TL;DR*: I went to Nicaragua for spring break and had a great time. Scroll to the bottom for cultural fun facts.
(I’d have sent this in increments, but there wasn’t any internet)
*too long; didn’t read
Trip premise: This trip was largely inspired by super-cheap plane tickets and spontaneous decisions. Andrea is a student at my college who lives in Managua, Nicaragua, and she invited a group of us to come spend break with her. The group: her, me, Rachel, Jessica, and Dugger.
3/15
I woke up yesterday morning in a hammock in the shade, watching three monkeys gambol in a nearby tree, silhouetted against the wide blue lagoon.
We got in from New York two afternoons ago, drove around, had dinner at Andrea’s dad’s house: avocado-tomato-palm salad, steak, rice with corn, and white wine. Then we rode out to the lake house (Laguna Apoyo) at night, and went swimming. Floating on our backs in the warm silence of the rippling water, we watched the stars. A little later, we swam back to shore to board the sailboat, then rode on the very front, tipping nearly sideways with the wind and trailing our toes over the side.
The lake house itself is two stories: rooms upstairs, and the downstairs a kitchen, chairs, and hammocks with walls which open down to become a porch, which overlooks the lagoon. Andrea fell while she was lowering the walls- a substantial drop, so kind of exciting, but an incident without too grievous of injury.
Yesterday afternoon, we went on a canopy zip line tour. Our guides let us do tricks- hanging upside down or backwards as we rode. After zip lines, we drove out to Lago Nicaragua. Andrea drove on the beach, partially in the water, and then we went swimming. The water was warm and the lake big enough to have sand and waves. Later, we headed back to the lake house. I slept part of the night on the docked sailboat, rocking in the water. Turns out the bugs bite in the night, though; I got four giant bug bites all in a row.
This morning, we took the sailboat out without Andrea’s dad. It didn’tgo so well: the sail got stuck halfway up while we were out on the water, and I had to climb the mast to un-stick it. The climbing was easier than expected, but I punctured my right foot on a screw that was sticking out, so now that foot’s taped. It was all right, though, and we made it back to shore.
After playing around with surf boards in the water, we packed up and left the lake house. We drove to a volcano crater (Volcan Masaya)- youcould see the smoke curling out of it. Apparently, it was one of those volcanoes that natives used to sacrifice young children into; it looked the part. Then we hiked with a guide into acave full of bats. The end of the cave, he said, was the site of selection for human sacrifices. The cave was really cool: temperature-wise, a welcome break from the day’s heat; geologically interesting; and bats flew everywhere in it- I got to feel the air from their wings on my face.
3/16
Las Isletas is a group of tiny islands, each of which is someone’s private property. Andrea’s mom’s friend owns one, so we took alauncha (small boat) out to it for the day and just played- canoeing and water skiing and swimming and eating. He has a Jacuzzi pool-thing and mango trees, and he took us for a boat ride at sunset, where we saw monkeys and played guitar.
In the evening, we went to the movies- I saw Alice en el País de Maravillas. Strangely, it made sense.
3/17
Today we drove out a few hours to get to Cerro Negro. It’s the second youngest volcano in the Americas, and the only active volcano in the world you can sand-surf down. After getting a guide, we wound through back roads (stopping frequently for herds of cows, dogs, ox-drawn carts) to the base of the volcano. Carrying boards and protective suits, we hiked an hour up to the volcano’s rim (saw a seismograph!). Also, I wished I had an egg with me, because apparently you can boil an eggacouple of inches into the sand from the heat of the volcano. Anyway, sand surfing: essentially, it’s like snowboarding in concept. The key difference is that (well, obviously) you’re sliding on ashes and little volcanic rocks, and the slope is just short of straight down. It lookedreally scary from the top- a 700m slide with nothing to stop you. However, we all fell over enough that we never got going that fast.
After, we went to Andrea’s grandmother’s house for the night.
3/18
After waking up at Andrea’s grandmother’s house and having a nice breakfast (all the breakfasts here are awesome! Actually, scratch that, all the food!), we drove out to the beach. Andrea’s aunt has a little beach house that she lent to us, so we went walking along the shore, played in the waves, collected shells, etc. It was very nice and relaxing.
3/19
We woke up early to drive Dugger to the airport (a couple of hours jammed in the back seat of the car to get back to Managua) and then went to hang out at the mall. We ran into Andrea’s mom there and decided to go to a shooting range. It was kind of sketchy, so Rachel and I elected not to shoot, but Andrea and Jessica each tried shootinga pistol.
Afterwards, we drove out to fondue at restaurante Mil Flores, in a forest full of hydrangeas at the top of a mountain. The fondue was delicious- acheese one, then asteak one where the ‘fondue’ was boiling oil that we dipped raw strips of steak in, then a dark chocolate pot with fruit for dessert. Outside, there was a path to an overlook. We couldn’t see much but stars, but it was a lovely night.
In the evening, since it was the last night, we got all dressed up and went to club Moods, which was fun.
3/20
So now I’m sitting in the airport in San Salvador… we have a seven hour layover, but I just got internet! Time to catch up on all my emails from Olin…
Cositas
-It’s really hot here: eighty and ninety degrees. And the air conditioning in Andrea’s car broke … but squish the five of us into the SUV and turn up the dance music and it’s still a party,
-Lago Nicaragua is really big and really shallow, and it has waves. Also it has sharks.
-People walk everywhere on the streets. Where it looks like a shoulder-less steep road to me, there’s lots of people on foot and not too many cars. Bikes are fairly common, though.
-By fairly common, I mean very. Maybe half the traffic on the road is bikes or motorbikes- and the capacity of a bike averages about 2, but up to 4 people- handlebar riding can get really creative.
-Nearly all of the cars are SUVs, though some are trucks. It’s partly astatus thing, but mostly it’s just necessity: everything’s far apart and most of the roads are pretty rutted- to the extent that most Americans would think twice before driving them at all.
-I keep seeing spray painted messages about revolution and dictators. According to Andrea, the current president was elected by less than half of the people, but the other two candidates split the vote… she hasa bit more to say about him, too, but she might be a biased source.
-There’s definitely a divide in wealth- and we’re very much on the “have” side. There are children in the streets, and there are other kids who save their clothes shopping for Miami. It’s really obvious who’s in charge of who, and in general, the rich people are pretty white.
-Any time we’re conspicuously holding food, kids come up and ask for some.
-Things are pretty cheap here. The rate’s about 20 Córdobas (Cords) to the dollar, and an ice cream cone costs about 15 Cords.
-The national drink is Mancua (or something like that). Apparently, it was invented by Andrea’s uncle. It has rum and orange and lime and possibly something else- and it was available at the restaurant where we had lunch today.
-Typical foods: gallopinto is a rather ubiquitous red bean/rice dish. It’s quite good. They also eat plantain chips, chicharrones (fried pig skin), indio Viejo (acornmeal/chicken paste), and other tasty foods. Meat is at every meal, and the steak (churrasco) is delicious.
-School starts around 6 and ends by noon, and all of the kids wear the mandatory uniform of navy skirt/slacks, white blouse, and black shoes. We saw them all walking up the road today.
-Body modification is super cheap here. Just sayin’.
-When we went to Lago Nicaragua, Andrea pointed out a fruit tree. The fruits are called popoyo (I think) and are like very small mangoes- sort of in the way kumquats are analogous to very small oranges. I climbed around in the tree to pick them.
-Also, mangoes grow on the trees. I watched one fall, then picked it up and ate it. It was delicious.
-The jury’s still out on whether we can drink the water. I have been… and I’m not horribly ill yet! (written later: still fine!)
-Economy and politics aside, this place could approximate paradise.
Y colorín, colorado, ¡este cuento se ha acabado!
