An Incredible Day in Nicaragua
We started our day in the Nicaraguan harbor of San Juan del Sur with a greeting of clear, sunny skies, calm seas and as we landed our Zodiacs at the town dock, a small band from the school of Emmanuel Mongalo pounding out a hip swinging beat. Nicaragua’s Minister of Tourism, Leda Sanchez de Parrales, also commemorated the inaugural visit of the Sea Voyager to Nicaragua with a genuinely warm greeting as well as the presentation of gifts to our younger guests. We were photographed and filmed, and while the attention was fun, it was also a little intimidating to some of our children guests, but not for long. A request was made for a volunteer to be interviewed for broadcast on Nicaraguan television. As the one volunteer stepped forward for the interview, the earlier shyness by the others evaporated into a stampede for the rolling camera.
Our next stop was Rivas. Here we visited the Museum of Anthropology and History and had an exuberant and colorful performance of Folkloric dancing by the children of the Santa Domingo School. At the end of the performance our guests and the dancers made an exchange of gifts. Now comes the explanation for the first photo. Our departure from the museum and subsequent short tour through town was accomplished with a sense of adventure and pure fun. We rode on tricycles. Not truly tricycles, but a type of two person “taxi” that ran on pedal power by the driver seated and pedaling behind you. Locally these “trikes” are known as “pepanos” and we laughed, smiled and waved our way through town in a police escorted kaleidoscope of thirteen pepanos. We stopped at the Cathedral of San Pedro and then boarded our buses for the short trip to Hacienda Amayo.
Hacienda Amayo’s lush expansive grounds were a heavenly retreat for the afternoon. Perched on a gentle sloping hill on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, we had many options for the afternoon. Toad catching along the lake’s shoreline seemed to occupy many of our younger guests for quite awhile. Other options included sipping fresh coconut milk on the shaded porches while listening and dancing to the live music provided by a small band playing guitarra and marimba. The second photograph shows our guest, Gracen Carroll, dancing with Maria Mercedes Balladares, Nicaragua’s Assistant to the Minister of Tourism.
Television interviews continued along with some photographs and interviews with a journalist from the Nicaraguan newspaper “La Prensa.” After lunch an invitation was issued for a game of baseball with a few of the local children from Rivas. These children were true diplomats, as they did not show the full extent of their skills until they had allowed our team to score a few runs. These young men from Rivas are the current Central American Baseball Champions.
We returned to the Sea Voyager by late afternoon and started our sail back towards Costa Rica. The western skies could not hold all the colors of the sunset this evening and soft flamingo pink hues floated on the waters ahead of us. We started our day with the warmest of welcomes and ended with a reluctant farewell to Nicaragua.
We started our day in the Nicaraguan harbor of San Juan del Sur with a greeting of clear, sunny skies, calm seas and as we landed our Zodiacs at the town dock, a small band from the school of Emmanuel Mongalo pounding out a hip swinging beat. Nicaragua’s Minister of Tourism, Leda Sanchez de Parrales, also commemorated the inaugural visit of the Sea Voyager to Nicaragua with a genuinely warm greeting as well as the presentation of gifts to our younger guests. We were photographed and filmed, and while the attention was fun, it was also a little intimidating to some of our children guests, but not for long. A request was made for a volunteer to be interviewed for broadcast on Nicaraguan television. As the one volunteer stepped forward for the interview, the earlier shyness by the others evaporated into a stampede for the rolling camera.
Our next stop was Rivas. Here we visited the Museum of Anthropology and History and had an exuberant and colorful performance of Folkloric dancing by the children of the Santa Domingo School. At the end of the performance our guests and the dancers made an exchange of gifts. Now comes the explanation for the first photo. Our departure from the museum and subsequent short tour through town was accomplished with a sense of adventure and pure fun. We rode on tricycles. Not truly tricycles, but a type of two person “taxi” that ran on pedal power by the driver seated and pedaling behind you. Locally these “trikes” are known as “pepanos” and we laughed, smiled and waved our way through town in a police escorted kaleidoscope of thirteen pepanos. We stopped at the Cathedral of San Pedro and then boarded our buses for the short trip to Hacienda Amayo.
Hacienda Amayo’s lush expansive grounds were a heavenly retreat for the afternoon. Perched on a gentle sloping hill on the shore of Lake Nicaragua, we had many options for the afternoon. Toad catching along the lake’s shoreline seemed to occupy many of our younger guests for quite awhile. Other options included sipping fresh coconut milk on the shaded porches while listening and dancing to the live music provided by a small band playing guitarra and marimba. The second photograph shows our guest, Gracen Carroll, dancing with Maria Mercedes Balladares, Nicaragua’s Assistant to the Minister of Tourism.
Television interviews continued along with some photographs and interviews with a journalist from the Nicaraguan newspaper “La Prensa.” After lunch an invitation was issued for a game of baseball with a few of the local children from Rivas. These children were true diplomats, as they did not show the full extent of their skills until they had allowed our team to score a few runs. These young men from Rivas are the current Central American Baseball Champions.
We returned to the Sea Voyager by late afternoon and started our sail back towards Costa Rica. The western skies could not hold all the colors of the sunset this evening and soft flamingo pink hues floated on the waters ahead of us. We started our day with the warmest of welcomes and ended with a reluctant farewell to Nicaragua.
