Fiestas Patrias! and Grandma!

It's Independence Day in Nicaragua, and for us that means special patriotic school programs and a few days off of school as well! This week is also great because we have mom/grandma Jan here with us! Here's how we spent the last few days:

Henry and Mae dressed in traditional Nicawear in order to participate in NCA's annual program, full of traditional songs and dances. Click here to see more on Youtube. Want to just see "Mr. Ippel" in the much-anticipated teacher dance? Click here!

Charlotte donned a blue and white dunce cap and marched around the block near her preschool, banging on a drum! She looked a little dazed and confused, but still enjoyed it!

We left immediately after the NCA program and lunch to head 2.5 hours south to Playa Coco, where we stayed in a house near the beach with Jan for two nights. What a special treat! First time leaving Managua since being back.

While the house wasn't very fancy (perfect for kids), the toilet paper sure was.

The pool was a great non-salt water option for swimming, too!

We all tried our hand at surfing, without much success (excepting Henry!) Andrew quit immediately after noticing he was surfing a wave next to four large stingrays. After he got out, we watched the stingrays swimming around in the shallows for a while. Scary.

Five minutes from our house was Playa la Flor, known for it's protected "turtle beach." At night, you can often encounter mother turtles of the "Olive Ridley" variety climbing out of the sea, digging deep holes, and squirting out 50-100 eggs before burying their eggs and heading back into the sea. We were very fortunate to see many turtles! In about 50 days, babies will be erupting out of the sand heading back into the ocean. 

The next morning, we rode in an old fishing boat to look for turtles swimming around the bay in the water. Again, we were lucky! We saw around 40 turtles, including a few turtles that were "dancing" according to Mae!

Henry and I enjoyed a hike from our beach to Playa la Flor, though it ended with a near-death experience of being stuck on a crumbly cliff together with thorny trees and biting ants.

We ended our journey with lunch and a stroll through San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua's 2nd most popular tourist destination (after Granada). A fun place to be for a while, though I was happy we stayed in a more secluded area as it seems to be a "party" town.

While we had an awesome time exploring God's creation and meeting some pretty cool wild creatures in Nicaragua, we're mostly thankful to be with Jan and thankful for her adventurous spirit! Looking forward to a few more days together!