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Posted by in Costa Rica, Life, Places, Uncategorized

Costa Rica: Day 1

Costa Rica: Day 1

We booked a long weekend in San Jose, Costa Rica to renew our tourist visas. For those not in the loop, you have to leave the country for 72-ish hours every 90 days to renew your tourist visa if you are not a resident. We’re doing that in Costa Rica. We got into the airport after a short 35 minute from Managaua around 8:30 pm. The flight on Copa Airlines was quite nice for being so short. They even gave us all little beef fajita and peppers sandwiches and cookies! On arrival we exchanged some USD for Costa Rica Colon. This was a little baffling. We’re just really getting our heads wrapped around the USD to Nica Cordoba exchange rate. Just when we’re finally able to know without using a calculator what something like C$2,000 means in USD, now we have figure out something new! One good part to this is that Costa Rican money has pictures of animals on it. That’s pretty cool. We grabbed a cab to...

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Posted by in Life, Uncategorized

We Moved to Matagalpa

We Moved to Matagalpa

Well, I’m not exactly sure what to do about this blog. When we visited Matagalpa a couple of weeks ago we actually put down a deposit on a rental and this past week moved to Matagalpa. I’m no longer a Gringo in Granada! Obviously I will keep writing for this blog, but my dilemma is that I’m not sure what to call it. “Gringo in Matagalpa” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as “Gringo in Granada” although I guess it’s not too bad. But who knows if we’ll stay in Matagalpa. We certainly didn’t expect to leave Granada so soon. Within six months I might be a Gringo in Léon or Esteli, although I doubt it. I think we’ve decided to hunker  down here for a while, especially since Levi will be starting school here and since Matagalpa is such a nice place so far. I’m leaning toward a name that is more general in nature. Something about Nicaragua, not a specific town. Still, “Gringo in Nicaragua”...

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Posted by in Life, People, Uncategorized

We Made Shelves

We Made Shelves

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you’re already quite aware that we are awesome at making things. For instance, the awesome BBQ grill we made. Well, our craftiness doesn’t stop there, kids, not by a long shot. Today we made some shelves! We’ve been seriously needing more surface area around here, but being in a rental and trying to save money, we haven’t really wanted to invest in real furniture. Although, there are some SERIOUSLY AWESOME furniture shops off the highway between Granada and Managua. When we build or buy a house we’ll certainly pick up furniture along that highway. In the mean time…we made some damn shelves! For the design we decided to go with the timeless, classic look of College Sophomore Chic incorporating cinder blocks and wooden planks. It’s reminiscent of a college sophomore who’s just moved into his first apartment and realized “Oh shit, I don’t have anything to put my shit on!” which is usually shortly followed by the realization of “Oh...

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Posted by in Life, Uncategorized

Thoughts on Our Initial Trip to Nicaragua

Thoughts on Our Initial Trip to Nicaragua

Things are pretty settled-in here – normal and routine – and have been for a while but sometimes, just occasionally, I’ll step outside to go somewhere and as I’m locking up the door a horse-drawn carriage will pass by or an entire family on a motorcycle or kids coming home from school in their uniforms or I’ll catch a glimpse of the cathedral over the rooftops and think to myself, “Holy shit I’m in f**king Nicaragua! When did that happen?!” It’s a really strange revelation every time it strikes, but is always energizing and crazy at the same time. Even though, as I said, we’ve reached a level of normalcy here, when the realization strikes, it’s like I’m suddenly back to our first day here saying to myself, “WTF happens now?!” because when we first arrived we knew nothing, save for a few mental images from the Internet. When I think back to our initial trip here I find myself both impressed and amazed with us at how smooth...

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