To Just Witness, Feel and Breathe: Nica Nugget #48

What a gem is Remanso Beach! I’d never been here before, even though it’s the beach just to the south of San Juan del Sur. It’s a small pocket beach with a couple of restaurants, surfboard rentals, a few homes, and an abandoned hotel/resort with a fascinating line up of mostly human-esque sculptures. Today the pelicans were going crazy, dive dive diving at one end of the beach. And a handful of surfers were riding the waves before flying backwards into the foam like acrobats as their boards shot out from underneath them. That doesn’t hurt? I wondered. And yet, …

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Meet Cathye, Lover of Animals: Nica Nugget #47

You’ve probably seen her on the beach in San Juan del Sur, walking four dogs (one with the gait of a three-legged dog) and transporting on her hand a white parrot. She always has a smile and a wave when I greet her as I pass, typically going in the opposite direction. Well, as much of a wave as she can give with four leashes in one hand and a parrot in the other. It’s usually her parrot hand that waves, and for a split second I think the parrot, with its flutter of feathers as her hand briefly lifts …

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The Library, aka Bringer of New Worlds and Dreams: Nica Nugget #45

I am an avid reader. Probably an addict. I can no sooner imagine a life without books as I can a morning without coffee. And if I had to give one up, it would be coffee. In the last four days I have read three books: two memoirs (one by U.S. Supreme Court Judge, Sonia Sotomayor, and one by a man who is blind) and a fictional memoir (set in Baghdad). My favorite genres are Memoirs and Historical Fiction preferably set in foreign countries. I was raised in the States and in Puerto Rico. The two things I loved most …

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Feeling Thankful: Nica Nugget #44

So much has been written about how wonderful Nicaraguans are, and with good reason. Where I used to live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, USA, we had a saying: We came for the winter but stayed for the summers. (It is a lovely ski resort town, with perfect, albeit brief, summers.) In San Juan del Sur, the saying could easily be: We came for the beauty, but stayed for the people. My husband and I have never known a warmer, kinder, more quick to smile and help, group of people than Nicaraguans. But today I found my gratefulness expanding to include …

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Shopping in Rivas: Nica Nugget #43

San Juaneros, and expats that have lived here awhile might roll their eyes over my writing a Nugget about shopping in Rivas, because everyone knows about shopping in Rivas, right? But, die-hard Rivas shoppers, I ask you this: Did you know that you can buy chickens, aquarium fish, rabbits, puppies, livestock feed, dog food and veterinary medicines at the Rivas Purina shop? I didn’t. Did you know that you can get Vigoron with pork meat instead of fried pork rind but just asking for carne? And that it’s absolutely delicious. And just costs 50 cordobas ($1.50 US), and will fill …

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A Candle Against Flies: Nica Nugget #42

Did you know that a lit candle keeps the flies away? I didn’t know this before, but I’ve witnessed it with my own eyes so now I know for sure. I love eating in town at the market. The food is good and plentiful and the price is right (80 cordobas for this breakfast + 20 cordobas for fresh juice, so 100 cordobas or $3.12 US). Because of the flies, juices are served in a glass covered by a plastic bag with a hole for the straw. What was new this week though was the lit candle. It worked! Those …

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Crossing by Ferry: Nica Nugget #41

My husband and I live on the other side of the river from the town of San Juan del Sur, in the Barrio La Talanguera which is below the Christ statue. We don’t own a car, so almost daily and sometimes more than once a day we walk into town via the beach. If the tide is low enough we can easily wade across the river at the spot where it spills into the ocean in small rivulets. We’re always wearing shorts and sandals for just such an occasion. Sometimes the tide is a bit high and the brackish water …

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The Day of the Dead: Nica Nugget #40

Tomorrow is November 2nd, the Day of the Dead. Today is the day that flower vendors set up shop at the park in front of the church. I have no ancestors buried here.I have no family graves or tombstones or mausoleums to visit, to clean, to adorn with flowers. I have not seen my grandmother’s or my mother’s grave, nestled side by side as they are, in Ponce, Puerto Rico, since we buried my mother there eleven years ago. We assume the cemetery attendants will take care of their gravesite. Honestly, I have not thought about the care of their …

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Ometepe Series #5, Favorite Scenes: Nica Nugget #39

In my voracious reading over the years, I’ve come upon literary scenes of women washing clothes in rivers and in lakes. But it was only now, at the age of 62, in Merida, Ometepe, Nicaragua, that I finally witnessed the scene with my own eyes. The settings in the books have always been so exotic- the jungles of Africa mostly. And thus, so too, seemed the act. But when I actually saw the women, in two different groups, over two days and at two different beaches around Merida, washing their clothes in the lake looked both normal and fun. A …

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