Volcano Time!

               There are three fault types of plate tectonics, but there is only two fault types boundaries in Nicaragua.  A convergent boundary and a transform boundary.  Convergent boundaries don't slide against each other, or pull away from each other.  They collide.  And transform boundaries slide across each other.This is why Nicaragua has so many volcanoes, mountains and earthquakes.  Nicaragua is actually the one country in the word with the most volcanoes.  There are 19 volcanoes in Nicaragua (and lots of earthquakes too!) , all along the Pacific Coast.   Weird huh? This is because of the Cocos Plate and the Caribbean Plate pushing and sliding against each other forming these volcanoes.

               Nicaragua is on the Ring of Fire.  It is a "ring" of volcanoes that stretches around the edge of the Pacific plate.  There is also a lot of earthquake activity on the Ring of Fire.  Where I am in Nicaragua is practically on the Ring of Fire.  I, thankfully, haven't had any earthquakes here.  Nor has there been any eruptions. There is, however, 2 active volcanoes.

               A couple of days ago I visited the volcanic tourist attraction, Volcan Mombacho.  Mombacho is dormant, and it's last eruption was in 1570, but that doesn't mean it couldn't make an appearance in 2014.  My family, my mom's friend, and our driver/guide took us up the volcano and we walked around the rim of one of the 4 craters.  Mombacho is a stratovolcano.  This means that is has been built up with layers upon layers of magma and ash.  We yelled across the crater to hear our echoes.  It was really cool to hear our voices on the whole other side of the volcano, like someone was repeating what we had just said all the way across the volcano.  As we were walking, we saw fumaroles.  Fumaroles are vents that emit volcanic gases including: Carbon Dioxide, Sulfur Dioxide, Hydrochloric Acid, Hydrogen Sulfide, and Steam.  These fumaroles are a result of an active magma chambers.  These fumaroles were the coolest part of the volcano.  Other than the amazing panoramic view!

               Laguna de Apoyo (Lake Apoyo) is a really cool lake where an extinct volcano blew up 23,000 years ago, creating a huge 6 kilometer (3.7 feet) long crater.  Eventually rain and subterranean waters filled it up.  There are six species of native cichlid fish in this lake.  You will only find them in a couple of other volcanic crater lakes in the area.  This lake also has (volcanic) pumice stones.  They float!!!  They are really light compared to regular rocks.  When I threw one into the water, I expected it to sink(like a normal rock).  It didn't, it was floating.  I also expected pumice to be black.  but they are almost pure white!  The bottom of the lake was really rocky (lots of pebbles), but if you dug your hands past those pebbles, it was really warm.   Laguna de Apoyo is located in between Masaya and Granada.  The road to get there is really long and all up hill.  It took approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there from our house.  It was a long day, but the beautiful view and experience was worth it. 

Floating rocks in Laguna de Apoyo. 

Halfway Through the Trip

               We delivered the baseball gear last week to a local little league program. We brought; bats, balls, gloves, batting gloves, cleats, pants, shirts, catcher's gear, hats, and trophies.  The trophies were the biggest hit though! They loved them.  All of this equipment was donated by friends, family and many Rye community members.  We brought it to a restaurant called Burrito Bandito.  The owner's wife helps coach the local team in the town of California, Nicaragua, and they desperately needed equipment. They only had 2 balls. We arrived at Burrito Bandito and there were already fifteen kids all waiting for the equipment.  When we brought all the bags out of the car, they were so excited!  They looked so happy with all the donations.  We had enough to outfit the whole team in gear and still some left over to share with other teams.

                Yesterday we went to one of the team's baseball games.  We did not get to see it because a soccer game had just started. Their field down the way had not been cut, so they moved their game to the little league field.  I was disappointed that we were not going to see them play!  They did not get to play on their field, but they started playing a game on the narrow, dirt streets!  It was so fun to watch!  When we arrived to see the game, we saw all of the kids that we gave clothes to in their new uniforms.  Some of them even had Pink Sox uniforms!  The soccer team had just began their game as we were arriving, and the game would last another two hours before the baseball team could play.  We ended up watching them playing in front of the little houses lining the streets as we sat on the boulders and the curb to see them play their little scrimmage.

               Yesterday we went to Los Cardones for lunch.  It's about 15 minutes away, and on the beach.  Los Cardones is in this secluded area of Playa San Diego, Nicaragua.  Los Cardones is an eco lodge on the Pacific coast of Nicaragua.  There, they have no electricity, they care for sea turtle eggs until they hatch(then they take them to the ocean),  their kitchen in solar powered, they compost, recycle, there is no iguana hunting(which is very common here), and they serve local foods only.  On our way, we saw an oxen cart carrying water to Los Cardones,this is because they do not allow truck to drive on their roads because it will impact trying to keep the land "undisturbed". And we also saw a ton of iguanas bathing in the sun.  Theses iguanas are VERY safe here.  The owner does not allow iguana poachers to kill the iguanas on this territory.  The poachers will cook the iguana and put in on a stick for sale.  Los Cardones is a pretty cool place.

               My family and I went to an amazing restaurant called Hotel Summer.  They had good local food.  But on our way back, my mom stopped at a little market on the side of the road.  They had fresh veggies and fruits, and most importantly....... drum roll please..........SUGAR CANE!!!!  So my mom got out of the car to get her veggies, and my sugar cane.  I got some sugar cane, and my sister did too.  On our drive back, we saw that it was sugar cane harvesting time around here.  There were huge cane trucks blocking the road as they tried to get onto the fields.  The cane was piled high up onto the trucks.  One of the main crops here is sugar cane.  There may be more jobs for Nicaraguans, but the giant trucks going down the narrow dirt roads, kicking up dirt, gives the kids chronic coughing.  I feel bad for the little toddlers who just cough, and cough, and cough because they cannot get the dirt out of their lungs. Also, the Nicaraguan Sugar Cane Company are putting chemicals into the sugar cane that is cleaning it and exterminating the "bad insects", but is ruining the land.  A significant number of the workers in these cane fields are slowly dying of kidney failure because of the horrible chemicals in these fields and the calcium int their drinking water.

Adiós for now,
               Addie

San Rafael Market

               Today I went to the San Rafael Market in San Rafael.  A market in Nicaragua is not what you would expect in a market in America;  nice, clean,  easy to get through.  No.  This market was what a typical market would be like in Nicaragua.  There were stray dogs roaming around, little back ways to get to some of the shops, it was crowded, and people would bargain with you to get you to buy something.  To us, these markets feel dark, dirty, and dangerous.  But to the Nicaraguans, this is normal.  This is a place where you would find all of your necessities in one place.  You can find clothes, notebooks, vegetables, fruit, meat, kitchen utensils, even backpacks! 

               Most people go to markets because it is more convenient, and less expensive than a supermarket, or a mall.  When I was in the market, there were piles of fruit, giant potato sacks full of beans, and meat hanging from the ceiling.  All sorts of people are walking through the market.  While we were buying produce, other people came up to buy things, and the vendors worked with them at the same time.  They would work with their friends across the walkway if they didn't have it to give their friends business.

               My family went to this market to get vegetables, and almost came home with another hammock.   A man followed us around asking us to buy a blue jean hammock and would not take "no gracias" for an answer from my dad.  While we were getting vegetables, an elderly woman asked me to help her out to the exit because she was nervous to walk through the crowd alone.  She was very sweet.  She started to talk to me in rapid Spanish, but I didn't know what she was saying.  I still helped her through the crowd anyways

              Outside of the market, there were people waiting for buses and taxis.  A taxi can be a car or a bicycle with a carriage on the front.  There is also a motorized vehicle that acts as a taxi called a tuk-tuk.  On the streets of San Rafael, there were people walking on the sidewalks, on bikes, in trucks and cars, and "taxis" all competing for the narrow road.  They drive very fast, and people stopped wherever they needed to, causing traffic jams, or just chaos. It was very different compared to New Hampshire roads.  It made me cautious and alert to what was happening on the road.

              In the end of our market adventure, we got: 12 tomates, 6 zanahorias grandes, 1 piña, 1 sandía, 6 naranjas, 6 aguacates, 6 cebollas, it was very inexpensive and it was all locally grown.  After, we got little ice cream bars from a vendor pushing a cart up the road.  The two ice creams together barely cost more than $1. 

                                 Adiós y hasta pronto,
                                                            Addie!    :)

Scorpions, Horses, and Children OH MY!

¡Hola Everyone! 

            My mom told her friend (who lives here) that we wanted to see a scorpion.  He asked one of his workers if he could find one and take the stinger off and give it to us.  This morning he brought us the scorpion and he asked if we wanted to hold it.  It was crawling up his arm, and he was just playing with it like a toy.  My mom held it, but she was too afraid to hold it for more than 10 seconds.  I held it too, and it was really weird.  It felt like nothing when it was in your hand, but when the worker took it off, its legs felt like little grappling hooks as it was trying to hold on. 

            There are over 1,500 types of scorpions, but this one is a bark scorpion called a Centruroides Limbatus, and it lives in Nicaragua, Honduras , Panama, but is most common in Costa Rice .  Centr- means "pointed" and ur- means "tail."  There is already an animal with the name Centrurus, with -oides meaning "like" as the ending root, the first word Centruroides means "like centrurus(pointed tail)" and Limbatus means "black-edged." Although, I held a scorpion, I don't think I will be holding another one any time soon... 

                                            
            Yesterday I went to the orphanage in Los Cedros.  I volunteered with my family for 3 hours to get to know the kids, but we are going two days out of every week our entire stay.  The things the orphanage want us to do are: Arts and Crafts, Music, and play with the kids.  I made friends quickly with them, but all they wanted to do was play on my phone.  They took a ton of pictures, and I had to delete most of the blurry pictures of foreheads and grass.  They also play with my ukulele, and I didn't know how to say "Please don't touch the tuning pegs on my ukulele" in spanish, so most of my spanish speaking consisted of "no toca" (tōkä) which means don't touch, or "este" meaning this... We played tag, or "toce" (tōkāy) which means touch, around their little play structure.  I have to admit it was pretty fun too!
            The kids here in the orphanage were happy and well cared for.  They were like one big family.  In the orphanage, there are: nine kids under the age of 7, one baby, and two boys in their early twenties.  The boys weren't there.  They were at a religious camp where they are learning life skills and learning about the bible, so they could come back to help with the orphanage.  A lot of kids end up in orphanages because their parents abandon them without any explanation, their parents are unfit to care for them and the government takes them away, or their parents wish for them to have a better life than being in poverty without food.  When I was at the orphanage I felt like I was making kids smile.  I am excited and I can't wait to go again! 

            The other day, I went horseback-riding.  I went with my mom, my sister, her friend Taylor, and Taylor's instructor, Martin.  We started at 5 o'clock pm (when the sun was just starting to go down) and we got back around 6:30 pm when it was pitch black.  While we were walking, the sun was going down through the tall grass and wheat.  It was so beautiful!  My sister rode a hoarse for her first time, and she loved it.  She wants to take horseback-riding lessons, and what shocked me was that they are only $6 a lesson! Our ride was through overgrown pastures, but to me it looked like an overgrown Savanna.  We rode through this for an hour until we finally reached the beach.  My horse and my mom's horse wanted to roll around in the sand when we were on the beach, so we had to keep our horses moving, we couldn't let them stop.  To get off the beach we had to "run" up a steep hill, and I felt like I was going to fall off! Other than that, and losing my sunglasses twice, I had such a fun overall experience on the horse!   

I'm Here!

              Hola!  I've had such a fun experience in these past few days!  Today is day 6 on my trip! The weather has been a little rainy in Managua because it is in the mountains.  This is because as the air rises to cross the mountains it cools down and doesn't hold as much moisture, so it drops in the form of rain.  Yesterday I went to Managua, Nicaragua's capital. It was very busy.  The main road was still set up for Christmas with huge life-size nativity scenes. There is a guard protecting them and keeping people from stealing, or damaging the nativity scenes.  There are also huge yellow, lit up trees, and a huge lit up mural of the President Daniel Ortega.  These huge light-up sculptures was the idea of the First Lady, Rosario Murillo.  Christian is the main religion in Nicaragua.  In Christmas all these nativity scenes are set upon the roads, but there is always a nativity scene in every single home.  There are a ton of churches there.  While some of the churches are little clay buildings, others have ornate designs and huge spires.  

              Here in Nicaragua, Christmas actually begins on December 6, but activities begin in the 16th.  Every single home contains a manger scene during Christmas time.  Every evening from December 16 to Christmas Eve Mass, a prayer is held in the home  followed by refreshments and caroling.  After Christmas Eve Mass, there is a Christmas Dinner of which only the adults attend.  Cards are then passed out.  The cards are white and plain.  Nicaraguan people celebrate differently than most Americans.  We have decorated trees and big family feasts with our entire family.

              The First Lady in Nicaragua seems eccentric to me.  She put up lots of lights for Christmas, but a lot of the population can't afford their own electric bill, or even a house.  The First Lady put up giant paintings, a huge light up poster of her husband, Daniel Ortega, and these huge light-up trees.  This was to make the city of managua more exciting so people would want to come to the beautiful city.  She also set up a campaign for witchcraft.  She says "Without magic, which is the capacity to invent, dream, to fantasize, there wouldn't be confidence in the future. Without magic a human being cannot be creative in a hostile environment. Magic is everywhere, it is absolutely visible, transparent ... and every day it encourages us to live and act, and to try to better ourselves"
             
             We went to a market to get some fruits and veggies.  What I thought was different was that they came right up to your window and gave you your food!  You didn't have to get our of you car! I thought it was really cool that you could just drive down a road and ask for what you want for food, they give it to you and then you pay them.  The money in Nicaragua is the Cordoba.  The exchange rate is $1 to 25 C$ or cordobas.  If something cost 500C$ in Nicaragua, then it would equal $20.

Overview of the Trip

          Hi, it's Addie, and this is my blog for my family trip to Nicaragua.  We are going to Nicaragua for the months of January and February 2013.   My family and I are staying in the town of San Diego in Nicaragua, on the Pacific coast, 100 km west of Managua.  During my time there, I will be working at an orphanage, 2 or more days per week. I will be working with kids and babies, as well as anything else that is asked of me.  My whole family will be working at this orphanage.  This orphanage was recently robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the night by ten masked men.  They took $20,000+ worth of personal belongings, electronics, and money.  Everyone was terribly frightened, kids and nannies. After this event, our friends and my family started a campaign and raised over  $3,000 to install bars on the windows and doors for better protection and security.  The orphanage is about a thirty minutes from where I am staying.

         Baseball is the national pastime in Nicaragua, but most families barely have enough money to get by.  Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where 45% of the population lives of less than a dollar per day, 65% of which are un-and-underemployed.  Their average meal is rice, beans, tortilla, and meat, if they are fortunate.  Most families can't afford to buy a baseball for their children.  With the result of this, my mom and her friends (with big hearts <3) are bringing new/used softball and baseball equipment for the children of the town we are staying in, and the kids of the orphanage.  Last year my parents and a friend founded an organization called Double Play Gear; their website is www.doubleplaygear.org, and our goal is to bring used and/or new gear for the children of our community, in hopes of bringing smiles to their faces and setting up a couple of baseball and softball teams.  They recently shipped 4 pallets of gear,  4x4x4, with the help of some local friends to pay for shipping to the Nicaragua Baseball Academy.  The gear will be divided between the Nicaragua Academy and the children of Villa el Carmen.  Last we heard, the gear is there and waiting for us!  I am excited to teach some of these kids their countries national pastime and watch their faces light up like a christmas tree!  I hope they will understand mi español!

          In addition to the baseball gear that has arrived, my family and I are going to bring arts and crafts and school supplies, donated by friends and family.  Thanks for reading, I'll have some more posts soon.

...Addie... 

:)