One of the new 7 wonders of the world: The island of Ometepe
Lord of the dance: Whit and I also went out dancing one night. We were having fun sitting at our table people watching when Whit was approached by a short guy that had had a few too many drinks. He got very close to her right ear and said, “DANCING.” Then he repeated, “DANCING.” Now I am assuming he wanted to ask Whit to dance but instead of saying, “Would you like to dance?” He just kept yelling “DANCING.”
Whitney and I are about to fly through the trees
Climbing the 2nd most active volcano in the world (again): Getting lost in the wild bush for a few hours is never anything to be too worried about, but I always carry an extra snack just in case we’re lost for an exceedingly long period of time. Plus, why ask for directions when you can go around in circles for hours? There is no excitement in arriving at a destination in a timely manner! It seems that every time I climb the Cerro Negro (the 2nd most active volcano en el mundo) we get lost somewhere along the way. It seems almost impossible to get lost since it is just one big massive black hole of sand, but we always manage somehow, someway. This time around 20 of us got into a low riding small pick-up truck (I somehow lucked out in the shotgun seat). The driver started the engine and the kids and I where off towards the cerro. This time around we were going to give an investigative survey (encuesta) concerning the natural wildlife reserve that surrounds the volcano. But after starting up the truck the driver failed to ask any of us for directions and chose his own made-up route. We didn’t realize that he didn’t know where he was going until 2 hours into the ride he stopped the truck and whispered to me, “Where are we?” Well, those are never the words you want to hear when you realize you are surrounded by thick trees and branches and the noon sun is slowly rising higher and higher in the sky. Not surprised by the fact that he was lost, I told him that the cerro was close and now we just had to figure out how to turn the truck around on a one-way narrow road. Since there were 20 kids in the back of the pick-up, they all jumped out to help physically lift the truck off of the ground and turn it around. After this mighty feat, we got back into the truck found the foot of the volcano and parked. However, since the cerro is made up of sand the truck got stuck, and the kids were forced to use their muscles again to heave to truck out. We walked an hour to the nature reserve, I had a poisonous snake placed around my neck, and then we hiked the volcano. What a day!
This video makes me laugh each time I watch it! Pay close attention to the waiter and the random man in the clip, because they seem able to ignore all that is going on around them.
This celebration is called La Gigantona (who is the giant Spanish lady in costume that is seen at the very end of the clip). The short man dancing around is her "native" Nicaraguan husband. She fell in love with him and chose to stay in Nicaragua instead of returning to Spain.
RATS! RATS! RATS!: It’s been a while since I have posted a blog, and I suppose it’s because I have felt a bit uninspired. The things that used to be so new have now become just ordinary occurrences. I have dealt with the fact that there are an abundance of bats, mice and insects in tropical climates, which are things that I don’t normally have to deal with in my home state of Colorado. None of these things have ever really bothered me and I hardy pay notice when they go scurrying across my line of vision. A few nights ago, I was unable to sleep due to a loud noise that seemed to be all around me. I awoke several times throughout the night, and felt like something had crept over my body, but by the time I opened my eyes that “something” was gone in the darkness. I slept restlessly tossing and turning until morning finally arrived. I got up only to hear more noise. Next, I put on a pot of coffee and started to pull out a large plastic bag that I keep all of my school supplies stored in. I dragged the heavy bag along the floor and noticed that I had left it unzipped. Then I saw that the papers inside (including some of my students homework papers that I had stored in the bag) were strewn all over the place with chunks of them missing. I was a bit puzzled because it looked like a large animal had chewed them. What large animal could get into my house? I recalled another volunteer who had had terminates eat his papers and thought maybe I had a termite problem (a big termite problem). A bit perplexed, I continued to drag the bag out into the openness of my house. I reached slowly into the bag with my hand (not thinking) and rummaged around for a particular paper. Then I noticed a funny smell coming from the bag. When a large rat the size of my foot (and I have big feet) hopped out of the bag hit my leg and ran for an exit. I stood up almost immediately shocked and shaken and started yelling. “Oh oh oh oh oh oh,” I uttered as I shook and jumped up and down. My neighbors came running into my house with a broom overhead thinking that I was being attacked. When they shoved open my door they found me hopping and yelling and pointing. They said “What Brie WHAT!!” and I couldn’t reply I just pointed towards the bag on the floor and then towards the door. They were super confused and I was still startled with my heart racing a mile a minute. I finally told them a rat jumped out of the bag, and my neighbor asked if it was still in the bag. “No, it ran out of my house,” I replied. She then proceeded to pick up the bag to bring it outside, but then dropped the it and screamed. It seemed that there were still more rats. Inside the bag, the same bag I had put my hand into just moments before were 15 rat babies. Now my neighbor was also in hysterics, I was still jumping around and another friend came into my house wondering what the heck was going on. When I mentioned the word “rat” she ran right out the door leaving my neighbor and myself alone with the bag full of rat babies. On the verge of tears, we both picked up the bag and brought it outside. She then set fire to the bag and I poured bleach all over my house. I washed EVERYTHING and BLEACHED everything. I was so disgusted! Shortly after the rat incident had occurred, a small gecko ran across my wall, which caused me to scream and jump. Later that night I saw a shadow creeping across my roof, I looked up again and to find the rat mother was back in my house looking for her family. I obviously figured out the reason I couldn’t sleep the previous nights, it was due to the fact that a RAT was running across my bed (with me in it)!
