Volcano running...a new sporting event, not intended for the faint of heart

View from the top of Cerro Negro.

I hiked down into the volcano Cerro Negro, it was hot and gas could be seen coming out of the earth...amazing.

Quick updates:

Good ridenance, the raton is Dead!: My little mouse friend as passed-on…I did not kill him but I am pretty sure my neighbors did and he ended up dead in my house.

Bike problems…the continuing saga: My brakes are shot again…I have obviously been riding too much…on really steep terrain! And of course, my bike got two flat tires, but it only cost C$6 to fix the problem, not too shabby!

Dog sitting (warning: don’t actually sit on dog…this is a figurative term): While dog sitting, my neighbors decided to give Clavo (the dog) a goodie. No it was not a milk bone or a chew toy but instead it was a giant pig’s ear, which Clavo decided to bring into my house. I looked down with a surprised look as I caught him gnawing happily on the ear…no biggie…but I did ask him politely to take the ear into the backyard.

Another wild ride on the bus: Catching the big bus is always an adventure and yesterday’s ride was no exception. I boarded the bus only to find myself stuck in between: señor sexy, big madre and bollo de coco vender (candy vender)… YIKES! I couldn’t move, and there was no point of even holding on because I was wedged so tightly it would take the Jaws of Life to get me out of that predicament. Thankfully a really nice Nica couple saw the look of desperation on my face and squeezed together so that I could sit down next to them on the bus. Once again, the kindness of strangers never falters…gracias a dios!

Weather update: The rain has stopped and will not return until next rainy season (the month of July)…from here on out it is just going to get hotter

Quality vs. price the debate rages on: My kids think that quality is nonsense and that price is the only thing that matters; however, when I approached them the scenario concerning my ongoing bike troubles they had to stop and wonder…is price all that matters? I believe they are still pondering this thought, but at least it has them questioning the quality of products (and therefore simultaneously preparing them for the business class next year).

Cultural difference: Customer service…does not exist aqui…case and point, when at any local restaurant…after finishing the meal…the customer has to hunt down the owner to pay for their meal…and on top of it all the owner is guaranteed not to have cambio (change)…so be prepared and always carry small bills!

Tour de Sauce: Lance Armstrong has the Tour de France, and Nica Peace Corps volunteers have the Tour de Sauce…what in the world is the sauce? It’s a small town in Nicaragua that a bunch of us decided to bike to…35k later we reached our destination, hot, thirsty y con hambre (with hunge)! All of my Nica neighbors thought I was CRAZY for biking that far, but it was a lot of fun!

Cerro Negro, the volcano located behind my house...a 4 hour bike ride to the base, a 30 minutes hike to the top and a 1 minute run down the side of the mountain!

Chavalos are painting my house “bancentro” yellow (for those of you that do not live in Nicaragua and therefore do not know what bancentro yellow is it can be described as: sunshine/Tang (the astronaut drink)/dull/no need for sunglasses because it’s not that bright/they call it mellow yellow…that’s right…or put simply bancentro yellow). The trim is being painted a rusty red color (no need for an overzealous description, because rusty red says it all). And as an added bonus the chavalos also painted my clothes and hanging plants (por gratis…for free). Ok, here’s the story, I hung up my laundry apparently a little too close to the hombres trabajando (men at work) area because when I came home I noticed that all my clothing had a thin coat of paint! The chavalos apologized and assured me that they used water based paint; and therefore, it would wash out of my clothes. It seems that someone lent the chavalos an automatic paint spraying gun (mistake numero uno: NEVER lend chavalos an automatic anything…things are bound to get broken and people are guaranteed to get hurt). Case and point, my clothes were covered in paint and the once green plants were now paint covered in rojo. My cement walkway is also a blend of yellow/red…whose idea was it to give the chavalos this paint sprayer?? When my host mom arrived home to see the gigantic mess the boys made, she reprimanded them and hastily took away the paint sprayer. The boys are still painting (it’s been a three week “process” but at least they don’t have the automatic painter anymore). Oh the chavalo drama continues, because not only are they painting the house they are also making stuff (not sure what exactly and I am pretty sure they have no clue either as to what they are constructing, but once again someone lent the chavalos an automatic tool… in this case, a table saw). Therefore, the boys decided to cut a bunch of wood up INSIDE their house, which happens to be connected directly to my house. Out of nowhere a huge cloud of saw dust descended on my living room and bedroom…coughing and frantically looking for my keys I blindly rummaged through my house before escaping the dust cloud. I left for the day (in a sour mood and allergies) only to return later on that afternoon to find my house blanketed in saw dust…it took me 3 days to clean everything up/out (think laundry, mopping, basically the works)! Lesson learned NEVER give chavalos power tools or anything that requires electricity!

Bus incident (number 203…but who’s counting): I was sitting on the microbus minding my own business (WARNING THIS IS A LITTLE GROSS) and the next thing know I have throw-up running down my right arm…yep, I was thrown-up on! It was bond to happen sooner or later and I don’t doubt that it will happen again. I am quite honestly surprised that it doesn’t happen more often considering the fact that bus rides are long, traversing on bad roads and people eat things on the bus such as: coleslaw/mustard/ketchup covered hotdogs, candy, fried platanos and gaseosa en bolsas (soda pop in bags). The best part about this isolated incident is that my stop was still an hour away, but on a positive note the windows were all rolled down and therefore a cool breeze was passing through the bus! I would like to suggest that all buses carry barf-bags for passengers (they seem to bag everything else so why not just place bags throughout the bus for people who suffer from carsickness…it would save the rest of us from getting thrown-up on!!). Now if only I could find the “suggestion box” to place these words of wisdom…aka not going to happen…but I can dream, right?

Water and electricity: The water has returned!! Good thing too because I had all my laundry sitting in buckets of water (so it wouldn’t mold) ready to be washed thoroughly whenever the water returned…I have also stocked up on my drinking water because during this last water shortage I was literally sucking the juice out of oranges, because I was so thirsty and had run out of drinking water! Just to drive home my point, my town RAN OUT OF FRESCOS because of the water shortage and this is simply unheard of in Nicaragua…there is ALWAYS a fresco available, so its gotta be bad when the local fresco lady doesn’t even have water for those sweet concocted beverages that I love sooooo much.

Let’s see, for the past week my neighbors have been busy as beavers remodeling their house and because my house is connected directly to their house I have suffered sawdust, loud construction noises and electrical problems. However this isn’t even the worst of it because I am sin luz again. My house has been re-wired AGAIN…which means quite simply I have no electricity…meanwhile my neighbors (who have plenty of electricity because they are sucking the electricity that should be going into my house into their house in order to power multiple TVs and radios simultaneously). Meanwhile, I sit alone in the dark without even enough electricity to power a nightlight! The chavalos rewired in order to put a large, incredibly bright light in the backyard. Now when I open my back door in the middle of the night, I feel like it is high noon because the new light blinds my eyes and illuminates the surrounding sky (I can’t even see the stars anymore). The light takes the place of the sun…and no I am not exaggerating the luminescence.