Hank, Nadine and I left Austin on January 14, 2014. We plan to travel through June, with the exception of a stop in Austin in early March for Sarah’s Travis County Democratic primary election. Sarah will join us for part of the trip beginning in mid-March.
Hank, Nadine and I are at the Mariposa Spanish School in La Concepcion, Masaya, Nicaragua for around four weeks, www.mariposaspanishschool.com . We are staying at the hotel at the school for the first two weeks and then will stay with a family nearby for the next two weeks. The hotel is on the outskirts of the forest with flowers, vines, and trees all over, dogs, chickens and two turkeys wandering around, birds flying, and a bunch of rescued white-faced capuchin monkeys in a big cage. The food is almost all vegetarian and tasty. There are two other families here with 9-year old girls and little brothers — one family from northern California and the other from the Isle of Man. Other travelers are from US, Germany, England, Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand, Holland and Belgium. There is a water shortage here. This school and hotel take many steps to conserve water, but I will save that topic for one of Hank’s papers in his home school Writing class.
The Spanish classes here are one-on-one given in various cabanas in the forest or on verandas around the school. This is a picture of Nadine’s lesson this morning.
Last night we went on a full moon hike through the forest and up the mountain overlooking Granada and Lake Managua behind it. Tomorrow we spend the day hiking at the Mambacho volcano and forest. We all like this place very much.
Hi K,H and N-
WOW, looks awesome! How cool and such a neat place! I don’t want Nadine sneaking out a capuchin monkey and bringing it to Travis County! Have fun and this is such a beautiful spot! Love and miss yall-
BAGS
Hi Y’all! Sounds like a great place, and looks like it, too. So far, Mom/Little Lady is behaving like a regular workhorse. We had some Thai food, mmmmm…and it was vegetarian…oh, except for the shrimp…
🙂
Love from A-town!
Aunt Bonny
Sounds so nice and tranquil there! Hope you have enough water to wash dishes, clothes, selves, etc. but mostly to drink for hydration!
Have you gone swimming or surfing yet?
That moon lit hike sounds like it was great!
Catie is still digging and filling in holes in Florida. Yesterday a stray bullet from ???? almost hit her. She reported it to the base security who said it was most likely it was a hunter not aware of people being in the area. On her first day of the dig she found an arrowhead. On another day, they dug in mud up to their necks. At another time, they found some wreckage of an airplane circa WWII. They remove the stuff put in in a collection area, fill in the holes and move on to the next spot. You may wonder about the details of the items found, and so are they! It gets removed and sent somewhere…. She should be arriving back here the last weekend of this month.
Scot is on the road for the rest of FEB. and some of MAR. Next week I have some friends coming to visit from Virginia. We are going to the rodeo as well as other places of interest. May even go to Austin and to Fred. My niece from Pennsylvania may be coming the first weekend of March.
Omi and Opi and Scot and I met for lunch at Acadiana Cafe. We had gumbo and fried alligator and some greens. Yummy!
I look forward to hearing more about your adventures! What a wonderful experience you are having 🙂
Hugs and Kisses,
Aunt Christine
Hey Kurt, Hank and Nadine!
I hope you guys are having a great time in Ecuador… Can you add a Follow button to your blog so I can follow your travels?
In any case, keep us updated. I just add a Facebook button and it’s very easy for everyone to see when you make posts. 🙂
Nos vemos,
Kavi.