Nicaragua

An interesting trip the first day woke up in a villa in the middle of a natural reserve name Laguna de apoyo. Our little rooms were filled with the sound of wild birds and howler monkeys and geckos ran up and down the walls eating the stray insects. All sorts of tropical plants surrounded our little house.

And it was all I could do to not go wandering off on my own ( as I promised to Ryan I would not). Breakfast was up at the top of a hill where we had a brisk breeze and an overview of the giagantic volcanic crater that is now a freshwater lake. The trees nearby had beautifully woven birds nests that hung from the trees like hammocks. And the monkeys and lizards were crawling everywhere. The restuarant had a pool right on the edge of the overlook and the restuarant served American food and Nicaraguan smoothies which were amazing. Of course some of the New Yorkers in our group griped about the bugs in their room and said " I thought we were staying in a nice hotel". That first day we were tourists, we saw Granada, the oldest colony city in Central America. We went out in boats through the tiny isletas on lake nicaragua and kept our hands out of the water because of the landlocked freshwater sharks. We went out to an island and fed the monkeys and we saw lots of birds and wildlife.

Then we ate lunch and swam at a restaurant on a tiny island. After lunch we drove out to the masaya volcano national park where we watched the sunset through the smoke of the volcano

and went deep into some lava tubes with bats and creepy albino spiders. When it was good and dark we walked to the rim of the volcano and peered over the edge where if the wind blew right you could see the orange glow of lava. It was a long day but we saw some cool stuff

The next day was a swim and travel day. We went down to the crater lake and swam and played in the water. I amused myself by building a mini catamaran out of sticks and coconut shells and teaching the girls how to find pumice that floats.

Probably the biggest cultural difference I had to adapt to the entire trip was not the Nicaraguans but the New Yorkers who had no qualms about complaining to the waiters about the food and rudely insisting that it be replaced It was a challenge to have patience and try to understand their culture and not be too embarrassed to be around them.

So anyways swimming in the crater lake was beautiful. Then we drove that night to Matagalpa. A town of about a half million that takes up less room than Logan because the houses are so small and the people all share rooms. At Matagalpa we visited a clinic for women and took them medication and made a donation. They mostly treat cervical cancer there and they often see people from the countryside who have never seen a toilet much less a gynecologist. One woman had 23 children and got her first Pap smear at the Clinica Fara last week. They also treat varicose veins that lead to horrible ulcerated legs where all the skin is falling off and disgusting.

After the clinic we went to the shook where we bought $800 worth of paint and supplies and made the school bright and inviting. I spent the day fixing furniture, repairing chairs, and trying to build joints with a hacksaw and a drill. Has a great time worked hard and loved it. I just wish we had more time there. The leaders of the school made us a Nicaraguan lunch which was delicious ( but later led to digestive issues for me, but it was so good it was worth it).

After the school at Matagalpa we drove to the ferry to ometepe- a volcanic island in the middle of lake nicaragua it took

a long time to get to the ferry and then we put our two vans on the ferry and crossed the lake to the island that was formed by two volcanoes. One of them was still active with the most recent eruption in 2005 and the whole island was covered in signs that showed an erupting volcano and said " Ruta evacuacion" with an arrow pointing the shortest way to the evacuation route where I'm sure a safe calm and well organized escape would be available in case of molten lava swallowing the island and it's inhabitants.

Ometepe is an isolated island and as our hosts put it " rica en comida pobre en dinero" rich in food but poor in money. There were mango and other fruit trees all over the island, food grew easily on the land, but the homes were small, simple structures of cement and bricks. Our host family had 3 spigots of running water outside but none inside. We did have a unique and luxurious double seater outhouse in the back (?) and an outdoor kitchen with a wood fire for cooking. We had 2 power outlets from what I could tell and the family had to decide whether to watch tv or have the fan on. Our hosts name was Amanda and Carlos



Our host cooking us breakfast

and they had a 4 year old grandson named carlito who only warmed up to the gringas after I gave him 3 finger LED light which he loved. They fed us rice and beans and some form of chicken or eggs each meal and were very gracious. We paid them the extremely generous price of 18$ a night per person ( hotels at the ferry dock were 7-10$ a night) and they were very kind and welcoming even though I was the only one who spoke spanish.






The deluxe double seater outhouse-looks clean now-just wait until dark

At night in ometepe is when all the excitement began, first we went back to the outhouse after dark and I discovered that it is the home of HUNDREDS of cockroaches I've seen cockroaches before but never of such size (3") or quantity. I was able to sweep and stomp them away from the floor, walls, and seat but an unfortunate glance into the pooper revealed thousands of them just waiting to crawl on your exposed hiney. Fortunately Nicaraguan food made my bowel movements take split seconds and I was able to hover over the seat while fending them off with my black diamond headlamp long enough to get the deed done. One of the girls with me was so scared that she asked me to stay in there with her while she went so I guess the luxury size came in handy. After seeing the bugs I could only think of the New Yorkers who earlier that day had given our trip leader an earful about the bad conditions at hotel de apoyo.






Our sleeping arrangements-if you look closely you can see the bats near the roof

After going to bed the critter situation didn't improve much- we did have bug nets so the insects didn't bother us, but between about 1-6 the night life of the animals on the island was deafening- roosters crowing dogs fighting pigs squealing monkeys howling tropical birds squaking- I have never heard anything so unique or so loud at night in my entire life I actually got up at 4 am and turned on my video camera in the dark just to record the sounds( I also half dreamed that I heard one of the New York girls screaming " I can't do this" and sprinting down the road like a crazy person). Fortunately we all survived the night and in the morning every single member of the group and nothing but good to say about their host families and how awesome this was- no one had showered it was a hundred degrees and we were all dripping but everyone was happy in the true sense of the word. ( apparently ours was the only family with a cockroach situation).

The first whole day on the island we went to try and help with the Eco-ovens we were providing but in reality they didn't want to trust us with the masonry and we mostly watched while they built one at the home of a family who had been cooking on an open fire in the home for decades. The Eco ovens mostly provide a platform and a stove pipe so that the smoke and fumes don't fill the house and cause respiratory and other problems. The family was very grateful and it was clear they were people who worked hard for their living and scraped by day to day. They also had a pet squirrel, bunny, 3 parrots, a love bird, a cat, a dog and the obvious chickens and pigs.





The inside of the house with the cooking "stove"



The finished eco-stove





After we went and saw where they built the other 11 ovens we went kayaking up a small inlet. We drove over a horrendously rocky road for an hour to get there and then took boats through the lake pulling our kayaks behind. When we got the the shore we had to get out and wade through knee deep mud for a few hundred yards at which point my bowels carefully explained to me that they had started a countdown timer of 20 seconds. I moved through the mud as quickly as I could to a spot between banana trees and jungle and did what I needed to do, carefully choosing a simple looking leaf. When I went back to our guide I asked him about the plant and he said that i should have thought twice before doing that and that I needed to run into the lake and wash myself. So now with the group watching I ran back out through 200 yards of mud to foot deep water where I proceed to do all in my power to prevent a potentially painful rash while also not exposing myself too much. That was fun. (Of course this is the fastest spreading story at New Haven right now)

But the kayaking was awesome we paddled up this little inlet where there were caiman, turtles, iguanas, lots of birds, etc and a fish jumped into my kayak and started slapping me in the leg. I really liked it.



We went back to Balgue ( the village) and I took a shower by dumping buckets of water on my head and I washed my garnets by hand and I felt like I was on my mission again. That night our host killed off all the cockroaches but when I went in to the bathroom and was doing my thing a rather large scorpion crawled out of a crack about a foot from my thigh. I took off my sandal and pounded it, my host was outside and asked what happened- I showed her the scorpion and her eyes got big and she said that a while ago she got stung and it nearly killed her they had to bring a doctor to the village and give her anti- venom. That night they fumigated the outhouse. She told me the next morning that they found one other scorpion and it's dead now too. I'm glad that these things happened to me instead of some of our other families.

Another night of the animal symphony and then the next day we went to a beautiful spring called Ojo de Agua and swam and drank out of coconuts which looks cool but doesn't taste that great.


We took the ferry back to the mainland and drove to a hotel in San Juan del sur that was the fanciest place I've ever stayed in my life- waiters bringing drinks to us in champagne glasses in the lobby and huge villas to spend the night in- everyone had a good time but I was reminded that even in the nicest hotel we were still in nicaragua - we couldn't get into one of our rooms in the villa ( there were only 2) and it took them until 11 pm to get us the key even though we arrived at 9:30 also the toilet promptly over flowed which they "fixed" by turning off the water to the toilet. But regardless we had a hot shower, air conditioning, and the closest rooster was down the hill in the shack town. For the first time in my life I felt like the 1%.



Our last day we went swimming at the beach it was a beautiful and remote beach and I rented a boogie board and had a good time. I also got stung by a couple of jelly fish and had a great time doing some beach combing too. Overall it was a beautiful trip. Our group made it through without any serious disasters and I believe most had a good experience. One of my clients said while we were in ometepe " for the first time in my life I feel genuinely happy" and the last day of the trip she just cried with the power of it.

I had a great week of work and despite the griping of the New Yorkers it was relatively stress free. I was also blessed with feeling really good-, the only thing I noticed was I needed to eat about every 3 hours and went through 4 boxes of granola bars.

Now I'm home with my wonderful husband and I've proceded to mess up the house which he did such a good job of cleaning-but it's good to be back,