Nicaragua!

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Nicaragua:

Monday morning we got on the bus at 6 am and headed out to Liberia, Guanacaste (Costa Rica) to visit another biology reserve. This one was a lot nicer than the one we visited on our first field trip. We didn’t really do much here; I think it was mostly just a place to stay on our way to Nicaragua. We did go on a night forest walk, which was kinda cool. We didn’t see any animals though.

Tuesday we continued our journey to Nicaragua! Crossing the border was crazy. Nicaragua and Costa Rica do not have a good relationship so things were really strict. Before getting to the actual border, we passed, on the wrong side of the road, at least two miles of semi-trucks waiting to cross. I’m not quite sure why we got to pass them, but we did. When we got to the border they sent our bus through a sort of carwash-fumigation thing so we wouldn’t bring anything from CR to Nicaragua. Then a man got on our bus, checked our passports and allowed us to continue. We had to go through a huge line to leave Costa Rica, because we needed a stamp that showed we were exiting the country- since we weren’t on Visas and our allowed time expired after 90 days. After this, we got back into the bus, crossed the border and had to do the same thing on the Nicaraguan side. In the middle of checking our passports, the guy decided to go to lunch so we all had to wait… Perfect example of the difference of time in Latin America : ). Crossing the border was quite the experience.

We drove to the furthest point North that we would be visiting, Managua- the capital of Nicaragua. By the time we got there it was already pretty dark. The streets were covered in Christmas lights and there were tall Christmas-light-trees. The city was way nicer than I had expected. It was kind of weird though because the drive to the city the houses I saw were mainly shacks made of metal surrounded by dirt. The worst part about the city was the little kids begging for money. We had gone to pizza earlier that night and had nearly a full pizza left over. A pair of siblings were knocking on our bus windows asking for money and we decided to give them the whole pizza. Their faces lit up, the little girl grabbed the pizza from the bus and her brother was so proud of her for earning it. So sad, yet the sibling love was cute.

Many of the cities in Latin America have a central park and church and have square blocks surrounding them. In the 1970’s there was a huge earthquake that destroyed the entire city of Managua. They had to rebuild everything and now Managua isn’t in square blocks which made it quite an interesting and different city to see.

Wednesday we were in the city of Granada. I loved it there. The architecture was beautiful Spanish/European architecture most of which had been restored. They were the prettiest buildings I have seen, which makes me want to travel to Spain and Europe to see more beautiful cities like this one! The taxis were horse carriages, which were super cute and fit in perfectly in the cityOnce again, there were children begging for money or selling stuff in the streets. The city still has a lot of its history preserved. We visited two museums which exhibited really cool clay pots, urns, jewelry, etc. We also went to an art place where they make their own paper and use old presses and other old machines to produce their art. The final stop on Wednesday was a hammock shop where they employ people who have some kind of mental, hearing, or speaking disability to make beautiful hammocks and work in a small café there. The café is run entirely by people who are deaf and mute. Granada has so much culture. I hope someday I am able to return there.

Thursday we went to visit the islands near Granada. We basically spent the day boating around the lake, viewing the numerous small islands were 1,000 people live. We had lunch on one of the islands which consisted of a whole fish- I was not digging it…. We then had the rest of the afternoon to hang out in their small pool, the river, kayaking, relaxing in a hammock, sun bathing, and whatnot. Quite the relaxing afternoon.

Friday we visited what are called ‘Pueblos blancos’ a number of other small cities where their main craft is pottery. We got to visit one of the best clay pottery maker’s shops in Nicaragua and try it out for ourselves. So hard!

Saturday we had a free day in San Juan del Sur, a beach town. It was SO windy that when we tried to sit on the beach, we got sand burned. Not fun. So we eventually went back to the hotel and tanned by their tiny pool in the center of all the rooms…

Everything you hear about Nicaragua from Costa Rican’s is negative, as was everything I heard the Nica’s say about Costa Rican’s. Costa Rican’s do not like Nicaraguan’s because, according to most Ticas, Nicas are ‘mal gente’ or bad people who come here and take jobs because Nicaragua is so poor. The Nicaraguan’s do not like Costa Rican’s because, as they say, Ticos have lost all their culture and are too materialistic. I do not think either of these perceptions are anywhere near correct. I think the negative feelings between the two countries have risen from a history of land issues. I really enjoyed my time in Nicaragua. It was interesting to experience a totally different economic status, different accent and different people.

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