Sheep Guarding Llama

After all of the excitement of yesterday, today seemed pretty tame by comparison.

This morning was our first time actually getting around to making coffee!  So this was our first Nicaraguan coffee.  Hard to believe that we have made it this far without having had any of it at all yet.  It was very good.

We heard a lot of horses this morning and poked our heads out to discover that a whole group of maybe eight horse drawn carriages loaded with passengers had pulled up to the “hotel” across the street and people were getting out and filling up the hotel.  It was very odd.  I had heard that people sometimes use the horse drawn carriages as taxis around town but had not expected to see something like this.  And definitely not directly in front of our front door.  Very cool.

We had a marching band wander by in front of the house today.  Odd.  Not something that we had been expecting to see.

I made mac and cheese for the kids today.  We have Costa Rican mac and cheese rather than Kraft and they love it.  I’m much happier making them something local, although it tastes pretty close.

This evening after I was mostly done writing for the day and because we had promised yesterday, we took the girls out for a walk to go up the street to the Poet’s Park to the playground there.

Unfortunately the playground had looked far better from the road that it did up close.  A lot of it was in terrible disrepair and had missing boards, broken metal and sharp edges.  We had to be really careful.  There were tons and tons of kids there too.

The girls played for a while and Dominica watched them.  I went out walking around town in an attempt to find food options relatively near where we were.  I walked far to the east to the chicken factory and found a grocery store that we had not known about before and explored the neighborhoods in that direction, then stopped by the playground and reported in.  Nothing for us to do in that direction.

Then I set out to the west towards the grocery stores that I already knew.  It was getting hot and I was starting to sweat a lot.  It was a long walk and I managed to find very little.  There was an asada place but, of course, we don’t eat anything that they would have.  There was a local bar and restaurant kind of thing but nothing that felt comfortable just popping into with the kids, especially not this early on our stay in Granada.  Finally I found a pizza place next to the far grocery store.  Better than nothing.

I walked back to the playground and let the family know what we would be doing.  Dominica had been making friends with kids on the playground who were all attempting to communicate.  They were struggling but getting by.  Liesl and Luciana were having run even with the dangerous and limited playground.  I think that there were even more kids when we returned there.

We all walked together over to the pizza place, Pizza Vale.  The seating is all outdoors, it is a very interesting plaza (with bats flying around the inside of it!)  It was nice but way too warm.  Very hard to cool down with no breeze and hot, humid air.

The food ended up being amazing and we had a really nice time.  The pizza was great, similar in style to what we found in rural Panama like my mother used to make.  The vegetarian pizza at Pizza Vale has pineapple on it which was awesome.  Liesl loved out pizza too.

After dinner we went to La Colonia, the fancy grocery store that we were told was more expensive but would have more of the kind of food that we would be looking for.  This was our first time going to La Colonia and this was Dominica’s first Nicaraguan grocery store experience.

We shopped for a while but had to be careful how much we bought as we needed to carry everything back with us, we don’t have a car.  We were very thankful to have real food for the house, this will help a lot.

We walked back home and got the groceries put away and settled into the air conditioned bedrooms to cool down, relax and get some sleep.

This morning I was up early and got in about an hour of writing before I had to have a conference call that was supposed to be about half an hour and ended up being more like two hours.  So it was a busy morning.

An hour into the call, so probably around ten thirty, the power went out.  It is our second day here and suddenly the power is out already.  Not a good start to things.  I had to switch from WiFi calling to the cell network and use my battery to do the last hour of the call, which ran me down a bit.

After the call the house was getting pretty hot as there is no AC left in the bedrooms and no ceiling fans anywhere in the house.  It gets warm fast.

We gave it a little less than an hour and figured that the power was not going to be on anytime soon so we rounded up the kids from the pool where they were keeping themselves cool and we went out for the family’s first walk in the city.  Dominica and the girls have not seen anything outside of the house yet, this is their first foray into the city.

We stepped out of the front door and there was a police line tied, quite literally, to our front door and running across the street.  We looked to the west and clearly we were inside the line, not outside of it, as the street right next to us was covered in the power lines that had come down!  No wonder the power was out.  It was going to be out for a long time.  No need to wait around for it.  We are down for the day.

We walked southeast down to Calle Arsenal and past the Parque Centro to Kelley’s Waffle House which we had found on Google Maps, of all things.  On the way there we found an amazing art gallery with tons of stuff that we just loved.  We plan to go back there soon.  There were several pieces from three different artists that we are really interested in.  It was a nice stop on our walk.

Lunch at Kelley’s was really good.  Liesl got a waffle.  Luciana got pancakes.  Dominica got pancakes and scrambled eggs.  I got huevos rancheros with gallo pinto, the national food of Nicaragua, which was very good (it is a form of rice and beans.)  Liesl ate half of her waffle.  Luciana ended up finishing it for her.  We all enjoyed our food very much.  This was our first restaurant in Nicaragua.

From Kelley’s we walked to the Parque Centro and around it a little bit.  Many of the famous pictures that I have seen of Granada are taken right here in the park.  I recognized nearly everything.

We were thinking about taking a horse drawn carriage tour of the city and right as we were starting to think about it a guy came up offering us a tour for $45 (all tourist stuff is done in American money which, as we have already moved over to Cordobas, is rather annoying) for the four of us for two hours.  We had time and we felt that this would actually be pretty awesome – getting a big, grand overview of our city right now at the beginning of our time here so that we would know more of what there is, where things are and how to explore before we have been here for a while trying to figure it out on our own.

The girls thought that a horse drawn carriage ride sounded pretty good.  So we climbed on up and began our tour.  What a great way to spend the day, it was hot, of course, but being in the open air with the movement made it not so bad.  We were covered so not a lot of direct sunlight hitting us more of the time.  The girls rode facing backwards and Dominica and I sat in the back facing forward.  For a while Luciana went up front with the driver and the tour guide and rode between them which was adorable.  They even offered her the reins to let her drive the horse but she was too timid to try that.  She later said “I don’t even know how to steer a horse!”

The tour started by going nearly right by our house and up to the street with the grocery store that I was on last night and past that to the Poet’s Park which, we discovered, has an awesome playground in it that we hope to bring the girls to tomorrow.

We got to see a lot of the city and had a really nice time.  Since we got the big tour it also took us out east to the lake and down south on the road running along the lake.  It was cooler by the lake and very nice.  There is a park that runs along the lake that has one of the biggest playground complexes that we have ever seen.  Liesl could not stop talking about how the playground just kept going and going.

We went to the marina where they give forty five minute tours of the lake by boat. There is a group of islands, 365 of them specifically, out in the lake.  They are tiny but many have houses on them.  The tour goes to about 65 of them.  Luciana really wanted to do the boat ride but Liesl did not.  Dominica and I both wanted to so our votes won.  Liesl wasn’t so happy.

The boat ride was really neat and interesting.  The same guide came along and we just had someone driving the boat.  The ride went out through the islands and we got to see indigenous people fishing out in the lake which was interesting and some amazing homes built on the tiny islands (think New York’s Thousand Islands here) and we went out to Isla Pirata to the Restaurant Pirata (Pirate Restaurant) where we got drinks and Liesl ordered a bowl of fish soup which was excellent (and had an entire fish in it, head and all!)

It ended up being a very enjoyable day.  We had a great time as a family.  This was the ultimate use of a day without power.

After the boat tour we had no carriage as the horse was not feeling well so a car took us back to the Central Park.  We paid our guide and walked to the bank and loaded up on cash so that we could do spontaneous things like this more easily again and we hit the little market that I went to yesterday morning and we got several bags of groceries and even a really interesting comic book about Nicaragua that seemed like an amazing score.  Then we walked back to the house.

When we arrived home, it was about four thirty, the power was back on!  We were very excited about this.  I got right to writing and did that for several hours.  Thankfully we were eventually able to turn the AC back on!  It was very hot today.

The girls swam again and later on they both spent some time playing Minecraft.  I’ve gotten my older HP laptop, the little ultrabook, set up with Minecraft now so Liesl can play on a laptop nearly any time.

Around eight we all migrated to the bedrooms as it was too hot to be in the house.  Dominica and I watched The Nanny for a while before she went to bed around eleven thirty and I stayed up till around one getting caught up on some writing, including today’s SGL post.

This is it, we just woke up in Nicaragua!  We actually live here now.  We are very excited.

We got to actually see the house this morning!  It was very dark and pouring rain when we got in last night so we got to walk around but we really did not manage to get a good look at the place and we did not have any way to take pictures, so we did that today.  Now everyone can see what it looks like where we are living.  If only they could feel how hot it is.

We were expecting a lot of rain today but the sun was out and everything was dry.  This is supposed to be the rainy season but it is sure not what we have been led to believe from the weather reports that we have been seeing from Texas.  Very hot.  Staggeringly hot.

First thing this morning our maids arrived and cleaned the house.  While they were there the water boy brought us five gallons of water, so now everyone can safely drink although I feel fine from trying the tap water yesterday.  The pool guy came today too.  There are a lot of people who keep this house running.  It is amazing that there are all of these people and that they are just included with the house. There is a propane delivery guy too, because we have a grill pool side.

This morning, on the late side once we knew that we really needed to find some food and had looked at the maps for a while, I ventured out alone to see what I could find around town.  I took it easy and was just supposed to find an ATM and scout out the situation.

I found several places that we had been interested in while looking at the map including the Choco Museum and Mi Museum which are on the same block.  I located the farmacia and the licoria and got to a nice bank with several ATMs inside which worked out perfectly.  I took out 8,000 Cordoba and noticed that the ATMs would dispense American currency as well.

Across the street from the BAC ATMs was a little quick stop so I popped in there.  This is one that we drove past last night and had looked pretty decent.  Relatively modern and well lit at night, really stood out from everything else in the area that is so old and dark at night.

I grabbed what emergency rations as I could getting butter, soymilk (they had no regular milk), one box of mac and cheese, a bag of Cheetos, etc.  Then I walked back to the house carrying the groceries.  This was not too bad but getting a lot of groceries will be very hard.

I worked on writing and posting all day, mostly while sitting at the dining room table.  The girls went for at least three swims today!  They are so excited about having a swimming pool in the middle of the house.  It really is convenient in a way we would never have thought to have tried to do before.

The fountain that is part of the pool, we figured out, comes on automatically on a timer.  So this morning when we got up the fountain was running which provides a lot of nice white noise in the house.  It is pretty cool.

This evening, after it was dark which is pretty early, more like Panama, I walked in the opposite direction and went north to La Union grocery store which our driver last night had recommended to us.  That was a very easy walk and I stocked up on groceries and walked home with them.  It is going to be hard to get any amount of groceries this way, but it will force me to take a trip to the store at least every other day.

On the walk there I discovered the El Carmen Panaria is right next to the house so getting bread will likely prove to be really easy.  I did not stop there tonight, though.

This evening I took a quick walk to the Mary Licoria which is right on our block and grabbed four cans of Tona, the local beer that I am told might be the best option, and a small bottle of seven year aged Flor de Cana, the national rum of Nicaragua.  Then I came home and we set up and watched The Nanny for a while on Dominica’s laptop connected to the television in our bedroom.

This is it, our big day.  We are moving down to Nicaragua for the season.  This is our third time “relocating” to a new country this year.  Each time is a new adventure.  We have gotten used to this enough that we really did not feel very much sense of urgency in getting ready or anything.  It seemed pretty casual until around noon when suddenly things started coming down to the wire and we actually had to have things done like, immediately.

We had a last minute packing panic as Dominica realized that one of the suitcases was coming in at 82.5 lbs, rather a bit over the 50 lbs limit set by the airlines.  So she had to repack, in a panic, and we had to make the decision to take an additional suitcase – which was already packed in the storage unit.  So we loaded up the Spark (that is the only car that we have now) and I ran to the storage unit, dropped off everything that we had left to drop off, took everything out of the suitcase that we needed and put it into a box, grabbed the now empty suitcase and ran back to the house.

It was just barely in time that Dominica was able to get everything packed so that we were able to leave for the airport on time.  Francesca came over and picked us up.  Even her truck was pretty full with all of our luggage.  We have nine pieces of luggage this time.

We had some issues due to changes in how the toll roads in Houston work making it difficult for us to get to the airport.  This is something that we are not going to miss!

We got the airport with tons of time.  We did not want to have any airport complications so had allowed ourselves three hours.  This gave us plenty of time to get some food and just relax at the gate knowing that we had everything covered.  We got pretzels and cookies while we waited for the flight.  Luciana would be talking about how good the cookies were from this airport for weeks.

No issues getting onto our flight.  We have a direct flight from Houston to Managua on United which is very nice, just barely over three hours.  That we can handle.

On this flight Luciana sat against the window seat on the right hand side of the airplane, Liesl in the middle and me on the aisle.  As always, Dominica was on the other side of the aisle.  This was not a good setup, I need to be between the girls or it turns into fighting.  We will not have the two of them together again.

The flight was short and no problems at all.  We landed at the very small airport in Managua and could feel the heat and humidity as we left the plane.  This is a hot country.

Getting into the airport we were greeted by an undeniable sense of being in a different part of the world than we have yet had a chance to visit.  Technically Panama is Central America, but it is really just a technicality.  Panama has always been associated with South America since the very first Spanish explorers visited there.  In recent history it never joined the Central American countries and has always been associated with Columbia to the south.  The culture and history of Panama is South American, not Central American.

Nicaragua is, without a doubt, Central America.  Even just the airport makes you feel like you are in a different part of the world.  We have never been to an airport that felt so run down.  People were all very friendly and things were handled efficiently.  Getting through the airport and through customs and immigration was easy.  This is also the first time that we had to pay to enter a country.  Ten dollars American per person to come into the country.  Don’t forget to have cash with you when you fly!

We got our luggage quickly and were immediately met by our ride as we left the airport.  That was super easy.  However we were told that we were going to be met by a minivan as we had coordinated that ahead of time due to the amount of luggage that we had, but what met us was a very small Toyota Corolla.  Thank goodness it was not a Yaris.  But we were not prepared to be in such a small car.

It took several people a lot of effort to get us into that little car.  We were really, really lucky that our luggage, and us, all fit.  Three adults, two kids and nine massive pieces of luggage in a subcompact!

The drive from Managua to Granada takes a little over an hour.  The airport is east of the city so we drove northeast to Tipitapa and then down through Masaya to Granada.  We had a nice ride but it was dark so there was very little to get to see.  Our driver spoke a little English so we were able to learn a little bit about the country on the drive.

It was clear on our drive south but our driver said that it was raining in Granada.  We did not see the rain ourselves until we had gotten into the city and then it was pouring.  A true Central American tropical storm, which was neat but tonight was probably not the best timing for it.  It was so much rain that the person who was going to show the house to us decided not to come out and instead the taxi drove us to her house, she gave us the keys and we went on our way.

We got into the house on the northwest side of Granada not too far from the tourist district and unloaded the car in the intense rain.  We are very excited to be in our new house.

We quickly explored and the house is amazing.  It is an ancient colonial house, very classic.  The rain was pouring in to the pool in the middle of the house which was really cool.  The house is all open to the outside, which we knew and were expecting, but actually experiencing it was something.  This is going to be an incredibly unique living experience for us.  Like nothing we have ever tried to do before.  It is going to be nothing but fresh air for us for the next season.

We did pretty little tonight.  It was getting late and we were tired.  We looked around the house, carried our luggage upstairs, checked out the bedrooms and saved most everything for tomorrow.  Both bedrooms have tons and tons of space and each has its own full bathroom which is great.  There is nothing on the second floor except for the bedrooms.

The girls already love the house and their room, especially.  We are all excited to be here but need our sleep.

This is it, our final day in the USA for the summer of 2015.  We will not have another full day in America until we return from Nicaragua in December to celebrate Christmas with everyone, including my dad, in Texas at that time.

We got up very early in Austin at the Hampton Inn, got everyone up, loaded up the Spark and drove the three and a half hours east back to Friendswood.  We were on the road just after eight.  We had to drive quickly and had no time to stop for snacks or anything as we were in a bad rush to get to Friendswood High School’s field so that we could see Madeline and Emily march today as there was a field show competition there today and this has been the one and only opportunity for us to see them march this year.  So we really did not want to miss it.

We literally made it to the high school with only minutes to spare.  We ran to get into the stadium.  Ten minutes of delay and we would not have made the show.  As it was our timing was just about perfect as we were even able to get a good parking spot and everything and did not have to sit out on the painfully hot bleachers a minute longer than necessary to see the girls’ band perform.

From the marching band competition it was straight back to the Toccos’ house and the rest of the day was spent doing packing and getting all of the last minute stuff done and prepped as tomorrow we are traveling!  I had thought all this time that we were flying out in the wee hours of the morning but it turns out that I was off by half a day and we are actually heading to the airport in the middle of the afternoon which is not nearly so bad.

We do not have anything large left in the house but there was a load to take to the storage unit today that had to be done with the little green car.  I am going to have to take one final load there tomorrow as well.  We had to get all of our stuff out of the Toccos’ house because they are beginning major construction work on the upper floor the moment that we are gone and all of our stuff is going to need to be out of the way so that they can do that.

Quiet day otherwise.  Tons of packing, quiet might be the wrong word.  The night before an international relocation is never trivial.  Although as this is our sixth major move this year (NY to Texas, Texas to Spain, Spain to New York, New York to Panama, Panama to Texas, Texas to Nicaragua) I think that complacency is starting to set it and while we are getting better at the processes we are also getting to be far, far more casual about doing it.  We can’t let that happen when we do the next big change from Texas to Argentina in January as that time we are going to be “gone” for so much longer and there is just so much more to go wrong during the time that we are gone.  The ante will be far larger, so to speak.

Today is a big of just plain exhaustion.  There is the overwhelming about of work to do today.  There was the mad rush this morning, the short night last night, etc.  We are worn out.  And, of course, there is the post-SpiceWorld decompression processes.  It has been a crazy week, as the Austin experience always is, and we just need some time to relax but we are not going to get that until we have been in Granada for a few days.  And, on top of all of that, there is the stress as well as the excitement of our major life changes.  Just so much going on, it is all very hard to believe.