Seeing some sights, settling in, the 3rd week syndrome~~

Sightseeing:

A street scene in Masaya

With an eye on the weather, which changes hourly, we scheduled a full day of sightseeing with one of our drivers.  We decided on the Classical Tour, with some modifications. We nixed the Masaya Market as it was hot and crowded.

First was a driving tour of Los Pueblos Blancos, a group of small villages that represent the heart of Nicaragua with strong pre-Columbian roots and traditions.  Each town has its own patron saint, its own fiestas, its own artisan traditions like hammocks, pottery, ornamental plants, etc.  We stopped often for photos and to look into the shops.

Church in one of the villages

Little did we know when pulling into a questionable alley in the village of San Juan de Oriente and entering a modest home and workshop operated by Valentin Lopez, Taller y Escuela de Ceramica, what a treat we were in for.  We immediately migrated to the "gift shop" displays, only to be re-directed in Spanish to come sit down and watch.

What followed was a demonstration of the creative process of one piece of pottery from start to finish, which if I understood correctly takes about 10 days.  The very basic tools consist of bicycle spokes for carving designs, natural pigments from different regions around the country, brushes made from hair for painting, and sea rocks and cocoa beans for polishing.

 I put together a slideshow from my Picasa album to demonstrate what we observed:

Our goodies, taken from the computer

And this is what we bought!

Posing with pre-Columbian art on the steps of a display in the village of Catarina....

Resuming our tour we gradually gained altitude as we head to the Mirador de Catarina, an overlook of Laguna de Apoyo,  a crater lake formed some 23,000 years ago by a strong volcanic eruption that left a hole measuring 6 km in diameter.  It is a crystal clear turquoise though on our visit the clouds and reflections presented a whole new perspective on the lagoon. It sort of looks like boiling water, or frothy waves...

We had to get in the picture..

Now we get to the exciting part!  I have been so looking forward to visiting Masaya Volcano National Park, possibly with a touch of trepidation.  It is quite active, spewing great quantities of sulfur dioxide, and we drove right up to the rim, climbed up to top, and peered into the bowels of "La Boca del Infierno", as it is locally referred to.  All cars must back into the parking area so as to face heading out, and I noticed our driver did not turn off his engine.  There are a lot of superstitions attached to this place, so best be ready for a speedy retreat!

On the brink of "La Boca del Infierno"

The cross, La Cruz de Bobadilla, named after Father Francisco Bobadilla, was planted on the lip of the crater in the 16th century to exorcise the devil!

For the grand finale to our day, we drove way down to the lake from which we were earlier perched for a view, to have a late lunch before heading back to Granada.

Lunch by Laguna de Apoyo

Why so many pictures of me?  Cause it's how I spent my birthday!!

How appropriate...posted on my Facebook page.  Notice the  "Age Limit"!

On another day we headed down to Lake Nicaragua for a boat tour of Las Isletas.  The islets are a group of 365 small islands, volcanic in origin, and formed when Mombacho blew its top thousands of years ago.  Most are covered in vegetation and rich with wild life.  Many are inhabited and several are privately owned.  No we didn't see all 365!  And yes, Mombacho is on the must do list.....

 Settling in:

Being here in Granada for a month allows us to settle in and pace ourselves.  I must admit that the heat and humidity can be fierce and we have to time our outings appropriately.  An overcast day is great for walking into town but not good for photography.  

Another obstacle for me is acclimating to the local diet. Not that I haven't absolutely loved the food, quite the opposite. I insist on experiencing the comida tipica, the street food (carefully, and with recommendations), drinks, and different restaurants  It's just that my IBS has kicked in with a vengeance.  Seems that any change in diet, climate, location...who knows, gets my wimpy guts groaning, especially at night, when I'd like to be sleeping!  

We spend a lot of time sitting on our patio or by the pool, swimming and reading.  I am somewhat struggling through Follett's Edge of Eternity, the 3rd and final in his Century Trilogy, but I am 90% complete and can then start reading something mindless and trashy!   Also currently watching our SF Giants play in the World Series.  Vamos Los Gigantes!

The 3rd week syndrome:

This is when we usually hit the wall when away for a month and start missing the freedom of the road, coming and going as we please, familiarity, our things...meager as they are.  This trip is no exception.  We have both decided a month is just too long for us in one place, and we would have been wiser to add a couple of other destinations to the itinerary.  The coast, for instance, is several hour's drive each way.  Better to have found a place there to stay for a week.  And then there is the Caribbean side; a whole different environment.

Our surroundings are wonderfully accommodating and quite beautiful and the staff attentive to our every need, and so much fun to be around.  They absolutely insist on speaking Spanish and are constantly correcting me, especially my verb conjugations which are always in the present tense. Howard doesn't even try!   They teach me phrases common to the Nicaraguans but not used in other Latino countries. 

 So I will leave you with Como amaneciste?  The verb amanecer means to dawn or wake up, and is typically used to ask how did you sleep, or wake-up....

Como amaneciste?  Bien....I hope!

Dirty Laundry on the Bottleneck Trail

It rained off and on during our week in the Okanagan Valley but we have no problem with a bit of down time.  Howard plays with his cute little magnetized chess set purchased in Port Townsend, practicing strategies from the The Mammoth Book of Chess.  He then tries them out with a game against the computer. 


I go through photos, editing and playing with Picasa, my program of choice.  Their Orton-ish feature allows you to create a painting/postcard effect that works great with landscapes.  We have lots of books downloaded to our Kindles and just finished James Lee Burke’s Light of the World, an edgy thriller set in rural Montana appropriately described by the heading of Good and Evil by a Library of Congress cataloger.


In between showers we went for short drives and hiked along the park’s trails, all the way to the south campground and back.  This involves a distance of 3 miles or so with a lot of up and down.  The sun did come out for the weekend so we decided to check out a few of the wine trails.  Yes, there is Dirty Laundry involved.


The Bottleneck Wine Trail is a peaceful meander off the busy highway near Summerland and offers spectacular scenery overlooking vineyards and orchards high above Lake Okanagan.  The Dirty Laundry Winery is a destination in itself.  Named after a laundry years ago which had a brothel at the back, this theme runs through everything from the laundry pins at the gate to the old laundry equipment in the garden. You even pass a clothes line hung with underwear to get into the shop!  You can bring your own basket of goodies or purchase from the menu on the Terrace patio and admire the gorgeous view.  You can’t go wrong with a sip of Bordello, an exotic swirl of cabernet sauvignon and merlot with a dash of cab franc!








That was the scene at Dirty Laundry!  We ended our day back at Bonitas Winery for an early tapas-style dinner by the lake and near our campground, sharing the very best crab and goat cheese dip on flat bread, Asian-style ribs, and white chocolate cheesecake topped with fresh berry compote for dessert.



For some reason, in our minds, we were leaving on Tuesday.  Not so once I re-checked the reservation receipt.  We must leave on Monday by 11 a.m, which means one less day to see the Myra Canyon Trestles trail or the Naramata Bench wineries near Penticton. There is always next time!  The Okanagan is a fabulous destination, though I will say during a busy holiday week the traffic, especially around Kelowna, was  hectic.  More from along the road…..

D-Day

The month is winding down here in San Carlos and our sunsets will soon be setting in the Tucson Mountains, another spectacular location. We have yet to go to the top of Gates Pass to catch the sunset, maybe next week. Adding to the list of things not done was getting up during the wee hours this morning to capture the setting full moon over the Sea of Cortez...not a very committed photographer am I!

Our minds are slowly wrapping around departure details, scoping out all the stuff we've tucked away in way too many nooks and crannies.  The actual packing event will start tomorrow as we've decided to leave a day early, on Sunday, thinking the traffic may be a bit lighter and the going around Hermosillo a little easier to maneuver. Not sure about the border crossing on Sunday; could go either way.

There are a lot of homes and property for sale and one day as we were driving out in the Nacapule Canyon we noticed an older subdivision of large RV sites that fell victim to the economical downturn.  Some had elaborate covered patios sporting fancy ceramic tile, with decks on top for ocean viewing, reached by wrought iron spiral staircases.  Full hookups were evident and outdoor bar and barbecue facilities were in place. Some were occupied, but most vacant, overgrown, and for sale.

The RV parking is on the other side of this covered patio

A Gringo development nearby

We had breakfast this morning at Rosa's Cantina, without a doubt one of the most popular places in town, and always packed with ex-pats, tourists, and locals.  The food is excellent and the fresh orange juice propelled us to Walmart to purchase our own citrus juicer, about $10, so we could make our own.

Breakfast as Rosa's

Fresh OJ with our new juicer

With sightseeing behind us, I've settled into some serious reading this last week.  First was Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, an obvious classic about the Civil War in Spain in the 1930s that I'd somehow missed over the years. Then for a change of pace, David Baldacci's The Hit, a page-turning thriller I couldn't put down.  Now I am absolutely enthralled with Isabel Allende's Maya's Notebook, just released in English.  Meanwhile, Howard is laughing out loud as he reads Catch 22, a satire of military madness with a San Carlos connection.  And then there's computer chess...

Our stay in Tucson will be limited to a few days.  We need to receive mail, get haircuts, visit with local friends, and start preparing the motorhome for the trip west to the Bay Area. We're anxious to get back to our kind of normal, though this has been a most wonderful month.

Things...

I was cleaning out my closet, organizing some internet files, and reviewing our book list when I came across a "side note" containing a quote from Tom Robbin's "Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates". This man is both irreverent and brilliant, deceptively funny yet dead serious in confronting the "Big Issues".  He writes:

"Things...Things attach themselves like leeches to the human soul, then they bleed out the sweetness and the music and the primordial joy of being unencumbered upon the land. People feel tremendous pressure to settle down in some sort of permanent space and fill it up with stuff, but deep inside they resent those structures, and they're scared to death of that stuff because they know it controls them and restricts their movements." 

Wow...That is a mind-bender!

I started thinking about living in our small, confined space, about 300 sq. ft., and the things that are important to us: camera, a lot of electronic stuff, enough clothes, kitchen and bathroom basics, thousands of photos stored on external hard drives and printed in albums, and books galore...though we both have Kindles.  Books are our passion and we have a wide range of interests, from fiction to history, science and spirituality.  So for us to come across and really like a Tom Robbins's novel is not completely out of character.

That said, I'd like you to see our latest acquisition from a recent visit to Costco:

A must have, right?!

A perfect fit!

This versatile little cube cost $40 and has a whole bunch of storage space inside, plus serves as a convenient side and cocktail table.  There are some things.....