Adios Nicaragua, Hola Guatemala

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If you've known me for some time, you know I don't like to say goodbye. It is a known fact that I will do whatever possible to avoid the whole 'goodbye' situation altogether. For me, "see you later" is a term I'm much more comfortable with, for what does a goodbye really mean? Does it mean we will never cross paths again? And if so, how can you possibly know one way or another? Besides, everybody knows there there are no goodbye's in eternity. Even the Terminater felt me on this when he said, "Hasta la vista, baby." (loosely translated: until next time)

So, today, instead of saying 'goodbye' to Nicaragua, I say "Adios." Literally translated, adios means 'to god,' and so it 's my wish that Nicaragua and all its Nicaraguans come just a bit closer to god until the next time we cross paths. Ahhh. Now isn't that nicer than just a plain old goodbye?

But that's enough semantic ranting, I should fill you in on what's been happening these days...

There have been four full moons have come and passed since I landed here in Nicaragua, and the time has come so that when the next full moon arises it will shine down on me in Guatemala. So I'm getting on a bus and heading north, spending an entire day here in Managua, waiting for 2:30 am so I can spend the entire day tomorrow on a direct bus to Guatemala City. Now, all of a sudden I have all this computer time to update this here blog! So.....

Let's start where I left off last month, on the side of the road, building decent shelters for little baby Jesus' (LBJ's).... Since then, I've taken a trip to the coffee country around Matagalpa, unwittingly hitchhiked my way to a water bottling processing plant (where they put the water in bags), spotted a keel-billed toucan, been mistaken for a German, Australian, and Greek man. I've even taken a boat trip across a huge lake filled with freshwater sharks, lived on a farm for 10 days with some pizza-baking Italians, dug holes and prepared soil and built compost bins for said italians, learned some capoiera (brazilian martial arts), climbed an extinct volcano and swam in its cold crater lake, played lots of music, watched lots of parrots fly to their homes in the volcanic dusk, mastered the art of saying "little pig" and "cucumber" in French and other less savory words in Dutch, crossed paths with travelers whom I met months and months before, and finally completed the big circle I started way back in August by returning to San Juan Del Sur to catch a couple waves and a few days of the sun's rays (and also some more jellyfish stings). And..now that the circle has been completed... it's time to start a new one.

So onward and upward to Guatemala it is. Everyone tells me its nice, so we'll see. I'll keep you posted. Until then..... Adios!

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Photos

Matagalpa
from below

matagalpa's special brew
hmmm.....

Matagalpa
from above, the cloud forest at selva negra

Funeral Procession
This is exactly what I want when I die... a loose tuba band and some happy looking mourners blocking evening traffic through the town square while following a pickup with a casket in back. YES! what a way to say adios!

Pickin' Time
look for 'Selva Negra' brand at Whole Foods, you might get the beans from the berries this guy picks!

Shady
this is what a shade grown, organic coffee farm looks like

Juan Valdez
apparently escaped from Colombia and is now living in Nicaragua

just in case..
..you ever wondered how they put water in those bags that then get sold on the chicken bus... well, now you know!

my nica family
Harold, Diana, Blanca, and Sharon

Ometepe
the last pic before my camera broke.

Matagalpa
from below