Friday, April 24, 2009

Food post

**Don't forget to scroll down and look at our final Nicaragua post.

Well after allof that excitement, there was no Bojangles after all. The sign remained, but it was being transformed into a disco. Oh, well, we will save the butter biscuits and sweet tea for another time. It did get us thinking. If we were in Raleigh, we actually would want many other things before Bojanlges, which we would be low on the list. Help us think of good local restaurants in Raleigh or Boone. Here are our favorites that came to mind:

(Raleigh/Raleigh area)
Biscuit Station-puts Bojangles to shame and there is nothing more delicious than their Bologna/Egg/Cheese biscuit.

Mitch's-It was our last meal beforeleaving and will likely be one of our first coming back.

Bali Hai-Sketchy looking from the outside, some of the best food in Raleigh on the inside.

Tir-Na-Nog- Irish food is great here and the veggie sandwich is also excellent.

Baja Burrito-oh sweet baja burrito

Amedeos-ok, the food is really good, not really great, but the walls are covered in Wolfpack memorabilia

Lily's Pizza-good and weird

Abyssinia Ethiopian-delicious and unique

Goodberry's-nuff said

McClean's- Zebulon favorite, though it was better before it moved

Gallery Cafe-best restaurant in Wendell and well worth the drive from Raleigh for a great lunch.

(Boone)
Coyote Kitchen-awesome tex-mexish sort of place

Tupelo's-used to be Angelica's. I think it is just as good, but I know Helms disagrees

Peppers-awesome sandwiches

Parkway Cafe-RC Cola on tap, huge burgers, greasy vegetables, you have to go outside to use the restroom...highly recommended (actually closer to W. Jefferson than Boone)

Casa Rustica-Eye-talian deliciousness

OK, help us out with some others. Put the name and some description so we know what it is. It has to be local. (All of this makes Bojangles sounds kind of nasty actually)
Feel free to throw stuff out from other areas as well. (St. Louis-Sheebah Burger!!!)

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Into Honduras, Nicaragua photos

After nearly a month in Nicargua, we finally departed for Honduras. We spent about 11 hours yesterday on old US school busses, designed for small children and still got stuck in the capital, Tegucigalpa as we just ran out of time. So we figured we should upload some photos during the heat of the day and recap a bit since it has been a little while.

We last posted photos after leaving Granada. From there we visited Masaya. We hiked a volcano and walked the town, known for its artisans. The museum at the base of the volcano had a familiar painting. (Can you figure out why it is familiar?)


Historically this crater was believed to lead to the physical gate of hell.


From Masaya we headed to Leon. Another colonial city, as evidenced by the photo. It is more populated, has more traffic and is further from water. This all adds up to it being almost so hot that you cannot move.


We found out about a baseball game in a smaller town north of Leon and decided to check it out. It was really good baseball, decent weather and quite a cultural experience. Man to woman ratio was 20:1 and everyone was allowed to bring their own liquor into the game, so by the 7th inning things were really getting interesting. We ducked out around the middle of the 8th to try to beat what may have been a slightly unsteady crowd.


Finally unable to take any more heat, we headed to Matagalpa. Matagalpa is a beautiful little city in the mountains with pleasant weather a surrounded by very nice mountains. We did some hiking amongst birds that made beautiful noises (we could never find any of them) and howler monkeys along with various other wildlife.


We then went to a chocolate factory. El Castillo is the copmpany name and we found their chocolates all over Nicaragua. They are wonderful chocolates. The tour they gave was really nice and it is a small operation that seems to be more concerned about quality than growth and the employees took time away from their activities to explain the processes to us. If only cacoa grew in the mountains of NC!

The workers still crush the cacao with this stone (name??) giving it more texture.



It was nothing short of miraculous self restraint that kept our heads out of this machine.

We finished our time with a hike to a waterfall (trying to recover from a chocolate induced bellyache).


At every stop bus salesmen come on to try to sell whatever baked goods or fruits they might have. These kids help out their parents, but they are easily distracted and much more interested in playing with the gringos than calling out their product. A digital camera is a big hit since they get to see themselves right after the picture.


A follow up from our last blog. Helms asked us about McDonalds and you can go there to see our response. However, we are only human. We just arrived to a colonial city in Honduras and there is a... Bojangles! There is only so much temptation that two North Carolinians who have been gone from home for so long can take. We will eat extra local in the future to make up for the Southern fried deliciousness we plan to consume tonight.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Q and A with Helms

Hello from Leon, Nicaragua. It is hot but we are trying to continue to explore Nicaragua. We will try to throw a few photos up sometime soon.

We got an email from Helms with some good questions, so we figured we would answer them here just for fun:

When's the next farm? No more farms. It has been odd to look back on our original plan. We planned to spend several weeks at about 8 or 9 different farms and we left the USA with a list of over 50 farms in Latin America. Now, 7 months in, we have visited 4 farms and no longer have any plans for any farms. This has been a combination of multiple problems. The main one is that farms have just not responded back to us. The farms sign up to host volunteers and provide their information, but for whatever reason, they dont write us back. A couple have written back and have wanted us to pay them to work on their farm, which was not all that appealing. One of the farms was missing a farm (see Colombia posts) and the further north we get, the less farms are on the list. At first we were stressed and upset over this as this was the plan, however, we learned a lot and got some great ideas from our farms and have found we have learned many other important things by just travelling in these beautiful places. We still see farming as a big part of our plans and look forward to figuring out ways to learn more and start doing some farming little by little once we are settled back in in the states. So to answer the question, next farm is when we return, hopefully soon, and more than likely in or around Boone while Tracy is doing school.

What good things have you eaten lately?We had a long spell from Panama to souther Nicaragua of lots of chicken, rice and beans. It is good and we have no complaints, but variety is the spice of life, so we always appreciate it when things are mixed up a bit. Here in northern Nicaragua, a common dish is jalapeño chicken. It is chicken covered in a white jalapeño sauce that is really delicious. It comes with the usual rice and beans and cabbage salad, but we still enjoy rice and beans, so it is OK. There is also more local pizza in Nicaragua, so we do take advantage of that.

Especially breakfast food...I'm interested.Breakfast food tends to be the same as lunch and dinner food in most places. Some places offer an "American breakfast," but that is not so interesting either and tends to be for an American price. One consistent part of our trip is our love for panaderias (bakery). We usually go to the panaderia in the morning and then grab a fresh fruit juice to go with some type of sweet or cheese bread.

Are you still glad you're there?Yes, we are still really enjoying our time here and have lots of things in Nicaragua, El Salvador, honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico to look forward to.

Are you ready to come home, really?Yes. We are not wishing away any of our time here. We really are loving our travels, but at the same time, we miss seeing family, hanging out with friends, going to church, participating in and being part of a community over a long period of time among other things that we just cannot do here while travelling about. Our April Fool´s joke was fun, but we have learned that there are some things we need and dont need personally. We dont need comfy beds, air conditioning, our own bathroom, personal transportation, more than a few pairs of clothes or even the ability to throw toilet paper in the toilet. However, we do need the things we said we miss and we think it would be very hard for us to have those things we need in another place.

When's the last time you took a long and hot shower?hmmm... maybe back in ecuador when it was still cold enough for there to be hot water, we dont really remember.

When's the last time you used a toilet that flushes?Almost all of the toilets flush. However, a good question is when is the last time you were able to put toilet paper in the toilet and not in the trashcan. We cannot remember the last time, but it must have been ages ago.

Have you seen a McDonald's lately? If you did, would you consider eating there?We last saw McDonalds in Panama. Luckily not since then. We really had absolutely no urge whatsoever to eat there. If we want an upset stomach, we will go drink some tap water. We were tempted by a Taco Bell in Costa Rica, but we stayed strong and managed to eat at a local joint, as we have done 99.8% of the time on our trip.

Can one person eat too many deviled eggs at Easter?Heck no. Pickeld deviled eggs are all the better.

If you had been at home for Easter, what would have been the perfect celebration/meal? It would be the same meal we plan to request when we get home: Brocolli casserole, black eyed peas, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, squash and onions, tomato sandwich, deviled eggs (pickled?), macaroni and cheese and sweet potato pie. And sweet tea!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Nicaragua...various thoughts and photos.

We are in Granada expecting the Semana Santa (Holy Week) festivities to really pick up today. We thought we would put up some photos from our time in Nicaragua so far and throw up some random thoughts.

This is a photo of the front wall of the small church in Solentiname. Really beautiful and is in a close tie for Adam's favorite church art with First Baptist Church of Matanzas, Cuba.


We got to meet our first tarantula. For as beautiful as Solentiname was, it was really hot and full of bugs and such.


This is a picture with our friend Richard. This is a fun story that tells a lot about Nicaraguan culture. We met Richard because we wanted a drink and went into a little store. But stores are not just stores, they are usually also someone's living room. The bottles are considered valuable and the stores are persistent about getting the glass bottles back, so part of getting a drink is sitting down in the living room in a rocking chair and chatting with the people there. Richard's mother sold us the drinks and we quickly started chatting with Richard. He is a big Creedance Clearwater Revival fan, so we knew he must be a good guy. We ended spending a few days in San Carlos and spent a lot of time with him. Anything we expressed interest in, he would help us find more information about, would tell us his own stories or help us to find it somewhere. We told him we were trying to track down a Sandinista t-shirt for a friend. He went to the local headquarters, but when they were closed, he showed up the day we left with shirts from his own closet. We tried to refuse the shirts or at least pay for them, but he would have none of it and instead threw in some of his mother's home made jam and some Guayabas from the tree in his yard. A warm welcome to Nicaragua to say the least.


We headed to a small island made up of two volcanoes, one active, the other not with a small isthmus connecting the two. The boat ride there across Lago Nicaragua took about 13 hours, so we set up the hammock and tried to rest as we rocked all the way there.


The island is full of neat little communities, great swimming spots and nice hikes. This is the active volcano.


One of our longest hikes ended at the base of this waterfall. Really beautiful little place.



We found a quiet little hostel to relax in for the week. We have little to do except for read in the hammock and wander around town watching the Semana Santa festivities develop.


We are suckers for colonial cities and colorful cathedrals. Granada is a very picturesque place with a fairly nice vibe although the ex-pat invasion has really changed its dynamics and hearing English walking down any street is not out of the norm, in fact we ran into two guys from NC that went to UNC when we unfortunatley went to watch the basketball finals.

Speaking of language, we had a request for an entry on language. We still speak English with one another, however, language has been a fun thing for us. Each country has its own set of slang or its own set of accents and it is fun for people who speak good spanish to constantly try to adjust spanish to fit in with the locals. It can sometimes take a few days for the brain to catch up with a new accent, but it always happens. Here are a few examples to illustrate the point.
The word for street in Spanish is 'calle.' In Argentina, one must pronounce this 'cah-shay' or else you will likely not be understood. Here in Nicaragua, no one would have a clue what you were referring to if you said 'cah-shay' as it is pronounced, cah'yay. Another fun example of the differences also has a cultural aspect to it. In Argentina as well as several Central American countries, there is a verbe tense that is considered to be very informal. It is Second Person. The cultural aspect is particularly present in Central America. If two men are speaking to one another, it is somewhat taboo for a man to use the 'tu' form with another man, but instead is expected to use the 'vos' form (the form I refer to before as the very informal tense). It has a different conjugation from the tu form as well. In case there are aspiring Spanish speakers, I will attempt to share the conjugation, though I have never formally learned it and may be wrong (if someone sees an error, let me know).
'Vos' conjugation is just the tu form, but with the accent moved to the last vowel. The biggest difference is with irregular verbs, which become regular. For example, the tu for of querer is quieres, however the vos form would be queres, with the emphasis on the last 'es.' Tener is tienes in tu form, tenes in vos.
It is acceptable to use between women or between men and women, but is not as expected as between two men. Non native spanish speakers get a pass (as they do on many cultural expectations), and no one thinks twice if you use the tu form as a non native speaker, however, if you are able to use it, you gain points and most people are rather impressed. It can also gain machismo points, which is a whole other cultural point that is not worth going into today.

-Politics here are very interesting. We have had no less than 4-5 people in the past week and a half show us bullet wounds in their bodies and even more discuss people they lost in the war. They tell us this, usually, with a great deal of compassion in order to teach us about what they went through. They express a great deal of anger toward Ronald Reagan, but thankfully for us, they differentiate between what a former president did and what two backpackers should be held responsible for and desire our friendship. We welcome these conversations with people as they tend to be a fascinating window into that person's experiences. We often apologize on behalf of our country for its behavior in the 80's, not really sure what else we can do. We are not sure we have been granted any authority to do this by our government, but we do it anyway. Perhaps a controversial subject, but this has been a big part of our experience here in Nicaragua thus far (more so than in any other country) and thus deserves to be shared.

-Hope everyone thoroughly enjoyed our April Fools joke. We planned that one for a long time. The one thing that was true is that our parents are coming to visit us in Guatemala at the end of May. We are trying to plan lots of adventure for them.

-The beard. Adam has now been either called or compared to the following people-Osama bin Laden (ouch!), Jesus, Santa Claus, Chuck Norris (double ouch!!!), the unibomber, and Kenny Rogers.

-With the sad events of the week (the evil college basketball empire winning again), we were glad to run into this guy, sporting a happier, more holy and righteous jersey.


-We mentioned Semana Santa a few times during this post, but it may deserve a bit more attention. Semana Santa is the week leading to Easter. If we were to rate holidays on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the biggest and most celebrated, Christmas in latin america would be a 6, Carnaval would be a 4, New Years would be a 5, and Semana Santa would be an 11. The streets are often filled with processions, each church brakes out its own marching band, with an instrumentation of about 4 trumpets, 4 trombones and 4 sousaphones. Palm leaves are used liberally and many processions carry an altar that is high enough to require a person in charge of lifting the power lines up with a long wooden stick. We haven't seen the best of it, as today is Maundy Thursday and the real beginning of the festivities, so we look forward to sharing more as the week goes on.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

BIG NEWS!

Hello again from Nicaragua. We have been waiting for details to become more certain before sharing this as we have been in contact only by email until finally getting to meet with a NGO here in Nicaragua. The NGO is doing work with sustainable agriculture and we have been spending some time learning more about their projects. When we have time, we will go into detail, but they are doing really good work in the wonderful area that cris-crosses between social work and sustainable agriculture.

After having met with the folks doing the project (A group of Nicaraguans), we have been able to talk some logistics about doing volunteer work. We have been offered housing and food along with a basic living stipend in exchange for a 2 year commitment to working here in Nicaragua. So we will be spending a few weeks here doing some more training with the organization. We will then head to Guatemala to meet with our parents for a couple weeks, since they already had plane tickets to visit us, then we will return to Nicaragua to work with the project.

This is, of course, good and bad news as we were looking forward to seeing everyone, but we plan to make sure to have a few weeks back in the states around Christmas to try to see everyone´s faces, but we are excited about getting involved in something long term. More details to come.

















APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you in August!

(Don´t miss our last post about Solentiname, posted a couple days ago)