Tracy Carolyn Photography

For the past two years, John and I have hosted a party that I call PumpkinFest.  It’s essentially a pumpkin carving party held a day or two before Halloween.  My sister makes her delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, John makes spiced popcorn, and we serve hot apple cider and specialty fall beers.  At the end of the night we light up all the jack o’ lanterns and admire everyone’s handiwork before they are taken home.  It’s a good time.

This year for Halloween, we will be in transit from Nicaragua to Guatemala via bus.  Its going to take us a few days to make our way through Honduras and El Salvador, before finally landing at Lake Atitlan on November 1st.  There isn’t much space for Halloween festivity during our travels.

So before we left our home in Granada, we got in our one celebratory Halloween activity – papaya carving.  There may not be pumpkins here in Nicaragua, but there are plenty of giant papayas, which John noted would make good substitutes.  He was right.

While carving a pumpkin is a several hour process, we discovered that a papaya can be carved in about 20 minutes.  The biggest time saver was the discovery that once John cut off the top, the hollow insides of the papaya required no cleaning.  (There are creepy black seeds all over the inside, but cleaning them out would have destroyed the fruit, so we kept them in.  There was still plenty of room for a candle to be safely placed.)

John’s artistic talents greatly outshine mine – I usually need stencils and thumbtacks, while he can freehand all kinds of stuff – so he did all the carving.  The flesh of a papaya cuts like butter, and John had a little face drawn up in no time.  It’s not as elaborate as his usual squash-based designs, but its still pretty impressive!

Happy Halloween!  More from us when we arrive in Guatemala!

We’re getting ready to leave Nicaragua soon, and we do so with mixed feelings: sadness at leaving the great setup we have here, and excitement for what is next.

Somehow we fell into a life here in Granada.  Though we’ve only been here three weeks, we’ve managed to make several friends and have a rather full social calendar.  John became a regular at a favorite courtyard cafe and got a lot of good work done there.  I enjoyed my daily yoga practice on the scenic rooftop and evening swims in the pool.  It’s a little sad to leave something that’s working so well.

What makes it easier, though, is knowing what a great place we are heading to.  We visited Lake Atitlan, Guatemala back in 2009, and are excited to move into our pre-booked apartment there next week.  It will be nice to return to a place we already know and love.

But before our departure from Nicaragua, we decided to do the last touristy thing Granada had to offer – a boat tour of La Isletas.  So we talked our neighbors into going with us, took quick cab ride down to Lake Nicaragua and hopped onto one of these boats for an hour long cruise.
There are 365 (or so) islands here, which were formed when the Mombacho volcano erupted and blew volcanic debris into the lake.  Most of them are privately owned by wealthy Nicaraguans and several foreigners.Most of the islands are fairly small, with just enough space for a single home, hotel or restaurant.  Supposedly one of the nicest hotels in Nicaragua is on one of these islands, but it’s a bit out of our budget so we didn’t check it out.The plant life surrounding the isletas is very similar to what we saw in the swamp area around Ometepe.  Lots of beautiful birds, trees that grow straight out of the water, and lilly pads.  One island is home to four monkeys, who were placed there by a veterinarian and essentially serve as entertainment for tourists.  They make noise and swing around the trees, and if you bring them snacks they will climb on board the boat for photos.  We opted against feeding them (they seemed a little too agressive.)The lilies are quite beautiful, but unfortunately our guide thought they would look more beautiful behind the ears of all the girls on board.  Before we could stop him, he pulled three of them from the water for us to wear.  Sigh.  Please don’t destroy the beauty, tour guide man!
This was our last visit to Lake Nicaragua, but not to worry.  Experience tells me the lake we are moving to in Guatemala won’t disappoint. :)

 

When it comes to coffee, I am spoiled.  My awesome brother-in-law, Jason, owns a coffee company with his brother in Denver.  They make excellent coffee, and Jason does his best to keep me up to my eyeballs in fresh roasted goodness while we’re in the states.  It’s a fantastic family perk.  (He he, perk.)

Boca Java has been working with a non-profit on a pretty awesome project, which brought him down to Nicaragua last week for a quick two day trip.  The project is called CURE Coffee.  From their website:  We have partnered directly with farmers to grow and harvest our new estate coffees high in the mountains of Nicaragua. Boca Java roasts the coffee fresh to your order, and donates $3 per bag to Project C.U.R.E., who provides medical and humanitarian relief back to the farmers and their surrounding communities.

His trip was all business, and just happened to coincide with our stay here in Nicaragua.  Thanks to my stellar family connections, John and I managed to crash the party and join in on the tours of the coffee farm, which is in the beautiful mountain region of Nicaragua.

After meeting up with Jason, we headed to Jinotega, a smaller town in the northern part of the country.  The scenery up there is much different than it is here in Granada, and incredibly beautiful.  Our first order of business was a tour of the coffee farm where the beans are grown.

The farm is a huge operation, one that swells to 1,500 workers during the peak of harvest.  This building is one of the dorms where some of the workers live.

They have huge kitchens with giant pots of beans cooking to feed everyone.  There were four of these going at one time in each kitchen, and massive stacks of tortillas.  In the mornings, these cauldrons are full of coffee.

Some of the workers were just coming in from the field as we began our tour.

Everything is picked by hand, and the workers are paid by weight.  Here some of them wait to weigh what they picked during the first half of the day.

After a short walking tour of the main buildings, we hopped into the back of this tractor trailer for a true tour of the farm.

It’s an impressive sight.  I had expected it to be something like a vineyard -rows and rows of the same plants over and over, beautiful in its order but rather repetitive.  Not this farm.  They specialize in shade grown coffee, so there are several diverse plants growing throughout the farm, such as black walnut trees, plantains, mangoes and a whole host of others I simply cannot remember.

The views are impressive.  Riding in the back of a tractor trailer is very bumpy, however, and hard to photograph from.  I had to hold on tight with one hand while shooting with the other.  Because of this, I ended up with enormous bruises on my legs from where they slammed into the side of the truck (I couldn’t brace myself for the bumps as well with one hand.)  This kind of tour is not for the faint of heart, or for those of us who bruise like a peach.  Whatever, totally worth it. The nursery, where new coffee plants are getting ready for planting.Some of the mature plants produce an incredible amount of coffee cherries.  They are still green this time of year (harvest begins in November), but the branches are literally drooping down from the weight.

After the farm, we visited the dry mill, where they dry and prep the coffee beans.

These women hand sort the beans for quality.

This machine vibrates at a fast speed to help separate different qualities of coffee.  That’s Jason explaining the process :)

The differences between these two qualities may seem subtle, but they are important.

After doing a little bit of work for Boca Java last year, I felt I had a pretty good grasp of the coffee business from the point after the beans have arrived in the warehouse.  Now that I’ve been directly to the source, I think I have seen the entire process end-to-end.  It’s a bit complicated, but very interesting.  As usual, I’m amazed by how knowledgeable Jason is.  There is a lot of work that goes into a good cup of coffee.

Here is one last photo of Jason, John, and me enjoying the fruits of that coffee labor in cappuccino form.  Delicious, delicious, cappuccino.

Many, many thanks to Jason and the whole entourage for letting us tag along for both the coffee and philanthropy parts of the trip.  Touring the hospitals and sitting in on meetings at the mayors office was just as fascinating (if not as picturesque.)  If you want to try the coffee you see here and help donate to Project Cure, check it out here.  It’s good stuff for a good cause.

“Granada Granada Granada!” yelled the guy hanging out the door of our minivan, an express shuttle from Managua to, obviously, Granada.  I couldn’t help but notice he was wearing a D.A.R.E. t-shirt.  Just like the ones I used to get as a kid.  How did that get here?

Was he a Nicaraguan hipster, wearing this D.A.R.E shirt in the interest of irony?  (Seeing as this was my first thought, I’ve clearly spent too much time living in the hipster neighborhoods in Denver.)  I think not.  I bookmarked it in my brain as something interesting to keep track of.

As we continued to travel through the country, I started seeing all kinds of t-shirts that clearly didn’t belong here.  I’ve seen guys wearing shirts for the Ventura County Fire Department and the Cabo San Lucas Police Force (I think this was a souvenir castoff.)  We’ve spotted shirts for universities, high schools, and sports teams from all over the US, concerts, 5K runs, and tacky tourist shirts from all over the world.  Brightly colored striped polos of the Abercrombie/Hollister/American Eagle variety are everywhere.  One of our favorites celebrated a high school in Indiana’s marching band, and their 2003-04 season’s theme of Chicago.

Someone back in Peru told me a story about a friend that would visit the US and buy good quality secondhand clothes from stores like Goodwill and Savers for very cheap.  Then they would bring the clothes down to South or Central America and resell them at a small profit.  I’m not sure if that is exactly what happens around here (maybe the unwanted stuff is donated by organizations or individuals, I have no idea.)  But it seems as good an explanation as any for what we see on the people around us.

In the markets there are several stores and stands (similar to the one pictured above) selling this type of clothing.  Everything appears to be in good condition, and is probably going to better use here than it would at home.

I kinda wonder if any of the clothes we parted with before leaving the US have made it down here.   I’ll keep you posted if I see something I recognize. :)

Before we arrived in Nicaragua, I had significant concerns about rainy season.  All the guidebooks and travel websites suggested you stay out of Nica during October and November.  Go during dry season they advised, when it’s guaranteed to be sunny.

I respectfully disagree.

So far, rainy season seems to be the best kept secret around here.  Yes, it rains.  But usually the rain lasts for 30-60 minutes, and then gives way to sunny blue skies.  We’ve only experienced two days that were more cloudy than clear, but even then the rain just came in an out and was light enough you could walk around in it without much concern.  The rain helps cool off the temperature, cleans the roads, and gives the air that nice fresh rain smell.   As far as tropical weather goes, it’s quite agreeable.

The best part, though, is the lack of other travelers.  We practically have Nicaragua to ourselves.  The above photo is of the Catarina Viewpoint, overlooking Laguna de Apoyo and Granada, which would be hopping with tourists during busy season.  This time of year we can have our pick of benches.  Nearly all of our lodgings have been discounted to off season rates, and we’ve never had an issue finding a place to stay or eat.  It’s true that some tourist places are closed for rainy season, particularly those owned by foreigners who use the off season as a chance to visit their home countries.  For the most part, though, everything we could want is available, cheaper, and less crowded.

While I was initially panicked to learn we were hitting Nicaragua just as all the rain was about to fall, I’m now pretty happy with our timing.  We’ll get more and more rain as October progresses (or so they say), but so far the only down side has been that it takes a little longer for my clothes to dry on the clothesline at our apartment.  I think I can handle that little setback.