Well it's been a week or so and I've saved it all up for one big post so I hope you have a few minutes ....
So here it is, my lovely bicycle, cleverly made by our lovely friend Jesus, I would show you a picture of Porl's one too but it's not here, he's out and about and I'm stuck at home, more on that next.
His is great too, possible slightly faster than mine, given that it's red and all but I would like to contest that on the downward straights. Or maybe I shouldn't, given the next section of my update?
Well it was just a matter of time I guess, I unfortunately wasn't born with the best balance in the world so last week when a taxi decided to overtake me on the main road, on the busiest part of the road, with bikes, cars, bicycles, horses, carts, etc etc all over the place, and then slam his brakes on once he had positioned himself right in front of me I had no recourse but to fall up the rather enormous kerbs that the road have over here and topple from my lovely new bicycle.
I of course tried to do it as elegantly as possible but I fear that I didn't really accomplish that at all as I just landed in a heap on the pavement with my bicycle somehow on me and under me ayayay! Paul, unoblivious, rode on, while 4 kind Nicaraguan men appeared from nowhere and picked me and my bicycle up off the pavement where we had landed. And after checking that I was ok and telling me how crazy the taxi drivers were and how I should be careful they sent me on my way.
I rode on and caught up with Porl, the adrenalin giving lie to the idea that I had sustained no damage and was as right as rain. When I stopped for a bit further up the road to assess the damage I noticed that I had sustained a few bumps and bruises and my right foot was decidedly tender.
When we got home Porl kindly bandaged the offending foot and I carried on as usual, thinking that if I just ignored it it'd be fine in a day or two. Well unfortunately that was a week ago and it's still very sore and now a strange lump has come up on the bones on the side of my right foot. Very inconvenient I must say, I have things to do, people to see, and I'm still hobbling around. I'm not sure what the chances are of finding somewhere to get an xray done or even if it's worth the bother or if I should just try to rest it a bit but that seems easier said than done.
Anyway, enough about me ... jeje what else do I have to report?
Well we went on our visa renewal trip the other day. When you arrive in Nicaragua you are given a 90 day visa so if you want to say longer you have to leave the country and then come back in for another 90 days. Thankfully that's not too hard from where we are as the border with Costa Rica is only about 1.5 to 2 hours away. So we got up at 4.30 and caught the 5.30 bus and off we went ....
The sun wasn't yet up and the streets of San Juan were deserted ..
as you can imagine we were rather blurry eyed, some more than others ;)
Soon it was light and the bus arrived to take us to Costa Rica.
We had to take two buses, just like we did to get to Cardenas. One to La Virgen and then the other to Peñas Blancas (White Rocks) - the frontier town where Nicaragua runs into Costa Rica.
The first bus was a nice comfy tourist bus ....
but the second was back to the usual chicken buses ...
much to Chase's disappointment
The world was coming to life by the time we got to the second stop ...
and before long we were at the Nicaraguan Customs leaving the country.
and then we could walk into Costa Rica
finally after filling out forms to leave Nicaragua, enter Costa Rica and leave Costa Rica we were back entering Nicaragua. The queues had grown a little but apparently no where near as bad as they can get.
This was the last set of forms.
Some say you have to stay out of Nicaragua for three days in order to return but others had told us that they will let you off with 6 hours. Apart from having breakfast in the restaurant on the Costa Rican border we just turned around and walked back into Nicaragua. The official that took our last set of forms looked at the dates and times etc stamped into our passport and on our papers and said "but you've just gone and come straight back" so I told him yes, we loved Nica so much that we wanted to come straight back, he just smiled, shook his head and kindly stamped our passports letting us straight back in which was great!
What was even better was that when we came out of that customs line we discovered a duty free shop and I discovered chocolate and Bacardi!!
Chase found Whiskey so all in all the trip was well worth it!
Replete with Maltesers, Dairy Milk, Bacardi and Whiskey off we set for the trip home.
Ah so many choices!!
That night Porl & I shared a delicious curry with Pete & Hayley Theslow and a game or two of cards ...
Unfortunately the boys found themselves on a bit of a losing streak - go the girls! :)
The next day, Thursday, it was up bright and early and one or two of us (lol) headed out to the territory! Talk about an army :)
In the arvo' Damo came with me on Franchesca's study ....
Unfortunately, her reaction to his reading her a Bible story in Spanish wasn't exactly confidence building. But don't take it too hard Damion she is a very exacting Spanish teacher and your reading
really was fine.
Then Friday we were out doing some local territory, as you can see it's not ideal for someone with a bung foot!
The week finished off with the circus coming to town so although a few of us were worried if animals were going to be involved we decided to go. After all, how bad could it be for NZ$3?
As did pretty much the rest of the town ....
Actually we decided to splurge and got VIP ringside seats for NZ$4.
Porl wasn't sure what to expect.
For an extra .50 cents each I got a yummy candy floss
... that was nearly as big as me! ok well not that big but still pretty durn big!
big enough to make Kieran a beard and mo'!
Then the lights went down and the circus began.
I'm afraid the lighting was very low apart from one massive beaming light directed right towards us so the quality of the pics leaves a little to be desired but I'll post a few anyway to share the bizarreness of a Nicaraguan circus :)
The show began with a group of dancing girls and let's just say, "they had some moves!"
Next a poor young lady was swung round and round from a rope attached to the ceiling.
thankfully she kept her dinner down.
There were some clowns ...
A talented young balancing boy.
More clowns ...
But the highlight of the evening for Chase & Kieran had to be when they saw their favourite
childrens show characters, the telly tubbies come out on stage ....
When they saw that they were giving out hugs they just couldn't hold themselves back ...
First Chase ....
then Kieran ....
Well ok, maybe they were dared to do it but they really did look excited :)
The telly tubbies were a hard act to beat but the juggler on the massive unicycle did his best.
And then it was back to the dancing girls.
And the grand finale was an emu who did a once around the ring ... the end!
As I said, all in all rather bizarre but then again I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to a circus, it was definitely entertaining, slightly disturbing at times lol but definitely entertaining.
And so continue the adventures of Chase & The Hunters in Nicaragua :)
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