Day 6 Nicaragua

Day 6 July 8th, 2007:


Up at about 9:30 with Jason saying “Get up Get up Get up!” We had to be checked out by 11 am but Lee was going to do something with Ak so Jason, Amy and I went to the café to get some breakfast and then the park and got more jewelry and things until we had to be back. After we all met back there and checked out. They all talked about what the rest of the day’s plan was (I was ignoring them because I just do what they do anyway) Amy and I wanted Lee to see all the jewelry and things so we took her back to the park well Ak used an internet café for bit. Everyone bought at least another little thing and then we were on our way. Velvet and Isa had left that morning so I actually sat in the cab of the truck for the first time and realized how much more comfortable that is. I guess we were going to Masetape to go on a Canopy tour. But we stopped at two other towns on the way to look at things. See there is this group of towns…each one specializing in one craft. We stopped at the pottery one and the furniture one so they could get ideas for the house. In the pottery one we saw some of the most intricate things I have ever seen! Jenn’s work looks like child’s play compared to these. And they have piles and piles of it, most of it in the families’ houses which are just open for people to come and go as they please. In the furniture one everything was beautiful. We stopped at a lot of them but I stayed in the truck and read after the first couple because they are all very similar. A lot have whicker but other things as well. I couldn’t tell you what kinds of wood it is because they don’t have any trees I recognize. They have some that look like beech but I don’t think they are and honestly I would have no idea what beech wood would look like in a chair. But the whole town is full of carpenters and they are so talented. It’s a skill that is passed down from generation to generation and it really shows. They have so many rocking chairs. That’s what everyone pretty much does in the evenings…they sit out on the street, usually a lot of the family, and drink and talk. Ak and Lee didn’t buy anything but I think they got some ideas of what they would get.

So we headed to Masetape to go on the canopy tour. You may be wondering what that is… well…ever seen those pictures in brochures of people zooming through trees on cables? Yea…that’s what a Canopy tour is. I was wicked scared at the idea but of course did not say that. Once we got there, there was this big group of Nicaraguans, it looked like a big high school group playing some game but we couldn’t figure out what it was. Lee talked to the woman at the information desk and then we waited in a bamboo hut thing for a truck to come down the Volcano to get us. We got ice cream from a guy with a little cart, things they have everywhere here. But they are all the same brand (Eskimo) and are fine to eat because they are all packaged and everything.

At the top of the Volcano (we couldn’t tell it was one but that’s what Lee said) there was another small building with all the harnesses hanging from poles. Looking up into the trees we could see a few cables and the platform in a tree. As we looked up we could see people slide into the platform on the cables. They seemed to work there, they were very comfortable swinging from tree to tree. As we got strapped into the harnesses and started climbing up the stairs to the platform in the tree I watched the ground get further and further away and the knots in my stomach get tighter and tighter. Standing more than 30 ft in the air attached by nothing but a carabineer is a bit of a thrill. I watched as Jason, then Amy, then Akhil got hooked onto the cable by a pulley and sped away into the canopy. Lee was behind my wondering why on earth she’d said she’d do this again (I guess they’d all done it in Costa Rica) but as I got hooked on I stopped thinking about that and started thinking about the long way it was down and how fast they all looked like they’d be going. As I stepped off the platform I was expecting my stomach to drop but it really wasn’t bad. We had glove to grab the cable to brake and there are guys at either end to show you and catch you. Lee and Ak did not like it the first couple trees and I think Lee was scared the whole time but the rest of us got used to it after a couple. It was all above a coffee farm and the trees were phenomenal! One of them was over 350 years old. The branches coming out the top were bigger than a lot of trees we have at home. After we got through all fifteen platforms and Jason and Amy had finished doing crazy things like upside down and no handed we all got down and went back to the bottom. It was such a fun thing to do even if it was a little wet and rainy. We got lots of good pictures and the guys took videos with Lee’s camera.

After everything we finally headed back to the house. I couldn’t wait to get back and relax, and sleep. Which I what I am going to do in a minute.

Oh- and Jason found a scorpion in one of the chairs in our house. They’re really look cool in real life. The annoying gecko keeps making the annoying chirping noises though. Night.