‘¡Mucho Gusto!’ or ‘Náis tu mit iu!’
Day 49
It has just occurred to us that we are almost one third of the way through the trip. This neatly coincides with the conclusion of our week long Spanish course (very arduous, especially when you have got used to not doing very much at all in life!). Jo and I are both now much more confident in our español, and our vocabulary has expanded beyond “dos más cerveza, por favor!”.
We have been studying in San Juan del Sur, a small beach town in Nicaragua, just the other side of the border from Costa Rica. It is a lovely place, currently devoid of the mass tourism which seems to plague parts of Costa Rica. Unfortunately however, it seems this is not too far away. Hotel construction is taking place everywhere, and there is an alarming number of Americans who seem to be settling or at least investing here on a daily basis. A photo of the place 10 years ago in our school is near unrecognizable.
We are staying with a local family at the moment, which has been immensely interesting, although I think I can speak for both of us to say we have had enough beans and rice for a while. I have been most surprised to find a totally different conception of house here. Given the year round hot climate most houses are centered around an internal courtyard, with semi covered living rooms. The houses are huge, with many generations living under one roof.
As part of our Spanish classes we have also done a number of cultural activities, including learning how to make a number of Nicaraguan dishes. If there ever is a worldvision song contest Jo and I will whip up some of our new numbers, including gallo pinto (also known as rice and beans, but mixed together). We also narrowly avoided what would have been some cringe worthy Salsa lessons with our teacher., particularly since they wanted us to try some of the more traditional Salsa costume (i.e. not very much at all!).
Tomorrow we leave San Juan to visit a volcanic island called Isla de Ometepe in the middle of Lago de Nicaragua. Apparently the volcano is active. Fortunately Jo is now a much stronger swimmer so if it erupts we should be OK.