על ידי אורית_של_יקו* » 23 אפריל 2007, 21:59
אני מעתיקה לכאן אחד האימיילים האחרונים שלי בו קצת השקעתי זמן בלכתוב.... האימייל הוא מ 13.4 ובאנגלית.
dear all,
yes, we are still in nicaragua! hard to leave this beautiful country. already twice we were on our way to costa rica just to change our plans and head back north. first time we were in san juan del sur (actually, in a nearby, most amazing pacific ocean beach, playa madera--see a few photos attached), very close to the costa rican border, and we wanted to travel back to leon thru masaya. we ended up traveling to a beach (los zorros) very close actually to the honduran border, where we spent the last four days of semana santa (the holy week before easter sunday) at tina's guesthouse, a woman from san francisco who bought a small piece of land by the pacific ocean last year. it was really nice and a very relaxing and sane way to pass this crazy time of the year (literally all nicaraguans are traveling that week, mostly spending time with their families on the beach). after los zorros we planed to travel to costa rica! oh well, so much for planning while you are traveling. next we knew it, we found ourselves on the bus to boaco... a region somewhat in the middle of the country which trinity was curious about. boaco itself wasn't very interesting for us since it's sort of a cowboy town with lots of meat eateries and very heavy on dairy products, too. but our actual destination was the small scenic village of san jose de los remates. surrounded by mountains, rivers, natural reserves, small and large farms, this is where we are based since tuesday. we are staying with a nicaraguan family: jorge, celia, hilary, and jorge junior. it's great to stay with them!!! yacu enjoys playing with the kids and celia's delicious cuisine. we are taking walks and horse rides in the nearby parks, swimming in rivers and refreshing in waterfalls. yesterday we took a long talk to the river with celia, and had the honor of visiting her family farm (you'll see yacu helping to sort the corn!
). we were impressed by the simple lifestyle of her three brothers that live on the farm with their families (a lifestyle, as you know, we have witnessed before), and also by their wisdom and ancient knowledge of the land, plants (including medicinal plants), animals, and natural resources. totally living a sustainable, self-sufficient life (if you don't take into account the toilet paper they buy in town...). however, the most amazing moment was when one of the cows was giving birth as we were getting ready to leave (you can see her licking her newborn baby in one of the photos). heck, we were so amazed that we didn't leave on time for the bus, which meant a long 2.5 hour walk back to the village... we were lucky to catch, after 1.5 hours, the milk truck heading back to the village to deliver some fresh organic milk (lot of the farms around san jose de LR are organic!). yesterday i also had the pleasure, finally, to learn how to make tortillas. the 'price' was waking up at 5am (not so bad considering we go to bed here around 9pm...) so that i can do it all from scratch with celia's mother who lives next door. everybody agreed during breakfast that my tortillas were yummy! (as if they had a choice....).
anyway, as you can see, life is good (and so is yours in case you have forgotten!). one thing we are constantly reminded of here is that we really don't have any problems. we are so fortunate and should be so grateful for everything we have!!! can you really complain that you have sand in your bed to someone who just lost all of their bean crop (and subsequently their livelihood) since the rain came early this year ('thanks,' of course, to global warming)? 'no complaining' is a big part of this culture. they know better. one other 'lesson' is that everything is happening for a reason. or as we say in hebrew 'hakol letova.' whatever happens, there is something good at the end, something to learn, an interesting person to come across, a new destination to discover, time to stop and reflect, play, etc. this is why we have learned that while it is okay to make plans, it is by far more important to learn to really let go of the plans if one have to. and this is almost a daily experience here. a very powerful and important realization, in our opinion.
so what is our next plan you are asking... so... tomorrow we are thinking to head out back toward managua, the capital, where we plan to do some shopping on sunday and take a bus to san jose, the capital of costa rica on monday. on our way to managua we are planning (ha ha ha) to stop for a few hours to soak in a natural hot spring not too far from here. this will be our third or fourth stop in managua, but the first we plan to actually spend some time there.
אני מעתיקה לכאן אחד האימיילים האחרונים שלי בו קצת השקעתי זמן בלכתוב.... האימייל הוא מ 13.4 ובאנגלית.
dear all,
yes, we are still in nicaragua! hard to leave this beautiful country. already twice we were on our way to costa rica just to change our plans and head back north. first time we were in san juan del sur (actually, in a nearby, most amazing pacific ocean beach, playa madera--see a few photos attached), very close to the costa rican border, and we wanted to travel back to leon thru masaya. we ended up traveling to a beach (los zorros) very close actually to the honduran border, where we spent the last four days of semana santa (the holy week before easter sunday) at tina's guesthouse, a woman from san francisco who bought a small piece of land by the pacific ocean last year. it was really nice and a very relaxing and sane way to pass this crazy time of the year (literally all nicaraguans are traveling that week, mostly spending time with their families on the beach). after los zorros we planed to travel to costa rica! oh well, so much for planning while you are traveling. next we knew it, we found ourselves on the bus to boaco... a region somewhat in the middle of the country which trinity was curious about. boaco itself wasn't very interesting for us since it's sort of a cowboy town with lots of meat eateries and very heavy on dairy products, too. but our actual destination was the small scenic village of san jose de los remates. surrounded by mountains, rivers, natural reserves, small and large farms, this is where we are based since tuesday. we are staying with a nicaraguan family: jorge, celia, hilary, and jorge junior. it's great to stay with them!!! yacu enjoys playing with the kids and celia's delicious cuisine. we are taking walks and horse rides in the nearby parks, swimming in rivers and refreshing in waterfalls. yesterday we took a long talk to the river with celia, and had the honor of visiting her family farm (you'll see yacu helping to sort the corn! :-)). we were impressed by the simple lifestyle of her three brothers that live on the farm with their families (a lifestyle, as you know, we have witnessed before), and also by their wisdom and ancient knowledge of the land, plants (including medicinal plants), animals, and natural resources. totally living a sustainable, self-sufficient life (if you don't take into account the toilet paper they buy in town...). however, the most amazing moment was when one of the cows was giving birth as we were getting ready to leave (you can see her licking her newborn baby in one of the photos). heck, we were so amazed that we didn't leave on time for the bus, which meant a long 2.5 hour walk back to the village... we were lucky to catch, after 1.5 hours, the milk truck heading back to the village to deliver some fresh organic milk (lot of the farms around san jose de LR are organic!). yesterday i also had the pleasure, finally, to learn how to make tortillas. the 'price' was waking up at 5am (not so bad considering we go to bed here around 9pm...) so that i can do it all from scratch with celia's mother who lives next door. everybody agreed during breakfast that my tortillas were yummy! (as if they had a choice....).
anyway, as you can see, life is good (and so is yours in case you have forgotten!). one thing we are constantly reminded of here is that we really don't have any problems. we are so fortunate and should be so grateful for everything we have!!! can you really complain that you have sand in your bed to someone who just lost all of their bean crop (and subsequently their livelihood) since the rain came early this year ('thanks,' of course, to global warming)? 'no complaining' is a big part of this culture. they know better. one other 'lesson' is that everything is happening for a reason. or as we say in hebrew 'hakol letova.' whatever happens, there is something good at the end, something to learn, an interesting person to come across, a new destination to discover, time to stop and reflect, play, etc. this is why we have learned that while it is okay to make plans, it is by far more important to learn to really let go of the plans if one have to. and this is almost a daily experience here. a very powerful and important realization, in our opinion.
so what is our next plan you are asking... so... tomorrow we are thinking to head out back toward managua, the capital, where we plan to do some shopping on sunday and take a bus to san jose, the capital of costa rica on monday. on our way to managua we are planning (ha ha ha) to stop for a few hours to soak in a natural hot spring not too far from here. this will be our third or fourth stop in managua, but the first we plan to actually spend some time there.