Close Call With Cows

I forgot to tell you about the scariest thing that happened while we were in Delicias, the day Max almost died!

One day while we were at the Delicias (Montezuma) apartment.  I was inside and Max was out playing with the neighbor kids in the yard. Usually the big iron gate was closed, but for some reason on this day it was open.  Outside the iron gate is a small, quiet dirt road and across that is a field of cows.

I was inside cooking or doing dishes, I can't remember which, and Ivan was by the front door.  Suddenly I could hear all the kids screaming "Maaaax!!!" and I could tell immediately from their tone of voice that this was not a game.  Ivan was closer than me so I yelled "Ivan run" and I followed behind him.

What we saw was Max standing across the street by himself, all the other kids were at the iron gate yelling to him to run while a herd of cows came clomping down the street towards him.  The man herding the cows raced to the front of the herd cutting off the cows within about 10 feet of Max, within 3 seconds Ivan was there scooping Max up and bringing him back inside the gate but if the man hadn't been fast enough to stop the cows that would probably have been 3 seconds too late.

Max had followed the kids across the road to go see a new baby cow and when they saw the cows coming they ran back inside but Max was still standing there watching the cows coming, I don't think he was even scared or fazed by the entire incident, he thought the cows has just decided to come out and play.

Scared me to death though.

Karina and Erik's Visit Pt 1

 1As we were getting ready to leave the Nicoya peninsula, Karina and Eric came for a visit.  It was a lovely sight for homesick eyes and we really enjoyed our time with them.  Especially Max who adores his Tios.

It was also soooo nice to have a car! Even just for a week.

The kids got some much needed rest while we drove out of the city ;)

The first thing we did after picking them up at the airport was head toward Paos Volcano.  Unfortunately it was closed when we got there.  Those national parks have some pretty weird hours.

It was a lovely drive though.

 We stopped and checked out some of the greenery.

I discovered as soon as we got closer to the volcano that I am in love with the volcano towns of Costa Rica. They are favorite parts of the country because they are covered in lush green rolling hills, green pastures and farms, lots of waterfalls, and an abundance of plant animal and insect life.  The weather isn't so hot either and it doesn't rain as much as it did on the peninsula.

It was starting to get dark after we drove up to Paos so we headed a ways back down and looked for a place to stay.  We landed in this lovely little cabana.

It is actually pretty chilly when you're near the top of Paos, we actually needed a blanket at night.  It was quite refreshing after a month of Montezuma's sweltering heat.

 Ivan Max and I sept in a cute little loft on platform beds.  Our cabana was sparsely furnished but it was clean and had potential, a certain charm.  Originally they had told us they were booked before "digging up" these beds for us, so I got the feeling the other cabanas were nicer inside.

The view in the morning was really lovely.

Each volcano has it's own crop, or multiple crops that are widely grown in that area.  You found out quickly what it was by driving down the road and seeing signs and stands advertising it everywhere. On Paos it is strawberries.  There are tons of them everywhere and they are ripe and juicy and delicious.  They are 2 or 3 dollars for 2 kilos.  Ivan said "this is what a real strawberry tastes like and Erik said it was the first strawberry he ever enjoyed.  They also produce a lot of cheese on Poas.  

Okay, where was I...

So we spent the first month in a little neighborhood called delicias, 5 miles from Montezuma beach.  Our overall conclusion; Montezuma beach itself is quite beautiful with a great variety of natural attractions including sandy beaches, rock formations and ponds, lime trees, mango trees and monkeys and some incredible overlooks on the way in.  The waterfall swimming whole, which we discovered shortly before we left is lovely and really a lot of fun, we wish we had spent more time there.

The small town center of Montezuma, while it does have some personality to it, it  is a little too touristy and overpriced for our taste.

While are apartment in Delicious was lovely, clean and spacious, and we had wonderful neighbors who became good friends, it was 6 miles down one of the worst roads I've traveled on.  Too far from the town or the beach to make it convenient to get anywhere on our bikes, though we tried.  We ended up feeling a bit isolated and immobile without a car.

We were ready to try something new when by the time the month was over.

Almost time...

To come home! And I can't wait.  Unfortunately, I lost my camera including the last 2 weeks worth of photos :( But in a way it may help me enjoy the moment more, to focus on remembering it and enjoying it now instead of capturing it for later.  That's my optimism speaking.  I was pretty bummed.  I'm over it though. I still have tons of photos to organize and catch up on posting when I get back.  See you all soon!

Como te llamas?

A couple weeks ago we taught Max to answer the questions ´´como te llamas´´ and ´´Que es tu nombre?´´ and he got so that when he wasn´t being shy and he was asked by a stranger he would answer the question without any prompting from us ´´Macsh´´ (that´s how he says it) He still does pretty well but a week ago when we introduced ´´Quantos años tienes?´´  He started to confuse the which questions to answer with ´´dos´´ and which with ´´Max´´.

Anyway, so this morning he was playing with a little boy of 6 or 7 and I told him to ask the boy ´´Como te llamas?´´  And he did, and the boy answered ´´Bello´´ Max was so excited at his new conversation skills that he ran inside and asked us each ´´Como to llamas?´´  To which I replied ´´´Mommy´´ and Ivan replied ´´Daddy´´ and he went back and forth asking us about a dozen times and then he ran outside and very seriously, and intently asked his new friend ´´Como te llamas?´´ about 20 more times.  And the sweet boy just smiled and answered ´´Bello´´ each time he asked.  I thought it was pretty darn cute. :)   

Granada

I can´t believe I didn´t really see this place before. It is lovely and quite charming.  So far we have been really pleased with Nicaragua (besides a couple things I will tough on later) It´s filled with beautiful cathedrals, old buildings and lots of great restaurants and shops. I will have to do a post exclusively about the cemetary, because it is amazing.

This is a chicken tied to a peg in the ally, they were like 6 of them, poor things.

Once you leave the center and head toward the mercado and bus station area, it gets a little crazy. You get a better glimpse of everyday Nica life. Ivan calls it ´the jungle´ because it gets pretty wild.  This is more what I remeber Managua being like. Not for the faint of heart!

EDIT: okay that is not the video I meant to post, I will try to post the real one soon :P

It´s my birthday, I can jump in mud if I want to...

Aside from one dirty mishap, we spent a fabulous day celebrating Max´s second birthday.

It´s hard to tell from the hasty photo I took but he was covered in mud from his knees to his eyebrows.  There was a puddle in the middle of this thrift store we were checking out (many buildings here have sections with open cielings) and he was running around and tripped falling face down right in the puddle. Exasperated, I scooped him up, threw him in the stroller and raced the 2 blocks to our hotel to throw him in the shower before he could touch anything. By the time we got back to the store not even 25 minutes later it was closed, bummer, since we had aleady picked out some stuff we wanted.

But like I said other than that we had a wonderful day.  After breakfast we took the ´microbus´ to La Laguna de Apollo.  I have nostalgic memories of a beautiful restaurant on the shore of crystal clear lake formed inside a crater.  While the hotel restaurant has lost some of the luster and quality of former days, the laguna is still as magical as ever with clear warm water surrounded by lush forest and volcanic rock

Then we headed back to Granada, the lovely city we are staying in (much more about that later) walked around a little, and had previously mentioned mud mishap.  Eventually it was time to stuff ourselves with helado, and let me tell you, the icecream here is GOOD. And like most things in Nicaragua it is also cheap $.50 for a cone of the best coconut icecream you ever tasted (as well as many other tasty flavors) After finishing off 2 sundays with much help from mom and dad, max said ´mas helado´ and we couldn´t argue with that logic so we ordered 2 more cones!

We finished off the night with a horse carriage ride around the town.  Max loved it! He yelled ´caballos!´ the entire time, kept randomly turning to us and saying ´fun!´ with a huge grin on his face, and was very disappointed when we had to say goodbye to his new 4-legged friends.  I don´t know that I´ve seen him enjoy himself qiute so thoroughly.  A perfect ending to a lovely day.

Fun!