Buenas familia y amigos! Pasa muuuuucho tiempo desde mi ultimo blog, y hay muchas para decir.
Today marks an official 1 month experience here in Nicaragua, and it is truly at this time that I can say that the more I see the less I know. It is really quite humbling to realize this and scary at the same time. I have always been one to sort through my feelings and encounters with this life with much deeper insights and revelations shared, maybe ignorantly so, but nope - not these days. La verdad es que hay calidad adentro de silencio por ahora. Bastante.
Since the last post we have been up to some pretty significant stuff. We joined in a collective community discussion featuring a professional speaker from Managua on Food Soverignty, first outlining the problem and then unraveling the current laws which pertain to the existing national and international solutions. This guy really did a good job striking at the rawness and the urgent reality of the issues. We were impressed and inspired -- and also got a hold of his PowerPoint. Stay tuned ;)
The following days were full of writing and planning and eventually our journey south to the Pacific coast. The entire country was about to either shut down for fiesta or head to Managua to celebrate their Independence Day, July 19th. July 18th the entire bus system shut down. July 17th Nathan and I headed on a crazy adventure through bus terminals and random transfer stations on our way to San Juan Del Sur, a Nicaraguan surfing town. We made it their after about 10 hours of something between complete madness and some sick enjoyable challenge lol. Our trip back went much smoother with a bit of experience under our shorts.
San Juan Del Sur is beautiful, right on a sandy beach surrounded by even more beautiful and virgin beaches... and it is also quite an International party town. We ate some amazing seafood here, namely a bowl of clams that will forever go down in my enormous book of seafood experience as easily one the best. It was garlicy and buttery and cheap... AND it seemed to be endless aaahhhhh. We quickly discovered that the guys selling sunglasses along the beach and sometimes ice cream and cigarettes -- were also selling cocaine. Yep, the sunglass guys were drug dealers. And the main guy kept whistling at me all over town. Nathan is not a fan of this Machisimo display of Latino culture. And who can blame him. It makes him insane mad. So every time this guy whistled and cat called at me, Nathan got waaaayyyy up in his face with attitude. Yiiikes. I kept telling him that it was better to ignore, and yes of course they are jerks. Our second night in San Juan Del Sur I was talking with a Guatamalan artisan and that guy ends up coming by and whistling again and looking at me and then Nathan, and that was it... wham! Before he knew it he had a rabid dawg up in his face saying "No me GUSTO, I don't like that!!" Ohhhh man. The artisan told me that we should come back later but for us to get out of there because that guy was dangerous. On that note -- "Vamos!" And we were off. Nathan was heated. The rest of the night he didn't let go of his knife and he thought everyone was after us. He was ready for them. He went to sleep gripping his knife that night. Oyyyyy ve!
Hahaha needless to say we left the next morning, which made this girl quite sad. I loved being near the ocean and swimming and having cheap seafood at my fingertips! But we were off, to Granada. And you know what -- Granada is beyond cool. We loved it here. One of the oldest cities in the Americas, with Pirate history, colonial glory and architecture, progressive culture, and massive nature surrounding. We will be back to visit the Laguna De Apollo (the deepest point in Central America) and Ometepe Island on the enormous Lago Nicaragua.
Our experiences here have been rich with adrenaline and never lacking in laughter -- whether it be in disbelief as to how life goes down here or because of some really hilarious moments that we will both likely remember forever. Since we returned from our travels south we have participated in a Farmers Interchange, toured a local gem of a Permaculture garden, have been collecting interviews of "best practices" and insights into Food Soverignty, we have been teaching Permaculture all week at Monte Grande primary school, met a Canadian Alternative teacher who reminded us that this food & consciousness revolution is really possible AND happening, we have both been writing muchiiisimo, playing la guitarra, creating many many plans, and unfortunately have passed the last 3 days sick as dogs in bed.
I have plenty more fotos and thoughts to share and plan to post another blog shorty! If I can provide any further thoughts that are really resonant within me these days it will have to be this... Keep fighting for what is right and best for everyone -- never give up... and remember that cultural perspectives are deep and tangled in so much more that can be revealed with a surface glance. I have decided to dig a bit deeper before I spill all this mamble jamble inside mi cabeza. LOVE & PEACE ya'll! xx
"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come."
~-Victor Hugo
