Monkeys, Masters and Money

It's been a long time since I wrote last... and a lot has happened.

For one, I left the country last weekend. I made a rather last minute decision and hoped on a bus to Nicaragua for the three day weekend. (Columbus day is a national holiday here - everyone had the day off!) The bus left at 3 in the morning and though, including time spend trying to cross the border, it took a total of 9 hours, it was totally worth it. We stayed at a hotel in Granada, a very colonial city with tons of Spanish influence and also a good deal of street dogs (yes, it was named after Granada, Spain).

We also visited Managua, the capital city, hiked up to a point where we could look down into one of Nicaragua's many active volcanoes, shopped at a local artisan market and took tours of various places by boat, tricycle and horse drawn carriage. 

While all of our tours were interesting, the tour by boat was, by far, the best tour I've taken. We exited our bus at a small, flooded docking station. I'll admit that I was slightly worried at this point, but it passed en un dos por tres (in a flash). We boarded two small motor boats and headed out into Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. With the on-board sound system blasting Latin remixes of American hit songs, we weaved our way through a maze of islands created by some past volcanic eruption. Each of the islands was unique - some with small houses, some with large houses, some with no houses - yet each was identical in it's beauty.

While all of this was fantastic, the best part was yet to come. Our tour guide/boat driver pulled up next to a small, seemingly uninhibited island.  He told us about some of the local plants that were visible and then, out of no where, there were monkeys. Not one, not two, not even three! There were tons of monkeys. And the fun didn't stop there...

The monkeys jumped aboard! Apparently, these monkeys know that boats carry tourists. They also know that tourists carry food. And so, being the smart animals that they are, the monkeys gave us an especially entertaining show, gladly accepted our edible gifts, and after something like twenty minutes, jumped back into the trees to go on with their curious, monkey lives. 

Now on to other experiences. The day before I left for Nicaragua my Spanish class had a field trip! While field trips are always great, this one was particularly great (perhaps due to the fact that I'm in another country). 

The trip consisted of two stops. First we visited a one-legged elderly artisan craftsman. While his work was nothing incredible, his story was amazing. He showed told us a little about his past, opened his shop to us and showed us how he created his works.

Our second stop was la Universidad para la Paz, or the University for Peace, as all education there is conducted in English. UPeace is a UN mandated school which offers only year-long masters programs focusing solely on matters of peace. The small campus is filled with students from every corner of the world working for the same cause: to create a world that exists in harmony. What a beautiful concept.

Moving on. Today was the last day of my first Spanish class! My final was a 25 minute presentation on the migration of women from third world countries to first world countries in search of work as health care providers. If I needed any evidence that my Spanish capabilities are, in fact, improving I got it today.
 On to Avanzado Uno!

On a side note, colones are beautiful. Why does the US dollar fall so far below in the looks department?

Also, my camera took a fall this weekend. A friend lent me hers to finish out my photography class, but this does mean that pictures will be few and of much lesser quality until I can fix my precious.

That's all for now.
¡Pura Vida!