Blogs from Leon, Northern Pacific Coast, Nicaragua, Central America Caribbean - page 8

It has been a bitter sweet day for us here. Once again, it is very hot and humid. We worked in the morning but because we had done such good work up to now, we had accomplished all the goals the site engineer had planned. Anything we did today was a bonus. We used the pick axes to break up the heavy wet clay around the walls of the new school. It was piled there when they excavated the footings. According to Bruce, they are down about 4 feet. They aren't concerned about frost, obviously, but they do need to make them earthquake and hurricane proof. Some others helped clean out the interior of the school room so that they could smooth out the floor and spread something called Cal on it to help leach the ... read more

Hola from Nicaragua The weather today didn´t seem as hot. There were some overcast skies but it didn´t rain at all today. We had a tasty breakfast of Nicaraguan pancakes and honey and then we set off for the build site. Every morning we stop for bottled water and ice for the cooler. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the site but it is only 16 kilometers. The road is very rough with lots of large rocks. Today we continued with building the rebar structures, hauling gravel , hauling sand, adding concrete blocks and mortar to the walls. There was also a very specific job of bending metal rods into rectangles. The person working on it made it look very easy but several of us tried and it is really easy to do badly. ... read more

What a day we have had. We had a delicious breakfast of eggs, gallo pinto and some fresh bread along with some peeled canatalope. After that we headed off to the build site. It took us almost an hour to get there because the roads are so rough. There are lots of rocks on the roads and a lot of huge pot holes. Because it is the rainy season, there were also some enormous puddles. We eventually stopped on the side of the road . To our left was a small building made of pieces of wood with a tin roof. This was the current school. The main teacher there, Marcia, has been teaching in this structure for 10 years and working towards getting a new school. This is a dream come true for her. The ... read more

I took this 30 km trek with Quetzal Trekkers (http://www.quetzaltrekkers.com/) , a non-profit organization located in Leon (and that originated in Guatemala). The $69 cost is pretty expensive by Nicaragua standards, but it included everything: food, transportation, volcano-boarding tents, guides, park entry, a free t-shirt, and any equipment you need. Besides, the money goes to a good cause. There are a some other similar organizations in Leon that conduct tours for other causes. CERRO NEGRO HIKE AND VOLCANO-BOARDING (45 minutes hiking up the hill, 45 seconds down) We began the trip with breakfast at the Quetzal Trekkers headquarters in Leon. From there we piled into a camioneta for a bumpy one-hour ride to Cerro Negro. My first glimpse of the volcano was disconcerting -- picturing myself sliding down the steep 700 meters (around 2200 feet) of ... read more

Hello! How are you? Really? That good!? Glad to hear it. I am also grand, thanks for asking. I thought now was as good a time as any to let you know what we've been up to since the easy life of Fiji was left behind. Those amongst you with good memories might recall me mentioning in my last blog that we were about to head back in time on our flight to the States. This did indeed happen, we lived out the afternoon of May 22nd in both Fiji and America. If you struggle to get your head around the subject, don't worry, I lived it and it confuses me. LA was our destination in America, for what was essentially 13 hours in transit. We decided that we wanted to take advantage of our little ... read more