Day 8 - Managua/Another Side of Nicaragua

We drove Christy to the Managua airport the next day at around 6 in the morning. It was sad to see El Capitan go, but it would be quite expensive for her to stay a little longer. So I’m the last visitor standing.

I was hoping we could see a little bit of Managua at some point, but there were too many things going on for Chris and Oliver. Plus, I had only about an hour and half of sleep the previous night, so I was not in the tourist mode. We mainly ran errands in Managua, so I did get to see the city in between my naps during the ride.

Compared to Masaya, Managua is a lot more “developed” in terms of having paved roads and wider streets, chain stores, and giant billboard ads…it felt like it could have been any modern city (at least the parts I had seen. There are many neighborhoods in Managua that are more rough and underdeveloped, since some areas were not rebuilt after the 1972 earthquake). At the same time, it’s not really developed, because, like the US, there is a lot of sprawl as well. As Oliver described it, “It’s like L.A.”

We ended up stopping by the mall for one of Oliver’s errands. I was actually curious to see what kind of people would be there. When we got there, it really felt like I could have been in any typical mall. There were a few familiar stores (Benetton, Radioshack, Nine West) and it was basically the same format as (name your local mall here). And yes, the rules of consumerism applies here too. Christmas is here early as well. Too bad it was early, because if there was a Santa line, I would have made Oliver take a picture with me.


Xmas


Xmas
Sponsored by Claro, a mobile phone network provider down here.

Day 7 - Laguna de Apoyo, Catarina, Coyotepe/Christy’s Last Night

Another day of touring...but it was so nice! Oliver took me, Christy, Irené, and a new friend Betzeyda, to Laguna de Apoyo, a beautiful lake that lies in the crater of the Apoyo Volcano. It was pretty amazing to see yourself surrounded by a volcano! The water was clean, with little fish swimming around the shores.

* I forgot to mention, we ran into our Canadian/Costa Rican friend, Ryan here!


Look, I’m swimiming!!


On top of the crater in Catarina

After swimming in the lake, we drove up to the Catarina to see the view. I couldn’t really take a good photo of the entire lake, but it was really neat to see the lake from a different perspective. If you look really hard, you can see Granada in the background.


Betzetya, Christy, Irené, and me.

After Catarina, we went to Coyotepe, an old fort overlooking Masaya. We went on the underground tour to see the old cells, which are all graffitied on, and we even ran into a few bats.


Coyotepe


Coyotepe


Coyotepe


Tortugas!

Before going out that night, we stopped by Irené’s house. She had such an assortment of pets...turtles, toucans, parakeets, a dog, and I bet there were other animals hidden elsewhere too!


Snack Attack

It was the last hurrah night for Christy, so, of course, we had to go out. We went to Cafe Nuit, and for some reason, there sure were a lot of gringos that night. I guess when Christy and I walked in with Irené, Betzetya, Vanessa, and Meling (all local Masayan girls), these two American guys were completely confused. One of them came up to me and started asking me questions about why I was there and how I knew Christy (as if I can’t possiblely know other people than Chinese people?!) and how I knew the locals...it was funny to think of how he saw that. Oh yeah, and to explain things to him, I told him Christy and I were adopted sisters and we were in Nicaragua in search of our birth mother.


Cafe Nuit
Vanessa, Christy, Oliver, and Meling.
We all danced and Christy had a last run with the Nicaraguan club hits.

Day 6 - El Malecón and Jinotepe

El Malécon

We had to really take it easy today, considering several of us only had a couple hours of sleep, and Christy, I think, only had about an hour of sleep. We just hung out in Masaya most of the day. Oliver took us to El Malecón, a vista point near the baseball stadium. You can see Volcán Masaya, which was letting off some black steam.
Aftewards, we met up with Meling at her house (one of Oliver’s friends…picture coming soon!) and had Mexican food for a late lunch/early dinner.


Oliver
He was in between talking to the taxi driver and Meling’s mother.


Navidad en Jinotepe
left to right: Me, Irené, Christy and Gabriela.

Irené, Oliver, and Chris’s friend, had invited us to her sister’s apartment for a tree lighting party in the town of Jinotepe, west of Masaya. Gabriela is studying at the the University of Nicaragua, Jinotepe. When we sat down at the table, we were surprised to see her tablemats had pictures of sushi on them. A lot of Nicaraguans we met don’t like Asian food at all; one guest had not seen what sushi looked like. But Gabriela mentioned there are a number of Japanese restaurants in the area because there is an small Asian community at the University.

We met some nice people at the party. Christy had her ear talked off about politics, but in Spanish...it was funny to watch (sorry Christy!). We ended up going to a local bar/disco by the end of the night and that was about it!

Day 5 - Las Isletas and Granada/ Joy’s Last Day

This was such a fun day….we did so much and most of us barely slept! It was Joy’s last full day, so we were out to make the most of it.

We started the day off with a boat tour of Las Isletas, a group of about 365 islands that formed after Volcán Mombacho erupted about 20,000 years ago. Some are inhabited by wealthy Nicaraguans or foreigners, some were developed into hotel/resort properties, one island was an old fort, and another island is inhabited by monkeys, which were left on the small island by scientists who abandoned an experiment (see picture below). With a cooler of Toñas in hand, off we were to see the the various islands.


Las Isletas Boat Tour


mombocho

We had walked around the crater of Volcán Mombacho the day before. (Tip of the leftside of the volcano) It was too bad we weren’t able to see Las Isletas from that point, since the clouds were hanging low (like they are sort of doing here).


monkeys

These were the monkeys mentioned previously. They actually depend on people to feed them since there is no food on the small island and they cannot swim. Our driver didn’t pull the boat too close to the monkeys because once they heard the boat approaching, they tried to get close. The drivers used to let people feed them, but probably for precaution, they don’t allow it anymore.



After Las Isletas, we went back to Granada to see more of the central park area.







The Beginning...



They say the Rum in Nicaragua makes you crazy..boy were they right...

This was the beginning of a long night (especially for Christy!). Now, I know I haven’t written about nights in Nicaragua at all, but what it comes down to is, if you’re with good company, you can have fun anywhere….and thank god my friends are f—in great! And this, is definitely a night that all of us would remember. You really had to be there.

The night started off at El Tercer Ojos, a restuarant in Granada that Chris and Oliver frequented. It was off to quite a slow start because all of us had awoken from our naps and were not in the mood to be really doing much. But, it was Joy’s last night out, and we had yet to have a true Granada night, so we sucked it up and order a couple pitchers of Sangria. Unfortunately, that didn’t do much for us, since the fruit sucks up the alcohol. So someone decided to order us rounds of rum. How many? I really think I had 5 shots. That is insane if you know how I drink.


THE Australian...Full Circle!

There is a hilarious story behind this…

You must have heard the phrase “the dingo took my baby,” right? Well, when we were in San Juan del Sur, we caught the movie A Cry in the Dark with Meryl Streep (1988), explored the case of whether a dingo had taken the baby or of the mother was guilty of murder. The case had intense press coverage, so the movie was focusing on how that skewed the case. Anyways, it was a really long and slow movie, but for whatever reason, none of us could take our eyes off the tv….we wanted to know! The case has been closed, but of course it’s been open for debate.

But to make this all relevant, the restuarant owner wanted us to meet some other travelers, and what do you know, she was Australian!Oliver’s eyes grew wide as he shouted, “Full circle!” Being the drunks we were, it was such a riot! We started asking her if she REALLY thought the dingo took the baby and what she thought about it (a 20 year case, pretty much!). I think she got scared of us because she just politely stated her opinion and left. Wait, come to think of it, I don’t think she had an opinion. She just nodded and smiled…one of those things.


Tica Tica!
Our new Costa Rican friend, via Canada, Ryan, joined in our hammock of happiness. Christy looks like she’s in pain.

The restuarant owner, Glenda, also introduced us to a group from Costa Rica. They were on holiday so they came up to Nicaraga. When they came over, Ryan was so excited to meet us because we spoke English. He didn’t speak much Spanish, so he was getting frustrated with his travel buddies because even though they know English, they were mainly conversing in Spanish. Anyways, he moved down to Costa Rica from Alberta, Canada and is currently teaching pilates at a resort. He was super fun to talk to; just hearing about his experiences of Canada and how he is currently transistioning into Central America was interesting.


Designerds!
I don’t even think this was halfway into the night yet...too bad my camera battery died shortly after this shot because Oliver breakdanced at El Club.

We left El Tercer Ojos to go to El Club, a bar/restuarant/hotel, just down the street, and boy, it was SO MUCH FUN. The music was good, the company was excellent, and the crowd was awesome. You know you’ve gone out a lot when you start recognizing songs, even if you don’t know the language! I was done drinking for the night, but everyone else kept it going. Through out the night, we were dancing on tables, Joy got up on the bar, and Oliver did a breakdance battle with a friend of his (the floor was tiny too!). We met some new people at the bar who live in Granada, so after El Club closed, we all hopped into taxis and went down to the Kayakes for some after hour partying.

The place was literally right on Lake Nicaragua, with all outdoor seating and several hammocks, which I pretty much ran straight to. I was feeling pretty out of it and just had to lay down somewhere. I ended up passing out on the hammock for maybe half an hour, but was awakened with at least 5 mosquito bites all on my shoulder! At that point, I was ready to go. Joy had gotten attacked by mosquitos as well, so we managed to rally up our crew to grab a taxi. Oliver and Christy ended up staying while the rest of us went to Asia Latina, Oliver’s friend’s restaurant to sleep for the night. Yes. At a restaurant. The funny thing is, people who own businesses in these towns also live in the same building.

Sometime in the morning, I hear some shouting and loud pounding against the windows...turns out it was Oliver and Christy. They JUST got back. I could see daylight, but I knew it was still to early, so I went back to bed.

Probably and hour or so later, Joy comes in and tries to wake everyone up, because she had a plane to catch that morning, but we still had to drive to Masaya to pick up her luggage. Christy was passed out on this hard wooden bench, and man did she look dead! Oliver told us that they had stayed at the Kayakes until sunrise. Christy had apparently spent her time there just talking to the locals we had met at El Club, while Oliver had passed out on a hammock. Christy eventually woke him up because the sun was rising over the lake. But the funny thing was, Oliver said he had a beer in her hand! She asked him if he wanted a drink too, as she was waking him up...oh Christy!

In the end, we all made it back to Masaya ok, and Joy made her flight...but that was definitely a night to remember.

Day 4 - On the Road and Volcán Mombacho

On the Road

Driving back to Masaya from San Juan del Sur was a bit of an adventure. I did mention how driving here is, right? Basically, driving “straight” on a road really means driving in zig-zags to avoid pot holes, animals, bikes, cars, buses, you name it. Add rain on top of that…you’ve got a pretty crazy real life video game going on. I don’t know how Chris and Oliver do it. It would stress me out. (Oh yes, stick shift too.)

Another thing about driving is that it’s common to pick up hitch hikers if you have a truck. They help each other out here. Although Oliver has a rule: He’ll only pull over to pick up children, women, and cops. It sounds insane to do that in the States, but not every household has a car (unlike the States, where it’s what, one per person (of driving age) at least?!).

Anyways, the highlight of that drive from San Juan del Sur to Mombacho was driving by this school, and a bunch of grade school kids were out by the side of the road, looking for a ride down the road to go home for lunch, so they don’t have to walk in the rain. So Chris pulled over, and all these kids come running to the truck screaming and clamoring onto the truck…it was completely precious! They were so excited, and a lot of them stood up on the truck bed, bracing against the wind and the rain. You can see a couple of faces in the above picture. I find it a little weird to see Joy and I smiling and wearing our big glasses, but really, it seemed everyone was excited as we were to be in the truck.

We eventually made it to Volcán Mombacho, an inactive volcano that yielded lush, tropical greenery, and even coffee beans. We drove up to the top of the crater for a short nature walk, but since the clouds hung so low, right above the top of the volcano, we did not really get a view of the surrounding areas (which I heard would have looked pretty awesome). You could smell the sulfur once you walked onto the sight, and there were geothermal vents in one section of the crater. The hike was really surprising because you see so many types of plants growing around, and then you realize, ‘I’m walking on a volcano!”


Volcán Mombacho - The Tunnel


Volcán Mombacho

Oliver the Brave, leading the pack. The clouds were sitting right on top of the Mombacho, so we didn’t have a view at all of Granada, Las Isletas, Lake Nicaragua, etc., but we did get to walk through clouds. Reminded me of hiking in the Bay Area.


Volcán Mombacho

Taking a sip of the coffee grown on Mombacho. I don’t even drink coffee, but I had a cup and it was damn good! Granted I poured a crap load of sugar in it, it had a great rich taste.

Day 3 - San Juan del Sur

After coming back from the beach the previous day, we stayed at the Villas de Pallermas, where Chris (and Oliver sometimes) works. It is located in San Juan del Sur, but further up towards the hills, so there is an amazing view of the Pacific Ocean between the lush green hills. It was truly picturesque. And I got to see fireflys for the first time! We didn’t try to catch any, but it was a beautiful thing to see. I think I tried to get a video of it, but it was too dark to capture the quick blinks.

The next day, Oliver, Christy, Joy and I checked out Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour, where you are strapped in a harness and you get to zip over and through trees on a wire line (about two-kilometers total). It was so amazing! There were about 15 platform stations that you zip through. I think the longest one was about 330 meters. You basically zip your way down the hill, so as go across the lines, you get these awesome views aerial views of the forest and the Pacific Ocean. It was seriously such a thrill because you’re flying through the air just suspended on a wire,and when you look down, you can see how high up you are. You can’t even see the ground of the forest because it’s THAT high.

After the excitement of the zip tour, we went down to the beach and relaxed for a bit. Then, Oliver took us to a view point that over looked San Juan del Sur and the Pacific Ocean.

And with that, see the accompanying photos...


San Juan del Sur - Villas de Pallarmas

It was so nice to have air conditioning!


San Juan del Sur - Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour

Here we are, all geared up for the Canopy Tour. This was the starting point, at the top of the hill (mountain?). The view is over exposed, but in the background is the Pacific Ocean.

It’s a good thing we had those helmets because along some of the lines, there were branches/leaves jutting out from the trees. Oh, and the funny thing about this picture, there was a scorpion scare right before we got on the grass to take this picture. After we finished the tour, the guides asked us what Joy was screaming about earlier, and she mentioned She thought she saw a scorpion, but the guides said there are none in this area. The next day, we had lunch with Chris’s mom, who told us about the time when she got stung by a scorpion at the Villas (not far from the tour place at all!). Hmmm... I guess you DID see one, Joy!


San Juan del Sur - Da Flyin’ Frog Canopy Tour

Joy on the zip line! Look at that perfect form. The neat thing was that sometimes, they would tell you not to brake or brake during some of the routes. If the route was very long (say 300 m), we weren’t supposed to brake, or else we’d slow down and get stuck. Other times, they would tell you to brake only at the end, which I had a problem with. I would sometimes brake a little to early, so I would stop about maybe a couple feet before I even landed on the platform. Then I’d have to have the guide pull me in, or I would have to pull myself in. It was a little embarrassing sometimes, just hanging there because you just couldn’t make it all the way!


San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

There is such a beautiful view from this vista point. Apparently, the property owner saved his best lot for God.


San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

This is the view from El Cruz of San Juan del Sur. Further past the horizon, you can actually see Costa Rica.


San Juan del Sur- El Cruz

“¿Te gusta zùo shè ma?”

If you were able to read that, this is how I have been trying to communicate here. “Te gusta” is “do you like” in Spanish, and “zùo shè ma” is “to do [What]”. I have technically at least 7 years of Spanish under my belt (4 years in grade school and 3 years in highschool), but without practice and use, it’s pretty much gone down the drain. So when I am thinking of how to say something in Spanish to someone, I end up filling the blanks with Madarin or Cantonese because I studied those languages recently in the past 4 years. It sounds natural for me for some reason, even though it would only make sense to someone else who speaks Spanish, Cantonese, and Madarin. Luckily, Joy, who speaks Madarin, understood what I was talking about. Most of the time.

Day 2: Granada and San Juan del Sur

Granada is about 20 minutes away from Masaya. Chris actually used to live in this town before the Masaya house and it’s where Oliver takes his Spanish classes. The town has a colonial feeling- there are still horse-drawn carriages driving in the streets. I particularly like this town because of the colorful buildings. We have yet to walk around in the Central Park, but I’m sure I’ll do that sometime while I am here.






The San Francisco Church







After brunch in Granada, we packed for an overnight trip to San Juan del Sur, which is where Chris (and Oliver sometimes) work. It was a 2 hour drive, but by the end of the drive, we would be at one of the most beautiful beaches on the western coast of Nicaragua. Instead of taking the highway, we took the more the “Chocolate” Road to get to the beach (”Chocolate’ because when it rains, the road gets muddy.) I don’t think I’ve mentioned driving in Nicaragua, but it’s pretty different from driving in the US. I don’t know how Chris and Oliver handle it because I would get stressed. Not all the roads are paved, and even if they are, there are still pot holes, dirt mounds, oxen/horse carriages, and plenty of other obstacles to avoid. But they do have a truck with 4-wheel drive, so they’re prepared to off-road.

The rural scenery of Nicaragua is gorgeous…lots of greenery, blue skys, and cloud formations that rival the Northwest (I was extremely impressed with the Seattle clouds, but I don’t know…the clouds down here have been amazing as well.) On the drive, you see school children walking to/from school, mothers and sisters walking with their children, men walking alone or in groups. You see some people working on the roads as well. It might sound a little silly when you read this, at how I am just observing people walking the distance to their destination, you don’t really see that in the States. Or at least I don’t. It’s mainly highways and freeways with the communities mainly on the otherside of a wall because it’s probably a sprawled community. You don’t really see daily life happening around you when you drive on your freeway/highway commute, do you? Granted it’s a rural setting and long stretches on the road in Nicaragua, it is pretty dynamic.

Another thing we saw a lot of were giant posters for Daniel Ortega, who recently ran (and won) the presidential election here in Nicaragua. He was previously president from 1985-1990, and was a leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSNL). He lead the FSNL against the US-backed Contras during his earlier term, so there was a lot of controversy surrounding his re-election, enough for me to change my ticket to arrive in Nicaragua a week later than my original date.


Daniel Ortega

Out of all the candidates who ran, it seems pretty much like Ortega spent the most on his ad campaign. There are huge billboards of the same ad above all over towns and it certainly was prevalent in the rural areas. I noticed a lot of houses that had mini-posters or the FSLN flag hung up on their front porches. I can’t say I have asked a lot of people what they think of Ortega (due to language comprehension!) but I hope hear some opinions by the time I leave.

After a pretty rough ride towards the end of the the Chocolate Road, we arrived at our destination. Oliver and Chris had described the beach as a fun hang out: there was a bar with hammocks, good music, and a beautiful beach to boot. But it was pretty darn quite and desolate, even for a Tuesday afternoon. Oliver and Chris went to check it out, and when they came back, they had the most disappointed look on their faces. It turns out the owners had decided to close down the beach to the public. Oliver had not gone to it that long ago, since he had gone with Vannyvy about several weeks ago, so it was a shock.

We ended up going to La Playa Madera, which was near by. There was a little surf shack/restuarant/bar off the shore so we grabbed some drinks and Oliver had (of all things) spaghetti. I thought the beach was pretty nice…the water was warm and the sand was soft. There were a lot of surfers hanging around the area.


Oliver


’Serious’ Chris


Christy


Joy


Me


Playa Madera, San Juan del Sur

Oliver and Chris's Place

Tuesday: We woke up semi-refreshed. I shared an air mattress with Christy, so on top of the 2 hour time difference, not having slept that much the previous night, and then waking up in a new setting, I was feeling pretty disoriented. But it was such a nice scene to wake up to! Oliver down plays his apartment, but I think it’s pretty nice. See the photos below!

This is my “home” in Nicaragua for the next several weeks. I love this part of the place. There is an open space above the center of the apartment pretty much. You can see the blue (or grey) sky when you wake up, as well as the antenna and satellite dish! The room behind the cinderblocks is the kitchen, and adjacent to that is the entry/living room, although it is currently unfurnished. I heard in a few months that should change.

And by the way, Oliver best described his living situation as “it’s like camping, but in a house!”


Masaya-Oliver and Chris’s courtyard


Masaya-Oliver and Chris’s courtyard

Do you see the bright blue drum barrel? It reads “Methyne Chloride”. It’s empty, but I still have to ask the boys about that.


Masaya-”living room”

This is where they nerd it up. I mean make Hecho magic happen. (Hecho is their design company!)