Nicaragua

What I'm doing: This trip was my favorite fieldtrip we had. It was SO amazing to see a whole different country and culture.

Monday, November 5th

Our first stop on the field trip was in Nicoya, CR. Nicoya has been the epicenter of all the big earthquakes we've had since I got here. This is the main church in town, but we were not able to go inside because it could collapse any minute from earthquake damage. It's really sad that the ancient beauty and history could be lost. We also went to a little market and tried a traditional cracker thing, and then we lost our driver Carlos. The unexpected is always happening on our fieldtrips.

Next we went to Playa del Coco. We are learning about the affects of tourism on different towns and countries. This beach had many tourist boats and shops. It looks like a beautiful place, and I would love to go back someday and explore. I was sad we were only here for 10 minutes. We also saw a private marina for the wealthy people. They can stay in a nice apartment for millions of dollars and park their big boats in the water. It was interesting to compare the different beaches.

We stayed at a hacienda for the night. We played a game called bag of nouns, hung out with the pet turkey, got eaten alive by mosquitoes, went on a night hike and ate mac and cheese for dinner. There was a big tower structure that some of my classmates climbed, but they were told to get down before
 I had a chance to climb it. Looks just like we were in Paris, right?

Tuesday, November 6th

In the morning at the hacienda we saw cowboys, and all the cows, including a 8 day old baby calf! We ate breakfast and headed towards la Frontera.

La frontera was complete chaos, and people told me it's one of the more organized borders... We started to see the differences between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. As we were driving up, there were long lines of trucks waiting to cross. Most of the drivers were sleeping, or eating on the side of the road. We had to go through customs and wait for awhile. Once we got to the Nicaragua side there were many vendors selling keychains, nuts, food, sandals and movies. There were also many people who exchanged money. Street vendors are very popular in a poor country like Nicaragua. Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country next to Haiti.

We went to Rivas, Nicaragua to eat lunch. We stopped at the first place we saw, a fried chicken fast food place called Tip Top. We made our way to Managua, the captial of Nicaragua. It was a long drive, but we got pizza for dinner once we got there. On our way back from dinner we saw all the Christmas lights all over the city. There were multiple huge trees filled with lights. I thought it was so interesting that there were kids on the streets without homes, but they could "afford" to use so much electricity to decorate the city. On our way back to the hotel, a little girl tried to wash our van windows for money. She could barely reach them, and I felt so bad. She clearly did not have parents or a home. We had half a pizza leftover, and we gave it to her. It broke my heart to see her so happy to have our leftover pizza. After dinner we sat by pool and saw the election results in the United States.

Wednesday, November 7th

We started the day with a tour of Managua. It's crazy how many military people there are in Nicaragua, especially in the captial and especially compared to Costa Rica. The military guy let us pass by to go to a beautiful look out. There is a giant statue of Augusto Sandio right next to a Christmas tree. We had a lecture and learned about the history of Sandio. We tried to go to the national theater and a park on the beach, but we were not allowed in either of those. The second picture is of the revolutionary plaza, an important gathering place in the past and in present times. We spent 2 hours at a crummy mall during lunch time. There were many street vendors outside of the mall. "Comercio informal" is what my history teacher kept telling us.

Next, we made our way to Granada, an old city in Nicaragua. Granada was my favorite city we have visited on all of our fieldtrips.  We started off at the hotel, and then we went on a city tour. We got to go to this neat art place. We only were there for less than 10 minutes, but it was really neat. We also went to a museum of ceramics. The last picture is from that museum. I was super tired and getting kind of bored. :)

We ate at the best place called The Garden Cafe for dinner. I had a giant chicken salad with a brownie sundae for dessert. YUM.

Thursday, November 8th

We went on a more detailed tour of Granada on Thursday. We saw many different churches, and we were able to climb to the top of a bell tower in one of them. It gave us a wonderful view of the city. We saw several colonial style houses, and we happened to find a hammock making place. It's a cafe and apartments for deaf and mute kids. They make the hammocks, sell them, and work in the cafe. It was one of the neatest things I had ever seen. I bought a little knitted purse from them We also went to another museum in a church. It had many stone statues of things.

                               

We went to las Isletas in the afternoon. We had to take a boat to get there, but our group had our own private island for the afternoon! We first ate lunch which was interesting. I had ordered fish and it came with its whole head, eyes and teeth still attached. I could not believe they did not take it off the bone. I tried to eat as much as I could, but I did not like it. We relaxed in hammocks and took a nap. I also tried to fish. Syd helped me, but I did not catch anything. There was also a pool that we swam in and took lots of pictures. One our way back to the mainland we got a tour of the islands. The picture on the bottom is of one of the 4 elementary schools on the islands. Around 90% of the children attend school, which seemed like a lot for such a poor country.

We at at The Garden Cafe for dinner again, only this time we brought the rest of the group. I asked for water, and they brought me the largest bottle of water I had ever seen. I tried a different salad the second night. 

When we got back to the hotel, we were dancing and laughing and having a great time in the hotel room. It was super fun to bond and spend time together for a week.

Friday, November 9th

We left Granada, and I was really sad to have to say goodbye to a city so old and filled with culture. We spent the majority of the day in different cities in Nicaragua. We first went to Niconohomo and saw some men making baskets. Then, we went to the library there. Niconohomo is the birthplace of Sandino, and his house was turned into a library. We learned a little more about his life.

Next, we went to San Juan de Oriente and got to watch people make pottery. The guy that was showing us everything was so nice and smiley. He spoke slowly so we could understand him. Crazy to think he turns a gross pile of mud into a beautiful piece of artwork.

We ate lunch at lagoon in Catarina. It was horrible place to eat lunch. The food was awful and it took forever, however the location and view were amazing! I wish I would have taken more pictures there. It was beautiful. We learned about the marimba, and we had a mini concert which was really neat.

We also went to two drastically different markets in Masaya. The first one was a local market. It was huge, smelly, disorganized. Sydney, Mariah T., and Kristin got lost while we were there! I only stayed there for 15 minutes and then waited on the bus for the rest of the time. The second market was really neat though. It was filled with perfect touristic gifts and treasures. :) Here's a picture of the outside of the second one!

The we had the 2.5 hour drive to San Juan del Sur. Right before we left Masaya I got a slice of pizza and cookies for less than $1! Such a good deal;I wish we would have ate dinner there. We got to San Juan del Sur and checked into our hotel. 6 girls in one hotel room, with one bathroom. We got dinner at a restaurante on the beach.

Saturday, November 10th

This was our free day! We literally had all day to do whatever we wanted. Breakfast was at 8am at the hotel, so we got to sleep in a little bit. We thought we were walking towards the shops and the town, but we ended up walking in the wrong direction. But we saw a cool bridge and took some pictures on the beach. 

We finally found where the real shopping was, and I got a Nicaragua tank for $4! We swam in the ocean, went in the pool and tanned on the roof. We ate lunch and dinner at the same place, called Barrios cafe. We got to see the prettiest sunset (don't worry Dad-I took lots of pictures). It was a nice relaxing way to end the trip.

Sunday, November 11th

We left for San Ramon, and had some complications at the border... The guy would not stamp our passports because we did not have our return tickets to the USA with us. I could not believe it. I ran outside of the building to get our director. Luckily one of my classmates has internet on her phone, and she found the email with our flight information on it. We were able to get through to Costa Rica. We ate lunch at Subway, and made it back to San Ramon by 5pm.

In two days I leave for Panama! In one week I will get the opportunity to see 3 different countries. Don't get that chance very often. :)

Con mucho amor.