visitation

A lot has happened since the last post. I finished my 3rd semester teaching, my parents came down for two weeks, and I turned another year older...26 now! The first semester finished as well as could have been expected. Very few failures, and only the students who deserved them got them. :) This is good because the first marking period found many very low grades. It seems like forever ago since I was teaching. My parents left 4 days ago, and while they were here time flew. It was great to have them here and we had a wonderful time. Let me tell you a little about their visit.

One of the first things we did was go for a tour of Managua with Steve. It is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now, actually. I have heard many people talk about how interesting and helpful his tour was--but always I have been busy and unable to join him. As we drove around the city to amazing sights and views, he filled us in on the fascinating history of Nicaragua as a republic and it's relationship with the US. Very much a time of learning for me. I loved it and I also found some amazing views of the city. Managua is the greenest capital city in Central America. With my parents we were also able to visit Ometepe Island, an island formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. With some luck were able to get the Dama de Hierro (my car) stuck on the inactive volcano. We had driven up two kilometers (4x4 necessary) and then hiked another one to get to a waterfall. We narrowly avoided getting stuck on the way up--sliding to the side and into bushes, but when we were turning around at the top it took two of us to get the thing stuck. My dad was spotting and I was driving. Neither of us took note of the giant rocks sticking up from the ground and we ended up with one tire in the middle of three rocks. The suspension was caught up on the forward most rock, and we weren't going anywhere. After an hour or more we were able to design and construct a ramp from the immediatley available materials and we had the car free.

We also enjoyed a sailboat tour in San Juan del Sur. The amazing tour included unbelievable sights of the coastline and more delicious food than we could handle. By the time lunch rolled around (we stopped at a beautiful cove beach), I barely had room for the apetizer. If you ever have the chance to try ceviche, don't pass it down, even if you don't like the thought of raw seafood, you'll enjoy the taste.

The rest of the time was spent relaxing a little more as we just made day trips from Managua. I took my parents to see the various crafts and skilled areas in and around the capital city: pottery, hammocks, pewter, furniture. Each of these things are made in different areas and we would have spent hours upon hours in each area if we had given my mom more time. We also stopped by the blacksmith school (link listed on this page) where my parents were able to see some hooks being made for them.

Overall we had a wonderful time together and we learned a lot about Nicaragua and how things are made and how people live. My parents aren't the first to come here and say, "We have never had a trip like this."

Here are some photos of the trip. Click here to see the full-sized version that includes captions. Watch for another post soon. There is more I need to say!