All of this in paradise.

Xoco tasting session at Chocolopolis, Seattle

Josh and Lauren Adler, owner of Chocolopolis


Bean and bar tasting... Nicaraguan blend and Honduran Indio Rojo were big hits!

Atardecer en Jinotega

Sunset from the old highway to Jinotega...


One of your faithful correspondents...

Valentine's Day Hike at Cerro Apante

To celebrate Dia de los Enamorados (Nicaraguans have translated Valentine's Day more figuratively), Lily and Josh took a beautiful hike high above the city. We summited Cerro Apante, where a mirador provides a panoramic view of the Matagalpa Valley. The peal white Cathedral, just 4 blocks from our apartment serves as a prominent reference point.


Zooming in... If you trace from the Cathedral to direction 4 o'clock for a few blocks, you arrive at Apartamento Lily y Josh.


Self-portraiture.


While we did not see or hear howler monkeys (que lastima!), the wilderness was beautiful in the natural resurve. Mosses, cacti, and many birds abound...

Birthday in the Bay Islands

For my birthday, Josh and I went to the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. Despite the geographic proximity it is actually quite difficult to get there because TACA the evil monopoly usually charges an arm and a leg. This time it was just an arm so we seized the opportunity.

Due to the islands' history, there is a mix of English and Spanish spoken, and a plethora of accents within those groups. The islands have been controlled by the British, Spanish and Dutch for periods before becoming part of Honduras. In recent years, a lot more mainlanders have been coming to the Bay Islands for work opportunities, making for a continually changing dynamic. I was really impressed by the relaxed relationship we witnessed between locals, expats and tourists.

We flew into Roatan and stayed in the West End. The town's main road is basically a continuation of the beach and is bordered by bars, hotels, restaurants, dive shops and of course pulperias (corner stores). We stayed at this great place called Posada Arco Iris which is run by an Argentinian couple and is part hotel, part delicious Argentinian Grill. The weather was not great the first day but we were content because we discovered THAI FOOD. After a 4 month separation from one of my favorite cuisines, even just OK thai made me blissfully happy.

The next day we set sail from Roatan to Utila with Captain Vernon on his 39' catamaran. It was about 4 hours and great to be on the water. We met a bunch of nice people on the boat who we then saw about 20 times over the course of our stay in Utila (to give a sense of scale). Utila is much smaller than Roatan and we found it to be really charming. It's known as one of the most affordable places to dive/learn to dive and attracts a backpacker crowd. It was super friendly and laid-back. We had a lot of fun biking around the island on our decrepit rental bikes!

We sailed back to Roatan after 2 nights on Utila. Highlight of our last day was definitely snorkeling. The reef is very close to shore, huge and full of life. Because most people dive there we pretty much had it all to ourselves! The lowlight was seeing what happens to West End when cruise ships come to Roatan - very scary. Luckily, it's not an everyday event but still...I hate cruise ships!

An important observation: Honduran beer is better than Nicaraguan beer.

Breakfast at Cafe Mariposa (beignets, cappuccinos)

Bike ride to the Utila airport. If you look closely, you will see Lily, her bicycle, a herd of cattle, and the one airplane resting on the strip.

Dinner.

Sunset at Halfmoon Bay, West End, Roatan.

Bay Islands images, cont'd

Aboard Captain Vernon's Roatan-Utila catamaran shuttle.

Sunset Utila.

Main street, Utila.

Honduran mainland from Utila harbor. Tallest peak is Pico Bonito (2,400m).