Granada! Granada! Granada!

I'm still in Granada...it's Thursday, June 29. Tomorrow is supposed to be the last day here...and then I'm to move on. But....I don't want to leave! I love my host family and my teacher. And, after talking to several travellers, no one else seems to have had any luck with language schools they've attended elsewhere in Nicaragua. And, I still have sooo much Spanish to learn. I'm going to Rivas and La Isla De Ometepe for the weekend. They have a language school there and it's supposed to be beautiful. So, maybe I'll go check it out and if I like it I'll stay, if not...back to Granada. I'm putting Costa Rica on hold until my Spanish gets better. Lots of English spoken there. I'm afraid I'll forget what I've learned so far.

Some of the pics I posted were taken in the town of Masaya...they have this great market there. Beautiful hand woven hammocks for like $8. The rest of the pics are in Granada. They are always having some sort of celebration going on with school children performing.

Someone tried to steal my backpack yesterday! I was even walking with a guy, but I only had the pack draped over one shoulder, and this guy went whipping by me on his bike and grabbed it. But I was strong...I yelled a profanity at him, although I'm sure he didn't understand it because it was in English...I haven't learned any in Spanish yet!!

That's all I have to report today. Hope everyone is doing well. AND! Thanks for the input and support...I love getting feedback from everyone. That is something I didn't anticipate...having the time to reconnect with so many of you who I haven't talked to in so long. Keep on reading! Adios amigos!...Elise

Pictures: Masaya and Granada

Luguna de Apoyo

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Luguna de Apolyo I've been here a week now and I must say it has totally been a life changing experience. I just spent a big chunk of the day today at this awesome crater lake in the middle of nowhere floating on a raft for like 3 hours. When is the last time we ever take time to just sit and think (I don't have question marks again). On the way there I took the public transportation bus for the first time. Wow. Their public buses consist of a fleet of american school buses, most still yellow, but some creatively painted, with several Nicaraguans hanging onto the outside, or sitting on the top. Quite a sight to see. Then once you go on I was one of three gringos on board. So, we're bouncing along with Latin music blaring and the horn being sounded every single stop. It's a really loud horn. The bus trip cost 20 cordobas, which is equivalent to a little more than a dollar. At some point during the trip someone comes along to collect the money. On the way home me and the girl I was with got a little more adventurous and took the "mini taxi" back to Granada. This was a beat up old mini van that had 16 Nicaraguans stuffed in it...plus Anne and I. I counted. Oh yeah...and one hanging onto the back. Crazy. It was cheap though...10 cordobas...less than a dollar. Good deal. When I came back I went to a pizza joint and had this awesomely big calzone and a strawberry Fanta soda. $2.50. I finished my first week of Spanish and it's coming along OK. I decided to stay in Granada for one more week, to get a little more proficient in my Spanish. I really like my teacher and the host family I'm staying with. Then I'm going to this rustic nature school near the crater lake I was at today. Maybe San Juan del Sur (BEACH) the week after. After talking to several other travellers, I'm really tempted to go to Costa Rica for a while. We'll see. It's like a 6 hour ride (via school bus).

Lugana de Apoyo

Finally! Pictures

Day 3 in Nicaragua

Tuesday, June 20, 2006


Day 3 in Granada

I just finished day 2 of spanish class. Its pretty overwhelming. By the way, I cant do apostrophes today...but I got question marks! Anyway, I am staying with a host family now, so I have to go to the internet cafe to write. The family Im staying with is very nice and is helping me with my spanish. I go to class from 8 to 12. They are feeding me so good too. Lots of food and no exercise, except walking around everywhere. I brought my resistance bands, which I did a little this morning before class. Its too damn hot to do much and theres no a.c....anywhere, except with the family who housed me in Managua. But, the homes and buildings here are built with REALLY tall ceilings...maybe 25 ft? It helps, I think, since warm air rises, right? Also, some "rooms" in the house are open to the outside...i.e. no ceiling. And, it is customary to leave the front door open as well as the back to allow air to come in. Finally, there are fans, but I found the electricity is prone to go out at random times for extended periods. So, its pretty warm. Oh yeah...another thing is they HAND WASH their clothes in this special sink that has like a washboard built in. Its pretty cool...I washed a load of my clothes there...it was fun. Wouldnt want to do it all the time however. Everything is really cheap here, too. Its unbelievable. My stay at the hostel cost me a whopping $5 plus $3 for a beer and a huge burrito. This week Im paying $180 for 20 hours instruction and 3 BIG meals a day and my own room w/bath. I only get cold showers(which is very nice, actually) and again, if no water...must use bucket to swish out the toilet and manually flush. Havent had to do that one yet. Okay thats it for now, since Im paying by the minute. Adios!

Hola Nicaragua Part III

Sunday, June 18, 2006


Hola Nicaragua Part III

It's about an hour's drive from Managua to Granada...with someone who speaks no English. Alright, a good time to practice my Spanish. I did OK...enough to fill up about 2 minutes of the entire ride. I figured out how to ask him to turn on the radio...which he gladly did. They played the BeeGees...funny. I told him they were americans. Weren't they...or British. I got see my first volcano it smelled like Florida when we were experiencing forest fires. We passed through lots of poverty stricken areas...very sad. Finally, we made it to the school in Grenada where he dropped me off,only they had no idea who I was and nobody spoke english. Finally, it was indicated to me to stick with this younger guy to get me where I need to be. He spoke no english. We sat there for about an hour trying to communicate it was pretty funny...handing my translation book back and forth pointing at words. The most progress we made was figuring out we were the same age. We laughed alot. Finally, someone came who spoke a little english...she told me he would take me where I wanted to go. My friend Mike, who comes to Nic. pretty often told me about this hostel that is run by americans. So, that's were I am. And, it's really cool. I already met someone from Germany and someone from LA who's been travelling all around central america for 6 months. They have free internet, free coffee, VEGETARIAN food, cool music and really cool looking people. There's also a bar. Sometimes you have to use buckets of water, though, to flush the toilet when they run out of water. I think I've written enough for one day. I would love to get your feedback. I'm going to go have a beer and mingle with my fellow travelers. Adios!

Hola Nicaragua Part II

Hola NIcaragua Part II

Okay. So, I'm on the plane trying to cram all the spanish I can on my 2 hour flight to Managua. I'm dripping with sweat (of course I'm in the middle seat) so the folks next to me are inquiring why I'm so harried. I get to talking to the one gentleman and ends up he spends part of his time in FL and part in Nic. He offers to have his driver give me a ride to Granada (my destination) if my ride is no longer there. I feel him out throughout the flight, figure he's an alright guy and accept his offer. Before you guys freak...I think it was fate...he graduated from Oklahoma State University and works in agriculture. And, he was like 75 years old. We ride through Managua and arrive at his home where he invites me in to meet his wife. She comes out and has bruises all over her face. She explains that she just had plastic surgery, so please excuse her. They ask if I want anything to drink, and have their servant bring me a glass of water, which I was afraid to drink, but did anyway. They give me the TV remote & then retreat to the bedroom for about 10 minutes. They come back out and invite me to stay the night and go to Granada in the morning. And, of course, eat dinner with them. How could I refuse. (By the way, I can't figure out how to do a question mark here, so bear with me). So, I sit down to eat raw tomatoes (scary...First they are raw, a no no, and second, I hate raw tomatoes). But, they had some sort of dressing on them so I ate them. Also, they served chicken. Didn't want to be rude...yep, I ate the chicken. It was pretty yummy. Also, fried bananas and some sort of creme sauce. I totally pigged out. They let me use their phone to call Syd & my mom to let them know I made it. Nice folks. They gave a room to myself, with it's own bathroom. After a wOnderfUL night of sleep, I woke up the next morning to a breakfast of fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bread with guava jelly and coffee. Turns out, the wife was BORN in Oklahoma and has tons of relatives in the town that my family lives. How crazy is that. Again no question mark. She tries to convince me to stay with them and go to school there, but I wanted to move on. I heard Managua is not the greatest place to stay. They arrange for a taxi for me, making me promise to keep them updated on my whereabouts. When I go to pay to driver, he says it was already taken care of. What nice people. I'm so lucky. So, I'm off to Granada.Want to find out what happens next...read part III.

Hola Nicaragua Part I

Hola Nicaragua! Part I
Current mood: excited

I finally made it to Nicaragua! It's already been an adventure so far. First of all, I don't know what I would have done without the help of my dear sister Bethany and our friend Maria. They were life savers. They ran me around everywhere in preparation for the trip. After a grueling 18 hour road trip back from Okla. I came to Gainesville where I spent the majority of the night packing and downloading songs for my new ipod I bought for the trip. I got 600 songs downloaded, but didn't have time to import them, so I drug the laptop along so I could work on it Fri. night at the hostel in Miami where we stayied. Only, once I tried to download them, I realized I forgot my connector cord in G'ville. So, Sat. morning (on the way to the airport) we stopped at Radio Shack, I bought a cord, and then I decided I needed to get the oil changed in the car before handing it over to my sister for two months. And,I thought this would be a good place to download the songs into my ipod. Unfortunately, I did not know how to do it and thus ran out of time before the car was ready. So, off to the airport (while I organized last minute paperwork in the backseat). The Miami airport is bad, by the way. We sat in traffic about 30 min. just waiting to park. We run in, I hand off the computer to Bethany and Maria to attempt to download my 600 songs into my ipod while I check in. I waited in line 1 hour only to find out that my flight was overbooked and they were trying to transfer me to another airline. By the time everything gets settled I have about 15 minutes before the flight takes off. I find Bethany and Maria, give them hugs, grab my ipod and take off running. They managed to get 75 songs on the thing. It helped to drown out the screaming baby on the flight, though. Ani, Alex Olson, Marley, I'm good to go. I was a little uneasy realizing I would not have a ride when I arrived at the airport, since I was 1.5 hours late. What to do...Read part II. It gets really interesting. I know, I'm really dorky.