*insert eye roll* “oh kayla how did you manage to connect curling with extremely tropical Nicaragua?” haHA well let me tell you. As we all know my visa needs to be updated every three months and to do this I need to leave Costa Rica for 72 hours. Upon hearing this my wonderful curling club manager, Lesley, informed me that she has a house in Nicaragua open to me when needed for free! My little budget calculator was completely delighted. But wait it gets even better!!! I’ll break down my weekend of “rest” so you can pretend you were there too!
Day 1 (March 24) So Katie (my wonderful friend who graciously accepted my constant invitations) and I left CR at 12.20 (10 minutes ahead of schedule!). Nothing too crazy other than a couple of chocolate starved girls gorging on peanut butter and chocolate flavoured cookies (yes flavoured – regular chocolate is real pricey) and conversing about very important things like farting and boys. Actually, we were able to share some of our testimonies and all in all good bus ride. So around 8.30pm we get into Managua and are greeted by Karen (she looks after Lesley’s house) now Karen and I had spoken a little on facebook but of course never met. First thing she says “Whoa you are big!!!”….umm excuse me?! She was referring to my height, which unless I'm next to little shelly chan, isn’t anything extraordinary, but in Nicaragua I'm apparently an amazon. So anyways because the beach home was 2 hours away and Karen had to work the next day we spend the night at her place. However, Karen is in a one bedroom apartment and there wasn’t really a lot of space for 2 more girls, especially with me being so huge and all. So the door, to her neighbouring apartment that had been empty for a while, was open so we invited ourselves in and passed out for the night.
Day 2: With Karen at work until 6 Katie and I planned to hang out around the house (Karen has a hammock so I was quite content). We went to the store picked up some groceries and had a morning of rest. Then around 12.30 one of the other people living in the complex told us we should probably eat lunch because Karen got off work early and we were heading out a little after 1!!! So we dined on some pa-ta (they don’t pronounce the letter s- its pretty entertaining) and headed out. Originally we were supposed to be getting a ride but that fell through so we ended up taking a taxi and 2 buses and wound up in Casares around 5.30, just in time for the sunset. I had heard the house was nice, however, I had not been informed that it was a million dollar on the beach paradise! Like my home in Costa Rica, God has decided that I deserve the best and this was no exception! It was phenomenal! So we quickly unpacked and hit up the beach, enjoyed the sunset, made dinner and just enjoyed each others company. Later that night when we were out star gazing I was intrigued by all these little lights and girlish squeals of joy frolicking around the beach. They got closer and closer and turned out to be 4 grown men chasing crabs – honestly it was hilarious.
Day 3: Beach day! Enough said, I frolicked my little heart out; built a sandcastle (sadly the moat was a giant fail), played frisbee, made some new friends. That was just the morning later I helped make lunch (fresh fish that we fried up) very yummy. We had to leave in the afternoon to get back to Managua. So we packed up and I was overjoyed when I found out that instead of taking 2 microbuses (where you think 18 seats means 18 people , only to discover that seats and seating capacity are 2 very different things– on the way in we had 24 people in our little van, heehee we were like a clown car; it was fun). Okay, so on our way out we got to take the chicken bus – basically it’s like an old school bus but most of them are painted flamboyant colours and some even have tassels!!! I had really wanted to take it the last time I had visited Nicaragua because it was so ridiculously cheap but apparently they have a reputation for being dangerous so I opted for safety took a taxi and missed out. Not this time! It wasn’t really exciting other than the giggling men in the back sitting on their ice cream carts but still. Once we got back to Managua I saw this really cool float, turns out it was the annual carnival!!! There was reggae blaring , half naked ladies, street vendors, dancers it was quite a big deal. So we hit that up for a little bit but had to head in early once the borracho (drunks) started to flock to the chelas eating their ice cream on the curb.
Day 4: Not exciting. The bus back was not as pleasant on the way in. We had quite the chele (american) who was absolutely annoyed when the bus vendor wouldn’t let him pay for a coke with Cordobas (Nicaraguan currency) when we were in Costa Rica. I was embarrassed by his behaviour and if he hadn’t been so disrespectful to the vendor I probably would have just bought the coke for him. Thankfully, he got off early and we were all happy. There was a marathon (in honour of the new stadium opening) being run in downtown San Jose and so a lot of the streets were closed so it took a lot longer to get home, but I made it back safely without being burned, attacked, or emotionally scarred…success!!!
… Nicaraguan hospitality is intense…
..I am extremely floha (clumsy) – we knew this before, but after tripping a few times Karen took it upon herself to inform me of every uneven surface we walked past..
…it is possible to have an exceptional weekend filled with fun in a foreign country for under $70…
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him Lamentations 3.25
