Gabriel is 25!

It's a birthday, and I'll be brief!  My dear son is 25 today, and I wish I could be with him to celebrate. He is the best thing in my life, and I am so proud of his integrity, his musical gifts, his kind heart, and his sharp intelligence. He's pretty awesome-looking, too!

I'm so proud...

So Far, So Great

The sunsets seem more ephemeral than ever as I count down the days until I move into my new house in the hills. Mike and Beth often spend that time of the day in a pillared temple affair they call the gazebo that sits atop the property right on the sea wall. Drinks in hand, we watch the fireball sink into the horizon. Very tranquil.

After a lifetime of wanting to live by the sea, I can now attest to its charms most emphatically. The luscious crashing of waves, the unexpected lulls in sound, the bobbing lanterns of nighttime fishing pangas, the protean surface of the ocean, with its palette of blues, greens, grays, and whites. I shall miss the relentless march of waves to the shore, the whitecaps on windy days, the grandiosity of a sunset in a cloud-dappled sky. Happily, my new home is just an hour's bus ride from the sea, and I expect I shall be scratching that salty itch by and by.

A few weeks ago, Brynn and I started walking in the opposite direction for our early constitutionals, towards Casares. This morning, I captured a few views of our pleasant 2 1/4-mile roundtrip. This is the roundabout that joins the road east to Diriamba to the north-south highway that skirts the coastline between La Boquita and Casares. This being Semana Santa, or Holy Week, the inner circle is studded with banners

 Looking toward the sea at the rotunda, the national tourist promotion department (INTUR) thinks a young lady has nothing better to do at a lovely beach than talk on the phone...

Further down the road, we waded through a group of zopilotes, bustards who gather when something is dying. They are hungry, and do not disperse much when we stroll through. 

 A Brahma bull pokes among the littler by the road where nary a blade of grass is to be found.

Here is my turn around and head back point. Welcome to Casares!

The seaside of the road has large vacation homes. The other side of the road is mainly scrub brush and small trees, and lots of garbage. Here are a few houses, most impossible to appreciate because of the walls around them. This first, Las Ventanas (the windows) has none in sight! They must all face the sea.

Las Garzas (The Cranes)

This is the newest, built near the rotunda, reportedly by a wealthy coffee family. It is called Sorrento, which may explain the Italianate architectural features.

And here is last evening's sunset. I shall miss these most of all.

What, No Apple Tree?

Well, I am not persuaded that the last entry, Next Big Thing. was needed, as it garnered only two actual views, but still, I think the news I am about to relate warrants something of a buildup. I have decided to move; not only that, but I have found a new home in the cooler highlands near Diriamba.

When I lived near Johnstown, I lived on Route 403, which went way far from Johnstown. It was a very long and, I thought, important road.  Well, my new house is on the actual Pan-American Highway, which starts north in Canada and ends down in the southern tip of South America. That's a pretty fucking long road No one who passes my new place will notice anything but a large cement block wall with a pair of black metal garage doors.

But behind that wall is a little Eden!  The wall is the western edge of the space, which is a corner of a larger family-owned multi-acre property. The northern edge is lined with coconut trees.

Looking south from the northeast corner is a small 2-bedroom house. That tree on the far side is:

An avocado tree, with a nearby lime tree!

And the view from the lime tree is through the porch to what I thought was a grape arbor.

But turned out to be an off-season chayote frame -- My new landlady, a radiologist with the National Police, assures me that the frame will be covered with the savory green  pear-shaped vegetable by mid-summer.

 Here's the living room.

The kitchen, taken from a small dining area.

The larger bedroom

And there, to the right of the larger tree -- where the gate has been opened --that is the Pan-American Highway!

More to come! I will be back in the chicken business in May, and I have already hired a gardener! Stefan, my Managua rock, is handling dog fencing and kitchen retiling. Updates coming!

Next Big Thing

A big shift in my life in Nicaragua is in the works!  I'll have pictures and more in a few days. Stay with me, please!