How do you say that?

Jiquilillo, a small fishing town in Northwest Nicaragua, was our next destination after Leòn.  Lene and I had heard about Jiquilillo from various people in Leòn and decided to check it out.  To get there we took a bus to Chinadega, a dirty little city that we were anxious to get out of.  Unfortunately, we had to wait in the trash strewn street that served as a bus station for over two hours before a Jiquilillo bound bus showed up.  Probably the hardest part about going there was getting my tounge around the name.  Pronounced hic-ih-lee-yo, I had a tough time remembering it and kept having to pull out a piece of paper with the town's name on it when asking for directions.

Our dinner table

  Though not far from Chinadega, the bus ride took two hours due to the poor road conditions and the frequent stops as the crowded bus picked up and dropped off people along the way.  There are no bus stops and so anyone who raises a hand on the side of the road will get picked up.  These stops probably doubled the length of our trip and we were thankful when the bus started emptying as we drew closer to our destination.

Soon we were the last people on the bus and were then informed that we had reached the end of the line.  We had yet to see anything resembling a town, let alone hostels, so we started to get a little worried.  There was a French couple on the bus with us and after talking with the conductor we were told that the last hostel was actually a few kilometers back.  Having no other options we picked up all our stuff and started walking.  We tried to hitch a ride from a few trucks and were eventually picked up by truck full of Managuans.  They had come to enjoy a weekend at the beach and had a great time joking around with us.  Eventually they made me pull out my guitar and though it was out of tune and I had trouble holding the frets on the bumpy road I stumbled my way through a rendition of Animals in Alaska.  Fortunately I didn't have to take any requests as we arrived at the hostel soon after.

Getting lost in a book

The hostel, Rancho Tranquilo, is a pretty amazing place and is run by an old hippy named Tina.  She is definitely different, but in a fun and welcoming sort of way.  Living up to its name, Rancho Tranquilo is a very peaceful place set on the shores of the Pacific.  Hammocks and swinging chairs hang under a thatched roof by the bar and you can hear the crashing surf as you read a book or enjoy a cold beer.  I spent plenty of time reading and fiddling around on my guitar as the aches from our volcano trek and bumpy bus rides faded.

The mouth of the Padre Ramos estuary

The beach in Jiquillio is wonderful.  The water is warm, there are no dangerous currents and there is hardly anyone there.  It was uncommon for us to see more than a dozen people anywhere on the beach and sometimes there would be more cows than people.  

Kayaking in the estuary

On our second day there we signed up for a kayak tour of the nearby Padre Ramos estuary.  Some 20,000 acres is size, this estuary is an important area for many species but most especially sea turtles.  At the right times of year there are several species that nest on beaches around Jiquilillo or spend at least part of their lives in the protected estuary.  It is a beautiful place lined by Mangroves and we took our kayaks into ever narrowing channels marveling at the twisting roots and the beautiful birds.  Blue herons, ibis and egrets are only a few of the birds you'll find there but their size and tendency to feed in the shallows or startle from tree branches makes them easy to spot.  There used to be sharks, crocodiles and caymans in the estuary but unfortunately they have all been hunted.  Our kayak guide, Jennifer, a field biologist,  was extremely knowledgable and we had a great time paddling around.

Kids looking for crabs in the estuary

There is definitely a growing foreign presence in Jiquilillo and for the most part it is being done in a responsible way.  The people we talked to are involved in the community and are doing their best to improve it.  Tina spends a little time each day teaching kids English and Jennifer has seen one of her kayak guides resume his education after dropping out of school.  Because it is a fishing town, many children don't have the opportunity to finish their school as they are needed to help out on the boats.  Many of these boats go out over 30 miles and stay out all night trying to get shark fins for the asian market.  Several boats are lost each year as freak storms or rogue waves take them out; since no one has any sort of safety equipment the stranded fishermen usually drown.  There are several groups trying to change the locals fishing practices and hopefully it works before we lose some incredible species.  It is hard to tell someone they shouldn't eat turtle eggs or take shark fins when they have no other way to feed their family so the sorts of tourism ventures that are starting in Jiquilillo now are great becuase they can offer people other ways to support themselves.  I hope the sort of responsible foreign invovlement I've seen continues so that the nastier aspects of tourism don't spoil such a wonderful place.

Into the mangroves

After a wonderful few days at Rancho Tranquilo we decided to leave before we got stuck there forever.  This time we'd set our sites on Granada, another colonial town.  It was a bit of hassle getting there and we ended up taking four buses.  We've been using the collectivos or microbuses to get around because they are faster.  These collectivos leave as they fill up with people and there is usually not much of a wait.  The only problem is the lack of storage space and we are usually forced to buy an extra seat for our backpacks.  

Granada

Coming into a city on the weekend without a reservation is always a bit of a gamble and we spent quite a while looking for a hostel that still had a private room available.  Luckily we found one that was simple and clean at the Bearded Monkey.  Granada is a beautiful city though by far the most tourist filled we'd yet seen in Nicaragua.  The old colonial homes and churches are brightly colored in blues and yellows, and the central plaza is a great place to hang out if you don't mind being pestered by people trying to sell you things.  We've only been here a couple days so far but will probably spend most of next week exploring the city.  Lene found a yoga studio and has signed up for a few days of classes and I might take a week of spanish lessons.  Maybe we can fit in a salsa lesson or two while we're at it to sharpen our skills for the next weekend.

Granada also serves as a jumping off point to a lot of other activities around the area so we'll probably be checking out some lagoons and volcanoes (since they are everywhere) before heading to San Juan del Sur.  There is still something nagging in the back of my mind that says Jiquilillo might be the best place we'll see on our trip but with a whole country at our fingertips we can't resist the urge to explore it.

The Bachata Weekender

I've been in Oslo about 7 weeks now and am definitely learning my way around the city. Since I don't have a job here I've had to get a little creative to find things to do during the days while Lene is working. Usually I occupy myself by reading, playing the guitar and going for walks around the city. Sometimes the parents of the 10month old boy I nanny need some help, but since the mother hasn't had to go back to work yet they don't need me that often. I've also been working at a dance studio in exchange for salsa, merengue and bachata lessons. You can check out their website here.

Lene and I were walking around Oslo one night when we saw a sign outside a dance studio saying they were having free lessons that week; we went to a salsa lesson and a cha-cha lesson and I ended up speaking with the owners about working at the studio in exchange for classes. They are very nice and flexible people and were happy to make a deal. Usually I go a couple hours before classes and open up the studio, making sure everything is clean before people arrive. During the parties I help serve drinks and generally man the reception. In exchange I've been taking around 10-12 hours of lessons a week, focusing mostly on salsa but also a taking a little merengue and bachata as well. As each of these dances has a Latin-American origin, learning one helps you build on the others. The footwork is a little different but the body movements and turns are very similar.

Dancing at one of the parties. This was the Salsa room, since it was a Bachata weekend the other room was much more crowded:

I've mentioned all of this to get to the main topic of the post, The Bachata Weekender that we just had at the studio. Guest artists from Spain were flown in to teach intensive workshops for the weekend. The workshops were held during the day and parties were held at night so people could socialize a little more and practice what they'd learned during the classes.

Before this weekend course I had only taken three one hour classes of Bachata whereas some of the other students had been dancing it for years. Needless to say I was in a little over my head but it was still had a great time. Since all the moves and routines were new to everyone I was able to keep up to some extent, but the people with more experience picked things up much faster. In all, we had over 12 hours of classes the first of which started on Friday. Each day became a more difficult to the point where we were doing advanced acrobatic Bachata on Sunday. This involved doing various kinds of lifts and dips which were surprisingly easy if you used the correct technique and nearly impossible if you didn't. I'm hoping muscle memory will help out some with the learning since I can hardly remember the dozens of steps and routines we practiced.

Reiza, the owner, talking to us before the show on Saturday:

There were always breaks between the workshops and the parties later that night so people could go home, grab some dinner and dress up a little. Even with these breaks though, we we rushing around trying to get the studio cleaned up again for the night. It's amazing how much dust and dirt a group of people can bring in with them in such a short time. We also had to make sure all the dishes were clean, candles were lit, the furniture rearranged properly and the lights and music were ready to go.

The instructors, Gabryél and Begoña were great even if they seemed a little over the top sometimes (I suppose that's pretty common in the dance profession). Their instruction was very clear, they made things fun and they gave you plenty of help if you were struggling. One of my favorite steps that we did was called the rueda. In it, all of the couples collected in a loose circle around the room. Gabryél taught us various steps and their names which he would shout for us to perform. This would have dancing in unison (as long as we could remember the names to the steps) and moving around in a big circle. Changing partners generally caused the most chaos as you scrambled to get to someone else and stay in time with the music. Since there was one more guy than there were girls it ended up being a little like musical chairs. By the end of the weekend I was exhausted but had a fantastic time. These dances take years to learn properly and I have much more respect after trying my hand (feet?) at them.

Reiza introducing Gabryél and Begoña for their

dance show on Saturday night:

I've included a couple videos, the first is of Gabryél and Begoña demonstrating one of the steps we learned and allowing us to video tape it so we might remember it better. The second is some of the students doing another step that we learned. Fortunately, I managed to avoid having any videos taken of me dancing so you won't have to witness that.