Navidad

Its Christmas in San Juan Del Sur! ....the rest of the world too, but the point is, ITS CHRISTMAS!
The holidays abroad are something new to me. I've done it once before, but my family was there, so this is totally new for me.
Last night we learned a little about the Nicaraguan customs that surround the holidays...

We were invited to have dinner with the family who owns the Hospedaje that we live in, but other than that we had no plans for Christmas eve. It turns out dinner was at midnight, so we really had all day to mozy around town. Here, everyone has dinner at midnight on Christmas eve, we learned.

We spent the evening wandering around town, watching the people walk around. Town was packed with locals and tourists, the locals dressed up in their Christmas best, the tourists walking around in surf shorts and tank tops.... Kids were lighting fireworks and sparklers, and while this isn't anything particularly new it was somehow more quaint last night. We ran into a few of our friends on the street and all wandered to the park in front of the church where loud music and lights were blaring.

The park was also full of people, a stage was set up in front of the church, and green, red, and sometimes a strobe light flickered across the face of the bright blue church. Guys selling carnival-esque toys walked around waving flashing lit up headbands and toys, babies ran a muck, and kids still lit off pyrotechnics in surprisingly crowded places.

The stage hosted various Nicaraguan acts. A few confusing traditional dances, a local boy singing Christmas carols, more dancing. We were thrilled, and confused when the audience was completely "blah" about the whole thing. "Can I get an applause for my guitar player???!?!" The singer would ask, and the crowd would unenthusiastically provide one or two slow claps...

The whole thing was bright and colorful and loud and people seemed to be having a good time, but we did notice that as an audience, there just wasn't a lot of team spirit.

Eventually, we moved on, grabbed a beverage, and went to sit on the sidewalk and watch people. Our friends have found that sitting on the curb can be one of the most fun things to do in this town sometimes. As we sat there talking and watching, it suddenly started to snow.

Yeah. I said snow.

After some further investigation, we saw that kid. That kid is this one little dude who sells things like grass woven flowers, shell animals, all the normal things that the kids here walk around pushing in your face. This kid, however, is seemingly everywhere and actually a total business man. He's a real kid, unlike so many of the others, he plays and laughs and just kind of wants to hang out with you rather than actually sell you stuff. So anyway, here's this kid, standing in the street, grating his fingers through a big block of styro-foam.
It was the most beautiful litter we had ever seen.
We sat there a little conflicted about the whole thing. "That's never going to break down..."
"Por favor, amigo, Nooooo!"
"No mas, no mas!"
But he kept going. He just really wanted us to have a white Christmas. Which I couldn't help thinking was adorable, despite the trash aspect.
Us silly Northerners and our environmental conscience.
As morally wrong as it may have been, it really did look like snow, and we sat there on the curb covered in white "snowflakes" and for a second, it was kind of magical.

Soon after, Ivano, a fellow resident of Hospedaje Elizabeth, rode up on his bike and said that Elizabeth had sent him to find us because we were eating early since some of the men were hungry already... I think it was 10:30 or 11 at this point.

We were a little nervous as to how this dinner would go. Imagine: A whole Nicaraguan family sitting down for their Christmas eve dinner with a small handful of uslong-term tenants. We had no idea what kind of customs they had, if we should bring something, what we should bring, what would be considered rude......

We arrived (with our bottle of wine, which we did bring.) and found a surprisingly causal dinner setting. The boys down the hall from us (also long term tenants) were helping shove tables together, Elizabeth and her daughter were bustling back and forth from the kitchen bringing out dishes. We sat down and Ivano immediately handed us his bowl of ceviche to start with, and everyone passed around the Flor de Cana without question. People served themselves and ate whenever they felt that their plate was full enough. Elizabeth, I noticed, didn't even sit down until most people were almost finished.
Our meal was delicious and more close to home than I'd expected, although there were some definite twists.
They served chicken, which had been cooked down and was sitting in a dish full of juices, almost enough for a soup, with GREEN OLIVES in it, which I was very excited to see.
There was also white rice cooked with carrots and onions, white bread, some kid of "stuffing" consisting of "everything" as Elizabeth explained. I discovered peas, capers, raisins, maybe some chicken shreds? Potato, and some other things which made it delicious and look just like stuffing...but without bread. They also had bowls of a sweet sweet bread cut into small squares for after you ate. It was made from corn and soaked in rum and something very very sweet. Ivano explained to me that its the same thing as the Italian Baba, for those of you who know what that is, "but just with rum. Just rum."

Another side note: Ivano is Italian, originally, though he's been here for years. I've started speaking Italian with him, which has been like a breath of fresh air after only being able to speak English in this foreign language country. Its still on Spanish, but its something, and it feels good.

After dinner, everyone sat around for a while, kids in the street were lighting things, as ever. One in a while one would run through the room with a sparkler looking for Elizabeth's grandson to come join, and his father would quietly get up and go outside to lay down the law.

Everyone (Except for Rosa and I, of course.) broke out the smokes after they'd eaten. Elizabeth included, which sparked a grand, "Ohhhhhh Elizaaaaa!!!!" and a small cheer from a couple people.
We were surprised at how open everyone was and the sharing that was going on so openly. Example: Jorge and Ivano reaching right over and helping themselves to the box of cigarettes. Everyone was very relaxed and friendly. We were so relieved to find that we fit in more than we thought, and happy to be there too.

We never cease to be amazed at the kindess thats shown to us by Elizabeth and her family. I think we may have been sitting there wide eyes and jaw dropped right open for a while just looking at what was going on around us. At least I was.

So this morning its Christmas. I can hear music coming from the church as I write this, although I think the majority of the holiday was celebrated last night around midnight, people today seem to be thinking about the lord.

We, on the other hand, are sleeping in. Our hand crafted Christmas "tree-net" is a glow, the presents are sitting patiently underneath it, and the stockings are stuffed. I had to get up early to fill Ryan's because if I left the chocolate in there overnight it would most certainly melt entirely by morning.

Today, I'm thinking about my family, and everyone up North celebrating, hopefully surrounded by family and love. We've managed to make ourselves a pretty sweet Christmas for ourselves down here, but we cant make family out of paper and glue.

Merry Christmas to everyone, I hope you all have a peaceful loving day. And everyone gets all the loot they wanted. But mostly the peace and love thing.

Feliz Navidad!

Granada

This week, we packed a couple small bags and took a trip up the highway to the beautiful, colonial, historic city of Granada.

View Larger Map

Arrival in Granada:
We started our trip like rats in a maze, totally disoriented, when we got off the bus and realized that we had no idea where our hotel was, what it looked like, or where we were.
The bus let us off in the busy crowded street market area of the city, and once we found Central Park, we realized that its actually pretty easy to navigate once you figure that part out. We ended up finding our hotel before too long. Our friends had gone the day before us and were waiting for us at the hotel by the pool. A perfect welcome after a long chicken bus ride, sandwiched between a thousand hot sweaty people. The Backpacker's Inn, where we stayed, is built in an old colonial home with two courtyards, both with gardens, and one with a pool just a couple feet from our door. From our window we can see the top of the dome on Iglesia de la Merced peeking over the rooftop opposite us in the courtyard. Tristan and Miranda recommended this place to us, and it turned out to be a great place to hang out on their final days here before they went back home.


Day one was spent mostly wandering lazily around the city. We realized all too quickly that the middle of the day is a bad time to walk around under the hot sun, so we laid low until early evening usually.

In total contrast to beachy little San Juan Del Sur, Granada is full of old buildings, churches, wide streets lined with horse drawn carriages, street vendors, and performers.

There is a wide variety of pretty good food as well. Tristan and Miranda showed us their favorite spot, The Garden Cafe where you can get a real green salad, smoothies, and a pretty good breakfast for cheap. We started most of our mornings here...

The main tourist drag is a little more pricey but still not too bad. Its close to the central park, the main cathedral, and the street performers wander up and down it, so despite our efforts to branch out, we ended up here most nights for dinner.


La Gigantona:
Every night when we ate on this street, a small group of young boys would wander up the streets, two with drums, one under a giant puppet-like figure of a woman with a colorful flowing gown, and the other wearing a jacket around his waist and a giant paper mache head that covered him to his chest. The two boys would drum, one of them would step forward and speak very fast Spanish and then they would drum some more, while the tall "woman" and the short "man" danced. The woman would spin and twirl and sometimes do tricks, depending on who was underneath the costume. The short one would shimmy and shake around the tables. At the end they would hold out their hats, and move a short way down the road and do it all over. We kept wondering what they were saying. It looked very much like some kind of story was being told, but we had no idea. A tour guide told us that they were saying tongue twisters, but nothing about the costumes. I looked it up and found out:

The Gigantona is a giant puppet figure representing the Spanish lady in all her power and splendour and majesty, her imposing stature demonstrating the power of the Spanish over the indigenous peoples. In construction the Gigantona has a carved wooden head mounted on a substantial cross beam from which wooden struts radiate downwards leaving space for the gigantonero. By comparison the Enano is made with a 3 foot diameter head formed from bamboo or willow covered in painted cloth. Below the head comes a short body and legs where a shoulder frame and suit disguise the bearer. Typical of the groups engaged in supporting this tradition is the youth group Viva León Jodido. This group is based in the indidgenous quarter of Sutiaba and celebrates the cultural traditions of the city through processions of the Gigantona. Children participating in these events create their own dance routines and prepare couplets which can be recited on the day of a public performance.

Las Isletas:
Granada, being situated on Lake Nicaragua, has 365 tiny islands, appropriately called Las Isletas, which it turns out, you can take a killer boat tour of with various companies. We picked one Miranda recommended, and our guide Carlos took us cruising around the isletas. It reminded me, oddly, of Florida. It felt like we were on a river when we started out, surrounded by tiny islands, most of them the size of a house, some smaller, some bigger.
We stopped first on an island where the San Pablo Fortress is located. Granada was prone to pirate attacks, with the San Juan river leading to it, so they built the fortress to stand guard and fend off the pirates. Apparently the whole city got completely destroyed a couple times, but it always bounced right back.



Next we stopped at Monkey Island, so named for its monkey residents. A veterinarian put them there to exist in the (controlled) wild. Problem is, he mixed spider monkeys and white faced monkeys. Spider monkeys are very territorial, so there is only one white faced monkey left :( Even though they're evil, they were still really cute and curious, following the boat all around and cautiously eating the Oreos that Carlos threw to them.

The last island we stopped at was made up entirely of a bar where we stopped for a quick refreshment and got to know our tour guide a little better, hearing a first hand account of growing up in Nicaragua.
We made our way back as Carlos told us all about the various types of birds we were seeing, and plants, and various history bits about the area. We had no idea what we were going to see and it turned out to be pretty amazing.
Tristan and Miranda left that evening, so we were a little lonely without them, but after a few nights crying ourselves to sleep, we managed to enjoy each others company, or whatever.

Tequila Vallarta:
This is kind of a side story, but it was a stand out moment in our trip for sure. We found Tequila Vallarta (A mexican restaurant on the main drag.) in a guide book and had some amazing Chile Rellenos there on our first night. We went back another night and chose a table inside this time. While we were sitting waiting for our food to come, we heard a "whack" sound and a giant "leaf" fell on the floor just beside me. Upon closer inspection I noticed that it wasn't a leaf, it was a bat. It had hit the fan and was flapping around slowly on the floor. Right then, our food came. The waiter looked at my face, watching the sad death of the bat on the floor, and at the bat, and made a motion at the fan like this happens frequently. He made a small laugh and went about his business. A tiny pool of bat blood pooled out from underneath it CSI style, and a bone from the wing stuck out. At this point we moved, slightly laughing about this situation, and also a little upset by the whole thing.
The End.

The Sights:
Museums and cathedrals and things like that are right up my alley so I was pretty excited to explore. We started at Convento y Museo San Francisco. The front of it was blue not too long ago, but now its kind of faded and antique looking. Inside there is a collection of pottery and the Zapatera statuary, which was seriously cool. They are a collection of basalt statues from 800-1200 AD found in the 1880's on an island near Granada. They're in the figures of Montezuma, El Diablo, Jaguars....Weird....person/frogs.....Its always really incredible to look at something that was made by someones hands so long ago.
Next we climbed the bell towers in the main Cathedral and the Iglesia de la Merced across from our hotel. The Cathedral is very very simple inside, but the bright yellow outside and view from the top makes up for it. The stairway was barely wide enough for us, and part of me was wondering if the boy who told us we could climb it was just trying to make a buck and we weren't actually supposed to be there due to instability....
We made it to the top though, don't worry.
Iglesia de la Merced is a white stone church with gothic black marks, almost like soot, covering it. There was some kind of baptism going on inside, so we stayed to the back and climbed the tower. They took care to ask us NOT to ring the bells, which made it really hard not to........
As we kept making our way up the street towards another fortress and a couple more churches, the rain came down, and when it rains here, you get soaked instantly like in the movies. Of course by the time we reached the fortress it was closed, but it was a good chance to cool off, and get stares from all the locals watching the silly gringos run around in the rain.

The colors in this city were one of my favorite things. The businesses, churches, bright fruit, various beverages being sold in plastic bags, people in costumes.


Making Chocolate at Choco Museo:

We got up early(er than we had been) and went to take a chocolate making workshop at a place called Choco Museo one morning. Ismael, our teacher, walked us through the process from beginning to end. The cacao was already fermented, of course, but we roasted it, husked it, and ground it. Then he showed us three drinks made with the cacao. One Aztec, one Mayan, and one Spanish. He told us how the Aztecs started it with just water, cacao, honey, and cinnamon, the Mayans added onto it, and finally the Spanish making it with milk. It was a far cry from our milk+chocolate=hot chocolate business that we do up North. I wrote down the recipes and will be trying them at home.
Our job was not easy, grinding the beans to a paste in a mortar, but the product was worth it. We each made one chocolate bar and the remains of our chocolate, we mixed together to make a third. Ismael quizzed us at the end, and we retrieved our chocolate bars later that evening and are still enjoying them as I write this.

Here are a few of the things we were quizzed on:

• Cacao is best fermented under banana leaves
• The ideal fermentation is 93%. Here in Nicaragua, they've got it at 85%, but in Peru they have 93%. Its all luck, apparently.
• The cacao pod grows directly off of the trunk of the tree.
• The tree grows best in cool climates.
• You can tell if cacao beans are fermented if you: a) Shake them in your hands. They should sound hollow. b) Open them up. They should be brown inside, not purple. c) Taste it. If it's bitter, its not fermented.

We both got A+'s. But I helped Ryan with a couple of his answers....

Laguna de Apoyo:

After our workshop we hopped a bus to Laguna de Apoyo, a crater lake with blue blue water thats super warm. It was a cloudy day when we went, so the photos didn't quite capture it, but you'll have to trust me on this one....Or Google it. We'd heard that you could skip the $12 shuttle and get a bus to the turn off, where you get a cab to the laguna.... We should have known it wouldn't be that simple. We got the bus to the turn off, and another bus came and took us to.....another turn off. At this point, we saw a sign that said "The Monkey Hut 2km". This was where we were going, and 2km isn't that much, so we thought this was a good thing. THAT SIGN WAS A LIE. We walked down an endless hill, corner after corner for a goooood long while. Way more than 2km. A family of locals was walking behind us and just kind of dissapeared into a bush leaving us to wonder if a) they were wizards, b) there was a path we were supposed to take, c) we were hallucinating due to the long walk without water or civilization. We'll never know for sure....
In the end we made it without being eaten by a jaguar. The Monkey Hut is a hostel that you can pay $6 to gain access to their dock, kayaks, restaurant, and pretty much whatever else they have there. The water was warm, the weather was not boiling, and it was beautiful. We headed back relatively soon to get in before dark, hopping on a bus...well...no not hopping. Being persuaded to get on the bus that didn't look like it could take any more people. The driver always has his sidekick who hangs out the door shouting its destination and dragging people in, and he seemed to be confident that we could fit. We were literally hanging onto each other for dear life as we stood on the step on the open door on the highway. Maximum capacity isn't a thing here.

Masaya:

We planned to leave for Rivas on to Ometepe island the next day, but upon hearing that Masaya was the "making things" capital of Nicaragua, and may have guitars, Ryan suggested we make a stop there before heading out. Another crowded bus, and we made it to the artisan market. The market is set up within old stone walls that look like a castle, which is exciting on its own but then you go inside...

Its an endless maze of stalls all selling hand crafted things from goofy trinkets to elaborate sets of wooden table settings, leather, hammocks. We wandered around for a couple hours, never really sure if we'd been to that booth before, aimlessly meandering around... My favorite things were the wooden boxes, hand woven hammocks, and leather bound journals with volcanoes, flowers, and birds on them. We didn't buy much due to backpack space, but they were able to steer us in the direction of a guitar shop for Ry.

The taxi driver let us out in front of the shop in the middle of some kind of slums and warned us to be careful, "No seriously. Be. Careful."He even offered to go in and buy the guitar for Ryan to avoid getting scammed. Ry declined, since he could just as easily scam us, and we said goodbye and went to buy a guitar while secretly preparing to get robbed. I kept one eye on the entrance to the shop while Ryan tried out a few guitars. They tried to charge him $200 for a guitar, but when he told them he was looking to spend more like $50, they changed their minds and offered it for $60 including the case. We still don't know the actual value of the guitar, but he got a $140 discount regardless. Being serenaded 24/7: Priceless.

Favorite Things

We've had a pretty low key week or so, here in San Juan. Either due to rain, sickness, sun burn, or all of the above, we've been pretty much laying low. We've had some good times hanging out with some Salt Spring friends who have arrived in town, but even so, everything has been pretty chill lately. This means no new posts. Well that's no good. So I've decided to elaborate on the list I started before of our favorite things. The things we've been thankful to have on our trip, and since I had a request for a food post...some of the things we've really enjoyed having in our fridge. Whether you're going to be traveling sometime in the near or far future, just curious, or not curious at all (yet)...well that's too bad, here is our list of Favorite Things:

(I've included links to pages where you can buy some of these things if you want, or know someone who could use something like this. Click the linked words in the descriptions to get taken to the relevant web page.)


Ryan's Zinc has saved him countless sunburns. He pointed out to me that it is better than sunscreen on your face because it won't melt and sting your eyes. This one is also clear, which I like because I think people with white zinc on their faces look funny.








Canon PowerShot SD780IS
This is Ryan's camera, but since mine doesn't work so well since the flash mysteriously stopped working, this is what we've both been using. It's compact, durable (it got a little bath when a wave snuck up on us...) and the photos come out pretty good!

$289.99 at Amazon.com





Polysporin! Yep, this has proved mighty useful. Maybe because its safe to say that it helps most things. I tend to scratch my bites, which have been plentiful, this helps keep them from itching too badly because it moisturizes, and reduces scarring. This one is a cream, instead of the slimy salve that usually comes in these tubes, which means I can rub it in and leave it without the gross-ness.






Ryan's Boxers: I brought like 5 pairs of shorts. One pair was a "goal" pair, and with the huge range of food here, that isn't happening as fast as I'd like, so those don't fit yet. I lost my favorite pair in a hotel room in Montezuma, and threw another pair out because I thought I wouldn't need them since I had so many other pairs and wanted to lighten the load...So now I have one pair of shorts. One. Not functional. I've come to find that Ryan's boxers, rolled to the proper length, prove to be a great, lightweight, comfortable pair of shorts. These ones are striped, but I go for the black ones cuz no one can know they're men's underwear when I have a shirt on over them. Ryan doesn't need them anyways when he lives in surf shorts. Huzzah!

Surf Board: Being a surf town, it was crucial to Ryan's existence that he be able to surf. Tyson was able to rent this one to him for about half of what the other shops in town charge. He pays about $5 per use, while he looks for a possible board to buy. This is something we could not live without. As Ryan says, he's happy to just surf, and I'm happy to lay on the beach and read. Harmony.












Pocket Sized Notebook: I always carry a notebook with me when I travel. Something I learned from my mother. This one fits perfectly in my small purse, it has the elastic strap to keep it closed (I constantly shove ticket stubs and notes in it.) and a pocket in the back, which helps minimize the amount of loose things in the pages. Its easy to whip out and jot down directions, keep track of what we've spent our money on, phone numbers, etc.

These things cost like $5-9 at any stationary store









Tide-To-Go Stick: This is something I have found endlessly useful regardless of where I am. Its one of those rare things you see advertised on TV that actually is as awesome as they say it is. Gets the stain out instantly, without needing water.

$9-12 at pretty much any store that sells things.












Fan: We literally could not live without this. We would die. We would roast in our sleep. But we would be really really detoxed from sweating out everything that was ever a liquid in our bodies. But we would be not alive anymore. Potential down side. Luckily, every place we've stayed has been hip to the jive and had at least one fan in place. They're also crucial if you want anything thats wet to dry. Ever.











Band-Aids: Kids' band-aids to be more precise. I've decided that these are different in that they don't stick to you so hard core. Which is great when you lose your razor and need to put band aids on your bites that you've scratched raw in the night. They're gentle, and they have the Bratz Dolls on them. Win/Win!

Thanks to Coriander for being cool and giving me these.





Salt Spring SoapWorks Shampoo Bar: This rocks. I didn't even know these existed. My mom gave me this before we left and it proved to be so useful. I did notice that, in order to put the bar back in the tin, it either has to dry out (which nothing does here) or find some kind of plastic bag to put between it and the tin.
It leaves your hair in kind of a beachy state when it dries which is awesome, my hair never does that, but it makes it easy to not have a flat iron. It just looks cool all by itself!
Downside was that it can be difficult to rinse totally out in cold water, which all the showers are here. Over time it builds up and eventually you get a sort of sticky/waxy spot here and there where it didn't get totally rinsed out. On the bright side it smells great, its easy to carry, and is a-okay for Ryan too since its not a flowery pink bottle of "shine-booster" by L'Oreal or something.

Thanks to Mama for finding this!

Mosquito Net: I don't think there is really a necessary explanation for this. This one is not the one we brought with us, since the owner of these apartments hung this for us. We brought one that we borrowed from Maggie (THANK YOU!) that we brought without the ring to make it easier to transport. They sell travel sized ones that somehow fold up small, but we ran out of time looking for one, and the one we have has been GREAT. The smaller bugs can get in, but they don't bother us. I just don't want to know how many of them I've swallowed in my sleep though...
My one complaint about these nets is when they rest around my feet and I get caught in them. I feel like a fish, and thats weird. However, we're so thankful to have a net because a lot of places don't provide them.

Thank you to Maggie for lending us her's!

The one we brought is $10.55 on Amazon.com, about $25 normally. The Travel ones are available at outdoor stores, travel medical places, at least thats where I saw them, for about $40, Amazon has them for $25.


Neil Gaiman: He is a great author that both Ryan and I have enjoyed on this trip. It's nice to be able to share books. Ryan recommended "American Gods" to me, which I read fast and loved. This photo is the cover of "Anansi Boys" which Ryan just read and I'm next. He has also written "Stardust", "Coraline", and "Neverwhere".
Stardust and Coraline have both become major motion pictures. Stardust is a favorite of mine.
His style is really fun, a little dark. He mixes fantasy, fact, history, and modern day reality really well. I noticed that his writing style varies greatly from book to book. While American Gods is more adult and straight forward, Stardust has the "Once Upon a Time" feel to it. I highly recommend "American Gods", Ryan really loved Anansi Boys too.

Neil Gaiman's books are available on Amazon.com for $5-10


Let's Go Guide to Central America: I go with Let's Go across the board. While cross referencing is the best way to go, if you don't want to carry a bunch of books and don't know which to choose, this is your guide. It's just the right amount of info, easily laid out, and well written. I like these books because they write more 'humanly' than other books. For example, when it comes to accommodation, they rate based on value, not price. You will find their pick for the best room for your money and safety. While there isn't much on San Juan in this book, its been very helpful. This one covers a lot of territory in a reasonably sized book, so some of the smaller towns are not included. You can buy more specific books which would have more included in that particular area. These are updated almost yearly (so check the date to make sure its the newest one!), and are available for pretty much anywhere you could possibly go. Written by students, its "user friendly" and chock-full of useful information.

These are usually $20+, but on Amazon, they're about $7. This particular one is $4.99.


Ryan's Guitar: Tyson came through again when he happened to have an extra guitar to lend Ryan. He was starting to get restless without one of these babies to soothe his musical needs. I don't know how much longer he could have survived without one. This is a photo of his makeshift capo made out of a pen and a hair tie. He's been strumming sweet nothings into my ear ever since.


Thank you to Tyson for this!




My trusty orange change purse: My Mama is to thank once again for bringing this to me from Florence before I went to Australia. It's for smaller amounts of money, to make it easily accessible when you don't want to be digging for cash in public. Keeps things quick, discreet, and if someone does steal it, its only a little money. The orange makes it easy to find. I've been marking it everywhere we go, which is whats written all over the back..The toothbrush is for size reference.

The Netbook! This thing has been so so awesome. A birthday present for Ryan this October, this has turned out to be so useful to us. Its so nice to to have to sit in internet cafe's in the heat. We can also Skype with family and friends when the connection is good. Ryan can work on business stuff with his brother, I can blog, and its also been our movie theater. Small, light weight, ever-s0-portable, and affordable. If this gets stolen, we both have our primary computers at home, and its cheap enough that we don't have to cry about it. It has also been a great way to back-up photos, both onto the hard drive and onto online albums in case of theft.

$279 at Future Shop


Amazon Kindle: This is one of those things that I never would have bought for myself. I love real books, and am a huge advocate for keeping paper and ink books going, this was just not something I ever thought I would need, but it has been the most awesome thing in the universe. I cannot express how great it is not to carry books with me everywhere I go. The weight is a surprisingly huge amount that adds up really fast. Its also been wonderful to be able to choose my books as I go, from a huge collection. I can get new books whenever I want, I can check my email or Facebook, I can even listen to music while I read or listen to audio books. The internet connection is not ideal for things like email and Facebook, but you can do it if you're far from a place where you can get online. Free 3g is hard to beat as well. While you do have to pay for the books you buy, they range from $.99 to as much as $17.00, its totally worth it. I download endless samples, which are free, and give you the first several pages to give you an idea of whether or not you want to buy the book. There are also email lists you can join that send you lists of free books, mostly promotional stuff, but I haven't figured that out yet. The battery life is great, its durable (so far) and just all around awesome.

Thank you to my Dad for this birthday present!!

The Amazon Kindle has evolved a lot in the past year or so. This one is the basic Amazon Kindle with 3g available for $139

They range from $79 for the basic basic to $199 for the Kindle Fire which is giving the iPad a run for its money. In between are a good range of them, so check it out, I highly recommend these for traveling.....but KEEP BUYING REAL BOOKS TOO....

My Rainbow Trading scarves: "What's that you say? SCARVES? PREPOSTEROUS!"
Yep. These are awesome. I use them as headbands, shirts, wraps. While they're not as big as a sarong, and therefore not as useful when it comes to dresses and beach blankets, these are light, flowy, pretty, and you can tie them however you want. I find they're just big enough to be a flowy tied top over a bikini, or a bandana style triangle shirt a la Kelly Clarkson circa 2002.

I've seen these for like $15 at some stores. I get them on Salt Spring like 3 for $10. While I don't know where you can get these outside of Salt Spring, I have seen people wearing them in the US as well. I would check any stores that import from India. Any lightweight square scarf is equally great though. I just like the tinsel threaded through these..

Sephora Deluxe Anti-bacterial Brush Set: I've sort of remixed the original brushes with some of my Bare Minerals brushes, but this has been awesome. The magnetic front and flexible case makes it easy to pack extra things in there. I can slip a mascara, a lip thing, a liner, and a toothbrush in there and call it a day. I have a lot of makeup and products but the essentials all fit in here.

This has turned out to be one of the best presents ever.

This is $60 at Sephora

My Underdog Purse: I call this an underdog purse because I really did not expect this to be as useful as it has been. This was given to me by a regular customer at Barb's before I went to Australia. While it wasn't something I would have thought to buy for myself, I immediately felt like this was more special than most things because of how it came to me. I was so touched to get a present from someone who didn't have to give me anything. Gotta love the holiday season, and the spirit it brings! This little purse (my thumb is a size reference) is perfect. Its compact, has a zipped inside pocket for things like a passport, a front buttoned pocket and the perfect sized slots for small things. It holds a deceiving amount of stuff too. Once I had two cell phones, a passport, a wallet, a lip balm, a notebook, sea shells, a pen, and a few other things that escape my memory. And it was still a breeze to find everything! No matter how much stuff I cram into this thing, it always looks orderly and everything is visible.

Thank you to Celeste Mallett for this. I don't know where she got it, or how much one of these costs, but if you find something similar, buy it! Its so worth it!

This shell I found: It's not a travel essential or anything, but I would be pretty bummed if we didn't have this. I found it on the beach. Its awesome. I love it.

Free at any beach where these are...










Last but not least for the Favorite Things list...I asked Ryan what else he could think of that he's really been happy to have on this trip and he said, "You" which was like the best answer possible, and the best thing I've heard all day. So here we are, because Ryan's definitely on my list of favorite things:

Part 2: Munchies

As promised: The food post. More or less...

Veggies: We were so happy to have a kitchen and a place to store vegetables. Real live vegetables. We do disinfect them, although some people don't. Its just a way to prevent having to de-parasite yourself...









Frozen Oreos: I don't really know how this came to be a staple...On Halloween I bought a box of Oreos for us to eat whilst watching "Hocus Pocus", "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", and "Garfield's Halloween Adventure" or whatever its called. At some point, once we were at Tyson's I wanted something sweet and ice cold, and Oreos were all we had, so I froze them. Turns out this is awesome, and now we have one of these in the freezer at all times. Crunchy, cold, sweet. Totally.




Disinfectant: This is what we use to clean our veggies. Turns out you could just buy a big thing of bleach for like half the price, but whatever. This is pretty much just bleach. Sounds horrible, but its not. We put a capful or two of this into a bunch of water, soak the veggies, rinse them, and dry them thoroughly before we eat them. So far so good. Its nice to be able to eat fresh veggies with peace of mind.
(65 cordobas is like a little more than $3)










Flor de Caña:
The Nicaraguan rum. We had to try it. Turns out its pretty good. I feels might Jack Sparrow-ish here in the tropics with the rum, aside from the fact that we're not actually in the Caribbean...I'm not much of a rum person, but this is really nice. For the record, this is not a "can't live without it" situation, its just something we have that's quite Nicaraguan.











Raiiisin Braaaan: I don't know whats so great about Raisin Bran, it just is. We eat this at night for dessert more often than for breakfast. This Post stuff isn't the real deal, but we'll survive...














Lizano Hot Sauce: This seems to be the only option for hot sauce here. It's not bad. I haven't actually compared it beside other brands, but on its own, we like it. It goes on everything so its a must-have for our fridge.














UHT Milk: Oh man I like this. Its that weird milk you buy off the shelf, not out of the fridge. Here's the deal. It doesn't have to be refrigerated before its opened, but there are no preservatives. "UHT" stands for "Ultra high temperatures" so instead of heating it to lower temperatures for longer, they heat it high (72 C) for about 15 seconds. There are all kinds of reasons why this is preferable for the environment. A huge factor being that you don't have to use the fridge for it before its opened. It's actually kind of interesting, you can read about it here if you're interested.
I like this because it tastes goood. Its different, some people say it tastes "burnt", I disagree. It tastes like how I imagine milk should taste...maybe because it kind of does taste like steamed milk, but not hot...I also like that the box states that breast milk is best for babies. I think thats legit.



Fud! This is new. We actually don't have any kind of attachment to this yet, but Ryan brought it home yesterday, and I love that its called "Fud". That's hilarious.

For the record, its bacon.
We ate some this morning, and it was good. Bacon ftw.






Crema: This is the closest thing to sour cream we've found. It's milder, a little sweeter, but awesome. Just the right amount of sour. It's more liquid, and goes great with our tacos, tortilla soup, burritos. And its super cheap. Huzzah.

Soon I'll do a follow up of our favorite places in town, but today was a "stay in the apartment and rub aloe vera on Ryan's back and write blogs and watch a Disney movie and eat the fresh salsa Ryan just made" kind of day.

Adios