Saving the Carao Tree

A storm came through at the end of the rainy season last year and washed away about 2 metres of our riverbank.  A beautiful Carao tree also known as Pink Shower Tree (Cassia grandis-for my latin savvy friends) was left standing precariously on the riverbank.  It is a full mature shade tree at the very edge of our property and offers us a great deal of much needed shade.












We made a decision to try and help stabilize the tree before the next season of rain.  JD organized four full tandem truckloads of rock.  Our name Mira Flores (Look at the Flowers) was fast approaching Mira Piedra (Look at the Rocks)


Sergio arrived with his backhoe the next day. He worked the entire day moving and positioning the rocks along the edge of the riverbank and building up a stable foundation for the tree.

We will only know if we have been successful in the years to come.  Fingers crossed!

Mind the Gap

Things are happening here on the Pacific Coast, southwest of Managua.  Playa San Diego, just 7 kms north of us was a hotspot in the 1970's and is back on the upswing.  We found an awesome hostel called Mind the Gap.  Established and run by Diego (mere coincidence) and Morgan -who are getting married this August. 
The place is littered with transient surfer types who are always ready to tell you about the best surf breaks in the area and their daily fun on the water.  It is also a great place to spend the evening drinking and chatting.  Diego is a helpful man to know.  He is fluent in Spanish, knows everybody within the immediate 20 mile radius, and is always sporting a grin. 


It is a collection of all things hippy, surfy, and quirky. A definite fun and happening place to visit.

Ladrillos - installation

Wow!  What a look!  We are thrilled with the success of the pattern, the colour, and the crasftmanship of installation.  Reynaldo, our local  contractor, surpassed our expectations.  It is starting to feel like we are close to finishing..but that might simple be the result of having moved all the tools and equipment out of the house to install the floor.  It is an incredible sense of space.
We had 5000 diamonds delivered.  Franchesco, Omar, and Jose are helping out for the day sanding the edges before Rey installs them. 

Ladrillos - making the mold

We spent a lot of time deciding what we wished to see on the floor.  In the end we chose a diamond shaped tile pattern that would give multiple 3 dimensional effects depending on the viewer's angle.  JD found a company in Granada who make cement tiles by hand.  Unfortunately, they did not have a  mold to make diamond shapes... but that did not stop JD. 
After studying the components of a metal mold from a video JD and I drew up the template on AutoCad and then took the drawings to a laser steel cutting company to cut all the pieces.  We asked our local artisan metal worker to weld the pieces together.  In the end, the welds did not provide for a perfect diamond fit so JD made a third stop at a computer milling machine to straighten up the edges and to make all the angles match.  The result...a unique and odd looking waffle maker.

JD and the waffle maker flew to Nicaragua.   Because the mold weighed so much JD decided to carry it in his knapsack and brought it on the plane as carry on.  En route through customs in Toronto he was almost not let on the plane.  The customs officials figured he could use it as a weapon.  But then the supervisor looked at JD and said he did not need the waffle maker as a weapon...he looked as JD's hands and said if he wished to hurt someone he could simply use his hands.  He waved him on and JD kept the mold at his feel, for fear of shifting in the overhead compartments. 

And here is the awesome result of such effort!

Playa Mira Flores

We now have a name!!




Playa Mira Flores 



it means
'See the Flowers'

And the road to our beach is
Avenida Mira Flores.








Somehow we were unaware.
We recently made a trip to the Alcaldia (municipality) to pay our taxes.  With the help of our new friend Diego we were able to inquired about our beach.  We knew that Mira Flores is a one horse town less than a kilometer away and the River is called Rio Citalapa - thanks to Google Earth satelite imagery - but we have not known the name for our beach or our road. 

Rio Citalapa











And now we have a website   
www.miraflores.ca 

El Fumador - Part IV

El Fumador is still a member of our family.  He lives permanently at the beach.
I asked JD to describe 'Old Smokey' and he offered sentimental, admiration, love, and respect.

With the need to have something more reliable to bring guests from the airport to the beach we needed a vehicle that was a little more comfortable and had air conditioning. 

Meet Mindy...our new ride.

River Crossing

This is not your average route to school.  We were told about a shortcut over the river that the kids use to get to school.  We thought it would be cool to check it out....definitely not what we were expecting.  The access is behind this building, which is not the school as far as we can tell, but is a government building.  Unused for the moment. 

Nicaraguan Safety and Security

I am constantly being impressed with many different aspects of Nicaragua.

We have had many visitors in the last few days.  The first was the local police department jefe who came to say hello.  He was making the rounds and checking up on the community to see if everything was ok.  It occured to me that he was just trying to be nosy and then I wondered if we had paid our taxes.  (how quickly my mind can go to trouble)  However, this guy was truly nice and asked if we had any thefts, if we felt safe, and if there was anything to report.   We told him we had our pump stolen last year and recently we discovered we had some lumber missing.  He took notes and thanked us for the information.  And then he left....no fines, no payments, and no problems.  Wow.  How cool is that!  I was so caught up with it all that I did not take any pictures.

Next we were visited by a crew from public health and safety. They spoke with everyone in our barrio and planned a tsunami drill for 11:00am.  Weirdly, the kids were so excited. They have experienced fire drills, tornado drills, school lock-down drills, but never a tsunami drill.

At 11:00am the sirens started blarring.  They are located on the access road to the beach and for all the open space that surrounds us, the alarm was loud.

Emergencias! Emergencias! Emergencias!
Alarma del Tsunami! Alarma del Tsunami!
Evacua a la seguridad! Evacua a la seguridad!

We all walked away from the beach like we were told and made it to the checkpoint in under seven minutes.  We were congratulated for following the rules and making it to higher ground in reasonable time.  Yay!

Painting Party

The painting has started!  Every step is so exciting, but this one adds the wow factor.
The building has been white since the very beginning.  We have become very comfortable with the white walls and the blue roof (although it is a very dusty roof and seeing the brilliant blue will not happen until the rainy season hits)

Here we are painting it all grey to seal the stucco finish and to provide the base coat for the colour.

Well, this is not the change we were expecting. Dull metal grey really changes the tone and atmosphere, making it feel like a military base.  

Hurry up with the green.

Ah, new spring green is my favourite.  Or, as the paint can illustrates, this is Manzana Verde.

So appetizing I could eat it!

We needed more colour.  The paint store we visited in Masachapa have all the colours painted on the walls so it is easy to choose your desired outcome.  We chose a brilliant blue for accent and a bold yellow for the upper story and the main walls.  Once painted, we looked around and realized we picked our colours based on some of our favourite things...El Fumador, a green towel, and the every so lovely coconut. Works for us.

 And here it is in all its splendor.  We are still in shock.  Not sure if it will stay this way, but for now we will leave it.  The roll down safety covers are in, the doors are hung, the window safety bars are installed and the house is now secure...and is looking good. 

Donde esta la Biblioteca?

"Donde Esta La Biblioteca? "

That is our family's secret theme song.  Ok, its now out.   It just so happens that it is the first line of a jaunty rhyming tune,  I would love to post the entire song, but my kids strongly abject due to the fact that iti is our family's SECRET theme song.  They have graciously allowed me to write the first two lines.

Donde esta la biblioteca?
Me llamo Evan la arana discoteca

That's all I am allowed to write, but my favourite line further into the tune is:

Buenas dias me gusta papas fritas.

Anyways, back to current time....
We found outselves in Granada visiting our wonderful friends Fabrizio and Jeffrey.  They bought an old Colonial house in the heart of the city and are restoring it to its full splendor, plus giving it a modern touch.  I just love buildings with internal courtyards and lots of vegetation.  It is so different from our normal north american style.
After our breakfast outing to the Garden Cafe - again a beautiful building with an interior courtyard, we happened upon the library.




Donde esta la biblioteca?

We all get excited to visit new libraries.  The possibilities are endless. The smell alone is worth it.

Kids had loads of fun looking for books up high on the shelves.