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Published: October 21st 2008
Jeep Cherokee
This old Jeep would get us from Connecticut to Nicaragua and eventually back again!My niece's ex-boyfriend came to visit us a few days after my niece left. He was very friendly and told us that he had bought the SUV for my niece and since he didn't need the car, we could use it for as long as we wanted. He told us he'd be around if we needed anything else. He continued to make these little visits every once in a while to check up on us and would often hang out and want to talk. Sometimes for hours! I tried to be nice because I love his son, who is the sweetest little guy you'd ever want to meet, and looks just like my niece when she was a baby. He tried his best to make "friends" with us. We'd never met him until coming to Nicaragua. Later, he lent my daughter a long board so she could learn how to surf and told me he would keep an eye on her when she was out there on the waves. I appreciated this, but no matter how nice he tried to be, I never trusted him. He didn't seem genuine to me and he had hurt my niece very badly and I
"Old Faithful"
The PERFECT vehicle for Nicaraguan roads! had a hard time forgiving him for that.
About 4 months after arriving in San Juan del Sur, the ex-boyfriend paid us a visit to tell us that he was sending the "groupie" girlfriend (who avoided us around town at all costs) to driving school and wanted the car back when she got her license so she'd have something to drive. He was giving my niece's car to his new mistress! That made me like him even less. Fortunately for us, she wasn't a fast learner and it took her FOREVER to learn how to drive so we had the car for a while longer. I also had time to really think about, and discuss with my daughter, what we were going to do. We decided that we loved Nicaragua so much that we didn't want to leave and go travel in Europe as we had planned. We'd also been in San Juan long enough to know that without a vehicle to get around in, things would be very difficult. We started looking around for cars to buy. What we discovered was that cars were very expensive in Nicaragua and we were going to pay about 4 times as
much (for a used piece of junk) as we would pay in the U.S. If you're going to buy a car in Nicaragua, it may as well be a new car. At least you know what you're getting for your money. Unfortunately, we didn't have the money for a brand new car, especially when it would cost more than a new car would usually cost. Also, we knew we had left behind, in Connecticut, an old Jeep Cherokee that would be PERFECT for driving around San Juan del Sur. The Jeep was in much better shape than the used cars we were looking at. So, we decided to go and get it.
A couple of months after arriving in San Juan del Sur, my daughter was tutoring a few people in English. She wanted to improve her Spanish and figured this was a good way to do that AND help others who were trying to learn English. Her favorite student was a young woman, who was a cook for the Piedras y Olas Resort. Three times a week, this young woman would get up at 6:00 a.m. and walk an hour to the resort to meet my daughter for
My Daughter and "T"
Playa Maderas, San Juan del Sur English lessons before going to work. After the hour long English class, she would start work and go until the restaurant closed at about 11:00 p.m. She was an intelligent, dedicated, hard worker, and she and my daughter became friends. My daughter and I met many people at the resort. One of them was a retired American fellow from New Hampshire that would also become a great friend. I'll call him "Paul". Paul bought one of the first homes built at the Piedras y Olas Resort community and was spending at least 6 months a year in Nicaragua. He had once been the Mayor of his hometown in New Hampshire. He took it upon himself to watch out for us. He would check in on us almost every day to make sure we were doing alright and we felt safe knowing that he was there for us. He was our self-appointed "guardian". He was also a BIG guy, ex-football player, that no one would want to mess with! We loved him!!
One day Paul came by to tell us that a young man from California was coming to visit him for a few days. He told us that this guy, was the younger brother of his daughter's long-time boyfriend, and that he'd never met him before because he'd been attending a Chicago Medical School for the past 4 years. He had just graduated and was traveling around Central America before going home for the "official" graduation ceremonies. Paul joked with my daughter about introducing him to her, but only if we "checked him out" first and thought she might like him. Paul is such a sweet guy. I really miss him!
I think I should tell you something about my daughter. She's been about 21 years old since she was 3. She has always been extremely intelligent. I knew she was pretty smart when she started to teach herself the Chinese language at age 11. She was also great at math. I often wondered where this kid had come from! She did more work in high school than I did in college and she skipped her junior year altogether. She was always COMPLETELY academically focused and never showed much interest in boys. I remember saying to her once when she was in middle school, "stop doing all that homework and go watch some T.V.!" She had looked at me like I was an alien and said, "mom, there's something wrong with that parental advice." My daughter also happens to be beautiful! Alright, I'll admit it, I'm bragging now (but it really is true!). When this young man arrived in SJDS, he went up to the Piedras y Olas Resort to look for Paul. My daughter was up there giving her friend an English lesson. Later, he would tell us that he saw her right away. He didn't know who she was, but he was going to try to find out. He met Paul and was told to stop in at our house to meet us. He came by the house and introduced himself and asked if we could direct him to a nice place to have dinner in town. We told him we liked 'Margarita's', a little neighborhood "garden" restaurant around the corner. He asked us if we would join him for dinner. We'd already had dinner, but agreed to go and keep him company so he wouldn't have to eat alone. That was it! My daughter later told me that she had seen him earlier at the resort and had known immediately that there was something special about this young man that had instantly drawn her in. They were both happy to see each other again! From that moment on, this young man was our companion and our friend. He came with us wherever we went. My daughter fell in love in San Juan del Sur and I was there to witness it. Of course, I was worried about her age. She had only just turned 18 and had never even thought about having a serious boyfriend, never mind about falling madly in LOVE! He didn't want to leave. His Medical School graduation ceremonies were coming up and he was talking about "blowing them off". His family was calling him every day in a panic. He was scheduled to receive awards and give speeches, as he was graduating Number One in his class!! They are BOTH very intelligent people and I'm sure this was a major part of the attraction. We finally talked him into going home for the graduation ceremonies. He left it to the very last second and he vowed to return as soon as he could.
He, ("T"), did soon come back to San Juan del Sur and then my daughter went on to California to meet his family and spend time with him. My daughter was in California when I went to visit my family in Connecticut and get the Jeep ready for the drive down to Nicaragua. After having a mechanic give the Jeep a "clean bill of health", I loaded it with everything I had missed in Nicaragua. My favorite toiletries, including perfumes and skin creams. Nice tablecloths, sheets, and towels. New pillows. Tea pots and China. New Silverware. Cleaning products. A guitar. Boxes of Power Bars and Granola Bars. These were the things we brought along for us. We also packed boxes of things for our friends in Nicaragua and for the poor children and families we knew we would encounter along the way. We brought pencils, pens, and school supplies. We had a stack of slightly used backpacks donated by friends and family. We had a box full of sneakers, shoes and socks we'd bought on sale. We had another box full of tee-shirts we had picked up at the Salvation Army and laundered. They looked brand new! I'd asked my family and friends who travel, to collect all of the little shampoo bottles and creams and soaps they get for free at the hotels and we had a couple of bags full of those. There was a suitcase full of donated cloths. We also had a bag full of flip-flops. There are so many children who walk down long, hot, dusty roads with no shoes on their feet. Then there was the gum, candy, and over 100 "Hotwheels" cars, donated by the children in the family.
I was FINALLY ready for our journey. I had planned to make the drive to Nicaragua with my daughter and a family friend. At the last moment he would not be able to make it. He couldn't be replaced. We decided to go it alone. Just the two of us. I was a little worried about two women traveling such a long distance alone. A detective friend of mine gave me a can of "Police" mace. It had never been opened and I prayed it would never have to be.
I headed out West early one morning along the Northern cross-country route from Connecticut to San Francisco, California. There I would pick up my daughter and we would start out on our new adventure: "Mother-and- daughter-drive to Nicaragua".
The Journey / Travel With Me
A. Zudro a.k.a. Gloria
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ashley davis
non-member comment
wow that was aweome!!
hey i was looking for a way to go to nicaragua with my husband and my 2 kids( 1 and 2 yrs old), but your story is pretty cool i just would love to know what rd this you take? how did you guys do it? what did you both go throug? how long did i take you to get there?? hope i cana hear back from you soon. ash,