Visitors! (Part One)

Yes, real live honest-to-goodness family came to visit!  Bex's folks were due in Merida on May 7th, traveling from Juneau, Alaska… via Seattle… via Houston… via Managua… via Granada… to Ometepe..  Our first visitors, fer cryin' out loud.  We were excited and nervous.  "We've accepted living here and learned to deal with it.  What if they hate it?!"  "Gah, scorpions and huge spiders and weird things!"  "Crap, no water again today!"  Meh, turned out it was all okay in the end.  [Okay, the water was an issue during their visit but we managed just fine.]

After some consideration on where to have them stay, we decided to borrow a bed from Hacienda Merida so the folks could stay at our house, this to maximize visiting time.  Alvaro was very gracious and refused any payment from us for using a queen bed, linens and the requisite fan.  Obtaining the bed required calling Hamilton so he could arrange a truck and any help he may require and notifying the hacienda that someone would be coming to steal one of their beds.  We had some disagreement about when exactly to get the bed.  I wanted to do it over the weekend prior to their arrival, to give us time for a Plan B if something should go wrong.  Silly boy.  Bex! hates making phone calls in Spanish so put it off as long as possible.  That is to say, she never had to make the call because the day we were leaving to meet Anne and Mike in Moyogalpa Hamilton came by so she just talked to him face to face.  He said he'd take care of it.  He did.

[Bex!'s Sidebar:  Now that's not fair.  I made many phone calls.  Most of them to Hamilton's wife to say "Could you please have him climb down from what ever house he is building and come reassure me that there really will be a bed here for my parents to sleep in".]

We had left a note with Nora at the hotel.  It was a list of the items we would need, and told her that a guy named Hamilton would be coming to pick it all up.  As it turns out, she and Hamilton are related.  Learn something new every day.  Having cancelled classes for the day, we caught the chicken bus to Moyogalpa and the timing couldn't have been better.  After a short wait, we saw the ferry they were supposed to be on coming across the lake.  Sure enough, as the ferry got closer we could pick out a pasty** white guy on the upper deck taking pictures and knew the Alaskans had made it to Ometepe.
[**Mike pointed out later that in Alaska the term is not 'pasty' but 'fish belly'.]

Our buddy Miguel was there right on time and we loaded all the luggage into his rig, then walked up the road to The Cornerhouse Cafe, our favorite little place to eat in this island port town.  Mostly because they serve sandwiches made with real bread.  After a tasty lunch and a stop at the Mini-Super for some groceries, we lit out for Merida.  Volcán Concepción was particularly lovely this day, so Mike stopped a couple of times to snap some pics as we made our way around that end of the island.  

Soon enough we were over the isthmus, past Santa Cruz and bumpity-bumping down the crappy road back home.  Miguel was even able to navigate the narrow little path from the road down to our house, which allowed us to unload right onto the porch.  Home sweet home!  Opening up the house, we were happy to see one queen bed and a nice fan, all set up and ready to go.  The bed was made and the towels were folded in a nice little design.  Why I fretted, I do not know.  We walked up to Margarita's for dinner that evening and they met a few of our local friends there.  

While walking back home, passing under one of the many mango trees in town, Mike got hit in the head with a falling mango!  Now, knock on wood, but that has yet to happen to either of us.  We've had many near misses with a variety of fruit (and a dead iguana).  The most dangerous are the falling coconuts.  But we've never been on the receiving end.  Poor Mike is in Merida about 3 hours and gets hit.  Like I said, knock on wood!

Thursday morning, I taught our morning beginners class on the porch and braved the kindergarten class solo so that Bex! could help her folks get settled in and show them around a little.  I did call on Mike, Anne and Bex! to make a cameo in the morning class, so we could practice introductions.  Bex! also introduced the 'rents to Hamilton the Handyman and his daughter, Yosslyn.  Yosslyn does laundry for us and a few other chores  In fact, she was sweet enough to have made sure the house was clean and ready when we had returned the previous day.

We were a little concerned about the heat and how Mike and Anne would hold up, since there was still SNOW on the ground back home when they had departed a few days prior.  I've written about how dry it's been and how little rain we've had.  Both of those held steady during their stay, unfortunately.  I think it rained a little bit a couple of times, with one thunderous downpour (loud because of our corrugated metal roof).  But mostly the dry season was still in full swing.  They got to experience our 'bathe in the lake' routine.  Oh, joy.

Friday morning, the four of us walked down to Hacienda Merida for our first grade class at OBS.  Anne observed while Bex! and I taught.  Mike wandered about taking pictures and capturing audio.  We paid our regular Friday afternoon visit to Maragrita's for our weekly beer purchase, at which time Tia told us she was making nacatamales Saturday!!  Hell yeah!  So we placed our order before leaving, then stopped by Fruitlandia, Doña Clara's produce stand on the way home.  We introduced Mike and Anne to Jehu, Clara's husband and Edar's dad.  (Edar is one of our high school students.)  We confirmed with Jehu that he and his band mates would be coming over Saturday evening for a fiesta!

Because, yeah, we were throwing a 'Welcome to the Island' fiesta in honor of our visitors!  But first, Friday night French class!  Except no one showed up, so after watching a Muzzy cartoon, we talked through the party plans for the next evening.  This basically consisted of making sure we had enough beer, rum and ice along with a few snacks.  

This being Nicaragua, we hadn't really invited people too early in the week, except for the band.  In fact, most of the guests were invited the day before the fiesta, Friday.  It just doesn't do any good to tell people too far in advance, so we quit fighting that a while back!  If you recall from a recent post, Bex! had heard Jehu and Chema jamming one evening, so we hired them to play for the party.  When we stopped into Pescadito's to remind Chema about his gig the next night, Maykel told us his Dad knew about the invitation but didn't believe that we really wanted him to come to our house.  Very humbling to think that this fine man - and our friend - thought we wouldn't want him to come over.  Maykel brought his dad out and we told Chema that, yes, we would be honored to have him play and we were excited to hear their music.  That settled, we were ready to par-tay! 

The nacatamales we had ordered the day before arrived in time for us to enjoy them before guests arrived.  And they were delivered by Dilan, one of our first graders (with a little help from his mom).  Mmmmm… nacatamales.  After dinner, we set chairs out on the porch, got wood stacked in my snazzy fire pit to light up later in the evening, made sure all of our beverage containers were washed and ready for use (all four glasses, all four coffee mugs, and our collection of little tupperware containers), then waited for the party to show up.

The band - Los Tigres de Ometepe - showed up right on time.  Jehu, Chema and their friend Jose - all guitar players - got comfortable and started tuning and warming up.  Mike set up his recording gear while other guests started to arrive.  In fact, the turn out was amazing.  Almost everyone we invited came!  People brought beer, rum, Coke, and wine.  Jen and Jamey brought tostones Jamey had made for the party.  Tostones are platano verde (green plantains) that are sliced into rounds, fried once, smashed down flat and fried again, then these are usually topped with queso blanco, a white salty crumbly cheese popular here.

Los Tigres de Ometepe - Jose (bottom), Jehu and Chema (cowboy hat)

Chema (l) and Jehu playing on our porch for the fiesta; Jose is in the background

The band sounded good from all angles.

The band was thrilled that they were being recorded!  Once we explained what was happening, they stepped it up and got better and stronger throughout the evening.  Los Tigres de Ometepe played for a solid three hours and probably would have kept playing had we not cut them off!  ('We're going to play one more song' immediately changed into two more.  And was three more by the time they actually stopped.)

One cool moment in the evening:  I asked the band if they wanted a beer or some rum - they said no.  They felt they were hired to play and they were obligated to stay sober for the evening.  They were truly professional in their approach to the gig.  It was great. 

Lakeside, fireside

After playing on the porch for a while, we lit the fire and everyone moved out to the yard.  Yet another surreal moment:  the sound of the waves rolling up on the playa, the wood crackling in the fire pit, the beautiful traditional music being played by these artists, surrounded by new friends - and family.  Magical. 

It was a fantastic fiesta and we were able to introduce Mike and Anne to most of our friends in the village.  We also introduced them to the beauty and generosity of the Nica people here.  The party was a big success, in every way.  Hell, just like back home, we even had to make a beer run to restock!  Now, that's a party!

Tired and grinning, still buzzing from the wondrous evening, we cleaned up and went to bed.  We had a big day coming up - a hike down the road to El Guineo to see petroglyphs!