Our lives from above

I love exploring the world through Google Earth! Type in any city, address, or landmark around the world and instantly you are there (well, kind of). We thought we'd borrow Google Earth technology and share some aerial shots of our lives in Nicaragua with you to give you a better sense of our family geography here in the beautiful land of lakes and volcanoes.

Where do we live?

Nicaragua! Honduras is to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The vast majority of people in Nicaragua live on the western side; the eastern side consists of two large autonomous regions of indiginous people and is not easily accessible.

Zoom in now to Managua. To the north is the lovely lake Managua, polluted beyond use over years and years of direct run-off from the capital city of around 1 million people. You can note the greyish color even in the satellite photos. On the map below, I've traced the route from the airport through the city to where we live (near Monte Tabor), which is about 12 kilometers outside of the city center. We are also higher in elevation than Managua, which gives us cooler temps throughout the year. 

Zoom in now again, closer to our neighborhood near Monte Tabor. You'll note the highway near us. .. it is actually the Pan American highway which will take you from the US to Panama (with a few border crossings in between). The blue circle is our neighborhood, and the star shows a wooded area that I love exploring with our dog Toby! I love being close to the city but out enough that it feels though we're in the middle of the jungle.



And here is our house (I actually put a blue circle on the wrong house! Our home is the house under the blue circle!). You can see we share a pool with 3 other houses in "La Veranera," which translates as bougainvillea flowers.  All of the houses in our complex have been empty this year (the x's) which has made for a different year for our family. The red circle is the house of our good friends and neighbors the Benthems. The black swirl is our landlady's house.

Where do we work (and go to school)? In the photo below, you can see our home and the two main routes that we use to get to Nicaragua Christian Academy, the red circle.

Zooming now into school, which is labeled on the map. "H" is House of Hope, and "T" is Tesoros de Dios. We're so thankful that all of our ministries are so close to home and all on one side of Managua.

Here is a close-up of the school campus; the red dot is my classroom. 

Our school (NCA International) is about 5 minutes from NCA Nejapa, which is near AMOS (Health and Hope) where Ruth teaches her pregnancy classes (A on the map).

Where do we shop?

We live really close to a large, modern grocery store. You can see the route from home to store in red, about a 3-minute drive. The blue arrows designate the two routes we use to get from home to school. The arrow on the left is the "cow trail" and the one on the right is the highway. Both routes have pros and cons. Cows or traffic? A choice to make every day; both get me to school about the same amount of time, depending on. . .cows or traffic.

Where do we play? Mostly we stay home, but when we do go out with friends or visitors, here are a few nearby spots we enjoy (see the numbers on the map):
1. El Crucero--you can tell that it is the highest point around, and as it is only 20 minutes away, we can drive "up the hill" for some coffee plantation hiking.
2. 1.25 hours to the Pacific Ocean. Very wavy and warm water! Our fav beach is called Los Cardones.
3. That spot on the map is actually a huge crater lake called Laguna de Apoyo. The crystal clear water is heated thermally and is my favorite place to swim in Nicaragua.
4. Granada is a historic, colorful colonial city at the foot of a volcano. Fun to climb cathedral towers and eat delicious food. Boat tours take you around small islands in Lake Nicaragua, which is clean(er) and swimmable.
5. Masaya is both a town and the name of a volcano where you can drive up to the top to peer down into a huge crater, catching glimpses of lava glowing hundreds of feet below.

We also enjoy going downtown Managua. The lakefront has lots of nice parks and restaurants (though you can't go in the water!). Great photo ops by the old historic cathedral damaged by the 1972 earthquake.

Where do we worship?
Our church is about a 20 minute drive from our house, down in Managua in a neighborhood called Las Palmas.

The building with the blue X is where we worship. It is SO hot this time of year everywhere, but especially church!

In about a month we'll being a 6-week journey all over the world! Okay, it just feels like it as we finalize plans. We'll be in New Mexico, Vermont, New York, Michigan, and Ohio. Looking forward to summer break and spending time with family and friends in the US.