Cascada de San Ramon

Another weekend and another outing to do something cool on Ometepe.  On this day we decided to visit Cascada de San Ramon, the waterfall named after the tiny village of the same name.  Or vice versa.  Or they're both named after the river.  We figured this would be a fun day spent in the jungles of Nicaragua.  And it was only 3k from San Ramon to the falls.  How hard could that be, right?  Um... yeah.

We asked Darwin, one of the staff here at Hacienda Merida as well as a member of our adult English class, what the hike was like.  "It will take you maybe one and half hours."  Got it - two and half to three hours.  One thing we've learned is that Nicaraguan's underestimate - time and distance, mostly.

Our original plan was to grab 'our' bikes from 'Yuri's Bike Shop' and ride to the village of San Ramon.  Then we could park the bikes, hike to the falls, ride back.  Except there happened to be large group from Germany staying here at HM and they had reserved all the decent bikes, so we were out of luck.  There were other bikes in the shed but the rides come in two styles - functional and non-functional.  To be classified as 'functional', a bike will have one of the two brakes work, gears that might shift, and will have air in the tires, with the amount of pressure varying from bike to bike, tire to tire.

Before we go on, let's flashback one week:
We had taken bikes out the weekend before on a ride to Santa Cruz, a small village about 5k away.  That morning we walked over to the shop where the bikes are stored and found Yuri.  Yuri is from Russia, somehow ended up on Ometepe 4-5 years ago and can't wait to get the hell out of here.  I'll do a post on him later - interesting dude.  Anyway, we told him we wanted a couple of bikes to ride to Santa Cruz so he showed us the fleet.  Of the 20 or so bikes, he pointed out four.  "Good.  Good.  Good.  Good.  Rest - no good."  We eyeballed the  choices and picked our two steeds.  They were rideable, which is all we really expected.

The ride to Santa Cruz was fun!  It was great to be on a bike again.  The road is just treacherous enough to make things interesting.  Riding with no helmet and using platform pedals was a little anxiety inducing, too, but - when in Rome!  Woot woot!  My 'good' bike had a non-functioning back brake and a front one that worked if I squeezed hard.  Of the four bikes available, I grabbed the biggest frame but it was way too small for me.

Who is that handsome circus bear?

I tried shifting once and the chain moved up one ring, but after that I couldn't quite get it to stop skipping around the gears - shouldn't have messed with it.

Bex!'s ride seemed a little better than mine.  Riding on this road was great for the mountain bike skills.  Picking a line through the ruts, washouts and rocks required continuous focus.  Even on the stretches that were in pretty good shape, we reminded each other to take it easy.  One fall with no brain bucket could spell the end of our adventure.   We reached the paved part of the road, which meant we were almost to Santa Cruz.  Woohoo!  Once we got to town, we stopped to chat about what to do next.  Options:  a] turn around and head back; b] go left toward Playa Domingo on the isthmus; c] turn right to head around the north end of Volcan Maderas toward Balgüe.  

Moo-ving right along.

We opted for [c] and enjoyed the rolling hills.  The road was good - more paver stones and in great condition.  We've asked around and found out that when the government paved the road to Maderas several years back, they had to make a choice when they hit Santa Cruz:  pave toward Merida or pave toward Balgüe.  Well, since there are many ex-pats living around Balgüe (i.e. - more money) guess which stretch got paved?  

Lake Nicaragua is HUGE.  Looking west from Merida, where we're staying, we can see the mainland.  But as we pedaled around the north end of Maderas toward Balgüe, the road rises and we had spectacular views from above.  We eventually got to where we were looking out north and east, and there was no land in sight!  Lake = big.

Como se dice 'big' en español?

We didn't make it all the way to Balgüe.  We turned around just past the little village of Madroñal.  When we got back to Santa Cruz, we parked it at a pulperia and enjoyed a cold drink - Coca-Cola for me, Fanta for Bex!.  After our short break, we savored the last bit of paved road before we got back on the crappy stuff for the ride back to Merida.  We made it to the barn without incident.  It was a very fun day on bikes!

Now, back to our San Ramon tale:
So, with no bikes left to choose from, we opted to walk from HM.  We figured it was only about 4k to San Ramon, then the 3k up to the waterfall.  That would put our day at 14k or about 9 miles.  Piece of pastel (cake).  We filled CamelBaks, sunscreened up, switched comfortable flip flops for stoopid trail shoes and hit the road.  It was hot and humid, but we were in good spirits.  Off on another adventure!!

Our adventure turned into 11+ miles and over 2,000 feet of elevation gain.  Here's the Garmin map and data for the day.

The road is up and down for about a kilometer, then it hugs the lake and is in pretty good shape.  Being on foot allowed us to enjoy the sights, stopping to look at swarms of butterflies, cool houses and views across the water.  We could make out the dock at San Ramon so knew we were getting close to the village.  San Ramon is small - a couple of restaurants, a pulperia and one hostel.  The biggest - and only - draw here is that it is the entrance to the waterfall.

Lots of rich people docks in San Ramon.

The Biological Field Station located in San Ramon is part of the Maderas Rain Forest Conservancy.  You can read all about the work they're doing to preserve this pristine piece of jungle here .  We paid the 75 cordobas each ($3) and the guard told us there were bathrooms about 150 meters up and that the trail started up toward the left.  Perfect!  We were ready to go.

Are we still in Nicaragua?

The road from the entrance up to the bathroom and restaurant was - unusual.  Manicured lawns, treelined road, immaculate gardens.  Much different from the organized chaos we've become accustomed to here.  We knew we were in for a special day when we were joined by this guy:

Every adventure needs a good spirit guide to lead the way.

What could possibly go wrong with an albino German Shepard leading the way?  He and another pooch, a heavy-breathing bull terrier led us up most of the way, stopping at each corner until we caught up to them, then bounding ahead.  Waiting for gringoes, bounding ahead.  This pattern repeated for a while.  After a time, I couldn't hear the difference between the terrier's panting and my own.  We were apparently meant for each other.

The first couple of kilometers took us along a 'road' - kind of a Jeep trail - and through some groves of fruit trees.  The climb was steadily up and afforded us fantastic views back down toward the lake.  

We're smiling so this pic must have been on the way up!

There are signs along the way marking the kilometers, informing us how far we'd come.  Of course, I read them as 'how far I still had to go'.  Huffing and puffing, we came around a corner and saw this guy standing in the middle of the road.

Clearly, we should have turned back at this point.

This couldn't be a good omen.  Where the hell was our spirit guide, anyway!?  

At about the 2k mark there is a hydroelectric plant, a small one, that I imagine generates a bit of juice.  It's catching the flow of water that runs downhill from the waterfall.  At this spot, there is a small parking lot.  People who don't want to walk the entire distance can get a guide to drive them to this point.  From here it's about 2k to the top.  See, do the math: the 3k climb had now become 4k-ish.   

Lies, all lies.

This is totally it.  Right?  I mean, right?

We walked past the parking area, waved at some of the drivers who had brought less enthusiastic (re: smarter) hikers up in vehicles then we started up the trail.  A couple of the drivers started shouting at us, so we looked back and they were pointing us in another direction.  Apparently, the trail we had started up led to the top of the volcano.  We wanted the right fork, the path to the waterfall.  So thankful they caught us!  We fired the spirit guide on the spot.  Not sure what became of his partner, the canine heavy breather.

I'm waiting for the pterodactyl.

The trail from here was narrow and very steep in spots.  At one point we had to scramble over rocks around a bend in the river to pick up the trail again.  We took our time, stopping for breaks as needed - Bex! to take pictures, me to breathe.  Eventually we saw glimpses of the waterfall through the trees and soon enough - the top!  It was a relief to make it up.  I was one tired sweaty hiker.

Because there's no one to sue.

There were 8-10 others there already, enjoying the cool spray off the falls.  We hung out for while, took our shoes off and soaked our feet.  It felt good to get the damn shoes off!  The waterfall drops about 50m and the flow varies greatly during the year, from 'roaring' during the rainy season to 'barely a wisp of water' in the dry months.  We hit the sweet spot.

Waterfall spray - better than air conditioning

After about hour and with clouds looming, we headed back down.  Since it took longer than we expected (shoulda known better) we were hungry and low on water.  We walked along in silence, mostly.  Just wanted to get to the restaurant and eat!

No such luck.  When we got to the bottom, the place was empty.  The door was unlocked so we were able to refill packs.  But it didn't help the hunger situation at all.  On the verge of a meltdown, we walked down to the guard shack and asked where the nearest food was located.  He pointed us into San Ramon, about 300 meters.  It was the opposite direction we needed to eventually go, but it turned out just fine.  We ate a late lunch at Karina's.  

She (I assume it was Karina) came to our table, recited the menu options to us and waited for our order.  I ordered cerdo asada - stewed pork - and she immediately shot me down.  It would take too long, she warned.  The fastest dish would be fried chicken, she nudged.  So that's what we ordered, along with a big bottle of ice cold water and glorious Cokes!  During lunch, we watched as all manner of livestock wandered right by our table - chickens, pigs, cows.  Even a horse got pretty close.  I'll never scoff at dogs in restaurants in the states again.  As we ate and people rolled by on bikes, we joked about how much we would pay for their ride.  And how much a taxi could make off us if one happened by!

After re-fueling, we started the hike back home.  We were feeling better, yes, but just wanted to get home.  Walking along quietly, enjoying each others company and feeling pretty thankful that we were almost done, we knew we would be okay when we saw this painted on a community center:

With all the honey he would be Mead Pooh.

Come on, we've all had the 'wine poo's at some point, right?

We laughed and joked about this the rest of the way back.  Our day was longer and harder than expected, more stressful then we would have wanted.  But one little silly sign had our spirits rejuvenated and we finished the adventure walking hand in hand.

Finally back home, we soaked our feet in the lake, enjoyed the cold showers and hit the dinner buffet with healthy appetites.  Mmmm - pizza!! 

Good night!

Un Mapa de Ometepe

I figured since I've been writing about this gorgeous tropical island that I should probably provide you with a reference so you can follow along at home.

Enjoy!

Our English Classes

In addition to our kindergarteners, we are also teaching English classes to two other groups of locals.  The first is a bunch of young adults, ranging in age from 19-28 years old.  Many of these students work here at Hacienda Merida.  The second class consists of high schoolers, ages 15-17.  Our original schedule was for us to help out with the five year olds M-F from 8:30 to 11 AM and teach the young adults weekdays from 5:30 to 7 PM.  Down time in the afternoons.  Weekends off.  Pretty nice schedule, right?  But we were handed the high schoolers, so had to make some adjustments.  That story later.

Oh, how things can change.

Let's start with the young adults because this is the first class we met with.  They are a diverse mix of people with varying degrees of English speaking ability.  A couple of them are guides here, one is a masseuse, several work the desk for the hotel.  There are also a handful of non-employees, locals who live nearby and heard there were English teachers in town.  They only have a teacher when there is someone here volunteering.  We found out they hadn't had an instructor in two months.  I could go off on a rant about how back home, kids 'hate school' and here people clamor for education.  But I won't - maybe later.  We'll see.

Anyway, on our first Monday we thought we'd do a more casual class - chat with the students, get a sense of what level they were at, learn about them and why they wanted to learn English.  But only a few people showed up.  Word had not yet gotten around the village that we had arrived!  So we had a very informal bull session, which was a lot of fun.  

The next night, however, we had a pretty good crowd and we 'officially' became English instructors!!  

(a brief pause while the applause dies down)

For historical reference, our very first lesson was about food.  No surprise there.  We presented some new vocabulary (hamburgers and toppings), did a listening comprehension exercise and did a mingle activity where students had to interview each other to find out what people did and did not like on their burgers.  I tell you this in case it comes up on 'Jeopardy' some day:

Marla, a bank teller from Gary, Indiana:  I'll take 'Dave and Bex!' for $800, please.
Alex:  Dave and Bex! used this theme for their first ever English lesson at a bilingual school in Nicaragua in 2013.
Marla, still a bank teller from Gary, Indiana:  What is 'food', Alex?
Alex:  You are correct and that gives you the lead!

We immediately enjoyed these students.  They're smart, fun, witty, forgiving of our inexperience and - most importantly - eager to be in class.  They are very thankful to have teachers and are excited to make the most of the opportunity.  Another thing we've noticed - also severely lacking in the US:  here, teachers are respected.  They wave whenever they see us out and about.  They point us out to family and friends as their teachers.  They stop by to ask us questions.  They thank us for our time and for being here.  We had one entertaining night in the common area, too, with several of the students asking us about English slang.  We turned it around on them, asking them the Spanish slang for anything they asked about.  Turn about, fair play and all that.

And now the story of the high schoolers or, more accurately, how we ended up teaching these guys.  Before we arrived, we had Skyped with Alvaro and exchanged many emails as we worked out the details of our stay.  Most volunteers come in and do only the two week minimum that he requires for people wishing to help out at his school.  He was excited that we were committing to six weeks!  This was a little self-serving for us because we wanted to get some real teaching experience prior to looking for paid work elsewhere.  For the school here, it's great because they would have six weeks of continuity, which is so helpful and important for the students.

In one of the emails, Alvaro informed us that he had scored the ultimate volunteer - a retired teacher from the US who was committing to a full year in Merida!!  Between this guy, named Dave Matthews (no, not THAT Dave Matthews) (sorry) (I know - wouldn't that be sooo cool?!) and our extended commitment, Alvaro was extremely excited, of course.  With visions of all of us working together to develop a real actual curriculum, building out the future vision of the school, it had us pretty amped up, too.  We figured we could get a little mentoring from this guy, pick up some solid advice and get some feedback on what we were doing.  Win-win-win!

As mentioned in the last post, Alvaro was out of town our entire first week here.  When we arrived, we were told that Dave Matthews had gone to Managua for the weekend and would be back Tuesday.  Okay, cool.  No problem for us.  Except... Tuesday came and went.  Wednesday.  Thursday.  No word from Dave Matthews.  Friday.  Nothing.  We had never even met the guy and we were getting worried.  

Alvaro returned Saturday.  Dave Matthews did not.  We sat with Alvaro and Esther and discussed the possibilities - 'shanked in Managua' was a popular assumption.  Alvaro was going to give it until Monday, then call the US embassy to see if they knew anything.  As it turned out, he didn't have to make the call.

While we ate breakfast Monday morning, powering up for the kindergarteners, Alvaro walked over to our table.  "I have some good news for you guys!"  Uh oh.  He had received an email from Dave Matthews - the teacher, not the musician (sorry again) (I know - it would be totally awesome if THE Dave Matthews had your email address, right?) stating that he had actually decided to leave and not come back.  Yep.  He said he'd do a year, ended up doing about 7-8 weeks.  He said he was homesick and needed to go home.  He also told Alvaro to keep everything that he'd left behind.  Keep in mind he had just gone to Managua 'for the weekend'.  He only took a small backpack with him.  He left clothes and a large number of books for teaching.  Score for us.  

The 'homesick' excuse is a little suspect only because this guy had taught English on a tiny speck of land in the Marshall Islands in the south Pacific, an island of about 80-90 people total - for 17 years!!!  Maybe Merida was too busy and happening for him.  Who knows.  I'm sure he had his reasons.  But like I said, people here are excited to learn and were thrilled to know they had a bonafide teacher for a whole year.  Basically, he disappointed a lot of people who don't have much to begin with.  

We told Alvaro we'd discuss the situation and meet with him later to work it out.  He left us with the initial suggestion to just drop the young adults and teach the high schoolers.  Well, we weren't going to disappoint our very first English class by telling them 'No more class!  Sorry!  Wait for the next volunteer.'  Like everyone here, learning English can help pave the way to a better life for them and their families. 

So after kindergarten was done, we sat down and reworked our schedule to give the high schoolers the same amount of time they were getting from the dude who bailed out (two-45 minute classes a week) (and by the way, I am NEVER buying one of his CD's ever again!).  We had to cut the young adults back to three nights a week, which isn't ideal but still gives us time with them.  Now out schedule looks like this:

Kindergarteners:  M-F, 8:30-11 AM
High schoolers:  T & Th, 5:30-6:15 PM (sometimes we fudge this and run over)
Young adults:  M, W, F, 5:30-7 PM

The high school kids are fun and becoming more engaged with each class.  They are mostly beginners, with little exposure to English.  So, we're figuring it out as we go.  Just like the young adult class, Bex! had the idea to put together a full curriculum for our time here.  She loves her some spreadsheets.  This has been great for us.  We know what we're teaching each week and it follows a natural progression for the classes, building on previous lessons as we go.

One game the students in both classes have really had fun with is Bingo!  Keep in mind we have very limited resources here - no printer, mainly, so any worksheets we do are hand written for each student.  Woohoo.

Backwards?  This must be my POV when we hold this up for our students.

And this is a music video we used in class to practice Simple Past and Past Progressive:

So there you have it!  We're teachers!!

Dinner with Fiona

It's not unusual here on Ometepe to have livestock wandering around.  I'm telling you, the farm animals rule the roost, so to speak.  There are chickens, roosters, turkeys, pigs, horses, cows and goats running loose all over.  This is just the domesticated stuff.  Add in the monkeys, iguanas, snakes, geckos and a whole bunch of insects and birds - it's the freakin' Animal Kingdom.

Hacienda Merida has a few mascots - a rabbit named Maximus, any number of stray dogs, an iguana we named Iggy, a horse named Princess Luna, two bats I call Bram and Stoker - and Fiona the donkey.

We were sitting in the common area here at Hacienda Merida, enjoying dinner and conversation with Alvaro Molina, the director of the bilingual school here.  It was Alvaro's first night back home after spending a week up north in Esteli, Nicaragua visiting his mother.  In fact, his trip had started when we arrived here, so this was the first time we'd met him face to face.

We had seen Fiona around, grazing on the grounds, minding her own donkey business.  But this night, she must have heard that Alvaro had returned.  Right in the middle of dinner, she joined us to say hi.  She came clip-clopping in from behind Alvaro.  We were sitting opposite him so we saw her approach but didn't really know what to say or do.  Maybe we were just getting used to strange animal interactions.

Alvaro, ever the showman, launched right into a spiel about Hacienda Merida and Fiona, the spokesdonkey.  Pretty entertaining stuff!

For the record, Fiona loves 'pasta roja' (spaghetti with red sauce).

  

Oh the Flora! Oh the Fauna!

Bex! and I have experienced a pretty good variety of plants and animals thus far in Nicaragua.  While we don't have pictures of everything (e.g.: crab in the bed), believe you me you just can't make this sh** up.

For example, we had just been on Ometepe a day or two and one afternoon between morning and evening classes, we decided to go for a walk.  One of us tries to remember to bring a camera each time we wander about.  This time, we both were packing.  We had stopped to take a picture of this sign:

The volcano erupted!  The volcano erupted!

The signs are funny to us because if Volcan Concepción blows up big time, the only thing I'll be evacuating is my bowels.  We're on an island - there are only so many places to go.  To be fair, the Maderas end we're on is dormant and this is a large island.  Everyone could gather on the south end and wait for the ferry to show up.  I'm sure that would be utter chaos (especially on "Nica" time).

So, I took the picture (above) and Bex! was trying to get in position to get the shot she wanted, when she just about stepped on this:

You put your left foot in, you pull your left foot out...

Thank goodness it was dead!  This is my size 13, by the way.  Use it as a reference.  Then shudder.

On another walk in the first week, we decided to go the opposite direction up the road (toward San Ramon; away from the dead snake) when we came across this young boy herding cattle.  Kids in this part of the world, as in many others, have to work way too young.

Spanish speaking cows say "mu"; Spanglish ones say "mu-moo"

On this same walk, we heard what we thought was a pig grunting but didn't see one anywhere.  Hearing the noise again, we looked up and saw three monkeys in the trees above us.  Even though they ignored us, we didn't stick around.  We moved out from underneath them lickety-split.  We tried to get pictures but didn't want to be too close and they were obscured in the branches anyway.

Speaking of monkeys, there is a small island just off Ometepe called Monkey Island.  There are a bunch of capuchin monkeys that were released there from captivity.  Some were chained in zoos or were private pets that outgrew 'cute'.  We kayaked out there one morning and saw them in the trees.  Or more accurately, they saw us coming long before we spotted them.  Visitors are warned not to get too close to the island because its residents can be aggressive, even trying to jump into your boat.  As we approached, we could see the branches moving a la the T-Rex scene in 'Jurassic Park'.  Suddenly, the monkeys appeared!  As we paddled around the island, they followed along in the trees.  It was cool - and a little eerie, too.  "Just a little closer.  Come on.  Let 'em get a little bit closer.  Everyone act cuddly."

There are squirrels on Ometepe!  Yep, pretty big ones, too.  And, weirdest thing, they chew holes in the coconuts, holes large enough to fit their heads inside and they eat the coconut meat!  All around Hacienda Merida there are holey coconuts on the ground. 

Color coded to match the coconut tree

They really work to get as far inside the nut as possible, scrambling to get the right position.  Bex! was sitting at one of the picnic tables one afternoon and a furry blur fell out of the tree and landed on the bench seat opposite her.  The very surprised squirrel jumped up and scurried  back up the tree while an equally surprised wife tried to get a grasp of what had just happened!  [Attention!  Foreshadowing alert!]  This would be the first of three different animals that would fall from the sky in our presence.

Bex! is good at taking pictures of flowers and insects, trying to capture the latter inside the former.  Here are five shots - bees, flowers, butterflies:

Injury works to the photographers advantage (this guy had a shredded wing and was less flighty)

There goes my bee

There goes my bee.  Again.

There we are

There are about 500 pigs in Merida.  Like the rest of the livestock and wildlife here, they have the run of the place. 

Just expressing my innate pigness here

We've seen pigs on the playground at the school up the road and had pigs walking ride by our table when we were eating lunch in San Ramon.  

Let's see - what else... oh, yeah!  I picked up a suitcase in our room and there was a huge toad sitting there.  Gross!  He wasn't a cute little frog - he was a fat ugly toad.  To me, he looked a little like this:

Ya koon tacha poonoo nee sah, gee (Your powers will not work on me, boy)

I walked out and told one of the staff about it.  He handed me a broom and dustpan.  I said, in my clearest body language, "Hell, no - you do it."  He smiled and de-toaded our room.  

There is an iguana who wanders about the grounds.  There's a Russian guy named Yuri who works here.  Told me "Iguana good food".  We've seen Iggy a few times and here is a pic of him:

Things are getting prehistoric up in here

We now come to Fiona, the resident mascot donkey here at Hacienda Merida.  We had dinner with her one night, in fact.  But that's a story (and a video) for another time.  She loves posing for pictures.  Here is a classic:

Buenos Noches, Fiona

In addition to Fiona, there is another resident mascot at Hacienda Merida.  This guy definitely took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.  While there are many rabbits on the island, there is only one like this 'pretty boy' - Maximus.

Why aren't you wiggling your nose?

At sunset, the lightning bugs come out.  And sometimes they join us in bed.

On the list of things we don't want in our bed:  Bex! got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  I woke up to take my turn when she was done.  We use a flashlight to get from the bed to the bathroom and thank goodness we do, because when she came out of the bathroom, her light picked up one of these guys scurrying across the floor:

Not our picture; it's from the innerwebs

He was about 2-3 inches long and disappeared before we could put him out of our misery.  We got the lights on and searched with flashlights to no avail.  Bex! climbed back in bed and I went to the bathroom.  Standing there, I noticed this weird textured spot on the stone bathroom floor.  I almost blew it off but looked closer and, sure enough, it was our little friend.  He blended in with the color of the rock so well I almost missed him.  My flip flop had no trouble seeing him, however.

Just two days ago (Thursday) Bex! was sitting in the common area when she heard a 'splat' behind her.  As she turned around, the stench hit her.  There on the concrete was what was left of an iguana.  By the smell of it, it had been dead some time.  By the looks of it, it had been picked clean by one of the many vultures that live on the island.  His tail and legs were mostly intact but he was nothing but bones and connective tissue above that.  Except most of his head was there, too.  Number 2 on the list of things that fell out of the sky.

Number three on that list happened just today.  Bex! was across the way enjoying some hammock time and I was in the common area writing the previous blog post, when it was my turn to hear something falling from above.  I turned around to see a stick on the ground.  No big deal - until it moved.  Snake!!  This elicited all kinds of excitement, for the gringoes anyway.  It looked so much like a tree branch, as you'll see it the pictures:

It's a branch... with a head!

You lookin' at me?

I can only imagine that wildlife here is embarrassed when it falls out of trees in front of tourists, right?

When I was 7-8 years old, my family lived on Guam.  Dad was stationed there.  I remember bits and pieces, some through memories shared by my older siblings and parents over the years.  But one thing I DO remember is sleeping grass. 

Pat, Jim, Bob, Rich and Susan, this one's for you!!

And finally, the last little morsel to share with you is what happens in Nicaragua if you die here.  This video is fascinatingly morbid and morbidly fascinating.  Bex! found this procession one evening.  The little guy was only 2-2.5" long.  Pretty awesome stuff!  
Note to my buddy George:  Please use any or all of this in your class!

Fun with animals!!

Kindergarten Mafia

"Kindergarten Paradise"
(sung to the tune of ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ by Coolio)

As we awake to the sound of the alarm going off
I open my eyes and dread today’s standoff
I've been wheeling and dealing with these kids so long,
That even my wife thinks that my mind is gone

But they ain’t never crossed a teacher that didn't deserve it
They gang up on us, you know that's not unheard of
We better watch how we talk and where we walk
Or we might end up on the playground lined in colored chalk

I really hate to trip but we gotta corral them
They got markers, colored pencils and Legos to defend ‘em
I'm the kinda teacher the little homies wanna be messin’
Yeah, they look so damn cute the way momma’s be dressin’ them

[Chorus]
We’re fighting for our lives, in kindergarten paradise
Hoping they didn’t bring knives to this kindergarten paradise
They may grow up to be husbands and wives
But right now they rule this paradise

Look at the situation they got us facin'
‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ they be acin’
‘If You’re Happy and You Know It’, it makes them grin
They do the ‘Hokey Pokey’ and be ABC-in’

Sing some songs in Spanish and English, too
But if they get bored, they be makin’ a fool of you
We’re kindergarten teachers and new to this danger
And these kiddies are down so don't arouse their anger, fool

Gettin' stabbed with safety scissors ain't but a heartbeat away,
Tryin’ to survive, do or die, what can we say
Three weeks down and three more to go
The way things are going I don't know

Tell me why are we so blind to see
When they hide under desks and behind the trees

We’re fighting for our lives, in kindergarten paradise
Hoping they didn’t bring knives to this kindergarten paradise
They may grow up to be husbands and wives
But right now they rule this paradise 

Power in the crayons, crayons are the power
Minute after minute, each one feeling like an hour
Everybody's running, and us teachers we be chasin’
These kids are hard to catch, it gets my heart to racin’ 

They say we gotta learn, and that is that
But catching 11 – five year olds is like herding cats
I guess we can't get 'em, I guess they won't listen
I guess they win, that's why I know my luck be missin’, fool

We’re fighting for our lives, in kindergarten paradise
Hoping they didn’t bring knives to this kindergarten paradise
They may grow up to be husbands and wives
But right now they rule this paradise

Tell me why are we so blind to see
That the one in charge is not you or me
Tell me why are we so blind to see

Kindergarteners are in charge of you and me

[Fade out]

Ah, kindergarten!  Our first morning on the island was also our first day of teaching!  For this group of eager five year olds, we are actually helping the real teacher, who is a high school senior.  The class is made up of eleven adorable, innocent little sponges, just waiting to soak up knowledge.  This class is the first in Hacienda Merida's bilingual school.  Next year, when these kids are 1st graders, there will be a new class of kindergarteners - the school growing one class level each year.    

Our little 5 year olds meet in the common area, where they are served breakfast.  As they strolled in this first day, some made eye contact and tentatively said 'Hola' or 'Buenas dias'.  Others didn't notice us at all because they were there for one reason - breakfast!!  Immediately, we could identify personalities.  The shy ones, the bossy ones, the nice ones, the troublemakers, etc.  I wonder if that's what it's like the first day Congress is in session.

Three weeks in, the kids now walk in, smile and greet us with smiles, high fives and the occasional hug.  I am called Profesor, Bex! is Profesora.  If we have iPads out, the kids crowd around and watch intently as I read the news while eating breakfast.  They ask incessantly if they can play games on it or touch the screen.  Once their breakfast comes out, they scramble to the tables and eat, playing the usual kid games of trading food - papaya for pancakes, juice for scrambled eggs, etc. 

Yup, he's just a big kid

After breakfast, the kids wash their hands, grab their backpacks and we corral them to school, a short walk across the grounds.  Once we get to the classroom, well... here's where a structure would be awesome.  Kids need it.  The teacher sometimes starts with singing songs, sometimes lets them color, sometimes launches into the days lesson.  And some days there don't seem to be any planned activities, other than coloring for two hours or letting them run around.  We know she is doing the best she can and has her own studies - and a 6 month old little boy - to tend to.  

At first, we weren't sure what our role would be or how the teacher wanted us to help.  After a while, we were getting frustrated so just sort of started doing activities on our own.  We review the days of the week and months of the year, which was great practice for me.  We worked on phonics and vocabulary.  Kids love writing on the whiteboards, so we'd bring them up one at a time to have them write out the alphabet or the vowels or a series of numbers.  Our efforts seemed to help - at least it helped us by providing us with a little sanity.

Cindy teaching Profesor Dave his ABC's

 We rooted through the random boxes of books and supplies that are in the common area, and discovered all kinds of flash cards, in varying degrees of complete sets.  We sorted them all and came up with useful card units for class, which has been a great asset.  We've adapted our other activities as the kids get smarter, too.  We taught them a couple of new songs as well as some new games.  If we can keep their attention, keep them engaged they love to learn.  But lose their interest for one second and they are off and running.

Kenneth, studying hard... or drawing a picture of a truck

All in all, the kids are wonderful.  Like anyone at any age, they each have their moments.  But we've grown attached to each of them.
Here is a list of the students:
Dulce - extremely smart; loves to learn; will be a leader or a professor some day
Cindy - smart; mischievous; loves to be challenged; just a teensy bit manipulative
Angela - shy; moody; really bright; when engaged is so much fun; her laugh is contagious; really loves to sing (loudly)
Dayanna - smarter than she lets on; likes to play that she doesn't know when she really does
Gretel - only comes to class maybe 75% of the time, if that; seems to be keeping up, smart girl
Itzel - the director's daughter; very smart but kind of rules the roost, in that no one tells her 'no'; if she isn't interested in what we're doing, she simply leaves class
Kenneth - cute kid, one of my favorites; struggles with learning but when he gets it, he is so proud; I take a little extra time with him when I can
Dilon - bit of a button pusher but listens; very creative thinker; artistic
Bryan - bigger than the others; uses his size to get what he wants; bright boy
Jesner - very bright; follows Bryan's lead; great smile; good attitude
Adrian - class clown; super smart; learning seems to come easy, so he gets in trouble

Like I said, each of them is great, although challenging at times.  We've found that if we 'ignore' the trouble makers (whichever subset that may be on a given day) and just go about our activities, we can draw them in.  If they see the other kids having fun, they will eventually wander over and want to join in.  Like all of us, they have a desire to be included.

Profesora Rebecca:  Coloring Police

Next week (week of 25 Nov) is their last week of school.  However, we will be spending an hour a day with them teaching in English only.  This is exciting!  It will likely be a small group - some families take off for the holidays once school is out.  We were also very excited to learn that we will be here for their graduation ceremony!  It is happening the day before we leave Ometepe.  We plan to have a small gift for them - a toy, some stickers, a lollipop.  It's been a rewarding experience, mostly because we've both learned a lot!

First Day on Ometepe

Our taxi driver, Jose, was able to convince the guard at the port gate in Rivas/Puerto San Jorge to let him drive us all the way down onto the dock.  I think he said something like 'Do you SEE all the bags these gringos have?!'   The lancha we loaded onto was called the Santa Martha.  While we waited for them to prep the boat, we asked one of the locals to help us contact our pre-arranged island driver, Aura Muñoz, to let him know we were headed his way.  He dialed the number on his cell phone and after a couple of attempts to connect, Bex! talked to Aura.  Phone conversations in a new language can be hard but he spoke pretty good English.  As it turned out, Aura couldn't meet us but he had another driver all lined up for us.  Sweet!

The lancha chugged us across Lago de Nicaragua, slow and steady.  Like I said in the last post, we were the only ones riding topside in the sun.  There were a bunch of people riding below deck.  And there was a small covered area in the front of the boat crowded with the smarter folks staying out of the sun.  We noticed them sneaking curious looks at us and our pile of bags. 

The Santa Martha (maybe descended from the Nina, Pinta or Santa Maria?)

Our approach to Isla de Ometepe was a little surreal.  We were going to be living on this island for six weeks - and this island was made up of two volcanoes, one of which is active.  Skies were clear on this day, so we had a full view of our new home.  In fact, as I write this, we've been on the island two weeks now and the two 'hills' have been enshrouded in clouds almost constantly every day.

Concepción is the active one.  If Hollywood designed a volcano for a movie, it would look exactly like this one.  Sloping sides that gradually get steeper the higher up you look, an almost perfect cone shape.  It's a pretty amazing sight.

Volcan Concepción

(sound of brakes screeching, fingernails on a chalkboard or a stylus scratching across a vinyl LP)
Important note to our followers:
As our third week on the island comes to an end, we realize we are now three weeks behind on this blog!  We're trying to provide a detailed account of our experiences, painting a picture that can be thoroughly visualized by you.  Well, we're switching from oil paints to finger paints for a while.  
The posts we've put up have each taken a fair amount of time to prepare.  Even this very post was actually complete as of yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately, when we were trying to add pictures and captions, we somehow deleted everything that we'd written describing our arrival on the island, the drive to Merida and our first night there.  Trust me, it was awesome!!  But it's gone now.  

So, in the interest of getting caught up to the current date so we can stay on top of this thing, you're going to get the Reader's Digest version of the last three weeks - short, sweet, highlights, pictures.  If you want more detail, buy a plane ticket and come visit!

Dave - out

(back to the blog)

As the lancha approached the dock in Mayogalpa, we saw a guy holding a sign that read 'David/Rebecca' - must be our driver.  It was - Miguel.  As the boat was tied off, several people appeared from... somewhere and started handing our bags to other folks on the pier, our luggage dangling over the water as it changed hands.

Yo ho, yo ho, I forgot to bring any rum

We tipped the porters who helped get bags to Miguel's rig, bought some water and hit the road.  Miguel pointed out sugar cane and tobacco growing on large farms.  Looked good to me - rum and cigars!

Here is a link to the GPS data from our day.  Bex! has a Garmin which provides a lot of data for such a tiny device.

GPS Map to Merida 

We circled the Concepción end of the island in a counter-clockwise direction unit we reached the lowland isthmus that joins this side with the Volcan Maderas end of Isla de Ometepe, where Merida is located.  The roads were great, just like the others we'd experienced in Nicaragua.  We noticed that here on the island they don't use blacktop and only use concrete in the spots where the rains flow heavily down the volcanoes.  Most of the road here is made of paver blocks, like what we would use in the US to build a patio or a walkway.  I guess it's cheaper, faster and doesn't require heavy equipment. 

We were curious why we were told we'd need a four-wheel drive vehicle - the roads seemed fine.  The need became clear about a kilometer past Santa Cruz - the road just sort of ended.  In fact, it would take just about as long to cover the last 5k as it did to cover the first 30k.  A lot of it was fine - just 'regular' gravel/dirt road (except the rocks were bigger).  There were some areas that were washed out, too.  And then there were stretches that were pretty steep and torn up badly, where Miguel picked his way through.  He made it look easy.

The wheels on the bus bump over the rocks, over the rocks, over the rocks.

After about 45 minutes or so, we arrived at Hacienda Merida.  This would be our home for the next six weeks and would be where we would teach for the first time - ever!  We knew the director of the school/hotel was off the island, so we weren't expecting to be greeted.  Miguel helped unload our bags and get us to the desk to check in.  This 'desk' is really a big counter in the common area of the place - where people check in, check out, pay their bill, order food and drinks, eat, use the wifi, hang out, drink beer, nap in hammocks, etc.  We couldn't help but notice the no-see-ums flying all around our heads and, well, everywhere.  It was kinda insane.

We were met by Eugenio, one of the young adults who work here.  As he looked up our names in the spiral notebook that was thew reservation log, I noticed something, well, gross.  Every inch of the counter was covered with dead gnats.  In fact, every surface I could see - tables, chairs, shelves - was littered with bugs.  Ugh.  I looked at my hand, the one that had been resting on the counter.  Yep.  Ewwww.  It was like we had arrived smack in the middle of a Stephen King novel.

Eugenio grabbed a room key and showed us to our room.  Since there weren't many guests we scored a nice upstairs room - private bath, deck, hammock, rocking chair.  Okay, maybe - maybe - this could make up for the bugs.

Or not.

These little bastards were everywhere.  It was a little freaky.  I was wondering if six weeks of this would be possible!  We unpacked, chilled out for a bit with some hammock and rocker time.  Bex!  grew up in Alaska but she is made for a hammock.  We noticed a pretty large gecko population but apparently there weren't enough because the insects had them outnumbered about a gajillion to one.  After a bit, we walked back to the common area to order food.  Bugs, bug and more bugs.  We ate and tried to take it all in - where we were, what we were doing, the excitement and anxiety.

Don't get me wrong - even though the bugs were weird, we were still excited to be here and starting this part of our adventure.  After our busy travel day, we decided to turn in early.  We went back to the room, where we made a couple of mistakes.  First one was we turned the room light on.  This attracted about umpteen thousand insects to our room.  The second mistake also involved a light bulb.  Bex! wanted to hop in the shower to rinse the day off but had to make it a super short rinse due to the bugs that were attracted to the bathroom light.  Oy.

Our bed was outfitted with one of those cool, 'Out of Africa' romantic mosquito nets hanging from the ceiling, draping over the bed.  Except these bugs weren't stupid - they got inside.  So we went to bed, lights out - me, Bex! and about a thousand of our closest friends.  We finally fell asleep, in spite of the almost constant slapping, brushing, swatting.  Thank goodness these things don't bite.  I dreamt of how quickly we could pack up in the morning and get the hell out of here.  Or maybe the erupting volcano would consume all the gnats and mosquitos.

Escape route this way.  Yes, when you get 12 kindergardeners together they look like a volcano.

We woke up early the next morning, after a crappy nights sleep.  We showered and walked over for breakfast.  There was a lady with a bucket and rag, scrubbing the counters.  I couldn't deal with this every day!  As I write this, I'm happy to say that we haven't had a bug problem since that first night!  Odd, but we're not complaining.  We had breakfast and watched as our first students started rolling in for breakfast.

The kindergarteners!!