Nicaraguan Food at Raquel & Andrews and a trip to La Boca de la Montaña, Nicaragua (The Mouth of the Mountain)

Raquel of the mud mask facial fame again had a few of us over, this time for a meal, Nicaraguan style.

Here we all are helping to prepare it.  We were wrapping cuajada (the white holey cheese common in latin america) in tortillas which were then heated and served with a cream sauce of onions and chillis.

The cheese is sold at the market, and comes in massive big blocks that I presume they cut into desired amounts.  Although most people seem to enjoy it I can't say it's my favourite and am really missing good old NZ cheddar and edam et al.

Kieran and Jovany seemed to think it was pretty good.

As did Naomi, Raquel's little girl.

Jovani's mum, Anita (in the centre) was visiting much to Jovani's delight.

Our lovely friend Shana was there, don't worry Mama Megan, she has a boyfriend!  :P

La Boca de la Montaña

The other day we took a trip to La Boca de la Montaña with the Spanish brothers and sisters, it's not too far from home, only about 20 mins on the bus.  As always the bus trip was fun.

Paul having fun with Jairo (from Mexico) and Rafael in the background.

Here's the group by the side of the road, after we'd hopped off the bus.

We met some lovely locals, here's Gabriella (also from Mexico, Renee's wife)

It'll be interesting to see how these areas look when the rain comes, it hasn't rained here for 5 months, we're amazed that there are still fruit and veges available, as well as green leaves on some of the trees.

Some of the group got to see a big sloth in a tree very close to the road (the main highway back to San Juan) and there were lots of monkeys on the way too - all a bit too far away for a good shot on my little camera though.

There are lots of cashew nut trees in the area, apparently the fruit can be eaten too but the nut needs to be cooked before being eaten, if not it's poisonous.  Apparently the nuts and shell of the raw nuts contain urushiol a resin that can create significant skin rashes, and can be toxic when ingested.  They say that it was the Brazilians who figured out that the fruit could be eaten but not the raw nut and then that the nut was ok when it was cooked - probably a trial and error process.

Here's the ripe cashew fruit with the nut hanging down underneath.

Jairo's sister Perla (also from Mexico) with the cashew fruit.

Aw .. cute - this cow was a bit tangled around the pole and I did have a go at untangling it but in the end caution won out, those horns looked fairly pointy.

Just before we took the bus back home we got to see some classic retaining wall techniques.

Yesterday a lovely young lady named Vanessa, who I'm studying with,  attended the meeting for the first time ....

along with Franchesca who still loves to come every Sunday.

A young man called Alan, that Kieran has just started to study with also came for the first time.  He rode all the way from the other side of town, across the river on his bike, all by himself.  His mum was going to come too but ending up having too many children to look after but Alan was so keen to come that he had got her to show him where the hall was the week before, just incase he ever needed to come by himself.  

Here he is with Kieran.  He's helping Kieran with his Spanish during their study and Kieran is going to teach him some English too.