Couldn’t resist – these birds (Blue-Crowned Motmots) are so beautiful! Look who brought a friend to visit me this morning at La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel. This branch is just outside my bedroom window.
One more motmot photo… Read More »
My conversation teacher for the third week at La Mariposa Escuela de Español (we change conversation teachers each week) was Layda. In our first class, we started talking about interests and I found out she’d recently done a community course on beaded jewelry making. Given my love of jewelry I asked her more about it and she suggested that
Jewelry making in Conversation classes Read More »
It’s Semana Santa (Holy Week) here in Nicaragua and La Mariposa Spanish School put on a special trip for us so we could see the Vía Crucis Acuático around Las Isletas near Granada. After driving from an hour, we arrived in Granada at 8am and headed straight for our boat. We most definitely were not
Vía Crucis Acuático – Las Isletas, Granada, Nicaragua Read More »
After catching many glimpses over the past weeks, I finally had a wonderful view of a Guardabarranco, the national bird of Nicaragua, this morning. It was just outside my bedroom window at La Mariposa Spanish School and EcoHotel and I managed to get a fairly good picture of it (see below on the right). Many
Guardabarranco vs Blue-Crowned Motmot – the difference Read More »
What do you do on a Friday night in a small town in rural Nicaragua? Go to the Nicaragua international Jazz Festival of course! Touring Managua, Leon, and the tiny San Marcos and featuring groups from Nicaragua, Italy, Spain, USA and Germany, it was a surreal experience to be sitting in a little park
Jazz in San Marcos – Nicaragua Read More »
About 2 weeks ago, 4 orphaned grey foxes were dropped off at La Mariposa Escuela de Español after their mother had been shot. They were nursed back to health at the school with the aim of releasing them once they were strong enough. A couple of days ago, we set them free in the Cañada Honda
Releasing Rescued Grey Foxes Read More »
Another regular visitor to the garden around La Mariposa Escuela de Español is the Blue-crowned motmot. This guy looks a lot like the Turquoise-browed motmot (also called the Guardabarranco – the Nicaraguan national bird) but is distinct. The head colouring is different but the easiest way to tell them apart is through the look of
Blue-crowned motmot – Fauna of Nicaragua Read More »
Nicaragua is a country of volcanoes and right now, 5 of them are a lot more active than normal. The closest one to the Spanish school is Volcan Masaya – somewhere between 5 and 8 km away (as the crow flies) depending on whose map app you choose to believe (we had a couple
Volcan Masaya – impressively active! Read More »
I love cooking and I love eating. For this reason, I’m a keen fan of cooking schools/classes and have done quite a few over the past couple of years. Add in that I particularly like to try dishes that are typical to the region I am travelling through and it was a no-brainer to sign
NicAsí Cooking Workshop Read More »
With Katrina and Daniel – a couple I met yesterday on the NicaAsí Cooking Tour – we decided to tackle the Vía Vía trivia quiz last night. It was good fun hanging out with a bunch of new people, and lasted longer than any other pub quiz I’ve ever done! It began an hour late (about 9:30pm) and
Trivia quiz at Vía Vía Read More »
