Hola from Kaitlin, this week’s Bilbo Bloggins. I am currently in Masaya, Nicaragua, where we are all in one piece after a glorious week of STUDENT DIRECTED TRAVEL. For the past 7 days we have been reponsible for figuring out transportation, accomadationss, and activities for ourselves, guided only by an overall budget and our heart’s desires. And, of course, the Sacred Six.
Our fearless student directed travel leaders Byron, Lucie, Hunter, and Graham (performing the roles of Gandalf, Aragorn, Eagles, and the Shire respectively) led us first across the Costa Rican border and into Nicaragua. We enjoyed our quality turtle time at Playa Camaronal but we were ready to leave Costa Rica and its expensive prices behind. We did so on a series of buses (school buses, public buses, big buses, small buses…) and had no bumps in the transcountry road. That is, until we reached the border.
We spent a stressful couple of hours trying to legally enter Nicaragua and had to face a bit of an ordeal at the ebola checkpoint. Most of us passed through this screening easily, because we are proud to be 100% ebola free. However, Graham was held up because the Nicaraguan president recently ordered an investigation of people from Dallas, Texas after a case of ebola was reported there. Despite having been in Central America since before the “outbreak”, Graham in his Dallas jersey and the rest of us had to wait while many frantic calls were made. Eventually we made it through and a van took us from the border to an ecolodge named Casa Maderas, where we would stay for the next 4 nights.
At Playa Madera we shopped in the touristy but colorful beach town of San Juan del Sur, hung out in hammocks and in the swimming pool at our gorgeous hostel (which we had all to ourselves), and went surfing. We have all transformed into authentic surfer chicks/dudes after taking a lesson on Monday afternoon. The beautiful blue Playa Madera is full of surfers of all levels, and our crazy teacher Alfredo prepared us to join their ranks by going over proper stance and how to get up on our boards. Alfredo had a crooked yellow smile, 40 years of surfing experience, and a 1st place trophy from Nicaragua’s 2012 national surf competition. Needless to say, he was awesome. Before long we were all catching waves in our skintight rashguards and looking pretty cool, which is the entire point of surfing. Alexa was pronounced a natural by Alfredo, and Zach, Noah, and Graham were riding waves without even needing any lessons. After we emerged from the ocean we were tired and stoked on life, but some of us had rubbed major board burn on our legs or stomachs. To this day Noah and I’s rashes have still not faded.
On Monday night we threw a belated birthday party for Keelyn and Lucie, who had turned 18 and 19 the previous weekend. Alli and Kaela cooked big plates of pasta and garlic bread and we chowed down and had an impromptu dance party by the pool, which was decorated with colorful balloons and a big “FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS” banner. After a guys vs. girls dance off (the guys won thanks to their secret weapon Hunter Kenneweg), 2 delicious cakes were brought out. Lucie blew out the candles on her giant chocolate cake and Keelyn blew out hers on the vegan cake Allie prepared for her: stacks on stacks of vanilla oreos. Presents were given out and a festive time was had by all… big shoutout to Alli for pulling the whole party together and to Keelyn and Lucie for being born.
After a little more shopping and surfing, we left Playa Madera for Granada on Wednesday. We spent 2 nights in a hostel named La Floresta (with hammocks) and explored one of Nicaragua’s oldest cities. We found a tasty Western cafe called the Garden to frequent, bought many, many smoothies, and took a boat tour of Lake Nicaragua. On our lake excursion we fed monkeys oreos (Noah fed himself), saw vacation homes of millionaires, and some of us swam in a possibly toxic pool. We unfortunately saw no bull sharks or crocodiles but we learned that there are 365 islands in the lake and you can buy them for only $200,000. Also, tiger herons exist.
After a week of beach and city life we decided to finish our period of independence and freedom by attending the infamous Noche de Aguizotes festival in Masaya. This celebration of horror and monsters is neither Halloween nor Dia de los Muertos…. it is a singular haunt attended by 10,000 people from all over Nicaragua. People dress up in terrifying masks and wave impaled baby dolls, dead birds, and flame throwers as they parade through the streets dancing to loud, raucous music. We donned our own costumes and face paint and headed out into the frightful night. People of all ages join in the festivities, despite the disturbing nature of some of the sights… toddlers ride through the parade on their parent’s shoulders and cackling 11 year olds breathe fire. This was (un)naturally a very overwhelming experience; some of us revelled in the chaos while others were significantly less enthused. I was presented with a dead rat, Jamie and Graham danced on a huge stage in front of the masses, and all of us got some camera time as newsmen filmed the festival goers. The streets were paradoxically full of life and death, and I loved it.
So concluded Student Directed Travel week. We relaxed and hammocked and had a generally amazing time getting our first taste of Nicaragua, thanks to the hard work of Byron, Lucie, Graham, and Hunter, and the great attitudes and humor of all. Now we will stay in Masaya for a week to study Spanish and work on service projects with Casa Nica. Finally, here is the first installment of what we hope will be a permanant addition to our blogs: Graham-ism of the week. Since we have missed several weeks, we will kick this off with not one but FOUR inspiring quotes from our very own Graham Marshall.
1. “I would be so tired if I was a chicken and I had to bob my head with every step!”
2. (Upon entering a sauna) “Man, this steam really envelops you….. like a… envelope.”
3. “It would suck to be a baby howler monkey and have your parents making that noise at you all the time…”
4. “It is better to have hammocked and lost than to never have hammocked at all.”