My grandson Mike had been volunteering in camps for handicapped in Guatemala for a month and came to tour Nicaragua with me for a week on December 4th. We were both to join the 10th year of Camp Kikotimaal near Lake Atitlan on December 12. My driver, Ramiro Arana from Adventure Tours, and I left Granada at 6:00pm to drive to the airport to meet Mike coming from Guatemala by way of Panama. We had a quick dinner at the Best Western Hotel across the street from the airport.
When we got to the airport and checked the schedule it said Flight #711 from Panama was arriving at 10:07pm – instead of 7:50pm. We asked at the information desk and they said the plane from Panama had changed on December 1 and it would be in at 10:07. We had plenty of time! We looked around at the shops in the airport for a while then went and sat in the car. Ramiro speaks English very well and is studying architecture at a college in Managua. He has just started his own tour company in Granada. His classes are Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so has the 4-day weekend to run his tour business.
I was planning to rent a car while Mike is here, but didn’t want to drive in the dark the first time I used it. He and I walked around Granada on Friday and found a couple restaurants where Mike could get vegetarian food. We also got our swimming passes and went swimming at the Hotel Granada pool across the street from my rental house. Our day to see Granada.
On Saturday we got our Avis rental car at Hotel Dario at 10:00am, had breakfast at Cafe de Arte and took off for San Juan de Oriente. We visited the pottery studio of Humberto Mungias and saw the results of a “saggar” he had fired after I wrapped it in foil and copper wire. Nice! We then drove through the market in Masaya looking for a place to eat – mostly meat and fish everywhere! We found a restaurant in Granada for dinner with good veggie food.
Sunday we took off for La Maysuta and Santa Rosa pottery studios near Ocotal where I had worked earlier. We made a wrong turn in Tipitapa and drove through the market at 3 miles an hour then had to turn around and drive on the one-way street through the market again! We are getting very familiar with markets! Our rental car was able to drive up the steep rocky hill to the Ron Rivera Pottery at La Maysuta. We had a brief visit with Domingo and his son Douglas who had just returned from a month’s study with a potter in San Juan de Oriente. We bought two Potters for Peace water filters – one for my friends in Matagalpa and one to replace the one I took to Las Cureñas near Jinotega when I worked there – where they had no way to make water safe for me.
The potters at La Maysuta have built a small new kiln to be able to do the pieces that Ricardo is doing now and to be able to pull out pieces to decorate with horsehair and feathers. Ricardo was building “castles” with beautiful tile roofs and fine details – but they took him all day to make one. I had suggested he make smaller ones with the same detail. They are beautiful and charming!
Then we were off to Santa Rosa – about an hour away. I called and told Consuelo we were in Ocotal and would be there soon. We were welcomed with open arms. Isidro wanted to show me his new wheel – they were awarded a governmental gift of a new potter’s wheel, two new work tables, a glass cabinet for displaying their work, shelving in the studio and two wheelbarrows! The wheelbarrows will save the shoulders of the men and the heads of the women! They all carry very heavy loads! And a display tent with their logo and name on all four sides of the top. Consuelo’s aunt Marina who is deaf will use the tent when she goes to market to sell their pottery.
We stopped by Angela’s house – Consuelo’s mom – said hello and had a cup of coffee. Then back to the house for a lunch of very tasty beans, rice, mashed potatoes and tortillas. I was very pleased to see that they are using some of my suggestions in making decorative pieces that should sell well. We left there about 3:30 and got to our hotel in Esteli 2 hours later. I have been in Hotel Los Arcos 6 times now – usually with potters.
Monday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and drove to Matagalpa to Finca Las Brisas owned by Hugh and Kay Force, friends of a potter in Seattle. I had gone there often between working villages. They are always very welcoming. We had a wonderful lunch of vegetables, boiled eggs, homemade bread and homemade butter from her Jersey cows! We walked out to the garden to see the artichokes and asparagus then Hugh took us up further to see the producing coffee plants. There are banana trees for shade around the coffee. He said they have 6 different varieties of bananas – they don’t use them – they are just for shade for the coffee. The coffee berries are beginning to turn red and some will be picked soon. They only pick the ripe ones – and they pick 6 times. Some farms pick 3 times and pick berries that are not yet ripe. They don’t get paid as much for them when they are not ripe.
We drove back to Granada and my rental house for the night. The next morning we started out with breakfast at Garden Cafe and then stopped to pick up my passport with its new Nicaraguan visa! Not! It wasn’t there! I am pretty anxious because it is Tuesday and I have a ticket to fly to Guatemala on Friday and no passport!
We found our way out of Granada by going through the market place – like every other car in town! Very slow! Drove to Rivas and out to Lake Cocibolca. We could see the two volcanoes on Ometepe Island. Sorry I did not have a chance to visit there. I have missed quite a few of the tourist attractions – but I have seen parts of Nicaragua most tourists never see!
We drove to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast and looked for a restaurant. We spent the night at Rebecca’s Inn. It is not fancy, but inexpensive, has air-conditioning and parking. We went swimming in the ocean for a couple hours – and sat under an umbrella on the beach. Found a restaurant for dinner.
We drove back to Granada fairly early to see if I had a passport. I was worried that with the holidays the government offices will close and I won’t get my passport back before the new year! We had to take a difficult detour and found out later that it was to avoid a protest march against the canal!
Wednesday – When we got back to Granada I picked up my passport! Whew! I kept thinking what we would do if it was not there. I have a new 90 day visa! And I am leaving on Friday – in 2 days!
Thursday we drove to the Potters for Peace Office in Managua to drop off the small kiln I had used and leave the rest of the pottery tools I bought in the States in August. Then we drove to Lake Apoyo, a volcanic crater. Mike kept driving on roads that were not very promising till we got right down to the lake! It was beautiful!
Back in Granada for lunch and finish packing, get ready to close up my house and go to Guatemala.
Friday, December 12, 2012, Mike and I closed up my rented house in Granada for the last time and drove the rental car by way of Tipitapa to the Managua Airport. Mike has done a great job driving around Nicaragua. I knew I could trust him! After all, he had my car from January till October in the states and got it back home to Seattle from Boston in one piece.
We returned the Avis rental car a couple blocks from the airport at The Camino Real Hotel, got a ride back to the airport, unloaded our bags and we were ready to check in. Mike carried my backpack through the airport after we got our seat assignments. They didn’t even ask him to take the computer out of the backpack. And I didn’t have to take off my shoes! I love it! Pays to get older! When we picked up our seat assignments, Mike pointed out that I had seat number 3F – in First Class! Wow! Wonder how that happened! It is a one-hour flight – where Mike spent all day coming to Nicaragua by way of Panama!
Customs in Guatemala was the easiest ever! No problema! Just get a stamped passport, pick up your bags and head outside! We met our friend from Seattle and shortly Mike found the driver – he is short and a little bit chubby and wears a cute little white fedora. We loaded up our bags, drove through a lot of traffic in Guatemala City and on to Antigua. Antigua is full of cobblestone streets and more traffic. Sarah Peller, the Camp director, met us and we checked in at the Terrace Hostel.
We went to lunch a block away and had a good visit. Sarah’s two new camps in November sound like quite a success. Camp Kikotimaal starting Sunday will have 25 campers – a big camp. We will be in a conference center for 6 days and move to a new site at the beach for the weekend. We spend one night in a hotel across the lake during the week. We will be able to make pottery for about 3 days and get it dried to be fired. We are planning a pit firing on the beach. We will play it by ear and see what we can make, transport, dry out and fire. Another new experience for all of us.
Saturday morning: Paul Remy and Emily arrived last night from New England. Paul is severely handicapped and I have worked with him for nearly 30 years in Camps in the U.S. Mike and some others took them out for beer! This morning we had breakfast on the third-floor deck of the hostel and watched the volcano spouting smoke. Mike said they could see lava flowing down the side of the mountain last night. Paul’s wheel chair is really difficult on the cobblestone streets and broken sidewalks!
Sunday we got on a bus near the hostel and stopped a few times on the way out of town to pick up campers near their homes. We aso picked up some clay from a potter as we left Antigua. The road was long and full of rocks and dips. It took us about 4 hours to get to the Baptist Convention Center at Lake Atitlan. It was a bumpy but beautiful ride! We unloaded everything from the bus and were only missing one footrest from Paul’s wheel chair – it must have bounced loose and fallen from the bus on the way. They gave him a bungy cord for one foot! Not the best arrangement, but it works for Camp!
We got to our rooms around 1:00pm and had lunch in a covered patio. Activities started immediately. Mario is casting the Play for Thursday night – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We did a 2-hour pottery class for everyone at 4:00pm! It was a long day but the clay has been introduced and they had a good time! We had dinner in the dining room – mostly rice and pureed black beans with tortillas.
Monday morning started out with breakfast – scrambled eggs, rice and pureed black beans – and yoga around the empty swimming pool. Then a group went horseback riding and the rest did pottery with me. Later we walked – it seemed like a long way – to an exclusive hotel and swam in a pool and the Lake and sat in a hot tub for a couple hours. Mike jumped into the Lake with Paul in his arms. Then it took 4 people to get him out again. He seemed to enjoy the whole experience! Nothing is impossible here!
Meanwhile back at the camp: Pickup trucks are a great means of transportation here. You see them jammed with standing passengers on all the roads. The Camp hired 4 pickups to transport 3 wheel chairs each with 11 others standing. We went out to dinner and a dance party and then the next day to the docks after passing over many speed bumps and cobblestone roads standing in the back of pickups.
We took a big boat across Lake Atitlan on Tuesday at 4:30pm. It was a job getting all the campers onto the boat with their wheel chairs then getting all of them up the narrow metal ladder to the top deck so we could share the views of the Lake. It is beautiful – it was about an hour ride to a hotel with a narrow wooden deck and lots of steps. We all got assigned rooms – some with quite a few steps to haul the wheel chairs up – and had a nice dinner of tacos – rice, beans, really good fresh salsa, guacamole, salad and chocolate cake. Followed of course by another dance party!
I slept in a room with Vanessa and her two counselors – Isabel and Gaby. Isabel lives near Lake Atitlan and is a pre-school teacher. Gaby has been to Camp Jabberwocky on Martha’s Vineyard. She speaks fluent Spanish – her parents are Ecuadorian but she grew up in New York. Vanessa has very tiny legs and is in a wheel chair. She was treated for spina bifida – has a scar down her back. She is fairly heavy so getting her up the stone stairs in her wheel chair was a hassle – as are a lot of things we do!
The last two days we did a collage class that was fun and satisfying for everyone. We collected travel brochures and tore pictures out and pasted them on white paper then mounted each one on colored construction paper.
Most of the last two days in the conference center were spent on doing play practice. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has lots of characters – animals, plants, trees, crows, the queen, the witch with the poison apple and the prince with a kiss. I guess it is pretty much the same in any language! I played a crow who scares Snow White out from under a tree played by Paul Remy! The costumes were fantastic, the scenery was well done – even though quickly. There were probably 30 people who came to see it – a lot families of our campers who live nearby.
The 7 dwarfs were a hoot! Three were down syndrome and had beards and stocking caps. The others were pushed in wheel chairs by crouching men in black– except Salvador who wheels his own chair. They sang Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho. It’s off to work we go – maybe “Vamos a trabajo!” The story was narrated by Cofee in Spanish and seemed a bit different from the English version! I would love to read it!
I set up a pottery display which got a lot of comment – even though it was not yet fired.
Saturday morning we had a 3-hour rough ride – lots of rocks and speed bumps – hard on pottery! – to an ocean beach resort. It is not very well known to tourists because it is accessible only by boat across a river and through a mangrove swamp. We took all our belongings because we will be going to the airport or home after this last two days.
I found a shovel and we dug a pit in the sand to fire our pottery. The sand kept falling back into the hole, but we ignored it and got all the pots in on top of a few sticks of wood, some sawdust and newspaper. We piled more wood on top and started the fire. Then it was getting dark and time for dinner. I thought I would just sit with the roaring fire, but Sarah said I should go eat.
After dinner I thought someone had poured water on the fire – couldn’t see it from a distance. It was only red coals when I got back. I was able to pull out a couple pieces to put horsehair and feathers on and then the rest were too cool to burn the horsehair. It looked like most of the pieces had been fired, however, and that made me happy. We pulled a few pieces with tongs and left the rest till morning.
I was up in time to see the sunrise and it was bright red – just as it had been at sunset the night before! David and one camper joined me and we used tongs to pull the rest of the pieces from the pit. It got to probably 1100° because the foil we used to keep the beads together was pretty well disintegrated. However, there was one piece buried in sand that didn’t get fired at all – and a few that were only half cooked! I was actually quite pleased that nothing blew up and most of it had changed color from brown to reddish-brown which showed that it was fired and would not turn back into mud when dropped into water. I have fired in a BBQ pit at camp on Nantucket, but this was the first time for a real beach pit firing – with unfired clay.
The campers were a unique group. The other Salvador can’t sit up and has a special wheel chair where he lies on his stomach. He is able to use his hands and made some remarkable animals in clay. He also enjoyed the collage experience – tearing paper pieces to fit the picture and gluing them in place. He plays ball lying on the ground, hitting a soccer ball with his arms. The soccer ball has been aimed at him from another camper’s head – this one has very short arms and legs bent at the knees. He plays basketball running on his knees. They are both very bright and have had very little chance for experiences like this Camp provides.
Jorge Luis bounces around camp and the beach on his butt. He has one leg that sticks straight out in front of him. He moves with great speed! I watched him chase another camper around the dining room and finally catch him and knock him down – both laughing all the way! He can quickly rise to seat himself in a chair – such a smooth move that it is startling.
Diego had a great time doing collage. And he signed his three names across the bottom with a flourish! He is quiet and thoughtful – but can’t walk.
The trip to Portland, Oregon was uneventful. I arrived at midnight to find my daughter and grandkids with balloons and a banner that said “Welcome Home Grandma!” It is good to be back in the States and spend time with my family – even be able to make phone calls! I am looking forward to shopping after Christmas to replace my clothes I have worn for a year! I found a ride to Seattle on December 30th and got to my house in Kent for the first time since January 24, 2014 when the Potters for Peace Brigade left the US.
It was a most satisfying and incredible year! Thanks to Potters for Peace who were my sponsors and thanks to the potters who put me up and thanks to the friends who supported me in Granada! Memories will be with me for the rest of my life!
Elinor Maroney
emmpots@msn.com
1. Visit to Santa Rosa Pottery with my grandson Mike Hipson. 1291
2. Ricardo’s “castle.” N0966
3. Ricardo’s charming new miniatures. N1021
4. Loading the sand pit with pottery in Guatemala. 0604
The post The Potter Bids Farewell to Nicaragua appeared first on Nicaragua Community.