With my friend at her house
Primos (cousins)
Modeling with my friend's daughter
With the nativity scene
Christmas Eve Dinner: Fish, potatoes, salad and rice
Festive Pípe, with her limp leg :(
Pípe in cast #3, she's now on cast #6.
A couple of days after Christmas, I got together with a couple of other volunteers from my group and we went to the Atlantic Coast to celebrate New Years with our friend in Pearl Lagoon. There were some girls from the newest Peace Corps Nicaragua group and it was fun to share anecdotes as older volunteers to the new ones.
On New Year's Eve, during the day, we all took a trip to the Pearl Cays. They're a group of 18 small islets off of the coast of Nicaragua (we were on international waters and had to display our passports exiting and entering Pearl Lagoon). We traveled to 3 islands and everything was so incredible. The views, the islands, the beaches, everything! We even got to see a monkey (named "Pipo"), several live starfish, eat fresh fish soup called Rundown and swim in the Caribbean.
On the boat ride out from Pearl Lagoon to the Cays
Crawl Cay, first one of the day
With some of the girls from my Nica 58 group.
Unreal views
Lunch: Rundown. A traditional coast dish, fish soup with vegetables.
Pipo on Grape Cay!
My new best friend
GIANT starfish on Lime Cay
Crabs and I get along now...after they've crossed over.
We were wiped out after a full day's activities on the Cays, so after a quick nap, we all went out to our hangout post, Casa Ullrich, to wait till midnight. Nothing much was happening, so we went down the street to Queen Lobster, counted down the last 10 seconds of 2013 and were promptly greeted with reggae Christmas songs.
On the Atlantic coast, it is traditional to go "soup hopping", visiting different neighbors and eating lots of soup. Since we went cay hopping earlier, we got soup at our hostel, whereas some of the girls who live on the coast ate up to 6 bowls of soup in 2 days! After eating possibly the yummiest soup I've had to date in Nicaragua, we called it a night and went to sleep.
On the Pacific coast during New Year's Eve, it is traditional to burn a viejo ("old man"). The viejo is made of clothes, old materials, trash, stuff that's easy to burn. He represents bad decisions, habits and regrets of the previous year, and once he is burned, it wipes the slate clean for the new year to come. After a full night's sleep, we went back to Ullrich and built a vieja to burn. Check out the video I made HERE.
Constructing "Dolores"
Dolores getting ready to face her fate.
Giving Sra. Dolores a piggy back ride outside
Getting ready....
Adios, Dolores.
Filming the burn
"Are you really taking a selfie with the doll?"
Adios 2013
The next day, we flew back to the Pacific side (I got to sit RIGHT behind the pilot of the plane!) and I came back to Jalapa the following day.
It was rough to be without my family during the holidays this year, but coming in to Peace Corps, I told myself that I would celebrate both holiday seasons with the Nicas. I'm happy I kept that promise and can look back on this year (and last year's holidays) in the future at the unique experiences I had.
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