Friends Visit

I had the chance to spend the last week here in Nicaragua as a tourist and it felt pretty good! The occasion? I had two friends from the states come and visit me. They rented a car so we were travelling in style! I usually travel in the buses and it made me realize that things are just so much easier in your own car. Although, I made the recommendation, ´You totally dont need 4WD, all the roads to the places we´re going are really nice´. I guess my mind just conveniently forgot about the bad roads we had to drive on. But, their little Hyundai Accent did great and there were no extra charges at the end of the week despite bottoming out on potholed dirt roads multiple times.

We started out the week in San Juan del Sur at the fanciest resort there. Everytime I go to San Juan del Sur, I go on a budget. Meaning my lodging is cheap and I try to do cheap meals. But this time, in celebration of my friends being there, I decided to dip into some of that american money savings and REALLY be on vacation. Let me just tell you, it was VERY enjoyable. I tried to just ignore the prices and not think about my food bill in comparison to my monthly rent in Corinto. And luckily, down here, no prices are out of control so you never spend much more than $15 on a meal, even when you´re ´splurging´. We had a great time trying out different restaurants, lounging by the pool/beach, and drinking $3 margaritas that were 2 for 1.

Next we headed to Granada, stopping at Volcano Mombacho along the way. We did the island tour outside of Granada, stopping by monkey island and having a howler monkey crawl into our tiny little boat! It was really hilarious, a very tame monkey, just looking around for some food! We also found out that you can rent an island house for about $180 a night and it can sleep 10 people. I took a mental note of that and hopefully I will complete my dream of someday attending/throwing an island party in Granada. That night we went out to a live salsa band bar and attempted (and failed) to dance like latinos.

The next day we headed to Corinto, stopping along the way in the colonial city of Leon for lunch and a tour of the Cathedral (biggest in all of Central America). We headed into Corinto and my friends (two rather attractive white girls) had to deal with a slightly uncomfortable situation. We had to park the car in one spot, then take a open air bike taxi across town to my house. This turned out to be more like a gringa parade for all the Corinto men to stop and stare at. It was a fairly successful parade based on the crowds reactions of whistling and shouting. Needless to say, they felt pretty uncomfortable.

Whistling and staring at girls is part of the culture here and the woman here arent fans of it, but arent too offended either. They are just used to it. So bringing in two gringas, who to them essentially look like movie stars, they just can´t help but stare. I have darker features, and am a male so I dont get as much attention here (although I do get whistles from high school girls sometimes), but many Peace Corps Volunteers with the blonde hair/blue eyes, equate their experience here to being a movie star. People are always watching you and interested in what you´re doing. Obviously, this dies down as your community gets used to you, buy the extra attention is an undeniable feature of life here that we all have to get used to (some more than others).

Anyways, once the initial parade was over, we settled into a relaxing evening in the hammocks of my house and ate a nice homecooked rice and beans meal prepared by yours truly. The next morning I took them by the hospital, showing them where I work and introducing them to a few of the people I work with. Then we headed out of Corinto toward Managua so they could catch their flight back to the US of A.

Although visiting Corinto was not the most glamorous or fun part of the trip, I´m glad that my friends got a chance to see it. They got a better idea of my life here so that when I am done with my Peace Corps experience, I will have friends (and family) at home that understand my time here. Plus, like I said the last time I had friends come and visit, its great because the people that meet my friends in Corinto, will be asking me about my friends for the rest of my time here. Visits like this help the people in Corinto understand my pre-Corinto life a little bit better.

Anyways, vacation time is over and Monday starts normal work all over again. We´ll work hard to raise the last funds for the project and continue overseeing the construction. Although I pumped my friends for all the gossip back home, I havent recieved any updates recently, how about an email? Enjoy your summer!