The Stiffneys in Nica

Having family visit us in Nicaragua is a guaranteed good time! It also means many benefits for us. Less cooking and cleaning for us with more hands around (special shout-out to Susan for the yummy baked goods throughout the week!), outside work gets done pretty quickly, and we get to travel to other parts of Nica that we haven’t seen before. In June and July, our time with Kirk and Susan was no different. We had a blast hanging out in San Nicolas. They were able to come hang out at our schools with us. We had dinner with the school director. We walked around town. And we all practiced our Spanish. We were able to travel about an hour north to visit the much anticipated Somoto Canyon (so beautiful, a must do! The ultimate float trip!) Then for our semester vacation days we took off for the coast traveling to Leon, Granada and San Juan del Sur with a few volcano stops along the way. Here are a few pictures from our time together, along with some descriptions of the activities we did:

(Almost total photo credit to Kirk for his photography skills throughout the trip! Thanks for being so snap-happy, so we can take with us a “buen recuerdo”—a good memory! :)

Kirk and Susan helped us (okay they did all of it…) plant a garden! We have peas, spaghetti squash, spinach and lettuce, and pumpkins and onions. It was already sprouting when we returned to San Nicolas about 8 days later) Also—Davie, we finally got your peace pole in place! Yay!

Another project we worked on was revamping Davie and Sarah’s hanging garden outside the kitchen. I LOVED the concept but some of the plants were dying and the string was breaking after going through a few rainy seasons. So we bought some double-strength string and re-hung the pop bottle plants and replanted a few, too!

We visited Esteli on Friday to see the Farmer’s Market where we work, and we had a yummy lunch of Cuban pressed sandwiches.

Kirk and Susan walked with me to the elementary school I help at.

Kirk helped me out with a futbol lesson in gym class. Here he is wrangling the boys into a group.

A “jump rope” workout with the students.

Maria (in top picture) is the teacher I work with in Quebrada de Agua. We have really enjoyed getting to know her and her family. And love walking out to their home in the “true campo” to visit them. So, one day, after school, we walked to their house with candy taffy ingredients in tow. Susan grew up making taffy by hand for Christmases with her family and the tradition continues whenever we are with the Nyce’s for Christmas. Last Christmas, we made it here in Nicaragua when the Stiffney’s were visiting and Maria’s family wanted to learn how to make it! So on this day (even though it wasn’t Christmas :) ) we taught them how to make taffy over their wood burning stove (lena), with a broken thermometer, and with a flashlight because of the lack of lighting :) It was quite the adventure, but it turned out wonderful! They loved learning how to make it and we wrote down the recipe so they can make it again! The above pictures are of all of us “pulling” the taffy. The most fun part! :) Maria, her son (Leonard Paul) and her daughter (Hellen) are pictured.

Maria’s family with Susan, Alli and Kyle. We are so thankful for these people who have never failed to make us feel right at home in San Nicolas and in their home!

Maria’s home is pictured here in the background. Kyle and Hansel (Maria’s youngest son) were taking a break from their soccer match.

We finally got to visit Somoto Canyon where we hiked and floated our way through the beautiful canyon for about 6 hours. Kyle made it slowly, but surely…but don’t tell his doctor! :)

So beautiful!!

Off we go on “le tour de Nicaragua” for a week. Not pictured is the newly painted yellow door that Kirk repainted for us. The first paint we bought at Christmas time was probably the cheapest we could find and just didn’t look very nice…..lesson learned! So to Sherwin Williams we went and now the door looks AWESOME :)

First stop was Leon, where we visited the top of the cathedral. Sweated a lot (it was hot!!) and ate lots of good food. Including Schwarma, frozen mojitos and delicious fritanga type food.

After Leon, we drove south towards Managua and passed through the capital city to Masaya National park where you can drive on top of the Masaya volcano and look down in and see REAL, LIVE lava! Way cool! They only let you stay for 10 minutes and make you park your car facing down the hill for a quick escape. This has become especially more strict after volcanoes have become very active in Nicaragua over the last 6 months. We are such risk-takers ;)

This picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but the rolling and spitting lava down in the crater of Masaya was really amazing!

#powercouple

Our next stop was Granada. Where Kathy’s Waffle House always gets a thumbs up for a states-style breakfast and bottomless coffee! :)

Climbing a bell tower in a Granada church.

We took a boat tour of Las Isletas (the islands around Granada formed by volcano explosions) to see some wildlife and birds. Kyle was on high alert for birds with his cool, new binoculars. (Jill: We are working on our life lists! Come join us!)

On our way out of Granada we hiked around the top of Mombacho. Another volcano in Nicaragua. This one was a dormant volcano with a cloud forest on top.

We found some wildlife on Mombacho. Thank goodness we had those binocs :)

The Copa America was just wrapping up and the Euro Cup was just starting in the world of futbol. So we spent some time in front of a TV. With good food, of course :) This was a stop we made in Rivas on our way to San Juan del Sur.

We made it to San Juan del Sur, the famous beach spot in Nica. We stayed closer to town, but used our rental truck to get out to the North and South beaches outside of town. There were a lot of surfers out and about. But we were also able to find a few beaches where it felt like we were completely alone!

Beautiful sunsets in San Juan del Sur always were a treat before heading out to dinner for some yummy seafood or delicious brewery food.

Dinner on Playa Hermosa while we watched the sunset. Playa Hermosa definitely topped our list of favorite beaches!

Seafood dinner at El Tiimon.

Amazing sunset view of the San Juan del Sur bay from our lovely bed and breakfast (Las Palmas)

On our way back north to Managua for a flight home, we stopped in San Juan del Oriente where the community is famous for making beautiful pottery. We stopped at a house to buy some items, and la jefa (boss lady) took us out back to show us how her pottery is made. She focuses more on the geometric shapes and flower designs. And the guy sitting down showed us how he throws the pots and designs a lot of the pre-colombian etchings.  We bought a few beautiful pieces from this family.

A final stop in Managua before Kirk and Susan flew home. We went to the lake front to see the huge metal trees and a replica of Managua before the earthquake. We also visited the national palace and the tombs of famous Nicaraguan heroes. I must say, I was coming around to the potential “artistic beauty” of these super expensive, metal trees but now they are starting to put up these light up, bacon flags behind the trees and it just seems a bit too much for me. Does anyone else think that they look like bacon?

…you’ll have to come check it out for yourself, I guess :)

We had such a wonderful time with Kirk and Susan! It was great to spend time with them in vacation mode and to show them more of our life here in San Nicolas. It was, also, a great way to see so many parts of the country that we weren’t able to visit before. Come one, come all. Our door it open to you all. There is something for everyone, mountains, beaches, hiking, nature….and light up trees. Ha :) But seriously, we love having visitors! So let us know when you buy your tickets :D

Thank-you, Kirk and Susan, for an amazing 2 weeks! We look forward to the next time!

Much Love.