M&M's: September 2016

On Saturday we hiked up another volcano called Mombacho. It overlooks the city of Granada and part of Lake Nicaragua. We got to experience first hand a rare wonder in the world! We hiked through a cloud forest! I've been fascinated to learn about cloud forest so here's what I know. A cloud forest is a rainforest that traps condensation of evaporated water in a cloud above the forest which then provides it's own rain back to the forest. A true cloud forest normally forms on the back of a mountain that serves as a collection basin for the condensation and for clouds that naturally blow by.

We invited our friend Carla and her 2 sons to join us on the adventure! They were super excited!

Layne actually walked much of this hike himself! It was no easy hike either! Most of it was 25-35% grade up or down.

This "tunnel," or more like a fissure, was originally formed by seismic activity and then enlarged by water erosion.

Everything is so green right now! Rainy season is coming to a close and everything is so lush and beautiful! The rains also help keep the suffocating heat in check. It's been a lot more pleasant lately! One evening recently I even felt chilly while sitting out on our patio.

Enjoying a pit stop for water and trail mix

This is one overlook where we could see out to Granada, Lake Nicaragua, Managua, Volcan Masaya and even to Lake Managua in the distance. It was spectacular! This picture shows the many of the 360+ Isletas off the coast of Granada in Lake Nicaragua. We visited one of the Isletas on our Pico de Garza adventure in July.

We don't take enough selfies of just us. I love this guy! Thank goodness he's adventurous too!

The whole group after about 30 minutes of our 4 hour hike.

We saw lots of gorgeous plants as we hiked. This time we hired a guide to take us along. Luis was very knowledgable and really fun to have with our group. He knew which plants we could eat and which were poisonous. I got a kick out of one poisonous plant. It has pretty large salad plate sized rounded leaves. The leaves can cause a blistering rash on contact with the skin, like poison oak/ivy. If the leaves are eaten the toxin can damage the vocal chords and you can lose the ability to speak for two weeks or even forever! It's believed that some poisonous snakes eat the leaves and roots and extract the toxin to produce venom. The name of this plant is "Lengua de Suegra" or Mother-in-law's tongue. I found that funny. I have an amazing mother in law though, shout out to Kitty!

We also saw and heard lots of wild life. Of course there were birds calling and singing, there are even impressive parrots that live in these rainforests! We saw a group of howler monkeys pretty close to us. There were 2 males that were grunting and hooting at each other. They are territorial and one or the other had apparently gotten too close to the other's territory. We also saw a momma with 2 babies! Baby monkeys might just be the cutest thing on earth! **Maybe. My own babies are pretty darn adorable!** Our guide had seen a sloth earlier that morning and I really wanted to see one in the wild! When we got to the spot he had vacated the branch though. Bummer. I'll keep looking! Also, there is a specific species of salamander who's only habitat in the whole world is Mombacho Volcano! So neat! Redick found a "parade of ants" that were each carrying a giant piece of green leaf! On the ground it looked like a bunch of leaf fragments moving along a conveyor belt.

This hole in the ground is leaking scalding hot sulfur gas from deep in the earth! Even though the last eruption of Mombacho was in the year 1570, these "fumarolas" or sulfur vents are a reminder that the volcanoes in this region are alive and thriving.

We made it to the second highest point on the mountain. 1,222 meters up!

This little fern was all over the place. Luis showed me that when the plant gets startled it curls up and sleeps as a self protection mechanism. I thought that was cool.

For now Layne bids you goodbye! There are only so many hours in the day and he doesn't spend enough of them in the pool. We are having fun and learning lots!

First I'll start with the new additions to our home! Redick and Reid have a friend at school and I have become friend's with his mom as well. She made me this adorable (and totally Nicaragua) kids furniture set! So cute with the table and 4 stools! It's made from upcycled worn out motorcycle tires! So fun.

Layne smiles for the camera now, this is it. Haha!

The other day I was driving through our neighborhood and I saw a girl sitting on the side of the road with several canvas paintings. I'm such a sucker for art! This lovely, and huge, piece ended up coming home with me and we love it!

September 14-15 are Nicaragua's national holidays celebrating independence. The kids got to participate in the festivities at school with traditional costumes, music, dance and food! It was so fun and we all loved it.

Redick and Reid were hilarious on stage! Redick was too bashful to actually do many of the dance steps they practiced at school. Being more of a perfectionist though, he prompted Reid with urgent looks and even an embarrassed shove when Reid forgot what he was supposed to do. They both did a great job though, cuties!

Audrey got to pick out her traditional dress and she is in love with it! Pretty little girl.

She is in the second row just behind the other girl in white. The 2 first grade classes performed a dance called "Pozol con Leche"

I filmed Audrey's dance and looked down from the camera during the song to see the boys dancing together. ❤

Audrey posing with her teacher, Ms. Perez after the show.

Last weekend we had to make our first run for the border to renew our visas. We have filed for Nicaraguan residency but it's still in process so to Costa Rica we go! We didn't have time to stay in CR and see/do anything there so we'll have to for sure make another trip! I had read about the CR border crossing, that it is complicated and difficult to navigate. There are about 8 different government offices that you have to go to, file paperwork with and pay fees to. There are no signs directing you and no shortage of corrupt/desperate people hoping to line their pockets with bribe money from confused travelers. I was pretty nervous to have to do this, and with all the kids in tow since they needed their visas renewed too. I read that depending on the day and the whim of the government employees the crossing could take up to 6 hours! We decided to stay the night in an airbnb close to the border and make the crossing first thing on Saturday morning when we were all fresh.

Our airbnb was awesome! It was a nice house right on Lake Nicaragua! We arrived just after the sun went down so we couldn't see very well. In the morning though, we were greeted by a gorgeous sunrise over Volcan Maderas! It was lovely!

The border was definitely an interesting experience. We had to park the car and walk across since the car is registered in Nica and the extra paperwork to authorize the car to cross wasn't worth it on this trip. It was hot and the distance from the car, across 'no man's land' to the last office in CR was about a mile. Then we had to turn around and pass through all of the same offices again! We decided to hire a 'guide' to facilitate our crossing so he could help us on the first time. He promised that he would get us out and back in 2 hours or less and he would do it for $20. We were sold but we also knew it wouldn't be that simple either. Haha, nothing is simple in Nica! He did guide us to each office and got us our forms and told us which fees we would need to pay. As we were walking back to our car to leave he decided to tell us that each form that we filled out along the way cost $5 per person and we would need to pay that to him so he could go back and reimburse the government offices. LOL! Now, I do have a heart and I recognize how poverty leads to desperation and even deception. I want to make opportunities to serve the people here in meaningful ways and try to do so whenever possible. However, I know that customs forms don't cost anything (let alone $5 each!). We had a short but uncomfortable argument with the guy before we paid him $25 and walked away. All in all it was a successful but expensive day. After we made it through the border experience we headed for the beach to celebrate the start of another 90 days in paradise!

Delicious fresh squeezed orange juice served in the signature plastic bag with a straw poked in it. I think this is genius! a plastic bag is much more economical than a bottle and takes up far less space in a landfill.

Redick waiting at one of the border stops

Again, waiting...

...lots and lots of waiting! The kids were awesome through it all though!

Believe it or not this is an official building. One of about 8 that we had to go through. This was on the Costa Rica side.

Immigration office entering Nicaragua

Since we had so much fun crossing the border into Costa Rica on Saturday we decided to cross into Honduras! Actually we've had this trip on the calendar for a couple of months. Our church congregation had planned a trip to the LDS temple. There is no temple in Nicaragua so we traveled 10 hours each way in this amazing tricked out 30 year old school bus!

Side note: Just after midnight early Thursday morning I woke up hearing my bedroom door knocking against the wall and it took me a few seconds to realize that it was an earthquake! I woke up Mitchell and we were both pretty excited! It lasted for about 10 seconds after we were both awake. The kids slept right on through. Nothing was damaged or anything, we are all totally fine. I found out the epicenter was only 30 miles from us and it was a 5.8 magnitude! Pretty awesome!

This is us at 2:30 am meeting at the church before we got on the road.

This old school bus cast away is enjoying a way cooler after life here in Nicaragua! Seriously, I bet it didn't have that sweet chrome panel or the touching dedication to ASHLEY back in it's prime carting kids to and from school. Just sayin'.

The kids did really awesome on the long, hot bus ride.

We were so excited to arrive at the temple!

The Tegucigalpa, Honduras temple is magnificent! What a special place and I am so glad we could bring our children to this holy house.

It was really bright and sunny on this side of the temple in the morning. So beautiful though.

Audrey enjoyed finding discarded branches and flowers laying around the grounds and built a lovely nest.

Tegucigalpa is gorgeous! I thought it would be basically really similar to Managua but it was totally unique! Tegucigalpa is very hilly and covered in pine trees. It's also much much cooler!

Even Layne was such a trooper on the bus.

We were pretty crammed in but it was nice to travel with the ward members and get to know them better. Plus, the great thing about riding the bus is we didn't have to drive! I had lots of time to read my book and nap and play with the kids.

We got home from our Honduras trip at 1:30pm and had just enough time to shower and go to a birthday party for one of our little friends! Mitchell's coworker, and our good friend, hosted us to celebrate her daughter's second birthday. It was an art theme and so much fun!