Beach Bums

This week we were beach bums! Nicaragua has some amazingly beautiful beaches! Monday was the 4th of July, Happy Birthday America! Mitchell decided to work Monday and take the holiday on Friday instead. Cool that he can do that. The kids and I went to a beach called Playa Majagual with one of Mitchell's coworkers and her family. The pictures tell all! White sand, no other people, big waves, thick clouds and no one got sunburned it was a perfect day! The one thing I would have changed about Monday is, I would have bought more bananas at the road side fruit stand! I bought 12 but we ate them all before we even got home! So delicious! On that topic, I still marvel at the prices of some things here. I got a medium sized watermelon, a pineapple, 5 mangoes and 12 bananas for $5! All local, organic and DELICIOUS!

Thursday I took the kids to the movie theater to see Buscando a Dory. The movie was dubbed over in Spanish so they likely didn't understand the words but it was simple enough that they followed along and enjoyed it. They are really looking forward to starting school next month, they really miss their friends!

Speaking of friends, the kids in our housing complex are starting to come back from summer vacations!! We figured out that they normally come out to play around 4 until about 6. We've made a point to go out and make friends and the few neighbors that we have met are so welcoming and kind! There is a boy named Vladimir they have played with a few afternoons. Last time they played he gave Reid a hug when it was time to go in! Yay for friends! Interesting fact: The kids play freeze tag here! Audrey and Reid used gestures to explain it to Vladimir and he understood. They call it "pez congelado" or frozen fish. Fun times! Another fun fact: speed bumps are called "policia acostado" or policeman laying down. We thought that was amusing.

Friday afternoon there was a celebration down the main highway in our end of Managua all the way to Masaya. It was celebrating the retreat of the Sandinistas to Masaya on July 8, 1979. The war ended victorious for the Sandinistas on July 19, 1979. There were flags up and every mile or two there was a stage set up to play music.

I snapped some pictures of the beautiful countryside from the car. I love this place! It's a paradise!

Friday we left first thing in the morning for San Juan del Sur! First stop was a steep but short climb up to the Cristo de la Misericordia (Merciful Christ) statue. It is a massive 24 meters tall and stands 110 meters above sea level on a sheer cliff overlooking the beautiful San Juan del Sur inlet. 

Yes you *should* come visit us!! I mean, this view!

 

Our friend August, R&R's friend Cooper's dad, told R&R that they would probably see a beetle with horns in Nicaragua. They have been on the hunt and finally found a beetle with horns!

On our way back to the same beach that we visited on Monday we saw monkeys!! It was so neat! I also loved these huge twisted jungle trees.

After a few hours playing in the waves, making sand castles and collecting shells we headed back to our house for the night. Airbnb hooked us up with a super cheap house and it was pretty neat. It was authentic rural Nicaraguan farm living. There were banana trees, plantains, mango trees, papaya, cucumber vines, coconut palms, a large chicken coop several bunny coops and more! When we got there the host showed us how to use a machete to cut through the husk of the coconut and drink the water inside. It is slightly sweet and has a mild coconut flavor. Mostly it tastes like warm water though. Haha! I'm glad we stayed there and I am also very glad we don't live so "authentically" all the time. It was very picturesque though!

We all slept under mosquito nets because the roof was not connected to the walls of the house. That was great because it allowed the cool night breezes to come right on through. It also allowed the bugs (mostly moths) to come on in also. The kids thought the nets were awesome.

We had planned on spending another day at the beach on Saturday but it rained all night and all day. Redick was the most bummed! We had to take a literal "rain check" and head back toward Managua. We came across a neat museum about the geological and agricultural history of Nicaragua that was housed in one of the oldest buildings in the area. It was closed so we'll have to check it out later. We missed a highway interchange somewhere along the way and ended up going home through Jinotepe. It was a slower route but we passed through a bunch of tiny farming towns and it was so neat! We were up in the hill country and you could see farms plowed right across the steep hillsides. Since we were in the hilly area the road had some steep climbs and steep drops. The views were incredible!

This is the back side of Volcan Masaya. It was spewing out thick smoke!

We are loving it here more and more all the time! It may take more time for me to find the charm of Managua itself (it's a big busy city with lots of traffic and people worrying about stuff) but I have fallen in love with the rest of this country!