Thurs., Jan. 12

From Pratik:

Hola! I am currently sitting on the patio of our condominium in San Juan del Sor facing the bay and the mountains. The view from up here is so beautiful and very serene. This is truly the good life. Although, I must say, we had a bit of a disappointment all because of our dear Lily. The entire trip, she had led us to believe that we would be staying right on the beach, and when she realized on the bus that we were only twenty minutes away and that we couldn’t drop out of the trip at this point, she decided to tell us that the beach is actually thirty minutes away from here and that we’re just staying on the bay. It was quite the fun bus ride to hear her break the news to us, but nonetheless, there is no way that I can complain because the view from here is beautiful, the temperature is perfect, the water is so serene, and I’m sure everyone reading this at home is suffering from the cold weather.

Today was actually one of my favorite days of the trip so far, and I’m glad I get to blog about it. We started our day with a bike tour of Grenada (what better way to start the day?) We were originally supposed to leave in the morning for the tour at 9:30, but by the time our tour guide Frank got all the bikes out and lowered almost every single person’s seat, it was about 10:30. However, in retrospect, I have to say thank god we only started at 10:30. The sun was beating down quite hard and it’s definitely not the easiest thing to bike around Grenada while being mindful of all the traffic. We were all pretty tired by the end. The tour was really awesome though….we hadn’t really gotten a chance to truly check out the city and all that it has to offer, so riding a bike around was definitely a great way to get to know Grenada better. First, we biked to the lake (which I had no idea existed before we biked there) and the view there was absolutely beautiful. We biked with the lake to our left for quite some time, and it was just awesome to look left from time to time and see the water and mountains in the distance. We also got to see a lot more of the local life in Grenada, saw a lot of animals on the streets, and got honked at by probably thirty or forty vehicles which I can assure you gets quite annoying. Our tour guide’s name was Frank and he was definitely a really cool and good tour guide. I learned that there are actually 365 tiny islands in Grenada, and he took us out by one of them. He told us a great story about fisherman going out in the night to catch fish. He said that they go out around 1 or 2 AM and use only the moon and the stars as light. Hearing these kinds of stories really got to me because I think it’s great how simple of lives some of these people live. Coming from college park where there are so many lights and I can never lay outside and even see the stars because of this light pollution, it was awesome to hear a story like this and was very eye-opening. After stopping at this little island (and taking hundreds of pictures of course) we biked to some other spots in the city. The most intense part of the biking was definitely the fact that we were on some very busy, narrow, and crowded roads at some point. It was fun to coordinate the traffic and bike safely around the city while seeing the different sights. We finally got back at 12:30 exhausted but very pleased with the trip. As I stated, before this bike trip we really hadn’t gotten the chance to explore the city and see what Grenada was like, so it was definitely a good experience.

We were supposed to leave soon after getting back, so we grabbed lunch at Tip Top which is one of the most prominent fast food chains here in Nicaragua. They were all about fried chicken and French fries, but it was really good and the food felt really good after the long bike ride. After eating lunch, we got on the bus and headed to Juan Polina’s pottery store. This might have been my favorite visit of the entire trip so far. When we walked in to the store, we headed to the back where much of his family was located. His brother in law was sitting at the potter’s wheel. When we first entered, he was simply holding a piece of clay and molding it with his hands and was running the wheel with his legs. The next thing I knew, he was magically shaping the clay into a tall pot. Five minutes later, it was solidified and was being passed around to touch. I was so amazed by how quickly he did it and the fact that he seemed to have just put shape into this piece of clay magically. Juan Polina talked to us about all the different things that go into making his various pots, and he showed us pots at different stages in the process similar to how people do it on cooking shows. A lot of the stuff he told us about was so interesting, such as the fact that he uses his children’s hair to make the paintbrushes he uses, and also that he uses a toothbrush to flick water onto his pots. Before going to Juan Polina’s store today, I had been wondering what makes him one of the best known artisans in Nicaragua, but after this presentation I believe that it is pretty clear what separates him from artisans in the area. He pays such meticulous attention to detail (as evidenced by his paintbrush story) and he has a very good model running in his house currently. I think it helps him that it is a completely family run business, as everyone who was in his shop either making the pots or painting is a member of his family. Both his wife and he produce the pots, and his wife handles all the transactions. After his presentation to all of us, I’m pretty sure every single one of us bought one of his items because there were just so many great items.

After visiting with Juan Polina, we stopped briefly at a furniture store before taking off for San Juan del Sor. Almost the entire group slept on the bus ride there, and so Dillon and I were busy taking pictures of people at their finest. Let’s just say….we are not an attractive group of sleepers. After checking into Jane’s hotel, we headed out for dinner at El Timon. It was a really authentic experience as they had native dances and performances throughout the night before opening up the dance floor to everyone. We all did a little bit of dancing with Zaida, Pat, and Edwin before the night was over. Overall, today was a really fun day. I felt like I really saw some of Nicaragua today, and my eyes were really opened by the presentation that Juan Polina gave. Hope you all enjoyed reading about our day!