July 12, 2015

Many of the isletas have private residences on them

Another beautiful day sightseeing in Nicaragua!  We took a boat tour of some isletas (small islands) around Lake Nicaragua.  They were formed when the Mombacho Volcano erupted a few hundred years ago.  There are 360 islands, many of which (at least that we saw) are privately owned and inhabited by people.  One guy owns two and put a species of Spider Monkey on one.  Now people go up to the island to feed & see the monkeys.  After the boat tour, we went ziplining!  OMG it was AWESOME!!!  I'm so glad that I chose to do that for my 30th birthday.  Flying above the rain forest canopy was absolutely beautiful.  I wish I was able to get pictures of me doing it, but sadly could not.  At least I have the memory of it though.  The youth decided that for my 35th birthday, I should go SCUBA diving.  I think I will go to Fiji for that.  After ziplining, we went to a potter's studio in San Juan de Oriente.  His name is Pedro Guerrero and he walked us through his process for creating pieces out of clay.  I bought a small jug for $12.  It just so happened to a day that the village celebrates/honors their Patron Saint, St. John the Baptist.  Pedro's son invited us so we decided to participate.  That was fun.  As an act of penance, people walk through town and go door to door asking for blessings and serving food.  Then they gather in the main part of town & beat each other with sticks made out of bull penises.  We didn't stick around for the beating part, but did enjoy walking down the street with the locals.  Then, we went to the Artists Market in Masaya and did some shopping.  I got a shirt & bag for myself, t-shirt for Terral, shot glass for my dad, and coffee.  I even bought some cookies.  Then, we had pizza for dinner & came back to Mundo de Fe.  All-in-all, this weekend was pretty amazing!  It's back to work tomorrow, which everyone is looking forward to because the people of the community are amazing.

One of the monkeys of "Isleta de Monos" ("Island of Monkeys")

Someone else managed to get a photo of me!

Potter Pedro Guerrero, showing us how he creates

Celebrating San Juan in the village!