Day 8: In praise of Maria...spanish school (Esteli)

Since arriving in Esteli I've spent four hours each day butchering the beautiful Spanish language.

I've essentially held a lovely woman named Maria hostage in a small room where she's been forced to listen to me stumbling and fumbling over her mother tongue like a drunk over a wedding buffet.

Maria is a teacher at the Cenac Spanish school in Esteli and also a saint, but the fun kind. We spent a lot of time laughing, which is proof that humour transcends comprehension. 

If you have the misfortune to be related to me, or know me well, your ears may have been burning over the past week as I've been clumsily telling Maria your name, what colour your hair is and if you have any children.

I've been tripping up over verbs, confusing being tired with being married and repeatedly failing to correctly pronounce reloj (watch), which is like saying you can't pronounce 'TV', but Maria has stuck with me through it all.

What's more, I've been finding out amazing things about her life, like she's also a professor of philosophy, geography and history and that we both have a love for the books of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

It's a tribute to Maria's skills as a teacher that today we even managed to have an, admittedly painfully slow, conversation about Brexit - it turns out I can moan about the establishment in Spanish too, who knew?!

So a huge thank you to the wonderful Maria - teacher, feminist and friend. 

Muchas gracias Maria, I promise to keep practising my verb endings.

Travel tips:

1. CENAC Spanish School is located off the Pan Am Highway and each four hour lesson was $25.
2. CENAC can also arrange Nica home stays and excursions, find out more at www.spanishschoolcenac.com