Nick's Visit III

Nick's new friend, Paco, from Jason and Sarah's orphanage up the road from Rio Viejo.  Paco is a kinkachu, which is like a monkey/bear and he is nocturnal and very friendly.  To check out their website, go to: http://www.givehope2kids.org.
This is a picture of me, Heather and Claire on our hike up to the waterfall near our village.  I was the caboose, which backfired in the end as I wasn't paying attention and we missed our trail.  Much to our dismay, at the culmination of our expedition, we pushed back the foliage and took the final steps of the short descent (or so we thought) and were stupefied by the sight of the cement walkway which led to the suspension bridge at the ENTRANCE of the park!  So, apparently we found the only way the two separate paths conjoin, which is no small feat in itself, but was quite disappointed to 4 very tired and worked up gringos who had been hiking for almost 2 hours.  Needless to say, we didn't have time for a second try, so now I'm 0 for 2 with family hikes to the Falls. 
Any guesses to what is hanging out of Nick's mouth?  Ever heard of "mondongo" soup??  Yes, it is cow intestines.  It's actually quite common here and they even serve it in restaurants.  The mother of my friend, Sandy, was kind enough to make it along with fresh tortillas and surprised us one night!  No, they didn't stay for dinner so don't think Nick made this face in front of the chef!  He did manage a couple bites and did enjoy the yucca and other veggies.  We still aren't completely positive that his intense diarrhea came from this or the other stuff he ate while he was here, but it is high on my list of culprits.
Now this is more like it!!  The next night we made tons of guacamole and ate it all.  Or at least Nick did I think.  Due to the recent encounter of my new amoeba friends, I wasn't quite so enthusiastic, but I must admit, Heather makes a mean enchilada sauce.

Nick and I did venture down to the local soccer field, although neither one of us joined in.  Men play separately from the women and supposedly there is a women's team (I have yet to see them play).  The village teams around the mountain, like the guys here in Rio Viejo, are quite competitive and take the game very seriously.  No, they didn't ask Nick to play, but we had fun watching -- cool how they found this piece of flat land for their field in the midst of such steep mountains!