San Juan del Sur, Rivas, Hacienda Amayo
The lively band that welcomed us to San Juan del Sur in the Republic of Nicaragua played under a mild and soothing breeze and the warm tropical sun. There we boarded the buses that took us into the city of Rivas with its quaint 19th century architecture. In the city museum we were delighted by a presentation of local folk dances performed by pre-school children then we all boarded a caravan of “pepanos,” which are the local taxis used on a daily basis by the inhabitants of Rivas. This means of public transportation consists of modified bicycles in which the driver pedals behind two passengers sitting in a front seat. It was the answer of the Nicaraguans to the problem of fuel scarcity during the ten years that the counterrevolution kept the country stagnant. We visited the local market where we got a glimpse of the way people live in this town. Fruits and vegetables we’d never seen before, herbs and spices, flowers and fish and beef hanging from hooks and the cries of peddlers, lottery sellers and food vendors assaulted all our senses. Then we continued through the town and drove to the colonial Church of Saint Peter where William Walker was entrenched with his troops in the Battle of Rivas in 1856. If the marketplace showed us the way Nicaraguans fill their daily material needs, the church revealed their interior lives. Of special interest was the apocalyptic mural painted inside the dome over the altar.
We then proceeded to Hacienda Amayo, a 400 hectare ranch which has belonged to the Hurtado family ever since King Phillip II of Spain granted it to their ancestors almost five centuries ago. This patrimony survived the invasion of William Walker, the antagonism of the Somoza dictatorship, the land reform carried out by the Sandinista regime and the years of counterrevolution. We had lunch in the terrace overlooking Lake Nicaragua with its two majestic volcanoes, the Concepcion and the Maderas. After lunch, our young and brave confronted the local children of Rivas’ baseball team in a historic match where we were defeated 14 to 4 in a dignified way. We then tried to recover our honor and self esteem by playing a soccer match, the result of which again did not favor us: 4 to 1 this time. But then we had our moment of glory as we saw our young ones get rid of their frustration by beating a traditional Nicaraguan piñata to pieces. In spite of two defeats we came back to the Sea Voyager with a sense of triumph and accomplishment, realizing that the greatest gain in life is that of getting to know and understand our fellow human beings in this small but great planet.
The lively band that welcomed us to San Juan del Sur in the Republic of Nicaragua played under a mild and soothing breeze and the warm tropical sun. There we boarded the buses that took us into the city of Rivas with its quaint 19th century architecture. In the city museum we were delighted by a presentation of local folk dances performed by pre-school children then we all boarded a caravan of “pepanos,” which are the local taxis used on a daily basis by the inhabitants of Rivas. This means of public transportation consists of modified bicycles in which the driver pedals behind two passengers sitting in a front seat. It was the answer of the Nicaraguans to the problem of fuel scarcity during the ten years that the counterrevolution kept the country stagnant. We visited the local market where we got a glimpse of the way people live in this town. Fruits and vegetables we’d never seen before, herbs and spices, flowers and fish and beef hanging from hooks and the cries of peddlers, lottery sellers and food vendors assaulted all our senses. Then we continued through the town and drove to the colonial Church of Saint Peter where William Walker was entrenched with his troops in the Battle of Rivas in 1856. If the marketplace showed us the way Nicaraguans fill their daily material needs, the church revealed their interior lives. Of special interest was the apocalyptic mural painted inside the dome over the altar.
We then proceeded to Hacienda Amayo, a 400 hectare ranch which has belonged to the Hurtado family ever since King Phillip II of Spain granted it to their ancestors almost five centuries ago. This patrimony survived the invasion of William Walker, the antagonism of the Somoza dictatorship, the land reform carried out by the Sandinista regime and the years of counterrevolution. We had lunch in the terrace overlooking Lake Nicaragua with its two majestic volcanoes, the Concepcion and the Maderas. After lunch, our young and brave confronted the local children of Rivas’ baseball team in a historic match where we were defeated 14 to 4 in a dignified way. We then tried to recover our honor and self esteem by playing a soccer match, the result of which again did not favor us: 4 to 1 this time. But then we had our moment of glory as we saw our young ones get rid of their frustration by beating a traditional Nicaraguan piñata to pieces. In spite of two defeats we came back to the Sea Voyager with a sense of triumph and accomplishment, realizing that the greatest gain in life is that of getting to know and understand our fellow human beings in this small but great planet.
