The excursion to Nicaragua

A view of Granada from a Cathedral bell tower

Phew. I am FINALLY done with the stream of papers and finals we have had the beginning of this week. Thus I now have time to work on other things, such as my blog J I have so much to catch up on!! We have been quite busy the last couple of weeks.

Alright…I will start with our trip to Nicaragua. To get across the border and to our hostel at a reasonable time, we left the center at 3 am. Not the funnest hour of the morning, but the charter bus that we got was VERY comfortable. I was able to sleep until the border, where we had to get out and do paperwork stuff. Once in Nicaragua, we were headed for Island Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. That involved the bus then a ferry and then vans on very very bumpy roads. It was an interesting ride to where we were staying, Hacienda Merida. We had learned about Nicaragua a bit before coming and knew that it is a considerable bit poorer than Costa Rica. In fact, Nicaragua is the 2^nd poorest country in this hemisphere, Haiti being the first. Many of the houses that we saw on the way were very rough, some just having palms for roofs and no covers for the doors and windows. All the animals looked very skinny, even the horses that they used for regular transport did not look well fed. The place we were staying was right on the lake, and the view was really pretty. It reminded me a bit of Driftwood up north in MN: the lake, birds that looked from a distance like loons, they rang a bell before every meal, kayaking, etc. One of the differences though was there were volcanoes on either side of us! You wouldn’t see that in MN J And there were mosquito nets over the beds. My net was hanging really to me so made me feel a bit claustrophobic. Plus, it had mold growing in it when I got there. I cleaned it out, but it still made me weirded out a bit.

A view from the dock at Hacienda Merida....so beautiful!!

sunset on the dock and a fisherman out with his net. A lot of people on the lake fish for a living

For the 3 days we were on Ometepe island, we stayed at the same place at night but would travel to different parts of the island during the day. We went and saw some petrogliphs. It was interesting, because I had seen petrogliphs before, and the way the whole thing was sent up was a lot different. Jeffers Petrogliphs in SW Minnesota are part of a museum and there are certain areas that are roped off, aka you can’t walk on the petrogliphs. On Ometepe, these petrogliphs were just sitting in the middle of a forest and you could walk wherever you wanted to. There were some signs and we had a guide, but it was very informal. The petrogliphs are exposed to the elements and the wear of visitors. It was really cool to see them though, there were some really cools designs. Our guide explained some of what they mean, like a spiral means eternity. We saw a howler monkey up close too, which was pretty cool. I have a video I can show you when I get back J

Me with petrogliphs on the stones right behind me. It was so wierd how they were just on these random stones in the middle of the woods, except for the signs it kinda felt like we were the first ones to discover them

Let’s see, what else did we do. We did some hiking on Ometepe, on one of the volcanos. It was very muggy that day so it was a bit of a struggle, but we made it. Also, during free time that we had one morning at our hostel, I paid to rent a kayak. I was so glad I did, the lake was beautiful, I could see both the volcanoes and there were tons of white herons and other birds on the shore. I really like kayaking, it is some work but also very peaceful.

This was one of the times that always carrying my frisbee on me has been beneficial :) We were at a natural spring, and someone would throw the frisbee from the side and we would jump in to grab it

Well, after 3 days we were on to the next part of our trip. We headed back on the ferry to the mainland and headed to Granada. It was a very beautiful city, influenced a lot by the Spaniards and other Europeans that came there a long time ago. I have never been to Europe, but it looked a bit like how I imagine some cities would look: fancy cathedrals, cobblestone roads, restaurants with outdoor seating right out front:

A main street in Granada with the main Cathedral in the background

It took a bit to get used to the city for me though. Even though it has the façade of elegance, it is very very poor. There are children wandering the streets trying, sometimes very aggressively, to sell you things such as clay whistles, gum, or cigarettes. Otherwise they beg for food or money. Our professors advised us that it is not the best to give them money, because they often don’t use the money to take care of themselves, instead sniffing glue or other stuff. Some of the students would give some of the kids the rest of their meal if they couldn’t finish it, which was better than giving money.

However, there was a really cool outreach that we were able to do that directly helps the kids. It is this program called Caritas Felices (in English “Happy Faces”) that haves some classes for children ages like 4-17 or something like that, and in the evenings they can get a free meal. We were able to go and see their talent show, where they showed off the dances they have been learning in class. Some were traditional dances, some were a bit more modern, and one group even did break dancing. It is cool that they give them something to do, something constructive. We were invited to contribute something to the talent show, so some of us sang “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and did the MJ Thriller dance. We then served them a nutritious meal. They ate so fast! It seems like I just had passed out the plates and they were done. I was SO glad that our program planned for us to do this outreach, it made me see that there was a still a bit of hope for these kids. If I ever do a peace corp-like thing or an NGO abroad, Nicaragua would be a place that I would want to go. There is a lot of need there. There were times in Nicaragua, especially Granada, that I felt like we were in a movie like Slumdog Millionaire or City of God. I had seen poverty before, but not like this.

A view from the back in Caritas Felices, the kids sit at the tables and the stage up front is where the talent show took place

Lol now that I am finally writing about my experience in Nicaragua, I am remembering so much that I want to talk about! There is so much to say. I will try and keep it down though, I know you don’t have all day to sit here and read my blog JI will definitely still have stories I haven’t told when I get back. Overall, I had a lot of fun in Nicaragua. We didn’t have a ton of schoolwork to do, which was really nice because then we got to just focus on our experiences in Nicaragua. There were some not so fun times, like having to give out surveys one day, but all around I really enjoyed my time in Nicaragua. It took some getting used to, but I think I would like to go back someday and help out through an NGO. Here are some more pictures to let you see what I saw:

This is a statue of Sadino, the great revolutionary of Nicaragua, that overlooks the city of Leon. The revolution is still fresh in the minds of the Nicaraguan people.

Ha this is a picture for those that go to Our Savior's in Austin: look at the building to the far left, the one with a bunch of spherical things. That is apparently a church that just was built. Aren't you glad that our church won't look like that?!? This looks too wierd for me. I don't know, maybe it looks cool on the inside, but still

This is one of the restaurants we found, and they advertised...

SO TRUE!!! This was the best fish and chips I have ever had in my life! Complete with malt vinegar and everything. I went 2 nights in a row, it was that good. I wish I could bring some back for you :) We were joking about trying to sneak the chef of the restaurant home in our pocket

One of the students, Tom, was invited to play at a bar called Imagine (Beattles themed of course) in Granada. He is a very good guitar player, it was awesome that he got the opportunity and we got to see him play!!

Me and my MN buddy Nick in front of a volcano in Nicaragua