We have been trying to get to the local swimming pool with our friends Jason and Karena for a couple of weeks now and we finally found a day where we weren't busy and the weather cooperated for us. This little pool is not too far outside of town but it's about 2 miles from the main road. Since there were seven of us we had to take 2 taxis to get there. But after some clever taxi hailing we made it to the pool.
The pool is not heated and so it was very refreshing. It was a little cloudy, which we tried to ignore, but apparently it was due to recent rains. The kids had fun doing cannon balls and jumping in and swimming. The pool deck has several covered cabanas with tables. There were only a couple other families there besides us. Right after we arrived they walked over to the little restaurant across the dirt road and bought a big bottle of rum to go with the Coke they already had. They were really enjoying themselves.
We all swam around for a bit and Joe helped coach Karena on some stroke adjustments as she expressed an interest in doing a sprint triathlon when they return to the states. Doesn't he look at home in that coaching from the pool deck position?
After the kids grew tired of swimming they played some Frisbee across the pool. If you don't catch it and it goes in the water you have to dive in after it. Then we were all starting to get hungry and ready to call it a day. As we were packing up to go and the 2 families were getting ready to go some sort of challenge was thrown down between 2 of the men. It appeared to be a race but we later found out it was a contest to see who could swim the farthest underwater before coming up for air. It was quite the animated contest and I had to film it. (see video)
At the end of the video Gus comes up and asks me "What did you say about someone being so drunk they can't stand up?" because one of the women who had been drinking was requiring assistance walking up to their truck. Joe got involved in the judging of the "contest" and when it was over told me that if they offered us a ride in the back of the truck (instead of walking 2 miles on hilly dirt roads to get to the main road to catch a taxi) that he would take them up on it. To which I firmly replied that not only would we not be riding in the back of their truck but we would be staying as far away from their drunk driving as possible!! We make a good team as we seem to pick up on different things...
We started to walk on the 2 mile road when a big bus came toward us. We flagged it down and got on. The bus was empty and apparently not a public bus but the driver allowed us on and drove us the 2 miles down the road and dropped us off about 1 mile from our houses and wouldn't let us pay anything. That was very cool!
The restaurant was nicely decorated but empty. This would normally scare me about a restaurant but I don't know if we eat at weird times, but we have frequently gone to great restaurants with no one else there! That is not usually a good sign in the US! We ordered a great meal of beef, pork and chicken with gallo pinto, tajadas (fried plantain chips), and nica coleslaw. Then I decided to splurge and get a margarita and Joe and Karena ordered some sort of fiery coffee liquor with tequila drink. Jason ordered a maracuya drink. It was quite exciting to have flaming drinks at our table. I had to post the picture of the "sheesecake" on the menu even though we were too full to order any!
When we were done eating (and very full) the owner of the restaurant has the driver take us back into town. We had a lovely day with friends experiencing new things in Matagalpa. Just another great day in Nicaragua....
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