What a weekend!
Having braved lunch with the kids on Thursday Emily proved her mettle by coming back the next day for more. Thursday’s lunch was a nice, pleasant introduction for her; the kids were friendly, fun, and fairly well-behaved. I was a little worried that it was too easy and that the kids would make up for Thursday’s semi-angelic behavior on Friday.
I think the kids must really like Emily because they were wonderful again on Friday. Like Thursday, some kids I’ve never seen before came. At this point I don’t have the heart to limit the group size, since I am leaving in a week, and allow everyone to come. Some of the moms have been frequently coming, which I’m sure has helped bring about the positive change in their deportment.
The kids, especially the girls, are borderline-obsessed with Emily. They repeatedly tell me how beautiful she is and like playing with her hair. Blondes are not so common here so I understand their interest. She has been so wonderful with them. They like playing a game with her in which they all stand in a circle and take turns jumping up and squatting down. It looks…really fun.
The funniest part of our lunch on Friday was the fake wedding ceremony the kids put on for us. They love to, even before Emily arrived, give me a hard time about not being married. I think that by my age it’s fairly common to be married or at least be living with someone. So, one of them came up with the idea that marrying us at Pollo Campero would be appropriate. The kids quickly set up the “church,” which consisted of two lines of tiny plastic chairs and an altar consisting of a plastic kids table. They were so excited and ran around franticly while giggling to set things up. The girls hurriedly fixed Emily’s hair and pretended to dress me up. Evert, an 11-year old boy preformed the ceremony. I’m not sure exactly what he was saying but he seemed quite confident in his abilities as pastor. Afterwards the kids screamed, ran up, and hugged us. It was a precious moment because they were so obviously excited and having so much fun.
After lunch we took a cab to the Huembes bus terminal where we caught a bus to Rivas, followed by a taxi to San Juan del Sur, one of
Saturday’s beach experience was quite typical of
About an hour later we both became hungry and went searching for the snack shacks the hotel owner informed us about. About 100 yards from the water was a concrete wall with several private property signs, stretching almost the entire length of the beach. We presumed the food would be at the far end of the beach, where the wall ended, so we walked over there. We were met by something that looked like a swamp and a security guard. I asked where we could get food and he told me to “go to the exit and look for the white house.” So, we walked back down the beach, towards the other end, looking for something that resembled an exit. We found a path and, deciding it was our best bet, walked down. We soon saw a white house but were confused since the house looked like, well, a house. There was nothing that would lead us to believe it was a restaurant. Having eliminated the house as a location from which we could possibly acquire food we took a right at another path and walked until we found another beach. We did find a snack shack there but quickly discovered it was closed.
We determined the initial path we were on to be the most promising so we backtracked until we found it again. After we passed the white house we saw a couple of other gringos sitting around a table on a patio behind another house appearing to be eating something. We looked for a sign of some sort but were unable to come up with any further evidence of this being a restaurant. We were both so hungry by this point – about
A man came over after a few minutes and told us that they only item they have is spaghetti. We could, however, choose a topping of meat, chicken, or vegetables. So, after waiting about 30 minutes more, we ate huge plates of pretty disgusting spaghetti on someone’s patio before heading back to the beach. Only in
The rest of our time at San Juan del Sur was pretty much perfect. We had some great meals, beach time, and walks throughout the town. We even met up with Lauren’s sister and brother-in-law – Jane and Jon – for lunch on Sunday. They just moved to Nica last week to attend Spanish school for 10 weeks and we loved hearing about their experiences. I’m impressed with how quickly they’ve adapted to the craziness that is present in most aspects of Nica life; in their case in the form of no hot water, roosters who don’t know what time it is, a parrot, and the difficulties of adjusting to a completely different diet. They are wonderful and we had so much fun talking with them.
Right now we are waiting for the real-estate agent and our landlady to arrive to inspect the apartment for damages. I question their impending arrival as they are already 30 minutes late. So, we’ll see if they show up. We’re going to lunch with the kids and then to the market to do some shopping.
I hope you all had great weekends. I can’t wait to see you soon. I still don’t really believe that I will be home in 4 days. Thanks again for reading this. When I initially started this I thought that my readers would be my parents and maybe Emily. I’ve since been overwhelmed by the support and feedback I’ve received and am so honored that you continue to show an interest in my adventures here.
Much love,
dw
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