Long Time No Blog

It is hard to believe that October is gone and we have been in Nicaragua four months. Things have been a bit slow of late.  Given the rains, the pets, and our work we ended up staying close to town during the past six weeks. We enjoyed some shopping trips to Matagalpa, a nice meal for our wedding anniversary, the national volleyball championship held in our town, and hanging out with friends. Jeff’s job ended and he started doing some consulting work with nonprofits in Nicaragua and the USA.  Aileen started construction on a new school. Emma and Hannah continue to study, play and grow.

Since things have been slow, we will tell you about some interesting medical experiences. As you may have heard, there has been an outbreak of Leptospirosis in Nicaragua and we were getting very nervous. The health care system in Nicaragua was really broken when we lived here in 2000 so we were not sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised when a health worker came to our door to discuss Leptospirosis. He provided us a prophylaxis for the disease and said he would return each week with more until the outbreak passes. He then asked if we wanted our H1N1 vaccines while he was visiting!  Unfortunately Jeff had another experience with the medical system after accidentally sticking his hand in our puppy’s mouth while playing (true story Mom, it was NOT a bite so don’t worry). The medical clinic patched him up, ruled out rabies and gave him a tetanus shot. It was a bit disconcerting getting treated in the hallway of the clinic but they got the job done.  The most interesting thing to note is that everything was free thanks to the Sandinista government’s focus on universal health care. Life is far from perfect here but perhaps the USA can learn a few things from Nicaragua.

Fortunately, we now have more interesting things to talk about than our health.  The rainy season is over, school is winding down, Jeff’s job ended and our puppy is growing up. Time to hit the road again!  This past weekend we went to Playa Coco on the Pacific Ocean which is about six hours from our house and an hour or so from the border with Costa Rica. After the long and grueling drive to our cottage by the beach, the girls shot out of the car, quickly changed and bolted to the water.

That night, we drove to nearby Playa La Flor to look for the sea turtles that come ashore to lay eggs every year. When we got to this nearby national park, we paid our entrance fee and were assigned a guide who covered our lights with red cellophane paper before taking us on a short hike to the beach. We were not prepared for what we saw. There were nearly one thousand turtles on the shore – coming and going with little regard for anything other than laying their eggs and getting back to the ocean. Each of us was nearly knocked over numerous times by the giant turtles. Our guide took us to a turtle in the process of finishing her nest (a deep hole in the sand) and laying her eggs. We watched her lay about 100 eggs and cover the nest with packed sand. We then followed her back to the ocean and she swam off without looking back.

The next day we were all pretty tired and decided to play on the beach. There were very few people around this undeveloped area so we had the place mostly to ourselves. We cooked our meals in the shared kitchen near our cottage and had a nice, mellow day. We watched the World Series that evening and went to bed soon after. We had such a good time we decided to extend our stay for another night. Rather than leaving the next morning we woke up early and took a boat to nearby Bolanos Island in Costa Rica. After a one hour ocean trip during which we saw sea turtles, schools of fish and amazing scenery, we arrived at a pristine beach on a deserted island. After a totally treacherous hike up a steep hill our guide brought us to the only frigatgebird nesting site in Nicaragua or Costa Rica. It was quite a site.

The rest of our trip was spent lounging around, playing and chatting. The girls spoke of the Giants, their friends and Halloween. They decided that next year would be Nicaraguan themed costumes. Emma said she wants to be a native Nicaraguan princess. Hannah said she wants to be a stupid drunk guy. Enough said.

We drove back on Monday and did something we try to avoid at all costs – driving at night. However it was really hard to leave the beach so we decided to deal with the horror of Nicaraguan night driving. Jeff actually liked the madness (figures) and drove all the way home. We stopped at a pizza place on the way back and got to watch the World Series. Needless to say that was a huge thrill. When we rolled into town Monday night we noticed a new street sign. We were very excited as signage is rare in Nicaragua. However, our excitement turned to laughter when we realized the sign guiding drivers toward a nearby city was pointing in the wrong direction; why someone put this up is a mystery.

Hail the Victorious Gigantes!

Hopefully this brings our readers up to date. We are looking forward to vacation and upcoming travels and will share them with you in future posts.