#its hte banana girl

[garybobdarkness]

Everytime i think about the Revue starlight movie, it gets better

SPOILERS for the revue movie

At the end, when they all get seperated they explore some new friendships while still being gay (probably) with their original pairs. Also I loe that Hikari is visiting EVERYONE with her suitcase (I know its symbolic of change but i dont wanna go too far into it)

Kaoruko has Futaba’s FUCKING BIKE ALKDJFAKLDS. She’s also the new leader of her dancing school thing and it makes me asdfalksfjalkjewakga. Good on her, especially her ‘DONT TELL FUTABA’ thing so she IS waiting for her so so cute.

Mahiru, TENDO MAYA and Futaba han going to the National something something is so fucking good too. Futaba han despite her insecurities actually got into there, Mahiru who used to be Karen dependant and I thought she’d be alone now has 2 friends beside her, and TENDO MAYA who used ot be the strongest stage girl out of htem all is now on equal footing with everyone which feels so nice as Mahiru and Futaba used to be the most insecure out of the entire cast and now they’re on equal footing with Tendo. But tbh the main reason I love this so much is because I love Mahiru so fucking much especially when shes at hte center good girl good character design thank u.

Also, Junna chan is in america, full on broadway star in New York. Coming to play Wicked near you, maybe. Good for her she found her own star and her being a New Yorka is funny to me. Especially when Junna and Hikari did that fucking step ball change.

Also CLAUDINE WORKING AT STARBUCKS ITS SO GOOD. She’s in fucking france. Wii wii bitch. Theres nothing much to say but all her outfits were so cute Maya looks so good in green. Like, too good in green. She even has a fucking duck/bird, even mroe gay symbolism with Tendo Maya as if her entire revue of being a lesbian wasn’t enough.

Banana and Hikari going to the same school and being in Lndon together makes me feel happy, especially after their previous conflicts and overall dichotomy. Hikari is the trigger for all the change while Banana tried to keep everything the same in the original series. Also their revue against each other was fucking good. Also Daiba Nana being in a new country makes me feel good because she was originally doing the same thing for like, maybe over 60 years  by now. HMMGHHH. I also love banana so much good shit, SUPER good shit God Bless. Amen. Yes.

Then at the end where Hikari doesn’t meet Karen because she’s busy but they are still in contact shows their friendship/relationship while Karen is more independant and reaching her own star. And then it gave me fucking goosebumps when she was auditioning for something and then went all ‘I AM AIJO KAREN, I WILL STARLIGHT YOU’ and like, alkdfadsfa shes still saying that for every audition I love her so much good character.

also the ending song is so cute I still listen to it, it’s stuck in my head.

Thanks Revue starlight you are raising the bar constantly, and doing it well. Also I’m excited for the new wild screen circus thing that looks like some kind of Revue starlight spinoff. Maybe not but its made by the same revue starlight people so i WILL enjoy it.

[adventuras-de-nicaragua]

Todos los deportes en Matagalpa

Flying into Matagalpa from the mountains was a refreshing and scenic way to end our cycling for the day. We quickly saw why Matagalpa is referred to as San Francisco; it has very sharp inclined streets throughout the city. Our hotel we booked was located on the north side of town and worked well as we were coming from the north. We picked a hotel based on its good booking.com rating and also our Swiss friends we made in Esteli had a pleasant stay there earlier in their travels.

After sorting out the bikes and showering we set out to explore Matagalpa and find the tour agency. We heard there was only one tour company and that Matagalpa was a basic city, even more so than Esteli by the Swiss Couple. We were a bit surprised by that as we had read it is the 4th largest city and hoped it would be a bit more interesting than Esteli. After a walk to the south end of town to find Matagalpa tour company we were feeling good about the city, it seemed to have lots more interesting things included endless good looking coffee shops. At the tour company we really wanted to do a coffee tour and get to see some coffee farms and the coffee process. At first the tour company told us they were booked and doing the coffee tour wouldn't be possible, but after several calls were able to arrange it for the following day starting at 11:30. We left happy that we were going to be able to visit a farm and learn the artisans way of coffee making.

On our journey back to the hotel we first stopped in a juice/smoothie shop. The girl working spoke great English and everything seemed a bit easier than it had been for the last couple of days. We happily drank delicious fruit and smoothie drinks out of maison jars before heading on our way back to the hotel. We took the main street back and walked past many good option eateries and more cafes. Looking down one street we even spotted a Yum Yum donut shop, that of course we had to check out. The girl working in there also spoke good English and we learned a bit about the city. The donut shop was 2 years old and the city has been building up its attractive appearing cafe's and restaurants in the last 5 years. Walking around town you could see all the new construction and showed that investment was being put into the city. Our hotel looked very pristine and they were adding on upward. Be interesting to see what the city will look like in another 5 years. 

That night we headed back to the main street and settled on a "The Balcon", a three level building with the first level being a shop and the upper two the restaurant. As the name indicates the second layer had a nice balcony overlooking the street which was the reason Alex and I chose it. We happily ordered the Flor de Cana and Cola and watched the world go by. Every other vehicle ended up being a Toyota Hilux, or in the US is the Tacoma, as the truck bed was used to mostly transport many people. In an hour time you would see more than 40 Hilux drive through the street!

We revert to some comfort and ordered a pasta dish each and pleasantly happy with the quality and quantity of it. After eating it was still early and were not sure what to do. On the way back was a stadium and we saw people coming in and out so decided to go in and see what was going on. Local adult league of soccer was going on and we took a seat in the bleachers to watch. The next morning we had our first breakfast at the hotel and were very pleased. Half was buffet style and the other you order you main plate. We saw a picture of eggs, bacon and pancakes on the menu and asked for the picture. It was a great big plate of food on top of the fruit, toast, coffe and juice we got as well. We spent the morning walking around and really killing the time before 11:30 came and our guide would pick us up for our coffee tour.

Right on time our guide for the day, Hector picked us up. He had a truck from the company and he took us up the mountain, the way we cycled yesterday, to the Fundadora area. The Fundadora is a protective land area that is owned by 65 families. The history has a very turbulent past with difficulties from the government, but after many years of hard ships the land has been returned to the families. The land is used mostly for farming of diverse crops with coffee being one of them. 

I had originally hoped to stay at the Fundadora ecolodge, however the lodge was booked and we were not able to. A bit happy about not being able to stay after seeing the poor quality of the road leading there from the main road, although the area was lovely and be an ideal place to wake up and drink your first cup of coffee. We visited a small coffee farm called 'La Lotteria', were our amazing guide become our translator to understand the history and coffee process from the farmer. First we were severed lunch and were joined by an earlier tour that went around the farm in the morning. Lunch was traditional Nica food of rice and beans, plantain chips, chicken, veggies, local cheese, and tortilla with a cup of fresh juice. The other group were nice to chat with being a very international group. 

After being well food the farmer took us around his farm and explained to us the coffee making process. There are two main types of coffee beans Robusta or Arabica, with our farm being Arabica. Arabica types of coffee are more flavorful and require more shade for a quality crop. This is the reason it is grown at high altitude and most commonly under large banana trees. Robusta beans can be grown with more sun and commonly grown at lower attitudes. The farmer showed us what a healthy looking cherry and we split open a couple to look at the quality of the beans within. He explained how Nov through Feb was the cherry picking stage and that a tree will mature its cherries at all different times. After picking the cherries, the process of separating the seeds from the cherry occurs and at a small farm like we were at this is through a hand cranked depulper. The pulp, or cherry, will be used to make compost for the soil while the seeds then go through the next stage.

The seeds will then go through the fermentation process for 24-36 hours to get some of the sugar/stickiness out. After that the seeds are washed and dried in wood built trays. Once they are dried you have to remove the last shell covering, the parchment, which can be done with a large pastel mortar. Finally, you are ready to roast the coffee beans. Over an open fire coffee beans can be roasted making sure to be stirred constantly. How strong you want your roast really just depends on how long you roast the coffee beans.

For a coffee farmer who does not have access to a nice grinder or espresso maker they resort to a more basic way of coffee making. They use a three legged hand grind stone to grind the beans to a powder. Once they have done that they boil water and some of hte powder to create coffee. We helped due this and were rewarded with a fresh cup of coffee. Although it was good we had a feeling that if we grinded it in a grinder nad used a proper machine it will come out slightly better so ended up buying some fresh beans to try at home. Going through the farm the farmer explained how to grow a coffee tree, which really just involved taking a good looking coffee seed and planting it and nursing it till it becomes 6 months old. Alex and I's eyes lit up as we both had the same idea, we want to try to make our own coffee plants! We nicely asked if it was possible to take some seeds home and try and of course this would be fine, just warned about customs and if they find our seeds. We know it probably will never fruit and create coffee as it needs a certain climate, but hey worth a shot. 

The tour ended and we journey through the small town of Fundarora and got to see some of the other farms and some trucks being put into good work. That night we chose a local Mexican restaurant and after a delicious burrito and fajitas we weren't sure what to do. So clearly we wondered back to the stadium in the middle of town to see what was going on. Tonight was the master's basketball league and we happily sat and watched the local sport for the night. Our last full day in Matagalpa and we didn't have too much on. We spoke to our tour guide Hector the day before he recommended the hike to the cross at the top of a mountain to get a good view of town. There was two overlook points of the city and of course we picked the higher one. We journeyed up a more basic route while passing crosses with imagery of Jesus carrying the cross all the way up; seemed to be a pilgrimage hike. Near the top was another coffee farm and tempted to go pick cherries but restrained. 

It was a perfect blue skied day and the view was fantastic. We could see down in the valley of where Matagalpa sat as well as 360 mountain views. We chose a different path down and were treated to more pleasant views and a better hiking path. Near the end we journed a bubbling stream and ended up in fields near a house. Seemed we went up the none hiking way and at the end we took the hiking way which meant we ownded about a dollar each to exit. Oh well. After our hike it was only mid day and we went to go pick up our clothes. We had decided to get our clothes washed at the local launderia as it was close to our hotel and traveling back in clean clothes would be nice. The rest of the day we floated in cafes and on our way back to the hotel heard loud dance music coming from the stadium. Surprised it was so early we popped in and were treated to the championship volleyball game for the local high school. The atmosphere was crazy and it was easy to sit and be captured by it all. Our last night in Matagalpa and we went back to the Balcon for the farewell dinner. Again we ordered our Flor de Cana and pasta and watched the Hilux roll on by. Since we had already watched our local sport for the day we headed back and started to think about our cycle back to Managua tomorrow and flying home.

One last amazing breakfast and we were off for 120 km mostly downhill back to the Best Western hotel. I started not to feel very good and although it should be easy cycling with favorable winds and downhill I struggled. As we started losing elevation the temperature spiked hitting about 90 degrees. The sky was bight blue without a cloud in sight which aided in gorgeous mountain/volcano/lake views as we swept out of the mountain region to the low lands. We stopped for lunch only with 25 km left to go at a Comedora and ate our last Nica lunch of rice and beans with chicken and fruit juice. 

By the time we reached the hotel we were pretty cooked and just wanted to cool off. We anxiously asked if they had received our mail addressed to me. Alex had forgotten to take his green card and my mom was nice enough to ship it to the hotel. The hotel, however did not speak very good English and although we think they said it would be okay to send to the hotel and they would keep it, we weren't sure what woudl really happen. After searching for our piece of mail for longer than we would have liked the mail was delivered to us and a weight was lifted off our shoulders. 

We also got back our bike boxes and Alex packed the bikes back up as I watched some television and cooled off. We spent our last sunset by the pool and then headed for an early dinner. Our flight was scheduled for 2:23 in the morning so we were planning on going to bed around 8 and catching 4 hours of sleep before our flight. When the alarms went off at midnight we quickly got ready and lugged the bike boxes across the street, say 100 meters, to the airport door. Once the bikes were happily accepted we were on our long journey back home to the frigid temperatures of single digits.