On Tuesday, I was hanging out back in San Miguelito when my friend Jesser invited the mural crew to go visit his family's farm. While I was hanging out in America, growing fat on cookies (although not too fat, thanks to the parasites I apparently picked up before Christmas), my sitemate and 3 friends were hard at work painting a Nicaraguan map mural on the primary school.
To celebrate the end of the project and Jesser's heading off to college in Managua soon, we went to hang out and eat repochetas (fried tortilla topped with beans, cheese and cabbage/tomato salad) at the farm, just outside the town of San Miguelito, and right along the coastline.
Jesser acted as our "tour guide," showing us all the different plants and animals at the farm and picking bags of sweet and sour oranges off the trees.
Repochetas! Repochetas!
Jesser acted as our "tour guide," showing us all the different plants and animals at the farm and picking bags of sweet and sour oranges off the trees.
For the Clayton family plant enthusiasts, this is what they get dragonfruit from.
Jesser's grandfather picking oranges
The other day, one of my mom's friends had asked me if people in San Miguelito used money for financial transactions. I told her that of course people did, but also that people use gifting of mostly agricultural items to establish bonds and share with each other. However, on this particular day, we got to take advantage of some local youths' ambivalent feelings about capitalism to take a little paseo along the coastline.
We were sitting on the coast having a grand old time eating freshly picked oranges when we saw some kids come by in a boat. Someone decided that it would be a good idea to go for a boat ride, so we sent Kleydy to talk with them and see if they would give it to us. They were into it and said they wouldn't charge us if we could row. We didn't go far, just to see the start of the wetlands along a nearby river, but we had a beautiful and fun hour or so in the boat, despite minor brushes with plants and some wobbliness.
We eventually returned the boat to the kids in time to watch a gorgeous sunset from the shore, and gave them a bunch of oranges and American chocolates for their troubles before making a short walk back into town.
More snacks!!
What are we doing in this boat??????
We eventually returned the boat to the kids in time to watch a gorgeous sunset from the shore, and gave them a bunch of oranges and American chocolates for their troubles before making a short walk back into town.
Have I mentioned lately how beautiful this place is??
