San Juan del Sur - Masaya - and back to San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur - Masaya - and back to San Juan del Sur

It seems that our blog posts aren't complete without at least one food or restaurant shot so why break with tradition?    Let's start with breakfast, at the hostel where we're staying 'Esperanza', breakfast is included and although I'm not really a big breakfast eater it is really good.  Most of the meals in Nicaragua are based around 'Gallo Pinto' a rice and red bean mixture and breakfast is no different.  You get gallo pinto topped with a fried egg and then fresh fruit salad on the side.  It might sound like an usual combination but actually it's really good and it keeps you going for the whole morning.  I'm sure we don't eat half as many legumes as we should in westernised countries, they've got to be good for you!

And now moving right along to dinner, here the guys are enjoying yet another great meal in Nicaragua.  We really have to say that all the food here has been great, varying only between great and amazing and by home standards it's really cheap too.  At this restaurant we got the standard (read 'cheapest) meal which consisted of meat (chicken, fish or beef), fried onions, rice, beans and coleslaw - the whole plate was just 65 cords (about $NZ3).  Porl's stomach was feeling a little dodgy so he asked for a glass of red wine but the waitress said that she was sorry they only sold it by the bottle so we had one of those too, it was a very nice Chilean red and cost $NZ8.

The young'uns ones look like the whirlwind trip is just starting to catch up with them, aw pobrecitos.

One afternoon in SJDS we heard music coming from the property next door to the hostel.  It's some kind of sports / entertainment centre and it turns out that this day the government had arranged one of its annual outings for retirees and boy were they enjoying themselves.

(PS:  if you have an ipad or apple computer and want to view videos made with flash (like the one's supported on sites like this one) you can with the puffin browser, they offer a free 7 day trial and if you use the link and code I've posted below you get extra free flash time, four weeks I think.)

http://www.puffinbrowser.com/intro/?ref=acmifaexhjhha

That night there was yet another beautiful sunsets here in San Juan, it's lovely that the hostel is right on the malecón (promenade) and this is our view most evenings.

The next day a Cruise ship came to town and the brothers and sisters set up a stand on the malecón (promenade) - before long a very friendly local stopped for a chat and then a brother and sister from the cruise ship stopped by to say hi.

We've really been enjoying our trip so far, and as you've probably seen we've crammed a fair bit in already, but as you know, we came to settle down somewhere for the next year or so and we do have news .......

When our good friends Charlie and Barbara from the Sunshine Coast, Australia, heard that we were heading to San Juan del Sur (SJDS from now on lol) they sent and email and told us to remember to catch up with Pete and Hayley.  I wrote back and asked how we could forget to catch up with them as we've never heard of them.  But apparently Barb had been writing to us at our old email address telling us all about this great couple and how they were serving in SJDS in a newly formed English group.  So to cut a long story short we got a phone number for Pete and Hayley and arranged to meet that evening for drinks at a local restaurant on the beach front.

Charlie and Barb were right, they are a lovely couple and small world that it is Pete happens to be the fleshly brother of a young brother we knew well on the Sunshine Coast, Adam Theslow.   So there you go, talk about 2 degrees.

It turns out that the friendly meet and greet over a few drinks with them and a couple of other lovely young bro's - Blake and Kyle - was a well planned ambush, give the kiwis a few beers, tell them how massive the territory is of this newly formed group and how few there are in the group, how there's no elder and that there's a big need for someone who can teach English to the local brothers and sisters - then tied that all in with the fact that this is still a group so half the meetings are with the Spanish congregation as well as two days of witnessing being done each week in Spanish ....  and guess what happens??  .....

Well they did seem to have a point so yes we've decided that 1) as the need seems to have been very well filled in Masaya Sur (the congregation that we were first headed to) since we wrote our letter 18 months ago (they are now doing their territory every two weeks and have had a number of need greaters and others move in) and 2) there seems to be such a big need here with the best of both worlds allowing for sharing in both the English and Spanish fields, that we will stay here and share in the privillege in getting the English group going in this part of the world.

We were interested to learn that although there are of course a number of expats here most of the English studies are actually with Nicaraguans who for different reasons speak very good English (eg. perhaps they were living in the States but given the three strikes you're out rule (even if they're traffic offenses), they have found themselves back here, but their English is so good now that they prefer to learn in that language.

So this is pretty exciting, I really had my heart set on serving with a Spanish congregation but I still will be doing that too and the good thing about the English group is that Porl and the boys will be able to be used straight away with giving talks etc so everyone's a winner baby ;)

Having decided what we were doing this was going to mean another trip back to Masaya as we had kept one of our rooms and left a lot of our luggage there.  The boys were pretty knackered and Kieran was coming down with a cold so we left the boys at Hostel Esperanza and took a chicken bus back to Masaya.

As we were some of the first to board we had a seat which was great - before long the bus got pretty full.

The great thing about chicken buses is that you'd never go hungry.  At the entry and exit of each town there is always a big judder bar and when the bus slows down the street vendors jump on the bus to sell their wares - more often than not food and drink.  They walk up and down the aisle calling out the name of whatever they are selling and if you're keen you just signal them and for a small cost you can have a sandwich, some fruit, a drink or a number of local delicacies.


I was trying not to make it too obvious that I was filming but here a guy buys some kind of pink milk drink, the drinks come in a plastic bag.

and when the bus stops at an actual bus stop you can even just lean out of the window and buy something.

 We've met so many lovely people already on our trip, it's so nice to experience the warm worldwide brotherhood that we're part of, it really is unique to Jehovah's Witnesses.  What other group or club can meet someone for the first time and minutes later be sharing a meal together, chatting like they've known each other for years.

Here we are (yes at yet another restaurant, what can I say, i don't have a kitchen yet!) sharing a meal with a lovely couple from the English group and some delightful young sisters - Jessica Turchan who is serving with the Granada English congregation and has the goal of becoming a special pioneer and Caroline Hong who has served in the Dominican Republic and was now deciding where to serve next. She shared some awesome stories with us about her Korean parents and how faithful they were during the time of the Korean war.  Her Dad now in his seventies has decided to take up the call to serve in the Dominican Republic to help set up a foreign language group.

And speaking of our worldwide brotherhood, who would imagine meeting someone at a meeting and two minutes into the conversation have them offer you their house for three weeks as they're going away.  Amazing!

Actually this is what happened at the meeting, we have actually found a house that we're going to rent but it's not available until April 12th so we're looking for something in the meantime, staying at the hostel is chewing into the budget a bit so a rental would be much better.  So when we attended the meeting the word had spread and we had hardly spoken with one brother for two minutes before here he was offering us his home while he will be away - how lovely and I think we may just take him up on the offer.

Usually finding rentals isn't hard but it just so happens that we've arrived not long before 'la Semana Santa' or 'Holy Week' when thousands of people descend on this little coastal town and go crazy.  Rents trips around this time and are very hard to find so not the perfect time to be trying to find somewhere lol.  Anyway we're nearly sorted and will keep you all updated with any new developments.  So, until the next post, nos vemos!!