Nicaraguan Holidays
December 2006
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Despite a busy border, we crossed back from Costa Rica into Nicaragua without a hitch driving from the border all the way to Lago de Apoyo near Granada in one push. We spent a night at the Monkey Hut swimming in the crystal clear waters of the lake and enjoying a relaxing morning before heading into Granada to check into the rental house Eric’s Mom and Dad rented for us as a Christmas present. We made our way to the Casa Bamboo and settled in before heading into Managua to pick up Alison. Picking up Alison at the airport was so fun, she was totally excited and stoked to have some time off from work, she is in her first year as a 4th grade teacher in Phoenix Arizona. We returned to Granada that night and started enjoying our relaxing 10 days around Christmas and New Years immediately.
Aside from the general good times around celebrating Christmas and New Years together we found lots of other adventures while Alison was with us. We hiked up Volcan Mombacho with our neighbor and guide Victor, spent a day at Lago de Apoyo, went to the market in Masaya, explored the sites in Granada and had tons of deep conversation amidst making our own meals and baking with the house’s oven. Alison brought all sorts of goodies including Christmas decorations which we used to give the house a holiday makeover. We watched movies including National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation thanks to Cheryl and Sean. The only sort of business we had to deal with was our laptop since it crashed and wasn’t working prior to Alison’s visit. Eric spent a day in an internet café troubleshooting the problem and was able to get it in somewhat working order thanks to a helpful local running the internet café who had a copy of the Windows setup CD.
One of our favorite things while Alison was with us was the nightly ritual of pulling chairs out to the street to join the locals in the tradition of hanging out and talking during the evenings. The neighbors were super nice and took us in like we had lived there for years. They brought us food, shared drinks and stories every night in this typical Granada fashion. Christmas Eve and New Years Eve were a bit different with kids playing in the street until all hours of the morning lighting off fireworks and celebrating together. When it was all said and done, we were sad to part with Alison but felt so lucky for the time together in the great house and beautiful colonial city of Granada. Thanks again Glenn, Barb, Alison and everyone who sent us little gifts and notes. Happy 2007 to all of you out there and we hope this year brings health, happiness and good times to all of you.