Living in Nicaragua is a world apart from our typical experience in NorthAmerica: The sounds alone let you know instantly this place is unique.You wake to birds that do not just twitter, but screech and trill entiremulti-stanza songs. There are processions with tubas blasting,dogs always barking somewhere, firecrackers going off for anyexcuse of a holiday. And of course, everywhere the vegetative excessof the tropics, where vines with huge blue flowers don't just covera trellis, but instead the entire side of a house.