Welcome to Winthrop Washington!

We have been slacking off on the blog! Maybe it has something to do with the easy going groove of the Methow Valley! For the past two weeks we have been calling Winthrop, Washington home and absolutely love it http://www.winthropwashington.com/index2.html. This little gem of a town is located in north-central Washington up against the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains (south and a bit west of Osoyoos, BC). Set in the beautiful Methow (pron: "Met-how") River valley, Winthrop is a western-theme town and for good reason, the area is home to numerous ranches, hay farms and horses seem to occupy most properties. So what brought us to Winthrop for the month of March? Some of the best cross-country skiing in the lower 48. The Methow Valley Sport Trail Association track sets 200 km of trail in the local area http://www.mvsta.com/ski.html. Unfortunately the snow pack or temperatures haven't behaved this year and we only got two weeks of skate skiing in before they called the grooming season. Nevertheless we were able to get a good feel for many of the trails and see some beautiful country. Next time we will come in February. Or maybe we will just move here!

Methow ski legs

Kids on Goat Creek bridge near the village of Mazama

Sun Mountain trails

chillin' at Chickadee hut

Sofia on Cub Creek trail "does this hill ever end?"

Sofia discovers a pumpkin whoopie pie

Sullivan ready to go at Sun Mountain

Overland trail sunshine

Our house - Cottonwood Cottage

On the banks of the Methow River

Hot day on the trails

Friendly neighbor

Sonnet, enjoying being back with the family

Winthrop FYI

Main drag Winthrop

sweet shop

What brought us here

Ernesto Cardenal and farewell Nicaragua

If you stay long enough in a country you are bound to run into someone of significance. During our last days in Nicaragua we ended up in Granada for a night during their International poetry festival. This is a big deal for the country where over 200 poets flood the city for a week. This year's motto was "Poetry is the song of the Cosmos" and was in honor of poet, sculptor, priest and activist Ernesto Cardenal.

The official banner of the poetry festival

 We had no idea who Ernesto Cardenal was but agreed that he definitely looked like a poet. That evening we went out for dinner to La Claraboya Restaurante, a place we had not tried. Turned out it was probably the best meal (and service) that we had in Granada. We highly recommend this place! To our surprise, while we were waiting for our meal, in walked Ernesto Cardenal along with a host of other people. They sat at a table next to us and were treated like royalty by the owner and staff. We immediately recognized him and began "googling" his name to find out more about him. To our surprise he was born in Granada, Nicaragua in 1925 and has had a significant impact on the country's culture, politics and catholicism throughout his life. Most interestingly, from our perspective, is that he played an active roll in the initial Sandinista revolution that began in 1954 and ultimately lasted until 1979 when the Somoza dictatorship was toppled. His poetry played an influential role in defining the turmoil of the time and injustices faced by the common people such as in the work Hora 0 ("Zero Hour"). He has won a multitude of international awards and is referred to today as the most important poet in Latin America. Naturally we were distracted by the man's presence in the same restaurant as us and when it came time for him to leave we interrupted his departure for a picture, which he graciously agreed to. So here is our closing set of pictures from Nicaragua starting with, Sullivan, Ernesto and Sofia at La Claraboya Restaurante in Granada, Nicaragua. What stood out the most about Nicaragua was the people. We absolutely loved their ease of smile, willingness to help or openness to talk. All of us are looking forward to a return visit and hopefully we will run into some of our new friends.

Ernesto Cardenal with Sullivan and Sofia

Sullivan ripping it up at Playa Hermosa

Mostly what Sullivan looked like during our holiday

Catching the last rays

Grandma at Playa Hermosa

Barb and Leyla enjoying the playa

Chips off the old blocks

Playa Ostional, searching for shells

Cerveza Toña at playa Hermosa

Our last night with our caretakers Alfredo and Luis

Sofia and her friend Jimmy the lizard

Sullivan and Sofia with their teacher Lucia at the Latin American Spanish School in San Juan Del Sur

My friend on Isla Ometepe

Horseback riding at Haris' Horses on Isla Ometepe

Brahma calf on Ometepe beach

Lunch on Volcan Merida beach

Farewell

Tips on tipping in Nicaragua

First of all, I don't claim to be an expert on this subject but I did learn a thing or two during our 6 week trip to this lovely country. When we first arrived in Nicaragua I felt a little unprepared for the service we were about to recieve at the airport. While waiting for our baggage at the carousel two gentlemen offered to help us collect our bags and get them out the door to our rental vehicle. I immediately welcomed the help because between the four of us we had way too much luggage and there were no carts around. These fellas had a trolley so it was all good and they also expedited us through the final luggage scanner (yes, there is an x-ray procedure after you collect your bags before exiting the airport building). I really appreciated the help and these two guys worked hard to get our excess luggage out smoothly. At this point I knew a tip was in order but I was left guessing what was fair, I had know idea! The last thing I wanted to do was not pay them fairly. In the end I figured $5 would be OK and I think that was pretty reasonable. After this introduction to some great Nicaraguan service I decided to look into what the average Nica in the service industry might earn. I understood that Nicaragua was a poor country but I had know idea that most people earn less than $3000/year. This equates to about $10/day. From some of the other reading I have done on the web it looks like a typical daily wage in the service sector might fall between US$5-$10/day. After this research I realized that I could make a difference in someone's day with a tip (propina in spanish) that wasn't going to break my travel budget even remotely. In restaurants a voluntary 10% tip is added to most bills which is good because it separates it out from the 15% government tax that is also on the bill. We got in the habit of leaving extra cordobas for the service since the 10% was being shared with the cooks as well. During a trip over to Isla Ometepe we hired a guide to take us up the Rio Istian on kayaks. We paid good money for the trip ($100 for a motor boat over to the river, 4 kayaks and a guide for 3 hours) but felt the local guide did an excellent job so we tipped him about 200 cordobas ($8). Again, not a huge amount of money for us but it may have doubled his wage for the trip, which is quite significant. I was also very impressed by the service we recieved when we took our rental car in for a cleaning. For 120 cordobas ($5) two guys hand washed and waxed the vehicle, vacuumed the interior, polished the windows and wiped down the interior! I love this kind of service!! I was so impressed that I had to give them a couple extra dollars (50 cordobas) so they could at least have a cerveza on me. At our rental house, which we had occuppied for 6 weeks, there was a caretaker/gardener that we had grown to really like and appreciate during our stay. He was also checking in with us to make sure that we were comfortable and had everything we needed, more importantly, he was our window into the Nicaraguan people. Leyla had many long conversations with him about his life and living in Nicaragua. I wanted to leave a good tip for him at the end of our stay and I struggled with this one a little. In the end we decided $80 was decent, after all, we had enjoyed his beautiful gardens for 6 weeks! This was more than a week's worth of wages for our caretaker so I suspect he was thrilled but again not a huge amount for us. What we came to realize in Nicaragua is that you can expect good service and you can expect service sometimes unexpectedly. Therefore it is important to be prepared and carry some $1 bills or 20 and 50 cordoba bills around. A dollar or two will make a big difference in this country where you are guaranteed to receive service with a smile.