I say permitted because Nicaragua has been going through some hardtimes over the past month. It´s land below is rattled by fault lines causing earthquakes and tremors. This has been heavily covered on the news and people are terrified that one will hit again equal to the strength of the one that destroyed Managua in 1972. Peace Corps is keeping us posted every slight tremor. For me, this was something exciting. While houses were falling in Leon and major aftershocks were being felt in Managua I was dancing in the streets in my site because I felt ¨MY FIRST¨ earthquake ! I just so happened to be in Nicaragua to feel it! I was sitting talking to my sitemate over dinner when all of a sudden the lights went out and then the house and ground below began to shake. We looked at each other in the eyes and yelled ¨EARTHQUAKE¨! We left the table rapidly and ran outside to see everyone in the streets. Tremos and aftershocks have still continued through today keep Nicaraguans on their toes.
Semana Santa 2014 began on a Saturday for me. The girl I have been dating for the past two months came to my site to visit me for the first time. She is from my department capital Matagalpa and also a student at the American University, Kizer in San Marcos Carazo. She was born in the states returned to Nicaragua with her family and will soon complete her degree in college next year. She arrived early morning that saturday. I introduced to her to everyone I know and their dog it seemed like. Everyone was curious who this girl was with this gringo. They first assumed she was American but they soon learned she is Nica!! We hung out the first day getting to know my site and my friends. The next day we ended up at the Quebrada or our local swimming hole which is a creek, but a dried up creek until rainy season that is. We had a few drinks with some friends before making the walk back home. We needed to leave early the next morning back to Matagalpa.
We arrived in Matagalpa before lunch time. Her empleada (maid) had made us some food. It was a relaxing day. We packed and got ready for our trip we would begin on Wednesday. I was fortunate enough to pack everything I needed into my back pack so I did not require a duffle bag or large back pack to travel. Wednesday morning we were up at 2am...yes 2am...you´ll find out why if you ever make a trip to Nicaragua and decide to travel to the Atlantic Coast from Matagalapa. The first bus leaves at 3:05 am. We arrived close to 6am where a bus was filling rapidly to El Rama. We decided to wait for the next one to leave at 7am. No expresso busses were leave in the morning. We made sure we bought our tickets early and headed to grab some breakfast. Before we knew it we were on our second leg of the 14 hour adventure...yes 14 hours! Seven hours later we arrived in El Rama (7 hours because the bus is ruteado meaning it makes stops to pick and drop people off and is not a direct bus). El Rama is situated where three rivers run into each other. Its a smaller port town and very humid. We met up with another volunteer for a couple hours while we killed time. At 4:30pm we caught the only bus going out to the Pearl Lagoon. The road is a dirt road with major pot holes making it unpassable during the rainy season they say. This trip seemed longer than the 7 hour trip but only ended up being 5 hours. We arrived 9:45pm in front of a church where another PCV was waiting for us to show us our hostel (apparently he just moved into this hostel as well). He mentioned there was a party going on, but we didn´t mind, we wanted to take advantage of the whole trip, culture, and experience the Atlantic has to offer. We got our room, put our stuff down, and enjoyed the night with the locals.
The next morning we left Warner´s Place (the owner is named Warner. He started out selling chicken wings and other food products in his yard to people passing by. He saved his money and invested it to build a hostel. I do recommend this place if one travels to Pearl Lagoon! Great guy and is always keeping the hostel clean!) We made our way to Awas a local community that was celebrating semana santa. We took a swim in the lagoon and got a little sun. We had to pay to enter. Leaving was a different story. We caught a ride with a random guy and his buddies who are from Pearl Lagoon. It ended up being a 30 min joy ride around the Lagoon before we got off! We were alive but never the less had a crazy first experience!
We were suppose to meet up with other PCVS but they decided to not come in for another day. It was a little frustrating but I enjoyed spending time with the girlfriend. The following day when they did show up, we spent the whole day preparing to head out on a panga (a small boat) to an island where we would stay for a night. We arrived at the island with a night time sky full of stars! It was amazing! We had to stop in the Carribean Sea (yes we are technically in the Carribean at this point as the Atlantic Ocean is further out east.) to fill up with gas...which luckily we had in the boat. But just to sit there in the middle of sea at night listening to just the waves crash against the sides of the panga was surreal. We finally arrived at the island...somehow, someway, the three locals that were with us, one named Rasta and his brother and friend navigated the panga through the night. two hours later we were walking up the island to set up camp and prepare our dinner for the night. Our little cabin was made of wood and covered by black plastic tarp. Our bed was three wooden slabs . I laid my towels and clothes down to serve as padding and pillows. It was a hard night sleep, but worth it.
The next morning we were up early 430am to catch the sunrise. A beautiful thing. Especially from the viewpoint of an island! We ate and swam and explored the island next to ours. We saw a variety of fish, coral, crabs and octopus. Soon we loaded the panga and headed towards another island that has a mansion on it. Unfortunately the mansion is vacated. There are still belongings inside which we found out...by crossing the lines.... There were other tourists on the island eating and celebrating, but we were just passing by. One last panga crawl back to the Lagoon! It was hot traveling by panga during the day but we made it...por fin!
We headed out the next day on a 5:30am bus to El Rama. We got there on time, but the locals who are smarter than we are were there atleast 45 min early. So of course we were stuck with no seats and sitting on the floor of the bus for 5 hours. We did have to make one stop along the way because we blew out a tire....oh the life here in Nicaragua. We made it El Rama tired and dreary and hungry. We bought tickets for a bus to Managua but only later would we find out that we were robbed. The guy sold us a tickets at a price as if we were headed to Managua but the bus was only going to Juigalpa...halfway. We arrived in Juigalpa after standing the entire time...3 hours only to find out we would be paid 50 cords in reimburssment from the bad ticekts we were originally sold. 150 cords would have been better but what can you do...We had to buy more bus tickets for the last leg of the trip. Emergency buses were brought in cause during heavy times of travel the regular buses were being filled quickly. We bought our tickets, got on our bus...yes again we stood....2.5 hours. We got off in San Benito. Fortunately we thought it would be best to have my girlfriend call her step dad to come pick us up because we would not have made it back in time to catch a bus going north to Matagalpa.
We made it back! After hours of traveling, enjoying the culture and life on the coast was a rewarding experience. It really felt like we were in a different country. People spoke a mix of English and Spanish and Creole. We got by speaking English and Spanish. We met some awesome locals and told them we would be back next year! I do recommend experiencing the coast. I have not been to Bluefields but I can recommend Pearl Lagoon!
Now I am back working and teaching in the schools until the first week of June!!
Wish me luck!
Kyle
PCV 2013-2015 Nicaragua
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