The Savage Traveler: Nicaragua: Part 5

Saturday, June 28: Today was to be more of a cultural experience day for us. We spent the morning at a parcela project just down the road from Don Pedro’s. The farmer here had a fascinating personal history, having been with the Contras and the Sandinistas, and had lived in Cuba and Russia. He now runs a small organic farm established with the help of CEPAD. He took us for a tour of his small farm, showing us mango, lemon, lime, pineapple, orange, yucca, plantains, bananas, and any number of other crops. He demonstrated how he plants on the hillsides, where it was steep enough to be uncomfortable to stand in one place. Then he put us to work, planting plantains and then yuccas. He and his young son laid out rows and rows of each for us to plant and we did so for an hour or so in the humid heat, until we had slowly all given up and made our way back down to the road to have bottles of coke from a tiny store across the street. It tasted incredibly delicious by then!

Notice the many little legs under the hen's breast.
She had a whole brood under there!

This proud Tom was constantly strutting his stuff, causing Marv to caution,
"If your display lasts more than 4 hours, call your veterinarian."

Carolina translates as the farmer explains his farming techniques

Felix and the farmer

Carolina shows us a cashew as they come off the tree.

Digging the planting hole

Putting in a plantain

Marv and Hannah show off their plantain

The group gets started with the planting

The little boys found us Gringos to be pretty amusing

Enjoying our Cokes while we chat with a local high school student

After lunch at Don Pedro’s we drove a short way the other way to Santa Cruz, where we broke into two groups. The men went up the hill to play baseball with youth and men of the village, while the women stayed below for a demonstration of how they make corn tortillas and two kinds of traditional mango drinks. My stomach was still feeling queasy so I didn’t last long in the sweltering kitchen. But I sat with some others on the porch where we had a nice breeze and we chatted. When the kitchen group was finished, they all came outside and joined in the conversation. Presumably because the men were not there, we had a much better talk than the day before, with more give and take. The women asked us what a day in our lives was like and the group of children that were there sang a few songs for us. It was probably my favorite time of the whole trip. I’ll let Marv tell about his afternoon:

So when you are in the “mountains” where do you find a baseball diamond? We climbed a steep hill that opened to an area that was the ball field. Work had been done to raise a corner of the field and make room for home plate, including a short backstop. Right field fell away down a big hill. Any ball hit that direction was an automatic double. We found that the game had already started so we had a chance to watch. These guys were good! The field was incredibly bumpy and their ability to adjust to the ball as it bounced off of one thing and then another was impressive. They also hit the ball hard and were fast. They gave us a chance to play and four of us took part, Grant, Alex, Kris, and myself. They took pity on us and slowed the pitching down considerably. The bats were enormous and it was clear that they had been turned by someone locally and were not purchased in a store. We all got a hit, but we found that it was a very long run to first base, and the time I got to third base I found that it was an uphill run to get there. Playing the field was also interesting as the field was so rough, but we had a good time and everyone had fun. After a couple innings we retreated to the sidelines and watched as the young men and youth continued the game they had been playing. It was good to be included but the situation did not lend itself to conversation.

The evening plan included a campfire in the farmyard and a farewell time with the community. As it turned out, the only ones we met with were the extended family of Don Pedro. But it allowed us time to talk with the women who had cooked for us and to thank them and to learn more about the folks with whom we had been living for four days. We presented Don Pedro with a t-shirt like the group had worn and expressed our appreciation for all they had done for us.