New Year in Masaya

New Years Eve

Meet Rosita...

This is the House Parrot at DD's called Rosita. A very intelligent bird who has managed to learn the names of all residents during her 12 year life and will sporadically shout random names (including the dogs' names!) when it is hungry.  In the photo is Chalio (D.D's oldest son) and Rosita... Let's step forward a few moments in time just after this photo was taken...

"Oh my, what a pretty tail" said Dani to Rosita ... We very quickly discovered that when the parrot flays out the feathers in her tail, she is actually showing us how cross or brava she is, rather than showing off her colourful behind.  An impressive 2 metre lightning charge, a yelping Dani and one bleeding foot later, we realise that Rosita is not distracted by flattery when flip-flopped bare feet are on show.

New Year evening: What can we say - it was (as Nicaraguan tradition it now appears) very noisy!!! The streets were filled with the smell of small explosives and so much smoke from all the fireworks that the visibility in the streets of the Masaya was  ... well, see photo.  

We spent the evening with some new friends - Luz and Jimmy.  Luz invited us to her home for a meal which consisted of buñuelos (a mixture of fried yuca with cheese, dipped in honey) and baho (a typical Nicaraguan stew made of beef, yuca, tomatoes and onion). Luz's dad was very welcoming with handshakes and smiles all round. He seemed to have enjoyed a bit too much of the local beer Toña that day: he told us many times how much he adored his grandchildren, followed in the next breath - would we like to take any of them?! The straight face he asked us with was at first a concern, but he always laughed at the "we have no room in our suitcase" response.  We went outside at midnight to watch everyone in the streets celebrating.

Safety rules for Nicaraguan fireworks: there appears to be no rules, so based on what we saw I decided to write down what I can only presume they could be:

1) If you get hurt it's your own fault

2) Light it and run (or don't run... to hold it your hand and simply let go last minute is fine - if you laugh and shout a lot you always seem to evade injury)

3) Pretend to throw lit fireworks at the foreigners (and laugh when the 'cheles' start running)

4) No fuse is too short (we saw several fuses so short the firework exploded less than a second after being lit)

 5) Always go back to a lit firework to ensure you have really ignited every part of it. If no explosives remain then light the outer casing and then the packaging.

6) When (not IF) a firework hits a dog, laugh loudly and shout a bit more. (Don't worry, no dogs were harmed from what we witnessed, but it ran pretty damn fast)

7) No child is too young or too small to let off explosives (even the smallest, youngest most innocent looking children were indeed vicious pyromaniacs)

New Years day

I awoke New Years day to Dani calling me out of bed just before 8am to "Quick Matt, get up! A lizard!" after several attempts at rubbing my eyes and putting on my glasses to our delight there was a blurry lizard slowly coming into focus. It was around 2 foot long working its way slowly around a branch in our garden being watched by Dani and Chalio. 'Eduardo' is a daily visitor, he is a cautious one and scuttles quickly when spooked, in the 10 minutes it took to get close enough to take his portrait we had a bond (until a bang from a random firework went off sending him into the garden and up another tree! and yes... the fireworks were, though sporadic and less common, STILL going off!)

Later, Isaac, his girlfriend Jasmina, Dani and I spent the best part of New Years Day exploring the sights of Volcan Masaya. We got a taxi up to the crater's edge and were able to see right into the active crater (apparently it is the most heavily venting volcano in the country...but you can literally drive into it - excellent example of Nicaraguan H&S).  You're only supposed to spend 20 minutes at the viewing point - the sulphurous gases are strong! We were feeling the effects after just a few minutes, trying to gulp in the air when the wind blew in the opposite direction...

Chalio told us that on some days you can actually see the lava bubbling below deep in the crater, we didn't see any lava but did see (and smell) a constant and steady stream of gas. We stood in the shadow of a replica 20ft cross (originally placed by the Spanish priest, Bobadilla, given that the Spaniards thought this place was the gate to hell!).....Fantastic views as you can see - the camera simply can't do them justice though.

From the other side of the reserva you can see two other volcanoes, 3 lakes (including the laguna de la playa in the background of our photo) and for about 30km in most directions. On our climb up we were apprehensive about the hike and the narrow stony walkway. The winds were strong and as you know, Dani's balance has not always been the best! But we helped each other up a steep hill with unsteady footholdings in loose rock to stop every so often to take in the views! At one point we had to turn back a few meters as the most amazing thing happened. As we had just started off walking up the edge of the larger crater a few small objects started hitting me in the wind, but I didn't really take notice (as there are always bugs and bits flying around in Nicaragua). Dani had stopped and all she shouted was "bees!"... as we both looked up there were literally hundreds, maybe a thousand bees flying passed with the strong winds. All in one group around 50 foot long! Isaac said that they were emigrating at this time of year and that's why there were so many: it was a magical sight! We reached the top (see sunny photo - which looks like a very fake kind of post card! promise you it's real...) and stopped to take in the view before our one hour trek back down to the entrance. Our feet still ached the next day.

We went straight from the volcano to Catarina for a festival. It promised dancing, locals dressed up in various costumes and outfits, food stalls, street vendors and horse riding activities. If it weren't for the rain we would have seen a lot more too: though the rain did bring a fantastic view of the lagoon as the clouds lifted (see photo).

Leaving Catarina we saw the local style of brightly coloured pottery, animal statues along the side of the roads, an abundance of bird cages for sale and plastic Jesus' all mixed in with some left over Christmas decorations. Very eclectic and very beautiful! What a great new years day we had! (Part of this blog was just for you Dave n Laura: we are sure you can work out which bit).