San Juan del Sur

Prior to this trip, whenever I asked anyone who has been to Nicaragua for travel advice, San Juan del Sur tended to top their lists of places I should be sure to visit. So I was pretty excited when it worked out for me to go to a yoga teacher training just a few kilometers inland from the town. We went out to dinner in town our first night here and have Sundays off so have gotten to do a bit more exploring.

 

I definitely see why it tops people's lists of favorite spots. It's right on the Pacific Coast, has a very picturesque town beach, is dripping with sun-bleached expats who live in swimsuits, and sports a plethora of bohemian restaurants and cafes far too hip for the likes of me. But I like it. Enjoy!

 

 

A Month in Heaven

After my lovely Granadan introduction to Nicaragua, I caught a crowded local bus south to Rivas, and another a bit farther south and then turning west not too far from the Costa Rican border, headed out to the Pacific Coast. Just outside of the town of San Juan del Sur (stay tuned; I'll post more pics after I get a chance to explore a the town a bit more), there is a retreat center called El Camino del Sol, which hosts the Nica Yoga program. This is my home for the next month...which is, incidentally, the longest I've consecutively stayed anywhere since March! I think I chose a good spot to cop a squat.

 

I'm doing a three-week, 200-hour yoga teacher training here, so it's not all relaxing by the pool. We're in practice and training sessions from 6:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. But those generous meal breaks give us plenty of time to enjoy the setting. There are only seven other trainees in the program this month, so it's already a well-bonded group. 

Our meals are all provided, and it's really great, healthy food served on the pool-side patio. As if I wasn't already an insufferable spoiled brat.

My favorite part is that often, during our late afternoon practices, there will be howler monkeys hootin' and hollerin' in the trees around our training space.

Like I said. Heaven.

South of the Border...Keep Going...

While I was still in withdrawal from such an idyllic time with loved ones over the holiday, my faithful father drove me from Milwaukee to O'Hare airport for my flight(s) to Nicaragua and the start of the next chapter of my travels. On the way, he was checking the weather forecast on his phone and discovered that the high in my hometown on Monday is supposed to be -10 degrees F. Yes, that is a negative symbol in front of the 10. So I was bolstered to get through my cozy family withdrawal and embrace the journey south.

 

After a surprisingly restful overnight on the floor of the Miami airport (hint: bring a sleeping bag; they keep that place cold!), I woke to repeated announcements reminding passengers that they must be on time for their flights, that the gate will close 10 minutes prior to scheduled departure, and if they are not on board by that time, their tickets will be canceled. I thought reiterating this general announcement so many times was weird overkill and I couldn't grasp the need. But soon I understood. Everywhere around me, people bound for destinations such as Port-au-Prince, Kingston, and Belize were running through the terminal as their names were being read on a last-call list. I've never heard so many last-call name bombs in my life. It suddenly struck me how problematic plane departure times must be for laid-back, south-of-the-border-and-then-some natives whose cultures don't require or even expect punctuality. It made me strangely excited to get there. Into said culture.

 

And before long (the flight from O'Hare to Miami was longer than the flight from Miami to Nicaragua, actually) there I was. Managua!

 

This is currently one of my favorite words: Managua. But only when it's said with that delicious, back-of-the-throat laziness that Spanish speakers use. Like they're saying "Mana..." and then swallowing some molasses. It's fantastic.

 

Huge thanks to American Airlines for not losing my checked bag during my nearly twelve-hour layover, as I was so cynically sure they would. In shockingly fast form, I was through immigration, baggage claim, and customs, and outside sweating like a pig in weather 80 degrees warmer than what I'd left behind in the Midwest. On a total travelers' high (this is how I know this is the life for me: the longer I'm in transit, the more excited and energized I get...) I ignored all the eager (more speedy, easy, and expensive) transportation providers crowded outside customs and darted across the street from the airport to where my guidebook promised I could find a city bus that would take me to the main depot for 20 cents. Actually, my ride was free, since my guidebook--though right about the city bus--was wrong that US dollars are accepted everywhere in Nicaragua; the bus driver looked at me with exasperation when I tried to hand him an American bill and just waved me onboard.

 

Once at the depot...

 

...I boarded another local bus, this one to take me an hour south to the ridiculously picturesque colonial town of Granada.

    

I'll give Managua a better look-see toward the end of my time in Nicaragua. But I wanted a slightly calmer start to the trip, and Granada didn't disappoint me as a perfect choice for my first night in-country. That's a flank of Mombacho Volcano that you can see in the distance, mostly shrouded in cloud cover.

And that's Lake Nicaragua on the horizon in this one.

My afternoon walk around town was the perfect way to finish shaking off plane brain. And my first Nicaraguan meal was just plain perfect. My favorite part was my first taste of tiste: a ground corn and cocoa bean drink on ice. Maybe it doesn't sound that good. But there was undoubtedly also a fair amount of sugar mixed in there. Trust me: it was good.

 

So, I've been here for less than 12 hours, but my first impressions are:

1) People are incredibly nice here; the more I'm sure that my EXTREMELY basic Spanish must be painfully assaulting people's ears, the kinder they are to me.

 

2) This is a beautiful country and I'm so excited for this adventure.

(Yes, those are real parakeets hanging out with the coconuts.)

Holidays. Happy.

After my stint in WI, half the family jetted to Colorado to start the holiday festivities in the mountains while my sister and I piled into her car with all four of her kiddos and headed there on the slow boat: 20 hours through WI, IL, IA, NE, and finally CO. There was a great deal of silliness along the way. Which my cousin, R, seemed to anticipate when I told him about the upcoming drive and he said, "Wait. The adults going in the car are…you…and your sister?" The way he said it, I could almost hear the air quotes around the word "adults." I guess we deserved that.

Safely arrived in Colorado, before the craziness of a house full of 12 people really got going, I snuck out for a rendezvous with my sweet Denver friend M, who has been living and working in Brazil for the past couple years and happened to be home for a vacation. Lucky me, to steal a few hours of her time to catch up.

After that, it was all-out. Sit-down with Santa for the kiddos (during which Santa almost broke character laughing when my niece E pulled out a full-fledged toy brochure to show him exactly what she wanted)…

…horse-sleigh rides (though we had to settle for pictures with the horses in the background during their break, too busy were they to give us riffraff a ride)…

…the idyllic Christmas morning with a tree drowning in presents…

…sledding on Christmas afternoon…

…downhill skiing--lots for some of us, a day or two for others…

…and New Year's Eve fireworks. All of us looking up at them, and looking forward to 2014.

The Frozen North

Time for a spell in my Wisconsin hometown. It's been a good seven years since I've been there in the winter. At 4:30 p.m., it was was nearly dark; on a day when the temperature hit 30 F, everyone was commenting on the heat wave. Oh, that cold that makes the under-layer of the skin ache!

But the warmth of being with family and friends more than made up for the chilly outside. Every day was filled with holiday festivities and/or quality time with loved ones. My mom and sister took my nieces to The Nutcracker ballet, everyone dressed to the nines.

My sweet, loyal high school friend S and her daughter, S, came to visit…

…as did my long-time friend L (currently a Madison resident), who graciously played all kinds of games with my sister's kiddos--including the one we made up where nephew O pretends his body itself is a board game for us to play.

There was gingerbread house decorating at the country club…

…which is also a fantastic place for amazing decorations that just ooze holiday coziness.

I volunteered one morning in my niece E's second-grade classroom, which--crazy but true--was also my second-grade classroom…29 (ahem) years ago. So strange to see my sister's kids prowling the halls of the same elementary school I went to--and to see it so largely unchanged.

There were movie nights with the family, which were almost as entertaining as watching my cousin R polish off an entire pre-movie pizza by himself.

And then just general other family goodness. Playing under the tree…

…eating way too much sugar…

…and creating more sugary treats.

Thanks for the fun cookie-making afternoon, Aunt P!

Plus so many other get-togethers with friends that I totally failed to document. I'm so grateful for all the efforts so many people made to spend time, including drives from Kenosha and other exotic 'Sconnie locales. Also, a special shout-out to loyal blog-reader H.F.E., whom I sadly missed my chance to catch up with at my mom's annual Christmas Coffee, lost in the shuffle of so many people to catch up with. Next time!!