Here I am in our house showing off the first fruit of our mango tree. The majority are still green on the tree, but the ripe ones fall to the ground and they are so good. In this photo I'm enjoying a piece of our mango with some homeade tamale wrapped in a banana leaf.
A glimpse of local life. There aren't many good jobs out there in Malpaisillo, so the men spend their time shining shoes or getting their shoes shined. Mason's planning on getting his flip flops shined soon.
This is in our friend Sarah's (right) site in the beautiful, cool mountains of Matagalpa. Note the sweatshirts- people in Malpaisillo don't even know what a sweatshirt is! We went up there for a day with our friend Meghan (left).
We went on a fabulous jungle hike near Sarah's town. The path crossed through the trunk of this tree. You can look up inside it all the way to the top! The trail ends at a stunning waterfall of which there are no pics because it was showering us with water. We got in and took a refreshing dip.
A nice nature scene along the path, taken from inside the previous tree.
This says "Danger Mines (meaning land mines)" They even have special yellow caution tape for this situation. A subtle reminder we are still in northern Nicaragua! Remnants from the Contra war.
We helped a local environmental group plant over 1,000 seeds in their new tree nursery! We have three varieties of trees we hope to spread around the municipality in a few months. The other
chele (white person) in this picture is our friend Greg whose site is about 45 minutes from us.
Here is the complete nursery. Lots of little bags full of dirt and seeds. They all have sprouts already!
Many trees in the area are giving seed now, so Mas and I went and collected a bunch from a giant tree called
Guanacaste. We had to take the seeds out of the pods, which was a large task made much easier with the help of 6 neighborhood
chavalos (kids).
Our little town market, where the busses to and from Leon pass daily. Yes, the busses here are generally old school busses from the USA. The big shadows on the street are from our favorite tree in town, the giant
Cieba. It easily shades the entire market. A main source of employment for the men are
triciclos. They wait for passengers to get off the busses and they give them a ride for 3
cordobas anywhere in the town. They end up spending most of their day waiting around, but they definitely get some exercise here and there!
Another favorite pastime... Sitting around. These people can sit for hours without noticing the time go by. This photo was taken at the bar in our market. Its the only place to sit down while waiting. (Notice they are all wearing pants, and it sure isn't cold.)
