from: Etta Mo
date: Jun 20, 2007 4:47 PM
subject: in nicaragua!
hola! andrew and i are in grenada, nicaragua right now, enjoying the
muggy, wet, warm weather. grenada is beautiful although the colonial
architecture and breathtaking views are in stark contrast to the
overall poverty of the country and city. The Casa Chandler, where we
are staying, has a very refreshing swimming pool located in the
courtyard, which is surrounded by the open-air kitchen and living
room. we are staying in the suite upstairs with a balcony that
overlooks the pool. our room is very nice but the mango tree above
the bedroom roof makes a lot of noise when the wind blows, which
happens to be whenever i am trying to sleep. andrew, the log that he
is, sleeps right through it. the manager of the Casa Chandler, John,
hired someone to come and take care of the problem today so i should
be able to sleep well tonight.we've already met lots of really nice people who have been incredibly
helpful and fun. we met a woman at the airport named melissa who we
continued to bump into in grenada. this chance encounter led to a
boat tour of the 365 isletas that are near the shore of Lake Nicaragua
(formed one of the many times that Volcan Mombacho blew up). The boat
tour began in the late afternoon and took several hours. By the time
we made it back to the dock, it was pitch black and the only light was
from the moon and the stars (this is a good example of the shoddy
infrastructure- grenada is perhaps the wealthiest and most developed
city in nicragua and yet is still subject to long power outages and
several hours of no running water per day. did i mention the
refreshing pool?) The isletas are private islands, some of which are
inhabited by people who make their living in Grenada or fishing.
others are obviously owned by people who have money. serious money.
even by american standards the homes are outrageously large and
somewhat ostentatious. however, in the middle of this is an island
"owned" by monkeys- cute, furry, monkeys that we took plenty of
pictures of. overall, the boat tour has been one of the best things
we've done while down here, but there have been so many amazing
experiences (in such a short period of time) that it's hard to say!we could go on and on about all the things we've already seen and
done, but we will save that for another email. for those of you who
heard about my most recent bout with illness, rest assured that
whatever was in my stomach before seems to have conferred (at least
temporarily) an immunity to the strange microbes down here. andrew
has a stomach of steel and, as such, has been eating with wild abandon
("oh, what's that? i'll eat it!")i hope you are all doing well!
love
etta and andrew
