Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is Friday.  Ryan is here today but we have no plans.  So once everyone was awake we started trying to figure out what we are going to do while Ryan is here.

For lunch, Ryan and I went to Cafe Isabella so that he could try local traditional Nicaraguan food. We had a nice lunch and were going to bring food home but Dominica and the girls ended up eating so we didn’t.

I was just home writing most of the day.  By around two in the afternoon, Ryan and I set out to do some errands and to see about renting a car.  We wanted to know how large of a vehicle that we might be able to get as we have three adults now instead of just the two of us.  We will not fit well into a Yaris.

We hit the bank, the shop and then stopped by the Hotel Plaza Colon to check out the car options.  All that they had that we could consider was either the same Yaris that we had before, literally the same one, or a massive Toyota Prada five speed turbo diesel that would seat eight for three times the cost of the Yaris and who knows how much fuel consumption.

We thought about it a bit and tried sitting in the back of the Yaris and decided that while it would be tight, the Prada was ridiculously impractical and we knew the Yaris.  So we rented the Yaris and drove back to the house with it.

I wrote for a little longer while Dominica packed and planning for the weekend was done.  We decided that we are starting with a trip to San Juan del Sur and then going to the Isla Ometepe.  I suggested that given that it was already started to get dark that it would not make sense for us to go tonight because the entire drive down would be lost in the darkness and all we would do is get there early, spend a lot of money on an extra hotel and have too much time there tomorrow.  Instead, I felt, that we should hang back in Granada tonight and go early in the morning so that we can enjoy the drive and not be down there too early.

We did not have any plans this evening so around five I asked Ryan if he wanted to take a quick drive out west from Granada to see an area that he would not be getting to see otherwise to make use of the remaining light.  So far he has only seen the city and this would be his chance to see something more.  He thought that that was a good idea.  So he drove and we headed south and west out of Granada on Route 4.

We drove down through Diriomo and up to Catarina and then to the west through Masatepe where we got pulled over for something that clearly did not happen.  They claimed that we were speeding in a construction zone when there was no construction zone.  The cop was really shady and weird.  He just kept lingering by the window and not really making any sense.  He kept saying something about using a computer or paying in Managua.  He stepped away for a minute and I told Ryan that I was pretty sure that he was waiting for us to bribe him.  Ryan had seen the fine listed on the paper that the guy was holding, it was five hundred Cordoba, which we had handy in cash.  I got Ryan to say “it is permissible to pay here?” and show the money.  The guy instantly grabbed it and told us to get lost immediately.  So we did.

We drove on to San Marcos and turned south to Jinotepe which I have been told is a really cool town.  It wasn’t bad but I am unclear what people liked about it so much.

As we headed east from Jinotepe we found a cool little asada called El Gallo Pinto.  So we stopped in and grabbed gallo pinto.  It was awesome.  I got fresh fried plantain chips to take home to Dominica too.

Straight back to Granada from there.  It was dark and there was nothing more to see tonight.

We all went to bed early.  Want to be up and ready at a good time tomorrow.

Ryan, who came to visit us while we were in Spain, is coming down to Nicaragua today and will be visiting us for the long weekend.  In Nicaragua this is a holiday weekend as Monday is Dia de los Muertes.  So Saturday through Monday is the long weekend.  Halloween is not celebrated here although from American media they are well aware of it.

Dominica spent most of the day cleaning and getting ready.  Not that much cleaning needed to be done since Johanna was here yesterday morning cleaning (and will be back in the morning before Ryan is likely to be awake.)  Having a maid, even just three times a week, is so awesome.  It is such a challenge for us to keep the house clean at the best of times.  Nine hours of cleaning a week does wonders for us and makes it so that we easily keep the place reasonably clean the rest of the time.

I did posting and writing all day.  It was relatively slow today.

Ryan flew from Newark, New Jersey down to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Managua on Delta.  It is good to know that direct flights from Atlanta are easy to get to here, although I suspect that we will stick to United and AeroMexico flights for access to most of Central America.

Ryan had been planning on coming down to Granada from Managua on the bus but his flight was cutting it pretty close and so decided to just book a taxi instead for sixty dollars American.  Better safe than sorry even though it is a lot more expensive.

Ryan’s flight ended up landing a little early and he was at out house a bit before we expected.   I had never even managed to getting around to showering because everyone else had done so before me so I had been waiting for hours.

Since Ryan had been traveling all day we decided to go out and see the city a little.  We started by going down to the corner store where, right next door, Taco Stop was open.  Liesl and I had seen this opening two nights ago and Luciana and I saw it last night.  I’ve been watching the Taco Stop being built since we first arrived.  I am interested in checking it out.

So we stopped and go tacos.  They were really good. We tried both the hard and the soft tacos.  Ryan has been mostly vegetarian for a while now so we eat mostly the same things.

On the way downtown from the Taco Stop we had to deal with really persistent prostitutes chasing us down the street.  Such a weird place.  This is the first that I have seen any in Nicaragua.  The travel books talk about it a lot but apparently it is only downtown and only late at night.  It was after eleven by this point, probably the latest that I have been downtown yet.

Not much was open.  We started going to the south side of town.  The Philosopher’s bar was open and empty.  We went in and got a beer.  Nothing special.  It was completely dead so we did not stay for another.

We meant to head back to the house but I wanted to show Ryan the strip and while doing so ran into my waiter from the other night with Liesl at O’Shea’s so we stopped there and have Nica Libres before walking back to the house.

On the walk back to the house we discovered a twenty four hour pharmacy, which is good to know about.

I was up at five thirty this morning.  Came downstairs and did some writing before the day got started.  It is nice to be back home after five days away.  Traveling is fun but having a routine is fun too.

Ryan, who came to visit us in Spain, is coming to Nicaragua tomorrow evening to visit us.  He is going to be staying for nearly a week.

Today was relatively relaxing.  I had a morning conference call at nine.  Nothing else scheduled today.  I spent much of the day on MangoLassi getting caught up.  It is amazing what a few days on the road will do for getting me behind on things.

This afternoon I finally got Dominica and the girls to go out with me to the pasteleria around the corner.  Dominica and I got coffee, which was awesome as it was full European style espresso in a fancy coffee shop, and treats for everyone.  Dominica and I got cheese cake and each of the girls got a cupcake.

Ciana got sick this afternoon.  At first we thought that it was just constipation but by evening she had a fever.  She ended up moving up to our bedroom with the AC on and just laying in bed watching her iPad or napping for much of the day.

Today was quite hot, probably near ninety degrees.  To make matters worse, in the early evening the power went off.  That means that the fans stopped and the air conditioning that I had turned on for Ciana went off.

So I went for a walk to figure out what had happened with the power.  I only had to go one block before it was obvious that the power lines were down and people were working on them.  I saw some of the expat guys sitting at Cafe Isabella so I joined them for a beer and caught up on the local news and watched the progress on the power lines so that I would have an idea of how long it was likely to take.

I got back home and Luciana was still in bed.  Dominica and Liesl were in rocking chairs by the front door just like locals.  It was weird to find them ttha way.  Liesl decided that she wanted to go out to dinner with me tonight and that we would bring back food for Dominica.

Just as Liesl and I were about to leave, the power came back on.  So we got Ciana her AC back and before leaving we got the fridge set back up as we had had it defrosting all day.

Liesl decided that she did not want something that we had had before as she felt that we had not explored enough different food in Granada.  So we walked all over downtown and down the strip.  She eventually settled on O’Shea’s after going in and reading several menus around town.  We both got fish and chips for dinner.

The dinner was okay but nothing great.  Liesl did not really like hers so I ended up eating most of it.  While we were having dinner our bracelet seller from a few weeks ago recognized us and came over to say hello.  Liesl got an anklet from him.

After dinner we went to Nectar and ordered take out fish tacos for Dominica.  While we waited Liesl told me all about the new Mario Bros. came on the WiiU that she wants to play.  There are all of these video game channels on YouTube that she watches and learns all about new games that way.

It was a really nice evening getting to hang out with Liesl just the two of us.  We never get to do things like that.  We had a great time.

We got home and Dominica ate dinner while we watched The Nanny.  Luciana still has a fever and a tummy ache.  But with the AC on she was not as bad as she had been.

Around nine thirty everyone was in bed but I was not tired and wanted to do some writing so went down to the kitchen to sit up for a while.

We had to be up very early this morning to make sure that we could be up, packed and out the door by eight.  So the alarm was set early but most of us were restless during the night.  Although the room was awesome and the sleep that we got was fine.

I decided to get up early because I wanted to see the sun rise over the bay as we had a rare spot where our hotel room looked out over water to the east.  When I went down to go out to the deck I found Luciana already awake.  She said: “Look daddy, the sun is coming up.” in a little, quiet voice.

Dominica got up not too much later and Liesl woke up to see the sun come up too.  So everyone got to watch it, it was a very special morning.  This is the first time that Liesl and Luciana have seen a sunrise!

Dominica and I sat outside for a while and the girls used an iPad in bed.  But we were all up so early that we ended up leaving the hotel room by seven thirty, a bit earlier than we needed to, just because we were all ready to get moving.

We turned in the room key and then went down to the water front tiki bar for breakfast.  We had a nice, big breakfast.  Both girls had pancakes.  Dominica and I have huevos rancheros.  It was all very good.  And the orange juice was amazing; they must have just squeezed it.  There was enough breeze coming off of the water that even though it was really hot we did not feel like it was all that hot.  It was really nice.  Maybe we are adjusting to Central America.

After breakfast we got the shuttle over to the beach and spent some time at the ocean.  First we walked the beach.  The girls played in the sand.  I walked some and encountered a lot of sea snails which was pretty unique.

Then we swam in the infinity pool by the ocean until it was time to go, about eleven thirty.

Back at the main complex we ran into a woman and her son there that we ended up talking to for half an hour.  So it was half past noon when we finally managed to leave the resort.  Later than we had intended by a bit.  So we are in a time crunch to get back to Granada as we believe that we need to be there by five to drop off the rental car.

The drive out the long dirt road, then the long brick road took a while. Then onto the highway and off to the south.  There is always traffic and always a truck or two that is determined to go 40 kph or slower, so you tend to get stuck in some crazy traffic for seemingly no reason on a regular basis.

We stopped to get gas in Chinandega but the Uno was out of gas.  We had to run across the traffic circle to get gas and to put air in the back right tire that had gotten low.  After doing that Luciana needed snacks so back to the Uno which had a mini market.  I ran in and stocked us up.  Then back on the road.

We drove past Leon again and through Managua approaching it driving along the lake.  This was our first time seeing this region and our first time actually seeing any of Managua, although there was not very much to see.  We do not know how close we were to downtown or what we might have missed.  But we drove through a lot of the city.

It was an interesting drive even though we did not get to see anything but the fringe of Managua.  The drive from Managua to Masaya was interesting as this was a very different approach to Granada than we have seen before and it really gave us a very different perspective.  We could not see that in many ways with Masaya directly in the middle that the Managua metro area was engulfing Masaya and you can barely tell where they switch from one to another and the gap between Masaya and Granada is very small.  This explains why Masaya is so large.  The country’s first (Managua), third (Masaya) and sixth (Granada) largest cities are growing into each other and are already starting to form a single metro area.

We raced to the house and dropped off our luggage and got to the Dollar rental lot with only minutes to spare.  We dropped the car off directly with Carlos who was waiting out back and then went up to check in at the office.  It turns out that the race was a waste of effort as we needed to have dropped the car off by one.  We could have kept it until the morning.  At least it is dropped off and dealt with.  Now we don’t have to think about it tomorrow.

Once the car was dropped off, Carlos drove us to a gas station so that we could fill up and not get charged.  Then he dropped us off at home.  They are very nice and Dollar, we will use them again.  It was a total of $200 for five days of rental.

It was pushing six by the time that we were home and it was getting dark.  We were pretty tired. I logged in and posted for a little while.  Then Dominica wanted pizza and Luciana wanted to go to the corner store.  So Luciana and I walked down there and bought Kinder Sorpresa but she got a potty emergency and we had to race back home rather than looking for food while we were out.

Dominica felt like pizza so sent me uptown to go to Pizza Vale.  First I hit La Colonia and got a few small grocery items.  Then over to Pizza Vale and ordered dinner.

We watched some of The Nanny and had pizza.  Then off to bed.  We were worn out.

We got up this morning in the Hotel Azul in Leon, Nicaragua.  It was a nice place to spend the night.  We went and had breakfast in the mid morning.  We were the only ones having breakfast while we were there.  Breakfast was good and a little different than usual.  The girls were very happy to have a chance to have waffles.  They rarely get to do that unless we go to Kathy’s or Cafe Isabella.

After breakfast we checked out, loaded up the Yaris and set out on a drive to explore northern Nicaragua.  We started by going north up to Chichigalpa.  We turned off of the highway to go see the town.  The Flor de Cana factory is located there and supposedly they offer a tour.  We drove around down and around the factory to see how things were there.  We tried to look into the tour but it did not look like the kind of thing that you could just show up to so we decided that with the kids and the effort of trying to deal with a non-standard tour that it was not going to be worth the effort.  Hopefully when the girls are older we will return and do it.

We drove on to the north to Chinandega.  It was really surprising when we arrived there to find a huge, modern traffic circle and very high end businesses everywhere.  It was not at all what we were expecting to suddenly find in rural Nicaragua.  This was the most modern city, by far, that we have seen here yet.  We drove through town, which was a bit confusing as these things always are as nothing is marked anywhere, and thought that it looked really nice.  Chinandega is one of the biggest cities in the country.

The whole drive from the moment that you are out of Leon all the way to quite a bit north of Chinandega is just gorgeous farmland.  It was a beautiful drive.

After Chinandega we came upon El Viejo which is a good sized city for Nica and seemed very affluent.  We skirted the city to the west and continued up north.  Our goal was to drive to Patosi, far up north on the peninsula, where there used to be a ferry to El Salvador, but it was shut down years ago as we understand it.

We drove all the way to the end of the highway on Route 12.  The highway ended abruptly in a huge mud puddle, which was pretty surprising as the highway was an excellent two lane black top until then.  Then…. a big dirty puddle.

We turned right onto 265 which makes it sound like a road, which it was not.  This was a dirt path with big rocks and wash outs, basically a farm trail through a flat field area.  That this was a labeled road at all was a bit crazy.

We drove several kilometers, as far as we could.  There were several spots where we had to drive through very slowly to keep from bottoming out the car or just getting stuck.  Eventually we came to a wash out through which we could not progress.  That was depressing.  We were just minutes away from opening up onto the Bay of Fonseca and potentially having a view of Honduras across the water.  But there was no choice, we had to turn around. The crappy Toyota Yaris was not going to continue along any further.

So our dreams of reaching the northern most point on the peninsula were shattered.  We turned the car around and made our way back to pavement and began heading south.  We did not want to go on to Managua tonight.  So we decided to explore more of Chinandega province.  Dominica did some searching while we drove and found a marina out in Aposentillo along the coast.

We did not have anywhere else to go and it sounded like it might be interesting so we decided to investigate.  They sounded like they had a restaurant and we had nowhere to get lunch and it was getting into the afternoon so why not.

We turned off of the highway north of El Viejo and traveled down a bricked road for quite some ways before it turned to dirt and stone much like the road from earlier today.  We were beginning to wonder how it could be possible that there would be anything of interest down this road and, more likely, what the chances would be that we would even be able to get through on the car.  Once we were starting to get pretty worried we ended up seeing another car similar to ours coming towards us and that gave us hope that they had made it from somewhere up ahead.

Suddenly, at the end of this dirt road, there was a guarded gate.  We pulled up and the guard asked us if we were there to go to the restaurant.  We looked at each other and shrugged and said yes.  So they let us in lo and behold we were driving into a luxury resort in the jungle!

This was completely crazy.  We could not believe what we had found.  It looked like a Disney resort or something.  There was nothing for so long that suggested that there would be anything like this out here.  We parked and walked around.  Infinity pools, beautiful bay front hotel rooms, big banquet hall, tiki bar on the water and more.  Wow.

We checked with reception and they said that they had a room tonight but only for tonight as they are fully sold out tomorrow.  Weird, we did not see a single person around.  How could they be full tomorrow?

The rooms were $200 USD a night.  Not cheap at all.  So we asked to look at a Junior Suite.  The room was pretty amazing.  A king bed on an upper level and a few steps down to a pull out couch on a lower level all looking out a huge open door and window wall to a large patio with views over the bay or actually not a bay but the estero de Aserradores.  So we took the room.

So tonight we are staying an El Hotel y Marina Puesta del Sol.

We got a discount on the room because we have to check out at eight in the morning tomorrow so that they can get the room ready for the big party that they have coming in.  But we get to use the facilities as long as we want, so we figured that that would be a good trade off.

We walked down to the tiki bar out on the water and relaxed and ordered some late lunch.  It was only about three thirty at this point, which is partially why we decided to go for such a fancy resort evening since we would get to spend a lot of time at the resort for just one night’s fee.

Our late lunch was basic but good.  Dominica, Liesl and I each got a fish sandwich.  Luciana got fish fingers.  It was nice and relaxing out on the water.

After lunch we went to the car and a porter carried our luggage up the stairs to our room.  That was some heavy luggage as only Dominica can pack.  That poor porter.  Dominica packs luggage like she has 1915 steamer trunks going on an ocean liner.

The room was awesome and the bathroom was actually the highlight.  It was so big with two of its own closets, a shower with multiple heads and a bench, three mirrors, etc.  And everything in dark wood.  So impressive.  Totally modern.  Nothing that you would expect in Nicaragua.  This is so out of place.

We got settled in which took no time at all.  Then we walked to reception and requested that the shuttle driver come get us and drive us through the jungle to the Pacific Ocean beach area that they have.  We want some beach and sunset time.  Liesl loves sunsets and both girls love the beach so this is perfect.  It was getting late and the sun was getting low since it sets around six here so we had to hurry.

The driver picked us up and whisked us through the jungle.  At the beach side there is a huge pavilion set up, another infinity pool, changing rooms, a bar, etc.  We walked down to the most amazing beach ever.  Dark sand that was easily fifty percent deeper, from edge to ocean, than in Panama and almost twice as much beach as anywhere I’ve been outside of Central America.  Just a huge, flat, smooth, beautiful beach.  And all ours.  No one on it anywhere.  It stretched out so far in both directions and just no one.

So we played in the water until the sun went down.  It was one of the most beautiful sunsets ever.  So magical to get to have this with the family.  The sunset and beach alone justify staying in the resort.  No wonder the name of the resort is the “Hotel and Marina Setting of the Sun.”

We stayed on the beach for a while after the sun had gone down.  The girls were having fun digging sand pits that would fill with water in which they could wash their hands and feet.  They are so goofy.

The whole time that we were there we only ever saw one group of three people walk from way down the beach to where we were and go into the pavilion and apparently catch a ride back with our driver.  Other than that we were totally alone except for the resort employee working the pavilion.

We thought about using the infinity pool there but wanted to let the staff go home.  So once it was very dark we took the truck back to the main resort area, asked them to light up the main pool and went swimming for a while.

The water was incredibly warm and there was tons of really shallow space so that Luciana was able to go in without floaties and had half of the pool available to her!  She had to go without floaties because the ones that we brought with us are defective and they could not stay inflated.  So we got very lucky here.  We had a very nice time swimming.  This was Ciana’s first time in a pool like this and had a lot of fun being able to venture all over.  It was also the first time that the girls got to see an infinity pool so they learned about that as well.

After swimming we retired to the hotel room.  We just wanted to relax.  The girls turned on their iPads and hung out on the couch.  They love the couch and the levels of the room.  They also love that a gecko lives in the room and periodically runs across the wall over the balcony door.

I took a shower and while I was in there the front desk called up to let us know that the restaurant was going to close at nine but that they would deliver us dinner!  How awesome.

We could not decide what to get from the hotel room, so I walked down to the tiki bar and ordered dinner there.  Then returned to the hotel and we relaxed for a while until our dinner was delivered.

We were not super hungry so we just got one order of fish fingers that the girls shared.  Dominica and I split a whole, friend red snapper (deboned.)  We also got pineapple flambe for Dominica and me and a caramel flan for the girls – which they were not interested in.

After dinner, which was very good, it was straight off to bed for all of us.  We told the girls that they needed to get to sleep early so that they would be able to get up and go to the beach tomorrow and to swim before we have to leave the resort. So they were happy to put down the iPads and drift off to sleep quite early and without any complaints.

This was a very successful family day, if a bit of an expensive one.  We are very glad that we opted to come to this resort.