Rivas and Hacienda Amayo, Nicaragua
What a day! This was an experience that can seldom be found in the all too modern World of today. We began with something of a royal welcome - as we disembarked Zodiacs in San Juan del Sur we were greeted by sounds of the local band, playing some local tunes to herald our arrival. We were then whisked to Rivas an old Colonial town that has retained much of its character from this bygone time. In Rivas we toured the local museum and then the local pre-school and high school students put on a folkloric show that was so much fun, broad smiles were to be seen on the faces of tourists and locals alike. Indeed it was often hard to discern who was the tourist, or more precisely who was watching who! The young girls pictured were waiting their turn to dance, and after the show, we all got to dance in the grass and exchange gifts. Great fun indeed.
But there was more to come! We next jumped aboard pepanos – local bicycle taxis, with two seats in front of the cyclist – and we rode in procession through the narrow streets as we toured the local church and the Cathedral. Who could have expected 35 pepanos to travel through such a small town simultaneously, again you were left wondering who was watching who as we put on a spectacle for the locals!
After our time in town we visited the ancestral home of the Barrios family, on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, known as Hacienda Amayo. Three generations of the Amayo family greeted us and who would have expected such gracious hospitality? They opened their home and their hearts to us. We enjoyed local songs performed by some students from the local tourism school, a delicious lunch and then we played baseball with a local team on the grounds of the Hacienda. “Played” may not be an accurate description of what transpired, the local team toyed with us, as they demonstrated their clearly superior talent, but we all had great fun. To end a magnificent day we then had a multi-generational, multi-national soccer game and the skies opened, but nothing could dampen the enjoyment and we played on. What a day!
What a day! This was an experience that can seldom be found in the all too modern World of today. We began with something of a royal welcome - as we disembarked Zodiacs in San Juan del Sur we were greeted by sounds of the local band, playing some local tunes to herald our arrival. We were then whisked to Rivas an old Colonial town that has retained much of its character from this bygone time. In Rivas we toured the local museum and then the local pre-school and high school students put on a folkloric show that was so much fun, broad smiles were to be seen on the faces of tourists and locals alike. Indeed it was often hard to discern who was the tourist, or more precisely who was watching who! The young girls pictured were waiting their turn to dance, and after the show, we all got to dance in the grass and exchange gifts. Great fun indeed.
But there was more to come! We next jumped aboard pepanos – local bicycle taxis, with two seats in front of the cyclist – and we rode in procession through the narrow streets as we toured the local church and the Cathedral. Who could have expected 35 pepanos to travel through such a small town simultaneously, again you were left wondering who was watching who as we put on a spectacle for the locals!
After our time in town we visited the ancestral home of the Barrios family, on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, known as Hacienda Amayo. Three generations of the Amayo family greeted us and who would have expected such gracious hospitality? They opened their home and their hearts to us. We enjoyed local songs performed by some students from the local tourism school, a delicious lunch and then we played baseball with a local team on the grounds of the Hacienda. “Played” may not be an accurate description of what transpired, the local team toyed with us, as they demonstrated their clearly superior talent, but we all had great fun. To end a magnificent day we then had a multi-generational, multi-national soccer game and the skies opened, but nothing could dampen the enjoyment and we played on. What a day!
