Nicaragua Trip, Days 7-10

The remainder of our trip in Nicaragua took a very casual pace. This was fine with the four of us, as we were on vacation and had no reason to worry or rush about  (although life in Costa Rica was seldom super busy and stressful). This was because we saw on the news that the day after the big earthquake in Costa Rica, a volcano in northern Nicaragua erupted, and people in that region were being evacuated (not just volunteers-the army was evacuating all citizens)-as well as news that the volunteers from Isla Ometepe (our next stop) were being evacuated because of worries about the seismic activity causing eruptions there. So the official word from Peace Corps came that we couldn't travel there, and had to stay in Granada. So we spent two days walking the streets of Granada,  stopping for a fresh fruit smoothie here and buying some mango slices there. We toured the cathedral, an old church and monastery that had been turned into a museum, what was left of the old hospital, it seems to have just been abandoned and never purchased or maintained. We enjoyed delicious breakfast from Kathy's Waffles-a go-to spot in Granada for tourists-as it has American style breakfast (which was quite good) and finally got some Tip-Top-a local fried chicken chain that we had seen everywhere. We did go out for fish and chips at an Irish restaurant on the main tourist drag-yet, sadly, when we ordered three or four glasses of Guinness, they only brought us one-saying it was the last of the keg and they didn't have another. While I'd certainly blame it on poor management, I wonder if even though (as the menu stated) it was owned and operated by Irish, it still fell prey to the developing country problem of chronically late or incomplete deliveries. As it was my birthday, they guys were kind enough to let me have it. We did grab some cervezas micheladas-which is a way of drinking beer in Latin America-adding lime juice, salt, hot sauce, pepper, and other spices/sauces. This was something Nicaragua did much better than Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, you just get the lime juice and salt, but Nicaragua throws in pepper, hot sauce, and another sauce-similar to Worcestershire. It may not sound appealing, but I challenge anyone to try one and not love it.  

(a view of Granada's cathedral and Lake Nicaragua in the background)

By far the highlight of these last three days was our trip to Laguna de Apoyo, a lake in a volcano crater not far from Granada. We took a mini-bus and then a local bus and got off where they told us too. The supposed ten minute walk to the lodge we used for access to the lake was more like 25, but it was sunny and delightful so no worse for the wear. We used the well run and stocked Monkey Hut to gain access to the lake. For a reasonable price we gained access to their tables, chairs, kayaks, inner tubes, and floating docks. They also sold pizza and beer, and we put more than a few on our tabs. It was a pretty spectacular way to spend a day: lounging on the floating dock, jumping into the beautiful lake for a swim, back to the dock, grab a beer and float on an inner tube for a while. 

Despite not being able to visit Isla Ometepe, which is claimed by many to be the best place to visit in Nicaragua, I had an amazing trip. It was wonderful to see all the historic colonial cathedrals and homes (something Costa Rica has little of), it was great to see another Central American country, which has much in common with Costa Rica but has some strong differences too (baseball, hot dogs, gorgeous doors). We were blessed with fantastic weather during the trip, had essentially no problems (it helps to know the languages and the region), and I really enjoyed traveling with Andrew, Barton, and Brian. Nicaragua is about 4-5 times poorer than Costa Rica on a per person income base, but that was not very apparent except for the number of children begging and some of the houses we saw on the outskirts of Estelí and the market we walked through in Granada-which very crowded and lacked lots of hygienic processes-just like markets in other poor countries I've visited. The transportation system was faster and easy to use-I really liked the more frequently running 15 person buses as opposed to the less often running 60 person buses in Costa Rica. Beer was cheaper and street food was much more abundant, two big wins for Nicaragua. It is hard not to compare it to Costa Rica, because for me during the time I visited, Costa Rica, not the US was my reality. Some of my favorite things were the tobacco tour in Estelí, the Museum of the Revolution in León, the Laguna de Apoyo, and the store side paintings in Estelí. As a very budget friendly country that's easy to maneuver, I'd highly recommend visiting Nicaragua and can definitely see myself going back. In total, we spent ten days in Nicaragua, getting up on the tenth day and boarding a bus in Granada headed back to San José, a trip that went quite smoothly. 

Nicaragua Day 6

On our sixth day in Nicaragua we headed out of gorgeous, majestic, and historic León. We headed down to the bus station, grabbed a quick mini-bus to Granada (they are super common-another great thing about Nicaragua), and rolled right into the central park of the city. The differences between León and Granada were immediately apparent, even if we hadn't know that Granada and León had always been rival cities in the conservative versus liberal power struggles of 19th and early 20th century Nicaragua. Granada's cathedral was cleaner and more colorful than that of León, (its restoration was complete). It's roads were wider and less busy, it's gardens a bit more manicured, and its offerings of tourist restaurants and shops more plentiful and concentrated. From what I gathered, the revolution/ensuing wars hit León a lot harder than Granada, so some of its historic homes had been destroyed or damaged. Additionally, León was very much a university town, and Granada more of a merchant town-thus less revolutionary murals and more storefronts. Despite being more touristy*, I liked Granada a lot, especially its main drag, with the cathedral, municipal building and on old municipal building-all with imposing Spanish architecture. The central park was bustling with tourists, touts, children begging, and old men sleeping or chatting. 
*Note: being an avid tourist, I don't have a single problem with it-but it will inevitably change a town, especially when it becomes the dominant economic activity of the town-often, super touristy towns end up having pretty similar restaurants and bars and shops-and thus aren't as interesting as a town that hasn't changed itself to suit my desires. Of course, there are conveniences in tourist towns that I can't deny to enjoy and take advantage of. 

(all these pictures are taken from different points on the edge of the central park)

There wasn't much more in store for us on this day, we got ourselves checked into our hostel, explaining that we weren't quite sure how many nights we'd be staying-as we weren't sure what the Peace Corps' decision would be about our ability to travel to Isla Ometepe-the island consisting of two volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. We walked around town a bit, checked out a few restaurants and settled on the patio at a mostly empty Mexican style restaurant (Granada is touristy enough that you can get all sorts of "worldly" restaurants). We had a good meal, and as we had a feeling that we might not be making it to Ometepe, we let our budgets loosen a bit and ordered a bottle of Flor de Caña rum, one of Nicaragua's most famous products. We topped the night off giving homage to two of Nicaragua's finest products, as we purchased another bottle of Flor de Caña took it back to the hostel, mixed it with some ice, and sipped it as we smoked one or two of the cigars we had purchased up in Estelí. 

Nicaragua Trip: Day 5

Our fifth day in Nicaragua was a very eventful one, well, at least in the morning. One of the main attractions (and for good reason) in León is to take a trip out to Cerro Negro Volcano (Black Hill) and sled down it. They call it volcano boarding, but it's really just sledding-down a volcano mind you. Our guide said it's the most active volcano in Central America (I haven't confirmed that-but he was pretty legit), it's a young volcano, created in 1850, and has had 23 eruptions-one for about every 7 years of its existence. Its last eruption was in 1999. So the possibility of an eruption was quite present-adding to the adventure.  Before moving to Costa Rica, I had never experienced an earthquake, nor did I know much about them at all. Unlike Iowa, Costa Rica sits right on top of the intersection of the Cocos Plate and the Caribbean plate-and is full of volcanoes and potential for seismic activity. Nicaragua, we learned during our trip, is exactly the same-full of volcanoes and frequently victim to major earthquakes. What I've learned from two years in a country frequented by earthquakes is very simple-you can't predict them (well not within a better range than like 100 years) and the key to surviving an earthquake is constructing buildings to withstand earthquakes-because I received far too many conflicting messages about what to do/where to go during the earthquake. And with the two I felt-they were both almost over by the time I felt them. 

(our guide explaining some plate tectonics)

The trip up the volcano was awesome, it was the four of us and a young German girl doing her government service* abroad (at the hostel's community outreach program) and our guide-who worked for the hostel. *(This German service for young adults may be required, maybe not-she didn't explain it with the detail I would've liked.) He was super cool and did some of it in English, and when he didn't know, he'd just do it in Spanish and have one of us translate for the German girl. It was a gorgeous hike, great views of the surrounding area and two or three other volcanoes in the chain. As you'll see in the pictures, Cerro Negro really is a black hill, as ash and dried lava (I don't know the proper term) has covered most of the base rock of the volcano. We went to an area where the sulfur smell was super strong and the rocks were too hot to touch-you couldn't stand more than five or ten seconds or your feet would start to get super hot. 

(post volcano boarding)

He showed us how to use the sleds, use our feet to brake, and we put on coveralls and goggles. I volunteered to go first and take everyone's camera so I could get shots of them coming down. This was nice of me, except that I wanted to go super fast, and had trouble with the right foot turns you left and left foot turns you right concept. So, I flew down halfway, crashed. Went another quarter, crashed. Barely got going, crashed again. And, then, I think, finally, made it down-with rocks throughout my coveralls, in my mouth, and in my goggles. But-the cameras were all fine-and I got videos of Brian, Barton, and Andrew on their ways down. 

(where we sledded down)

Hard to believe, but the day got more exciting than climbing around and sledding down a volcano. On the drive back our guide, who's been looking at his phone, looks up to say there's been a huge earthquake in Costa Rica. And he was right-a 7.6 earthquake struck Costa Rica on September 5th-when we were climbing up an active volcano. We didn't feel a thing. This was a huge earthquake though, and the same seismic activity caused a volcano to erupt farther north in Nicaragua. So, upon returning to the hostel-we received word that there was a message for us. So, I called the number, and it was the Peace Corps office in Nicaragua making sure we were okay. This happened because when a Peace Corps Volunteer goes on vacation he has to fill out a detailed itinerary and get it approved by staff and turn it in. Peace Corps then alerts the posts at the countries the volunteer is traveling in (if posts exist in those countries). What made the day exciting were a few emails I got from a volunteer working in the office saying that she was supposed to call us to locate us after the earthquake (common Peace Corps procedure) and that at least Barton and I weren't registered in the system as being on vacation. Which was odd-as we had received the call from the Nicaragua post. We had both personally spoken with our boss and confirmed he signed and turned our vacation forms in-so I sent back an email saying that and didn't worry about it-as I was on vacation. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon (after trying to wash ourselves of ash and clean up our scrapes and burns) touring the Rubén Darío museum. León is famous for being a city that fostered a few poets, and Darío is its most famous. Along with a poet, he was a statesman, journalist, and public intellectual. The museum is housed in the home where he grew up and occasionally lived. It's a great museum and it was nice to read through some of his poetry. The section on his many lovers (with samples of poems he wrote for each one) was my favorite. 

Nicaragua Trip Day 4

Our fourth day in Nicaragua was full of interesting visits. We started the day walking around the town, with me taking lots of pictures of the beautiful doors and entryways to the old colonial homes all around León. We visited the cathedral, which was gorgeous on the inside, and had a very pretty garden out front-which was being renovated, but still was quite nice. We visited a few other old churches (1700s) which for me is always exciting because that is something that can't be found in Des Moines. Obviously in Europe, old churches all over the place, but it's interesting to see them in the Americas. Of course, they can be found on the East Coast as well-but, walking down streets where half the buildings and all the churches were built over 250 years ago is still an amazing experience for me. We toured an art museum, which was quite impressive-considering it was in León, Nicaragua. Certainly, it was an important colonial city-but also a city that was torn apart during Nicaragua's Civil War. Additionally, I've been the Costa Rican national museum in San José a few times, and haven't been very impressed by its collections. This museum certainly had good variety and some very good pieces. 

We continued our day with a tour of the Museum of the Revolution, one of the highlights of the trip. We had read up on some of Nicaragua's 20th century history to be more informed-but still learned lots at the museum. León was the city of the revolution, Granada and Managua being cities more controlled by the conservative factions aligned with the Samoza dynasty. Thus, the Museum of the Revolution is in León, and León is filled with murals to martyrs in the revolution and FSLN flags as well. Our guide was a man originally from Managua, who had come to León during the revolution-and fought. We learned all about the seeds of revolution starting in the late 1950s with agrarian and student movements and then growing into a full blown revolution in the 1970s, especially following a devastating earthquake in Managua in 1972. Our tour guide, and most of the people working at the museum, it seemed, were former revolutionary (Sandinista) soldiers, so the museum definitely had a certain subjective tone-but was generally a good museum-with plenty of old newspaper articles and photos. 

(the cathedral of León, with the city's namesake in front)

We spent the rest of the day strolling the gorgeous streets of León, taking in all of the murals honoring martyrs of the revolution and student movements, visiting the cathedral, and enjoying views of volcanoes at the end of narrow street. We had dinner at a delightful restaurant called El Sesteo that Barton had read about, it had photos of past poets and revolutionary leaders on the wall, and seemed to be where some revolutionary plans might have been hashed out. It was almost a private dinner, as it was just the four of us for most of our meal. But-that meant most excellent service, the food was quite nice and the ambience delightful. 

(an afternoon chat in front of murals honoring revolutionaries)

A busy December

December was an incredibly busy month for me, and for that reason, I haven't posted a blog in over a month. I spent the last days of November celebrating Thanksgiving with a super cool couple from the US Embassy, then visited my old site in Sarapiquí and said many goodbyes, as well as stopped by the office in San José to do some paperwork and medical check-ups to get me ready to be cleared to end service. I started the month off with a week visit from Dave, Cassie, Greg, and Sally, four really good friends from college. I was only with them for some of the time, as I officially closed my Peace Corps service on December 7th, and then met up quickly with Sally and Cassie before they flew back to Texas. The next day, just after Dave and Greg left, my younger brother Peter arrived for a week long visit. As part of his visit, I said my goodbyes to the teachers, students, and my host family in Liverpool. After his visit, I scrambled around San José for four days, buying gifts, saying goodbye to volunteer friends as they left, visiting my training community and saying goodbye to my old host family and friends there, and making sure I had everything packed and organized. It takes a bit of planning to get over two years of one's life into one big duffel bag and a backpack. 

Then, I had the (unplanned) opportunity to spend two days in Atlanta, as Des Moines got hit by 13 inches of snow on the day I flew back. So, I took advantage and saw some of the best Atlanta had to offer (due the graciousness of Elisa-a friend from the Peace Corps). Finally, I was able to spend the first Christmas in Des Moines with my family in five years (photo above). I haven't been all that busy in the past two weeks, but was in vacation mode for the first week back. But, updates from my trip to Nicaragua back in September, the trips mentioned above, and some reflections on my two years in the Peace Corps and the Peace Corps in general should be fairly regular from now on. I did keep my tumblr blog much better updated, so if you haven't, check that out for pictures from the past month and more.Thanks again for following and Happy 2013!