Day 3 La Mariposa Nicaragua

Today we experienced our first downpour. It was a glorious thing by way of sound. But, once we’d left the hotel it was clear that a certain lack of mercy awaited some unlucky crossroads. Certain streets flooded with a torrent of water that looked like a full-on river even neatly turning at times and rushing down side streets like an important tributary. But that was once we’d left the grounds. La Mariposa itself, the hotel and its manicured gardens, are more akin to staying in a zoo exhibit: it seems like you’re inhabiting a perfect slice of an ecosystem with a predictable stream of food and care.




 In our case, it is tropical paradise with the exception of pesky biting insects.  To be fair, they’re not worse than any American mosquito, just more plentiful.

We had a chance to ford some of the makeshift waterways in the school van because of a special dinner outing that coincided with the deluge.  It was pizza prepared and served by poor youth who have gotten off the streets. The government apparently funds the operation- the space was covered in incredible murals from Venice to Frida Kahlo and the young men did a terrific job. J and Gigi would go on to have the ride of their lives because the downpour began on the way home after I’d sanctioned another trip in the truck. Whereas I looked out at the rain with a bite of the lip they returned so elated I could barely take in their description of the thrill the experience had been. They were drenched to the bone but beaming in a blinding sort of way. Imagine someone pouring a bucket of water over your head and that was about the pace of this rain. Zoe from Philly reports her two favorite memories from her first two weeks both involve the back of the truck.

Gigi had homework tonight. Real homework. 

Zoe and Gigi consulting after breakfast before classes begin at 8 o'clock sharp.

I’m proud the kids are really trying to be diligent about their classes even though the classes themselves are far from easy. They are being taught true grammar.

J being taught by the kind Jenny, today he made up the following sentence, "My friend Sam plays soccer on the table." We cracked up because we saw that he knew exactly what he was saying! It's been said, joking in another language is the first step to fluency, I think Gigi and J are on their way!

 Lucky that the teachers know to keep it fun for the kids so the girls play a lot of cards and J gets competitive with board games. Guillermina, Paulette’s daughter, stopped by to have a hand at J and it was a delight to see everyone having so much fun with peals of laughter breaking up the air.

Baby-O helped Santos the Botanist (he’s much more than a gardener) wash leaves on the potted plants that line the beautiful outdoor corridors of the hotel. He has shown us the 'house' (a plant) for the tadpoles as they are losing their tails and becoming frogs. He has taught us that we should give the monkeys' chili peppers because as they rub it all over their fur it serves as an insect repellent. Santos has just brought me the most aromatic leaves ever and says he'll show me the plant tomorrow. Baby-O loves to work with him. Her favorite job is watering all the potted plants.


Later, she stopped to inspect a worm getting carried away by tropical ants. Ceil from Chicago, and I cracked up trying to explain that no, the worm was not doing the walking, the ants were!

We're definitely in the tropics but the bugs have been manageable.

I enjoyed getting to know a nice Austrian, Christian who is traveling around Central America. It brought back old times when we spoke of Chiripo- a mountain Rick and I climbed nearly 20 years ago. I warned him about the mice in the walls at the village base hostel. . .

Many of us have iPods, laptops, cameras and so on while only the top echelon of Paulette’s staff appear to have simple, first generation cell phones. Much of the power here at La Mariposa is solar and the water is hauled in. You can bet all of us are thinking differently about energy use after just 72 hours. 

Many of us adults are writing and posting pictures to send back home and I tried to imagine what this must look like to the locals: funny at best, probably pretty alien. Whenever I glimpse one of adult guests furtively peering into the glow of the screen I see tight lips, furrowed brow and complete and utter glazed focus into the abyss. One of the main differences I’ve noticed is how frequent and deep the eye contact is here between people and how simple things like ‘hello’, ‘good morning’ and ‘how are you’ are meant when uttered. And they are uttered.

Tonight a monkey escaped just as Gigi and J were about to help feed (luckily only Oscar the animal-keeper was inside so we didn’t feel guilty!). 

Just as he's about to jump into the canopy

The bugger spent all evening leaping around the canopy right over his enclosure.  He won’t go far. He has spent nearly his whole life at La Mariposa, these monkeys arrived around four weeks old. Apparently hunters wait until the monkey babies are old enough to hang on to mom but too young to cry much. The hunters shoot the mothers and scoop up the babies who fall from the canopy.  It’s been said they were on their way to a zoo in North America. Yikes. 

They are the kids’ delight and mine too. Paulette asked that a bench be made by the monkeys so people can sit and watch them. Baby-O became versed in the way of masonry as she showed her trusty traveling doll the monkeys. The monkeys were as curious about the doll as they were about the dirt clods that were being turned up to make way for the bench. The monkeys have been fascinating to say the least. I’m growing convinced Baby-O’s new fondness for bananas is rooted in our ritual of delivering the peels to the monkeys.

This scene shows how unbelievably curious they are- just like Curious George. Francisco was finishing the sitting bench and all the monkeys got involved in the goings on.

After slipping the clod of dirt through the fence, he proceeded to smash it on several of his jumping branches.

Feeding the monkeys is one of our daily rituals (it occurs throughout the day).

Stretching with his leg to an apprehensive Baby-O

Each stretching more but not enough.

Monkey switches arms and strains, Baby-O moves up 

Finally!

Baby-O takes her dolls and stuffed dog to visit the monkeys. They are afraid but curious about them.

Below see what he's staring at.

The wildlife has been spectacular. I went to turn on our fan this afternoon and found this guy sitting on the button. It’s not easy to shoo out a tropical grasshopper. . .

We’ve been out on the roads now 3x and each time we’ve seen folks huddled in doorways talking, clustered under trees or sitting on simple plastic chairs shooting the doo-doo. If I had to sum it up I’d say Nicaraguan so far strikes me as a place of communion. We’ll see if this assessment fades after some time under our belt.

Tonight our Bostonian friends had a birthday celebration and it was beyond festive under another type of canopy-this one a colorful circus-like tent of the boys’ home pizza parlor. What I will remember about it (besides that the cake was delicious) is Luis, our driver not touching his cake.  When I asked if he didn’t care for sweets he shook his head and said he was taking it home to his family.  We’ll visit them tomorrow for ironically he too has a 10 year old son and a 2 year old daughter.

James, our friend from Philadelphia, visited the home this afternoon of a student whom he had volunteered to tutor in English over the last week. They received the Philadelphia family at their farm and were treated to a humbling level of hospitality. James remarked that the patriarch is 70 years old and largely farms everything himself but may need to sell off part of it because it’s hard for him to keep up. James told a neat story that as he struggled to negotiate part of a farm walk holding 4yo Jeremy, the grandfather went in front of him and said “put your hand on my shoulder, I will steady you.” Later he told James, ‘We stood like that shoulder to shoulder in the war. We were strong.’ James observed how humbling it is that the Nicaraguans are so warm, inviting and accepting of foreigners despite their history. 

CHALLENGE: For a Nicaraguan souvenir (J and Gigi are supposed to visit the mouth of an active volcano tomorrow. . .) what happened in recent Nicaraguan history that might have made Nicaraguans not happy to see Americans?  Blogger changed the commenting capabilities so it should now be more possible to comment than it was when we were in Spain. You all gave such TERRIFIC answers try to post them if you can!

Lest I unfairly only portray the upside of it all today we had our first rumblings of the downside. The bug bites are beginning to accumulate and they are itchy. I’ve taken to wearing my long pants even though it’s humid because we spend so much time at the monkey cage where the mosquitoes are particularly plentiful. Gigi reported she awoke twice in the night to stand in a small plastic basin of water to take the edge off of her bites. There were some rumblings of boredom and I realize now it coincided with Zoe’s outing to her Dad’s student’s farm. 

Always the planner, Gigi is pacing herself and not reading much holding out her books for the week that Zoe will leave. J is halfway through Rick Riordan’s newest sequel and thinking ahead of how much he’ll have to read. It reminds me of what a bonanza it was to find a New Yorker on the road when we were backpacking around Asia. I remember one issue we were lucky enough to find, discarded in our hostel room in India. We took it on a trip to Nepal and I read every single word in that issue down to the ads, each word a luxurious stroke of relaxation.