Cuidado! Cocos Cayendo!

So this is going to be a short little entry on one of the most amazing aspects of Nicaragua that I have encountered so far: the coconuts. There are obviously a lot of palm trees around here, and most of them have coconuts chilling in their upermost areas.

The forbidden fruits in all of there glory...with Adam taking the initiative and harvesting from above

As you might have spotted right off the bat, yes, there is also a man up in the tree with the coconuts. That is how they are harvested. Someone climbs up the palm tree, no ropes or anything, and works around up top cutting loose the coconuts. The rope that you do see in the picture is not for the safety of the man, but for the safety of the coconuts. He cuts loose a whole bunch of the fruits, ties their main stalk to the end of the rope, and then they are slowly lowered down over the other side of a branch. This is what the bunch looks like:

Obviously, the process could be a lot less dangerous with a shorter palm tree or if you decided to try to find a remarkably long stick/pole to break them down with. However, no one was complaining and everyone enjoys a nice cool bit of coconut water and some fresh coconut meat...

Abbie and I

Sergio

Cecilia

Andrés somehow got his hands on two

So basically a machete is used to hack the peel/hide away from the correct end of the coconut and then (correct end because there is a weak spot on this end) you are able to make a hole in the actual coconut fruit and drink the water. After this the machete is used to hack the coconut in half and the meat is able to be consumed. Quite a process, but easily worth it in the end! ...especially if you are not the one ever in danger throughout the whole ordeal!

The coconut halved 

A Taste de La Vida Pacífica

To start this post off, it is important to know that I am not talking about the "peaceful life" when I say "vida pacífica". Although it is potentially a peaceful life as well, I am referring to the "Pacific life". Just over a week ago, a group of us students and a couple teachers decided to take a little one day vacation to a place called San Juan del Sur. It is one of the most southern town in Nicaragua and is right on the Pacific coast. It was a much needed little break from what has become a very busy stint here at Casa Xalteva. We hired a driver for the day, each put in $10.00, and he took us down at 7:00 and brought us back around 18:00. It was a small town but very beautiful. I have heard that there are many different beaches in the area, but we stayed on the main beach that is right alongside the town. It was a day of relaxing on the beach, tanning, burning, kicking the ball around, swimming, and some exploring in the town as we scavenged around for food.

The waves were actually quite large and we had a ton of fun attempting to body surf on them. San Juan del Sur is a surfing location...and some of the nearby beaches have much larger waves I have heard. 

It is almost impossible to see in this picture, but on the cliff in the distance there is a Jesus statue, somewhat similar to that of Rio de Janeiro 

A couple of the girls in the group had already been here and recommended a pizza place for lunch. It turned out to be quite the delicious choice!

Post pizza picture

That is the little pizzeria that we went to (the orange building)

On our way back to the beach

Here are some last pictures of the beach setup, the group, and the ride home.

Packing up, unfortunately, and about to leave the shade of the Toña umbrella. There are 2 different beers in Nicaragua: Toña and Victoria...they basically taste exactly the same, with Toña having an additional .3% of alcohol content. So they are basically the same, exactly the same. 

I felt like I was on a Corona commercial. "Find your beach."

Gabriela (one of the Spanish teachers, in front) and Kate (a consultant at Casa Xalteva)

From left: Gerald (another teacher), Anne-Sofie, and Katrine (both from Denmark) 

Katrina and I were stuck in the far back of the SUV on the ride back...both sufficiently burned as you can see. 

A last little fun fact for this past couple weeks is that I found a scorpion in Casa Xalteva one evening. Not only did I found a scorpion, but the scorpion had found a cucaracha (cockroach) and was locked in epic battle with it. Not only had the scorpion found a cucaracha, but it had found the largest, most disgusting cucaracha I have seen in my life. Cecilia and I swept the 2 of them into a 5 gallon bucket and left them for Andrés  (the amazingly talented all purpose employee of Casa Xalteva), who dispatched of the two of them a couple hours later. 

It almost looks as if the cucaracha is winning at this point...

...I feel like we might have altered the workings of fate with the sweeping and transfer process, however.