Un Día en la Playa

After a whirlwind four day adventure, today was a day para caminar (walking), relajar (relaxing), ir a la playa (going to the beach), y por su puesto comer (eating, of course). My name is Alesha and I am a visiting student, a temporary Terp, if you will, from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am in the final semester of my LIS program. I am primarily interested in the application of multimedia, web 2.0, and instructional technologies in librarianship.

We began our day with a made-to-order breakfast in Villa Isabella. The special of the day was a Nacatamal, a steamed corn cake (tamale) filled with eggs and vegetables served on a banana leaf. The dish is typically reserved for special occasions and Sunday morning breakfasts. While the presentation was striking and the smell was divine, I was not feeling particularly adventurous this morning so I opted for a waffle, which was equally striking and divine-smelling.

After breakfast, some local artisans selling beautiful handmade wares greeted us. There were hand-whittled wooden pots and bird-shaped whistles (that sounded like birds!) and a local painter had set up an exhibit in the lobby of the Villa Isabella. Though tempted, most of us were able to leave the hotel with our purses and wallets intact as Jane led us on a walking tour of San Juan del Sur. As we walked, Jane shared a brief history of the town, noting points of interest along the way.

While walking about, it did not take long to realize that the town of San Juan del Sur is a far cry from Managua. The slow-paced beach town was just what we needed to recuperate from the last few days and to rejuvenate before the final days of our Nicaraguan adventure.

We dispersed into smaller groups for the afternoon and sampled the local cuisine. (I highly recommend the breaded shrimp at Las Brisas.) We all took advantage of our down time as some read, went to the beach, or napped in the hammocks on the Villa Isabella’s front porch.

Later we met up for a group dinner at a quaint Mediterranean restaurant where we placticabamos (chit-chatted) about the various treasures that we’d found throughout the day. Looking around the table, all of us seemed to be catching our second wind. Judging from the smiles and laughter, all of us were content with our experience and the work that we’re doing here, or maybe we were just bemused by the fact that our dessert included chocolate salami!

NB: Technical difficulties prevented me from uploading photos, but I am hopeful that I will be able to add some images from our walkabout tour soon.

¡Hasta la próxima!