La Mariposa Escuela de Español 

San Juan de la Concepción, Masaya, Nicaragua

Days 32-52

‘Sí’ he said, ‘es una Tarantula’. I had upgraded from a room in a homestay to a rustic Cabaña, or ‘tree house’. Amazing view out to the jungle and a little too close to nature… I was making up my mosquito net and as I moved the mattress I saw a leg poke out from under the bed. The leg was so big I thought it must be a nice gecko so I leant in with my head torch for a closer look – at biggest beast of a spider, eyes glowing in the light.

Tarantulas aside, the last few weeks have been amazing – one-to-one Spanish tuition, home cooking and fun activities with a great group of fellow students. I keep extending my stay as I don’t want to leave!


I’ve settled into a routine with the other long timers – 6.30am coffee with Tracey from Canada and freestyle exercising with Madeleine from the USA. I have my favourite dogs and cats who greet me in the morning and join in the stretching.

This kitten arrived two weeks ago in a terrible state – Now look at her!

The Mariposa Spanish school is truly amazing. It was started 10 years ago by the wonderful Paulette who moved over from England with her Nicaraguan daughter Gigi whom she adopted almost 30 years ago. It was set up as a project to employ local people and now has around 75 employees, not counting the numerous community  projects – which are funded by the proceeds of the hotel. We were able to visit some of the projects, my favourite being Los Pipitos. This provides horse equine therapy for disabled children, including those suffering from celebral palsy, as the movement really helps them. It also funds a physiotherapist who can do home visits and a pool for hydrotherapy. The horses have all been rescued from various places.  Many are simply living out their days whilst others give rides to the kids. There is no government support for disabled children in this area. Leading on to the next project, teaching children English in the extremely poor village of Panamá. It’s close to Volcán Masaya and the residents suffer many adverse health effects – rotting and discoloured teeth, particles that damage skin and eyes. They can’t use tin for the roof of their homes as it corrodes. Yet the biggest problem is that there is simply no water for half the year. They rely on La Mariposa buying and delivering water to the village twice a week. La Mariposa teachers are running this centre for local children – we visited on the opening day and joined in the party.

 

 

Animal rescue is another big part of La Mariposa. One day a policeman dropped off a box of monkeys that had been confiscated from the illegal trade – Paulette had to bottle feed them. Numerous parrots (many now released), dozens of dogs and cats live at each property as well as the worker’s own homes. The school also organises a spaying program. And that’s without mentioning the conservation projects – including  buying land to prevent development.

All of this relies on people visiting the school or directly donations.

The coffee here isn’t strong enough  – one cup doesn’t cut it. Luckily Tracey shares my addiction so we ventured out on an expedition to replenish our supply. We took a local microbus – an old van that’s been modified to fit rows of seats, into Jinotepe. Each van has a Muchacho (young boy) hanging out the doors touting for business and shouting the destination. We got on – there were no seats left and the roof wasn’t high enough to stand up so we were bent over at right angles. We’d been told to hold on straight away – I now know why since the bus sped off with the door still open. 50mph and I’m hanging on for dear life almost outside of the van, Tracey keeping me in by my arm. “Oh well” said Tracey, “at least nobody else will get on as the bus is full”. Ha!! It wasn’t even considered half full. Tracey was bumped further away from me to the back of the van until I could only see her hat and I was squashed between some boxes. We were also lucky not to be kicked off for trying to haggle down the price to 5 córdobas (15 cents) – I thought we were being charged ‘tourist prices’ but actually we’d misheard the price the school told us – the passengers were laughing because I tried to pay so little not because I was being ripped off!

 

We spend a lot of time watching the monkeys and playing hide and  seek with the parrot, who shouts “Hola!” It’s amazing to see them every day up close. We’ve been here so long we don’t like new people arriving and taking our hammocks.

One of my favourite activities has been horse riding. I hardly ever ride horses (since I was a child) as I don’t agree with any exploitment or mistreatment which is sadly often the case especially abroad. But here I can ride the rescue horses once a week. I’ve taken to riding the guide’s horse Princesa that the others aren’t allowed to ride – it’s like riding a bike!

I sadly have to leave next week. I’ve been on several excursions and learned so much about Nicaragua that I’ll need to write another blog post very soon!