New Years

Best wishes to all.  Had a relaxing couple of days in a small fishing village called El Gigante.  Fantastic beach and a great Surf Camp called   'Giant Foot'.    Then it was back to Sal's house because all the hotels had been prebooked for the holiday. 
There were roadside vendors selling thousands of fireworks, most of them homemade, the rest chinese.  We bought a bunch to bring in the new year.  When in Nica do as the Nicas do.  The firework show all over the country started at 6pm and continued until dawn.  The explosions were so loud they would set of the car alarms in our neighbourhood, much to the delight of the perpetrators (more noise the better).  A house on our street hosted a Nuevo Ano Fiesta which meant loud polka type music till dawn.  There was an upside to this though.... the noise completely drowned out the barking dogs and roosters crowing.
Throughout the country people made effigies and placed them, in different poses, in front of their homes.  In the pockets they place their resolution lists and at the stroke of midnight they set fire to them and toss them into the middle of the street to burn.