A load of Cocibolca

Cocibolca...for those who are wondering, is the name of the MASSIVE lake here Nicaragua which covers about a tenth of the country & on which Granada is situated. It is also the name of the school that Lissa & I attended for 2 weeks where we had a lot of fun (in amongst all the homework they gave us !) & of course where we learnt loads of Spanish !

As part of the school programme, Liss & I were placed with a "Host family" about a 20 min walk from the school. This was an ineresting experience in itself !! Living in the house was Nubia (our host mama), her estranged husband (who lived in what I thought was the janitors cupboard out the back !), her son, daughter-in-law & their 1yr old (horribly annoying) child, a mangy , yappy dog, a lame cat, 3 manky parrots & 4 turtles (who were almost got drowned out every time it rained as they were out in the courtyard that flooded periodically!). Sounds fun hey ? But it doesn't stop there either ! No, we also had, living next door, Nubias' 92 yr old mother who we nicknamed "biscuit spitter" (she would ramble on to us whilst eating these VERY dry biscuits !) & her mad doctor son of 70 yrs !!!! He would often catch us unawares & start preaching to us !!

So......homelife was fun, but I must say, at the end of 2 weeks we were both very ready to leave ! Things were also compounded by the fact that the country suffered everyday from Powercuts (up to 4 hrs a day) & water cuts.......which, after sweating so much from the heat........wasn't particularly comfortable  (or savoury !!!!!! ).

The first week at school was great & we made some lovely friends, including Linda from Canada, who is out here for 6 months. The teaching  was fab & both of us benefited greatly. One evening we all (4 students & 6 teachers) went out to Masaya for an evening of folkloric dancing, traditional cuisine (Indio viejo, vigeron, gallo pinto, fried plantain etc.) & of course the obligatory tasting of local beers.........Tona & Victoria !!! Later on that evening Liss & I ended up in "Cafe Nuit" with just the teachers for a bit of salsa & merengue, then after the place was plunged into darkness (due to the frequent power cuts) & got flooded out (with the torrential rain) we waded home at 3am !!!

On the first weekend,  Liss & I took a local bus & a good hours hike , out to Laguna de Apoyo to check out the Spanish school there. Had a great evening & got to know the managers of the "Monkey Hut" hostel, Catherine from UK & Michael from Germany. Spent a fair amount of time lounging around on big tyres in the warm water of the Volcanic lake, kayaking & generally loafing !!! (I'm getting EXTREMELY good at it now !)

Our second week at school was great too. had a new teacher, and everyone was so friendly. During the afternoons, Liss & I went down to an educational center (for adults & kids) called "Carita Feliz" (liitle smily faces). We helped at the "joyeria" (jewelery making class) & met some wonderful characters. Mostly children, but we also made friends with a woman of 26yrs who had 2 of the most gorgeous kids. Basically it's a project that has been set up be a Danish guy  called Peter kolind (who's loaded!)and his aim is to educate the young pepole here in Granada. About 4 years ago there was a hurricane & severe flooding here & many people lost their homes & were plunged into abject poverty.  The center was set up primarily as a "soup kitchen".....it then grew from there & now it feeds 600 people a day & has all sorts of free classes ranging from Dance, Maths, English, Computing skills, Cooking, Spanish & of course the jewelry making class. Quite an incredible project & as well as this, Peter also sponsers about 350 kids through school (in 2006) paying for everything (uniform, books, shoes etc.). The kids need to gain 80% in their exams inorder to qualify for the help. It was a great week and gave us a real glimpse into some of the peoples'  lives here.

During this week, Nicaragua also celebrated its' "Independence Day" & it was celebrated with a huge parade through the streets, with all the local schools & colleges dancing & playing music. It was great to watch & some of the costumes were AMAZING !!! A great atmosphere too.

So........the end of the week was upon us & both Liss & I left Cocibolca School having learnt a lot more Spanish.....and having made some nice friends. After the presentation of our certificates & saying our goodbyes, we then went away for the weekend to Reserva La Flor, to see turtles in the south of Nicaragua near the Costa Rican border. We had arranged the tour with Laurent (a French guy living here) & there were 4 of us......Liss & myself and Linda & another girl Karen, from school.

WOW !!!! An incredible trip......got to the reserve at about 10 pm & went straight to the beach where we saw 100's of Olive Ridley turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs ! It truly was amazing & the beach looked gorgeous in the moonlight & all you could see were turtles............ everywhere !!!!!! We spent a lot of time observing them & just sitting taking in the atmosphere !! At about 1 am the others went to bed (we camped by the Park Rangers staion) but Liss & stayed up till 3 am, walking, watching & smiling !!! We also saw some baby turtles that had just hatched & we helped them down the beach & took them to the water...SO cute !!!!!!! Over the course of the night the rangers counted about 5,700 turtles that had come up to lay their eggs !! It was so beautiful & one of those things that I will ALWAYS remember.

After speaking to some of the military guys that patrol the beaches for poachers (they arrested 2 women the night we were there), we got a few hours kip, then after breakfast we went on a hike through the bush. Later on we drove back to Granada, stopping to observe a special fiesta where they tie a chicken upside down between 2 poles and then all these guys on horses (like a rodeo) have to try & pull its' head off !!! Very bizarre (see photo) and quite cruel..but not only that, as it's quite violent too. ! Once the head is ripped off, the people fight for it, as it has to be placed in a receptacle in a certain place, so you get a quasi-punch up between all these cowboys  !!!!! Quite a spectacle !

Anyway.....after this, we  then went for lunch and tasted "Paca" which is a rodent (almost like a big guinea pig)...VERY tasty ! Then we made our way back to Granada & back to Nubias' to pack & ready ourselves for the Laguna. You'll probably be shocked to know that there were no tears shed when we left our homestay...from neither party !!!!!!!