Peace be with you!

My name is Nader Ata. I am a Conventual Franciscan Friar of the Our Lady of Angels Province, USA. I am a transitional deacon preparing for Priesthood Ordination in the fall.

Seeking to live with Franciscan Joy each and every day!

*All of photos on this blog were taken by me unless noted otherwise. Please ask permission before using them. Thank You!*

*Also I am not the greatest speller or writer in the world, so please let me know if something is misspelled. Thank you!"

Enjoy!

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Trip to Nicaragua...

From July 14-July 17 Friars Walter, Francisco, and I took a trip to Nicaragua with 15 other teachers from Colegio Saint Francis.  We left at four in the morning on Wednesday and arrived back in Moravia around eleven in the evening on Saturday night. This is the bus we took:
We spent our first day in Granada and that evening we ate Guapote Cocibolca which is a fresh water fish 
from Cocibolca lake in Nicaragua and took 30 minutes to cook. Here are some photos of it. It was delicious.

The next morning we took a tour of Lake Nicaragua by boat. Lake Nicaragua has hundreds of tiny tropical islands and a favorite one among the group was an island that was the home of many monkeys which joined us on our boat for a mid-morning snack of bananas.  Here are photos of one of the monkeys.


Here is a picture and a video of this little bug parasite thing that I found on my hand.

That evening we traveled to Leon and the next day enjoyed a fabulous tour of the Cathedral there. Here is photo of part of our group on the roof of the Cathedral looking out in Leon and one of the inside.

That evening we arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.  While we were there we were given a tour of the Cultural Institute of Nicaragua and had the pleasure of hearing the people of Managua celebrating 31 years of Independence from the dictatorship of Somoza. Here is one of my favorite paintings from the Cultural Institute, it is entitled Independinciz Total H2O by Josue Trinidad Garcia.
Then we went and visited the New Cathedral of Managua. Here are two photos of the Cathedral.

I have to say that it was not one of my favorite churches that we visited. That night a group of us went to a restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the music of Carlos Mejía Godoy y los de Palacagüina, he is native Nicaraguan and his music is popular throughout Central America. It was a great experience to see the musical side of Nicaragua and to hear everyone in the group singing along.  Here is a photo of Carlso and one of Fray Walter and I enjoying the music. (And just to clarify, neither one of us was drinking wine, not because drinking wine is bad, but the fact that I can't drink it)


The next day I found a butterfly on the bus, which as you will see later enjoyed chilling on my hand.
Our last stop before heading back to Costa Rica was a visit to Volcan Masaya National Park.  It was my first trip to see a volcano and though we were not able to see any lava, the trip was worth it.
Below is a photo of all of us including our tour guide and bus driver. Many of the women in the photo are women that I work with each day.

Once we got on back on the bus, the butterfly that I mentioned earlier ended up on my hand.  Here is a photo of me and the butterfly and on of the butterfly on my thumb.


Lastly here is a photo of me sleeping on the bus taken by teacher Xinia.


Oh and if you want to see more photos from the trip click on the slideshow below.

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