When the Almond Tree Blooms

Hi People! This Friday evening finds me again in the city of Esteli, where I arrived to check email and do some other things I can't do in the village of Lagartillo. Let's see, it goes without saying that a lot has happened since last week. I returned to Lagatillo in the school bus and arrived sometime on Saturday. I was worn out since I over-did it my first week and needed a little more down time in Esteli. I was also confused about the promotion (graduation) that happened on Sunday. Turned out it wasn't Jahaira's (my host-mother, as they say) graduation, but the preschool graduation. She is the pre-school teacher, so it's a big deal, and one of her sisters has a son in preschool, so they came to stay with us, along with Jahaira's mother and brother. The house was a little crowded and full of activity, all kinds of cooking going on, especially on Sunday. The promotion was a bit long, but OK, it's good to have events like that because they motivate...

Hi Folks, So it's been a while since I updated. I've been in Nicaragua a week. I spent last Friday and Saturday in Leon, an interesting but very hot city in NW Nicaragua. I did a few errands and got used to being in the country. Then, on Sunday, I took a minibus to a smaller town near the mountains called El Sauce (and no, that doesn't mean 'the sauce' in Spanish), and caught a bus that took me two hours into the mountains along a dirt road to Lagartillo. The buses in Nicaragua are old school buses from the USA that are outfitted to carry all kinds of stuff and are the lifeline for rural communities, bringing in goods from the outside and taking out products from the campo (countryside). When I arrived in Lagartillo, I went to the small store near the bus stop, which happens to be the place where I'm staying. I'm living with a wonderful family, a young couple Juan Ramon and Jahaira, and their 6 year old son that we call Monchito (short for Juan Ramo...

Well, I am here in Leon, Nicaragua. I left SFO last night at 12:30 AM and took a flight to San Salvador. I had gotten myself a first-class ticket for not much more than the regular price when I bought the flight, so I traveled in style. We arrived in San Salvador in the morning, then I transferred to another flight to Managua, which was only 30 mins. I got to Managua, got my bearings, then took a taxi through town to a bus station. There, I hopped in a crowded van that drove us to Leon, a smaller city about an hour and a half north of Managua. Managua didn´t seem all too appealing to me, but Leon has been great so far. On a friend´s recommendation, I found a great inexpensive little hostel that´s family run not far from the center of town. I had lunch in Leon´s central market, which is full of all kinds of little stands selling delicious food like beans, rice, stews, soups, tortillas. I´m a little worn out from traveling, and it´s a little overwhelming here--a lot to take in. ...

It's been a while since I've written anything on this blog, but I figure it might be a good way to keep people posted on what I'm doing while I'm traveling in Nicaragua. I'm leaving this Thursday night to spend a month in that Central American country; I plan to be at a language school for three weeks or so, then travel around the country a little bit. Before leaving, I've been trying to avoid eating a lot of beans and rice, but have found it difficult given that I live in Fruitvale and work in Hayward. But, Mexican food is much different from Nica food... I'm sure I'll have much more to say about food and many other aspects of life in Nicaragua soon enough... This trip has been a long time in the planning. I've thought about going to Latin America to study Spanish for a few years now, but didn't have the money to do it until more recently. I've been planning this particular excursion for almost a year, and am thrilled that my departu...

Clothes on the line, my backyward The plum tree Plums! In my earlier post, I was lamenting the fact that I was in Oakland instead of out on a wilderness trail. Now, a few weeks later, I am still sitting here in Oakland, this time listening to the various firecrackers and other incendiary devices the neighbors are igniting in preparation for July 4th. I am getting ready to leave on a camping trip tomorrow morning. I am excited to get out of town, but overall, have been very content to be in the Bay Area during what amounts to a five week pseudo-vacation from the elementary children. In the past few weeks, I've been working at the Park Elementary garden in Hayward two to three times a week, usually for four to six hours. I've also helped out with the high school program as well at Tennyson in Hayward. On my sometimes lengthy lunch breaks, I've been savoring the tastes of Hayward: Mexican hoagies, and burritos and aguas frescas from Chavez Market. On my other days,...

This time last year, instead of sitting here in Oakland listening to car alarms and subwoofers, I was savoring the high country of Kings Canyon National Park. My friend and co-adventurer Tom and I set off for a week long loop trip through the Rae Lakes Basin, a 40 mile trip with a 7,000 foot elevation game. The backpacking odyssey took us up one river valley, over a 12,000 foot pass (the highest altitude I've ever reached), then down into the Rae Lakes Basin: a string of beautiful mountain lakes surrounded by craggy peaks and full of mosquitoes. We enjoyed our time at the lakes immensely, but were relieved to find a bug-free campsite on our last night by the Kings River. An experience as this is best seen through the pictures, which of course can't really do justice to the magnificence of the mountain wilderness I had the good fortune to pass through. The photos are arranged in chronological order, so the viewer can get a sense of the progress of the journey. One part of the...

Fog and Seastack, Olympic National Park, Washington Coast Pelicans near mouth of Hoh River, Oil City, Washington Rounding a headland north of Oil City Recently, I read an excellent book, Ivan Doig's "The Sea Runners". It's a sort of historical fiction, following four indentured servants who escape from the Russian outpost of New Archangel (now Sitka, Alaska) in a canoe and travel down the coast towards Astoria, Oregon. Doig tells the story wonderfully, making it difficult to put the book down, and bringing the perils that the four men face to life. The book also invokes the Pacific coastline of the northwest, a place I love and know well. For most of my childhood, we went camping out on the beach on the Washington Coast in Olympic National Park. We played on the sand, roasted hot dogs and tried to keep raccoons and bears away from our food. We also endured hailstorms in July, caught a glimpse a rare gray whale breaching right off a rocky point, and dodged wav...