Adventure!

I'm sorry I missed you all yesterday, but my day was so jam packed, I didn't have the time to blog. Imagine that! Ryder has a cold and needed to rest and River was in one of his oh-so-two-year-old moods, so mama took it upon herself to do a little self medicating. I went on a two hour adventure to a desolate beach I'd never stepped foot on. I ran most of the way there, which was probably at least three miles. How the heck do you figure out how far you're running without logging the drive by car??? Anyways, it reminded me of high school cross country runs where we would run through Crowfield Plantation before it was totally finished. Picture this: scraped dirt roads with lots of trees and bugs all around. I had to hop over a few tiny creeks as well. I ended up at Playa Escondida. It's actually the next bay over from our house, but the community does not maintain the road there anymore, so you have to go all the way around inland. Needless to say, when I got there, I was exhausted, but it was well worth the trek. There's a huge stair case built into the cliff that takes you down to the beach. It was a beach like you would have seen in the movie, "The Beach". (One of my favorites!) No houses, only green foliage all over the cliffs, sparse rocks in the shallow part of the ocean and the most beautiful blue water. I ran the whole length of the beach and then stripped down into sports bra and undies for a much needed dip in the water. Don't worry, there wasn't a sole around and actually my outfit was probably more covering than most of my bikinis. (Of course this mother of two still dons a bikini! That's why this run was necessary. :)) I walked on the way home and even cheated by taking a short cut that I was so proud of myself for remembering. We had an early date night where we went to the house of the guys Chris has been teaching to surf. Their house was the most amazing house of any I've seen in Nicaragua thus far. They looked and dressed just like Americans, but are from Colombia. Apparently, the father and several past generations are from Nicaragua, but their ancestry comes from Germany way back in the 1800's. They must have all procreated with other German Nicas because this man does not have one ounce of Latin in him. It was pretty cool to meet a different looking true Nicaraguan. It was also nice to learn about their Colombian culture. I know nothing of the country, so they were very gracious to answer all of my nosy questions. We also had really good pizza and chicken wings with bleu cheese dressing!!! I felt it was deserving after the two hour adventure I took earlier in the day by foot. Tona beer, the local cerveza, washed it all down nicely! We left in a rain storm and Chris had to drive our sitter home because all she had was her moto. Unfortunately, he ran out of gas on the way home. (We think there's a leak in the tank.) He had to walk to the gate in the pouring rain and luckily security drove him to the house. He apparently tried to tell me all of this when he got back but I was fast asleep dreaming of pizza, wings and yummy beverages. Chris went to Managua today for the night to get the car fixed once and for all at a real life mechanic's shop! The closest one is two hours away, so fingers crossed, he doesn't run out of gas on the way there. Feliz Sabado y Domingo!!!

Take me down to the Paradise City...

I went for my first moto ride today. We had to get our car from the mechanic's shop (yes, the picture above is the "shop"), so our housekeeper let us borrow her motorcycle. It is actually more like a dirt bike, but whatever. I held on tight as Chris drove. It was really fun! The entrance to our community looks like the Latin version of the entrance to Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, SC. It is gorgeous! After we picked up the car, I drove all by myself. Imagine that, my first stick driving experience at the age of 33! I didn't stall once and even drove the car to the clubhouse for a light lunch and a little me time afterwards. Unfortunately, the car wouldn't start again when I was ready to go home, so I had to hoof it up the big hills, but it was really good exercise. That's one bad thing about being down here. (Yes, there are actually a couple of bad things.) Things they say are fixed usually aren't. Oh well! Here's a couple other things that just aren't as great down here: corn, the roads, the mold that collects on anything leather (it's really gross!), and the amount of bugs per capita. To end on a positive note, here's a few things that are unarguably better: the beaches, french fries (they make them homemade every time!), the flora & the vibe. I guess the old cliche applies, take the good with the bad or the bueno with the malo! Ciao!

Where are you gringos?

It's official: I miss hanging out with Americans! Not to the point where I want to move back, but it's definitely nice having a crew to hang out with. I love my nanny Ibet (Yvette) and she speaks English, so that is really nice. She's 30 with two boys of her own the exact same age as mine. She is definitely someone I would hang out with at home or anywhere. We are a lot alike, but "a world apart". As cheesy as that sounds, it couldn't be more accurate. Five days a week, she takes a bus from her small village, La Virgin(She laughed when I asked if everyone there was a virgin.), at about 6:45am to the entrance of our community. She will try to find a ride all the way to our house, but a lot of the time has to walk up these massive hills (to and from work). I'm talking 'lose your breath just by walking up' kind of hills. She will usually get to our house by 8am. She never complains, though. All she makes is $5 for 7 hours. Believe it or not, that's the going rate for about 10 hours of work here. Most people make around $150 per month total. Most of the people we've encountered are just happy to have work. Ibet's husband will be out of a job next week. This is also very common down here. People will get odd jobs and then hope and pray another one comes around before the last one's finished. They will go weeks eating just rice and beans until they can make more money. It's sad, but most people here are extremely happy. It shows you that we really don't need so much stuff in life to be pleasant. Like my hubby says, it's a lot nicer keeping up with the Ramirez's than the Jones's. Life is simpler and I like it! I guess we can't have it all anyway. (Like Americans to talk to all the time. :)) I will say that my Spanish has gotten pretty good ,though. I can now pretty much understand the gist of a conversation in Spanish. Ibet's been a big help. It's nice to know that we're both helping each other out. Hasta Luego!

Beach, Surf, Eat, Repeat!

The Putnam crew had a great weekend in Nicaragua! Our friends went to Managua for supplies the entire weekend, so we were left to fend for ourselves. On Saturday, Chris took Ryder surfing and he did really well while I stayed home with the parasite pooper! Chris and I then had a great date night that included really tasty mojitos, steak with jalapeno sauce (a Nicaraguan specialty) and chicken alfredo. Dessert was pineapple pie with rum raisin ice cream. Yummy! We were home by 8:30pm! I guess we're getting old. Sunday was nice, too. We had our nanny meet us at the clubhouse and help with River and we all swam. River can actually kick on his own in the pool now with his vest on! He cries while doing so, but it makes Mommy feel better that if he did fall in with his vest on, he'd be fine. Chris, Ryder and I then went surfing. It wasn't really powerful enough for me on the inside and the line up was way out of my league, so I mainly just paddled around, but it sure was good exercise! The best part was seeing my little five year old catch waves all the way into the beach with a huge smile on his face. I really can't believe how good he's gotten in such a short time. We've now been here a month and couldn't be happier! The only really bad thing this weekend was an infestation of cucka rochas. That would be the disgusting cock roaches they have down here that carry diseases. We're not really sure where they came from, but hurriedly called our pool guy today who fumigated while we went to the clubhouse pool for the afternoon. Chris is giving surf lessons to four guys as I type this, so he's really happy to now have an alternate source of income. My hubby the entrepreneur!

SURF & TURF

So yesterday and today might just have been the best two days we've had since we moved to Nica! Yesterday we had an adult surf session in the am with our good (and only) friends Chris and Isabel. Chris was short boarding, which he's still trying to perfect and I was of course still trying to just catch some waves again. We went to my favorite spot Los Perros. There were some professionals out in the water at the point and it's a beautiful place that also "reforms" on the inside so the kooks like me can have a good time. I caught several little waves, but I had one really good one all the way in that Chris actually got to see from out where the big boys play. It was a lot of fun! Afterwards, we had an amazing lunch cooked by our chef of cheeseburgers and homemade french fries. (My inner fat girl was singing!) A nice siesta followed and then the kids continued to sleep while Chris and I ran the hills of our community for about 2 miles. We're up pretty high so we get really great views of the ocean the entire time! It sure does make running not so miserable. Dinner was fresh lobster, rice and chayolte Catalina, our amazing cook, had bought that morning. She rocks!

Today we started a great weekly tradition. Every Friday from now on, Isabel and I are going to take the kids to Popoyo. It's about 10 minutes down the beach, but takes about 45 minutes to drive there because the roads are so bad. There's an awesome girl named Daniela there and a few other moms with 5 year olds. Daniela gives the kids a two hour school lesson for $7 per kid. Today Isabel and I went surfing during this time. We brought a local guide with us just to be on the safe side and he helped us catch some really nice small waves. One of mine was about waist high and I just stepped off of my board onto the sand at the end of it! Fun times! Afterwards, the Daniela, the other moms and the kids met us at a great little cafe with a big pool. The kids ate ice cream and then spent the remaining two hours in the pool. All of the other moms are really cool and they mainly spent the time educating me on the ways of life in Nicaragua. We are now about to eat a wonderful dinner of fresh red snapper. I'm soooo glad I finally talked my hubby into eating fish because I love it! The weekend is supposed to be sunny skies and small, fun surf, so this mama will be a happy mama! Adios!

A trip to the Clinica...

We had our first to the clinica today for two reasons. One being that River has a case of parasites. (Yes, it's pretty gross in the #2 department.) They aren't really bothering him. He didn't eat very much for a couple of days, but had no fever or pain. The second reason was also baby inspired. The boys were playing in our indoor open air courtyard and River tripped over an exposed water spicket and now has a lovely one inch cut on the inside of his lip. It stopped bleeding pretty quick, but these two things were enough for Mommy to say "Chris! Clinica! Now!" Luckily, we had just gotten our car back from the mechanic not ten minutes prior. On the way there, we saw our nanny walking in from the bus stop and picked her up for some good translating. You'll probably think Chris is crazy, but he also had me get out and practice my stick shift driving! (I only stalled once.) Anyway, we get there and there's is no line whatsoever. No wait in this waiting room to wait in the next to then wait in the doctor's exam room to then see the nurse to wait for the doctor! It was very clean besides the horses above in the parking lot. They had two volunteers from the states helping out, one full time doctor and a couple of local nurses and pharmacy people. (One less stop~ the drugs are right there!) They said they couldn't give River stitches because of the location, but I'm sure if it was anywhere else, it would have been at least 10 stitches. (Okay, maybe five!) We have to bring him back tomorrow to do lab work to see if needs any other type of antibiotics for the specific parasite that might be living in his belly. The entire bill was $27 with two bottles of antibiotics, too! As we were leaving we noticed that every seat was taken by locals waiting to be seen. Apparently, they were all on the bus that had arrived a few blocks away just as we headed there. The clinic is named Roberto Clemente after a Pittsburgh Pirate baseball player who died in 1972 helping rescue earthquake victims in Nicaragua. It's a non-profit based out of the US to give health care to anyone who needs it. In Nicaragua, if you have to stay in the hospital, someone has to bring you food to eat because they do not provide it. The prisons are the same, go figure! River finally ate his whole dinner tonight and is running around like normal. Thank God for modernized health care and diaper changing nannies!

A mid-summer's read

I just finished my fifth book since moving to Nicaragua about 3 weeks ago! I don't think I've read that many books in the last 3 years, much less 3 weeks. Another perk to paradise, I guess! Since reading is one of my passions, I'm very excited about this "new" part of my everyday life. Here's what I've read thus far:

Breech of Trust by: Diann Mills

Eat, Pray, Love by: Elizabeth Gilbert (I've been trying to complete this book for the last year, but couldn't keep my eyes open long enough to do so!)

Such a Pretty Fat by: Jen Lancaster

How I Stole Your Husband by: Liz Ireland (Don't judge!)

The Guardian by: Nicolas Sparks

I would have to say that Eat, Pray, Love was my favorite. It involves a spiritual quest, love and traveling. A great read and now I can't wait to see the movie once it comes out. I think I will now purchase the sequel to this, Committed, on my kindle and start reading it. I will also continue The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. It's going slow, but everyone tells me that once you get past page 40 you don't want to put it down. Since we're in the rainy season, it gives me one more excuse to just relax and read a good book! Do you have any recommendations? How about your favorite book? Do tell, do tell!

These are a few of my favorito things...

Great weekend, although it rained a lot. We're in the rainy season down here, essentially "winter". I think it got down to 75 degrees on Friday night. (Trust me, I'm not complaining!) Come November it will be 88 and sunny for at least 3 months straight. Nothing majorly new to report, so I thought I'd take this moment to list some of my new favoritos en Nicaragua! Here goes:

Tres Leche Cake (OMG! This cake truly melts in your mouth.)

Chayolte (A green vegetable that resembles a green pepper, but almost has a sweet taste to it.)

Papaya (Yummy mild fruit.)

Arroz con Pollo (Chicken & rice Latin style.)

(Funny how everything so far is food!!! I guess it's just my inner fat girl speaking up. Those of you who know me have met her many times!)

Waking up at 7am and not feeling like it's too early.

Not having a cell phone attached to my ear at all times.

Seeing Ryder and River squeal over the monkeys.

Butterflies! They come in all colors and sizes down here.

Something other than pine trees lining the streets.

Not wearing one stitch of make up for the past 3 weeks.

Eating all organic, healthy food. Nothing processed! (Although I did have a hamburgeso con queso with fries for dinner at the clubhouse tonight! Shhhh!)

Appreciating what we've left behind!

Of course there are many, many more things I love about our new homeland, but these are just a few for now! No pics tonight of these great things, but I promise they will come soon!

Buenos Noches!

Hang Ten!

Well, not really. I've actually never "hung 10". For all of you who think this means that you were hungover for 10 hours, let me explain. It's when you put all 10 toes over the nose of your surf board while riding on the wave. It's another one of those things that look really, really easy, but is on the expert level. I can't think of a good example right now, but you get the point! Chris (my oh-so-hot hubby) had a hang five the other day where his entire foot was off the front of the board. For those of you that know Chris, you can imagine seeing a big-foot-esque appendage (size 15!) flapping away at the surf. He did so twice. Chris is a very good long boarder, so of course he just had to show off that day...I love it! I went surfing with my new friend Isabel yesterday. It was the girls' turn to show off! (Read the last sentence VERY sarcastically!) After getting hit in the head pretty hard by my board, things started actually going really well. I stood up several times and so did Isabel. Then, finally, like waiting for your kid to actually go on the potty, it just happened... I got my first real Nica wave all the way into the beach. Some people may have referred to it as a ripple, but so what? I did it! The most important thing is I now remember why I fell in love with this sport 9 years ago and for just one moment in the water, I forgot all about that baby making thing that's been holding me back! Yay! I found this really cool shell on my way in to remind me of my first real Nica wave... (The picture above does it no justice, but note how big it looks in River's hands.)

It's been raining here all day and probably will most of tomorrow, as we have a bad storm coming through, but it's been a great week! And if our babysitter can cross the two burgeoning rivers to get here on her moto, we'll be having a date night tonight! Our friends may join us tonight, but may not because they sponsored a local girl to pay for her schooling and since then she's gotten very, very sick with a hernia to where she's on her death bed. Isabel paid for her to ride in an ambulance the other day to get some pain medications and antibiotics at the hospital, which is about an hour away, but the little girl's family didn't have the money for the surgery to actually remove it. So sad! This girl is probably about 6 years old, has no plumbing and sleeps on a dirt floor and now is on her death bed in severe pain. Isabel found a surgeon and she was going to try to have the girl worked on today, so she has a pretty good excuse not to make it to dinner. Please pray for this little girl to get the care she needs! I am so glad I found a new friend who inspires me~ I will be searching for a way my family can help someone very soon!

School Daze... for me and Ryder!

I think I'm probably the last thirty-something on Earth that doesn't know how to drive a stick shift. (Don't judge!) They don't have many automatic vehicles down here, so we were forced to think more when we drive! Needless to say, my first lesson with Chris was yesterday and it went really well. I only stalled once! The hubs says I needs a few more lessons before he'll let me take the babes on the road. So it looks like I'll be taking driving lessons and Spanish lessons! We have a local Spanish teacher coming to the house soon for daily lessons. And...she speaks English!

In other news, we hired our nanny! I feel a little guilty having a nanny and not working, but I figure I'm just stimulating the Nicaraguan economy with my $5 US per day that we pay Yvette. The normal wage in this country is anywhere from $5-$10 per day!!! She is going to be here Monday to Friday from 8am to 3pm. We also got some really good news yesterday about Ryder's schooling. There's a US elementary teacher moving here this week and we are meeting her this afternoon. She will tutor Ryder and two to three other kindergartners two days a week for 3 hours for the month of August! I will home school the other three days. (Wish me luck and patience!) Then in November our development is starting a private school here! So excited that Ryder will get the socialization he needs and have someone besides Mommy teaching him phonics.

Did I mention that I LOVE it here??? ;) Also, pix coming soon! I got my camera back to a familiar language.

surf daze

My first day paddling out was today. I sucked pretty bad, but I was out there! Gotta get my skills back. This baby making thing has sure made me a kook in the water! I am definitely a MUCH better snowboarder these days! But... I have at least 330 days left to figure it out AGAIN! Learning was hard enough the last time around. It was soooooo good to be back out there, though. Warm, beautiful blue Pacific waters...ahhh! Tomorrow is supposed to be even smaller, so we'll be out there again, me, Ry and Chris. Our monkey, or as River calls them bunnies, family sang to us all night last night in the pouring rain. Crazy but so awesome! In other breaking news, the Putnams now have friends here! They have a 5 year old daughter and her and Ryder get along great. Ryder now says he has two girlfriends: Emmy & Neila. Surf, friends and food (0h, we'll get to that! :)) = good times!!!

Crazy wildlife!

Today was a wild day in more ways than one. We started the morning playing in the pool and then heard the sound of monkeys doing their thing and LOUD! It sounded like it was inside our house and that it was a pack of gorillaz, but just turned out to be the cutest little congo family! The big guy was only about maybe 3 feet tall, but sounded like a huge beast. There was even a chiquita baby monkey. I guess I'm just more used to baby mamas living in my neighborhood! ;) Anyways, we then moved onto a walk in the yard to see some HUGE spiders, they're not my favorite, but they have some really cool looking ones down here. Bright colors galore! Unfortunately, I have no pictures of any of this as the banditos set my camera to Espanol so I can't figure out how to get it off of its current setting. My Spanglish has gotten pretty good, but technical translation just hasn't been top on my list, so that will likely be tomorrow's task. You feel real sorry for me, don't you? :) You might have if the scorpion I found crawling up Rio's lil leg today hadn't been safely removed by Mama Melba. Thank you God for eyeballs! Ryder and IWe finished our animal adventure off at the nearest beach and had little ants crawling on us and Ryder was stoked to find some crab arms, but they didn't bite. Weird! Ryder was stoked to find some crab arms being that we have one that lives on our back patio that only has one claw. The beach was beautiful and it was fun having a playdate with just my lil man and me! Ryder than caught a nice left for his evening session with Daddy on the inside. I love the boys in my life! (Except for the 4 inch barking beetle that lives in our tray ceiling! ha ha! Man, that thing is gross!)

Viva La Nicaragua!!!

This is a great day! You wanna know just how great? First off, we got our stuff back! The po po came over today and brought our kindle and camera! I've been robbed more times than I'd like to admit in Central America and this is the ONLY time I've ever gotten anything back but a sore ego!

Ryder caught two really long waves into the beach today. Unfortunately, I missed it for some other good news: a really long siesta!

We have a regular babysitter set up for every Saturday night, so tonight is date night! There's a surf contest here this weekend and a big fiesta tonight on the beach to celebrate! Thank you God for date nights!!! Now for a run so I won't regret everything I inhale tonight... :)

Not just another day at the beach!

We finally have sunshine! We took advantage of it by heading to a different beach about a 15 minute drive away with our new friend, another Chris, and the boys. We had to walk through a small river just to get there. Pretty neat to see my little River walking through a little river. I know, that was pretty dumb, but couldn't help myself! Anyways, we walked for a good five minutes until we got to the spot the two Chris' wanted to paddle out. This was the same beach we stayed at two years ago when our love affair with this beautiful country began. The other Chris failed to mention that they paddled out where they did because there's a rip that takes you right out. Ryder started playing in the water down to the right and like a good mommy, or so I thought, I told him to move right in front of me. Hence, putting my waif-like five year right in the middle of this riptide and the waves were 6 to 8 feet if he had gotten swept all the way out! Luckily, he just started screaming. At first I thought they were yells of joy, but quickly realized they were NOT. My first thought was to save my precious cargo, but I had a HUGE dilemma: River, my two year old that can't swim who follows me everywhere, was also on the beach and there was not one other sole there. (This isn't exactly a happenin' touron hang out.) All I could do was scream myself and finally took a look at both boys and had to think fast. Luckily, for once in River's life he stayed up by the dunes and I was able to rescue my white Ethiopian-look-a-like son (yes, we feed him!) just as a local construction worker who was working on a house nearby ran into the water to help. Phew!!! Otherwise, it was a wonderful beach trip (besides River almost getting swept out to sea, but that's a whole other episode!) Once the Chris I call mine was done surfing, he took Ryder down the beach to surf and the little guy stood up once! I never understood how kids can forget so quickly that they almost got pummeled by the same ocean they are now surfing in!

The next part of the adventure involves our new car getting stuck on a muddy back road. Our savior came in the form of a Land Rover with a tow rope within minutes. We were wondering if this guy just sits and waits for idiots like us to pull out. We ended our day with a wonderful meal watching a beautiful sunset on our back patio that our AMAZING cook made! Buenos Noches!

Another Rainy Day in Paradise...

Hola! It's been raining for about four or five days here in Nicaragua. (I've lost track, oh darn! :)) We've been filling our days with movies, books, puzzles, guitar hero and the like. It's the rainy season here so we should probably get used to this, but I can't deny the fact that I am already longing for some sunshine! The good news is that my hubby Chris came home last night with a car! We are finally mobile! He also has our mechanic looking for a four wheeler for me. Yippy! They are so fun. As he pulled into the driveway last night, the policia and head of security pulled up and said they would be bringing us our stolen kindle and camera this Saturday. Apparently, they want to be paid for their services?! Oh well, it will be cheaper than replacing the items and the pictures I've already taken will not be lost forever. Chris also joked with the po po that if he sees us, he can't pull us over. The man laughed and said, en espanol of course, NEVER!!! Chris gets so dark that as long as I'm not with him, they'd probably think he was a local anyway. Apparently, gringos have to pay $5 US to any police man that pulls them over just to be let go, even if they weren't doing anything wrong. Another speed bump in the life of a gringo in a developing country... but it's worth it!!! Hasta que nos encontremos otra vez! (or thank God for Babel Fish! hee hee!) ;)

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

Well, we made it to Nicaragua! We've been here for 8 days now and we are truly loving it! My bestie said I would never blog, so I'm here to prove her wrong and get my "mellow~drama" off of my chest, so here I go! We have settled in nicely. The only downer was that we were robbed on the beach on July 4th. Ironic because we were only robbed because we are American or gringo, as they say down here. Robbed on America's birthday because we are American! Anyways, the good news is someone saw the banditos ditch our bag and the security in our gated community returned it to us, but with no kindle or camera to be found! However, the policia have caught them and recovered those items, too! The banditos are in now in jail and we should have our electronics back to us any time. That NEVER happens in Central America! We've been robbed several times in our travels down here and never saw our belongings again! Viva la Nicaragua! No camera so no photos to post yet, but soon... until we meet again! Adios!