My Nicaraguan Wildlife Adventure

The Moth and the Gecko

Moth: Oh look at the pretty light, I think I will go touch it. 'HOLY SHIT, that light is hot I better go rest on the wall and regroup. Try again in a second or two.
Gecko. Mmmmm, moth.
Ken. Hey Moth the gecko is stalking you and all you can do is fly around the light, bump your head land on the wall, regroup and do it again. The gecko knows this as well.
Gecko: Looking at me with his beady gecko eyes  "shut the fu** up Ken, I am hungry".
The moth then did his dance of joy with the light, the gecko pounced and with a full belly flipped me the bird with his gecko finger. He then scampered off to his gecko home. It was no African Lion vs. Water Buffalo struggle but the 4 inch gecko was all green, icky and really really scary.

Life in the Wilds of Nicaragua! Home for the next month or so is a 7 bedroom villa. It is owned and operated by Maria and her daughter Elbia. Between their abuse of the English language and my Forrest Gump style Spanish there is confusion but just as much laughter. Maria is well educated and appears to be in her late 50s. Elbia is 23 and carries a quiet strength that she certainly gets from Maria. Maria is the 4th generation to live in this villa so it goes without saying she has lived through the hard historical times of Leon and Nicaragua. Hopefully as we get to know each other and build some trust she may open up to me and tell me about the times in the 70s and 80s. However I am not going to push it. I think for some it is in the past and best forgotten.

The first couple of days have been fun with a few stumbles along the way. Did you really expect anything less from me? I have a set of keys and of course jammed the wrong key into my bedroom door lock to everyone's great amusement. Next came the great flood. This is the rainy season and it rain hard every day. The water accumulates in great torrents down the streets, meets at the intersections, joins the running water from the other directions and heads down to the local river, getting larger and faster along the way. It is a bit intimidating and its suggested to find a spot and jump over it. With my normal sense of "ah fu** it" I walked through what I thought was a small stream of running water. Much to the delight of one of my house mates Jersey Girl Briana. I lost one flip flop, then the other and then found myself splashing down the street after them. I rescued one, put it on and immediately lost it again. This was now a life and death struggle for footwear survival. My Havaianas depended on me!! Running, splashing, avoiding on coming traffic, dipping and laughing like a fool I rescued my flip flops from certain death. Jumped on the sidewalk, slipped them on, cursed the water gods and wandered confidently down the street. Just as I was regaining my composure Briana, who is laughing hysterically says to me. "See, you try to be cool and end up looking like an idiot". "Well that's not the first time I have had someone say that to me I retorted". I showed her!!

My first few days were filled with great street food, parades and banging drums at 8:00 am, firecrackers and Tsunami/earthquake sirens 3 times a day and night, amazing lightning and rainstorms, cold Toña, scary geckos and stifling heat. Now its time to settle in, get past this TEFL course, contact Quetzaltrekkers about some volunteer opportunities and start working.