I thought I would post some more pictures of our trip to Granada!
This picture features my new pretty birthday-present necklace, yay ...
THESE are the amazing milkshakes (coconut and pitaya is the pink one) we drank multiple times a day ...
I think this picture is hilarious. Traveling!
Coconut milk!

new outhouse roommate

we have finally arrived back at totoco after our "2 day"/week-long trip to get molly from managua, and we have a new volunteer with staying with us! not actually with us ... in a tent that is about a 1 minute walk from our little hut, but we will be working together in the gardens. he is from australia, but apparently he has been working for the last three months at another farm in nicaragua learning about permaculture, and he seems to have lots of ideas for the garden. unfortunately he also has gastritis at the moment - which we have been hearing about in great detail, and holy cow, i sincerely hope that i never experience gastritis in my life, ever - so the work has been put off at least until he gets better. we have been urging him to go to the hospital (again) and it seems like he will probably go tomorrow ... we have been feeling pretty bad for him. however, i am mentioning all of this because i learned another natural remedy from him today:

for ulcers (especially) and other stomach problems ---- aloe vera smoothies! not creamy smoothies (no milk, obviously), but just aloe vera pulp, honey, water and maybe something unoffensive like watermelon. apparently they help a lot, and they seem to have been giving him a lot of relief. i tried some today and they dont taste bad at all.

anyway - i forgot my camera again but soon i will post more pictures. we have finally bought our bus ticket so we will officially be here for 2 more weeks. our bus leaves nicaragua on the 21st, and we arrive in panama on the 22nd. our apartment seems like it will be "ready" by then (it will be a surprise when we get there! who knows!), and i will start my job at the foundation right away.

enfermedades

i have been collecting some natural remedies/healthy-body advice while we´ve been traveling and i have decided to post them here ... it has been very helpful for me to know these various things, especially in areas where things like ice or antibiotics or drugstore-medicines are not readily available everywhere:

burns --- toothpaste! im sure i have told this to many people who will read this, since ive been raving about it since the first time i went to honduras, but it is just amazing. if you happen to burn yourself, maybe with hot oil all over your hand like i did, put toothpaste all over the burn. i keep reapplying it (without washing it) as much as i can, probably sleep with it on and perhaps use some the next day. every time ive done this the burn has healed completely, with no swelling and no pain and no scarring!

urinary tract infection --- aloe vera and very hot baths. having one of these infections in the jungle is no fun, but i discovered that direct application of aloe vera is very soothing, and sitting in hot water (in a pot of hot water, for example) is extremely helpful if you arent going to be able to get to antibiotics for a few hours/days. also, avoiding taking a cold shower right after sitting on something hot or sweating a lot in hot weather is a good preventative measure.

upset stomach/stomach pains --- sodium bicarbonate with orange juice and lime. very helpful! but i would not recommend this or any other lime-heavy drink before or after drinking milk. bleccch.

walking in the hot, hot sun for many hours --- gatorade or powerade! this might be obvious to some people, but i always thought that gatorade was like any other soda ... its not! it works wonders, the label is completely true. clearly drinking water is a very good idea, but if youre really feeling faint or extremely tired, gatorade will fix you up.

weird fungus-like skin problems from humidity or wearing the same clothes too many times --- lavender oil. nancy actually told me this before i left, it works really well!

i also saw someone put gasoline on a cut to avoid infections ... but i would not recommend that. that was more upsetting in terms of the lack of medical facilities, not in terms of how to deal with a cut. also, i will post more pictures soon!

out of the jungle

Here is Elvin and Molly and I at the festival in Managua - check out Elvins Oberlin shirt! Yes!
This is Molly and I in front of one of the beautifully-colored houses in Granada.

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I have to admit that it has been nice to get out of the isolated jungle for a little while - it is absolutely beautiful there, without a doubt, but I like being around lots of people and lots of different places to walk and visit ... and less spiders is a plus for me, too. We went to Managua to meet up with Molly on Friday, and we found each other at Hostal Dulce Sueño that afternoon. It was a lovely reunion, and I was so happy when Molly and Elvin finally met each other! We had planned to just stay in Managua for the night and go back to the island early the next morning, but when we were having lunch before getting the bus to Ometepe our waitress mentioned that it was a holiday in Nicaragua and there was going to be a huge celebration in Managua - Fiesta Patronal de Santo Domingo. It is a huge celebration for the patron saint of the sick, intended for people who have prayed to Santo Domingo throughout the year during illnesses to celebrate the miracle of being healed. A lot of people had shirts on that said ´Viva Santo Domingo de Guzman,´who we learned that from a taxi driver was a campesino (peasant) to whom Santo Domingo appeared while he was chopping leña (firewood). This was not particularily obvious to us from the celebration - there was a huge street fair with sporadic parades and huge dancing puppets and lots of marching-band style drumming. Lots of helotes (grilled corn on the cob) and dulces (candy) and algodon (cotton candy), and of course, Toña (one of the national Nicaraguan beers). We missed the parade that involves carrying the statue of the saint from one church to another, unfortunately, but we did go to the parade of tons and tons of people riding horses (which we never really figured out the significance of). It was quite sight - the road was full of horses and riders trotting down the street, or making their horses do all sorts of tricks, and there were no barricades or anything, so we spent a lot of time manuevering around to make sure that we were never directly behind a horse (!!). It was so much fun, loud music and dancing and TONS of people on the streets. Ive attached a video of Elvin and Molly dancing while some of the huge national beer company-sponsored parade floats were going by (which followed the horses, this event was full of surprises) .


We´re in Granada now, we sort of randomly decided to stop here on our way to the island, which I think was a great plan. We found a really cheap hostel and we´ve just been walking around and enjoying this beautiful city. Elvin bought my belated birthday present yesterday (a very pretty necklace) from some French hippies selling jewlery on the street, and after chatting about music and my problems with my wrist, they ended up giving me a copper bracelet - that the guy made in about two seconds - because apparently copper is good for joint problems. We´ll see...! Tonight we are going to go see these particular hippies play gypsy music at some cafe around here, it should be interesting. And tomorrow were finally heading back to Ometepe ...