Last Saturday night I got word from my German volunteer buddy that Suni Solar (a solar panel company that is affiliated with Grupo Fenix) had called up to ask if we want to join them on some solar installations the week before Christmas. I got the call at about 8pm on Saturday night and decided that it was a great opportunity to learn about solar panel installation from the pro´s, even though they wanted me to be ready to leave by 5 am the next morning.
They told me that we would be traveling to a small city called Quilali, still in the north of Nica but farther east. Suni Solar was working with a farm cooperative who was financing their member´s systems. Suni worked it out with the co-op that they would come for the installs when there was enough to do at once to make the shipping and travel economical. Well, they got it right because Suni had 25 solar installations to do in 6 days with only 2 teams of 4-5 people. I planned to go with them for the first two days, then return on the third day so that I could attend a Grupo Fenix meetin in Managua on the following Wednesday.
So Martin and I were ready with our backpacks and tools to meet them at 5 am, and we left at 5:40, because this is Nicaragua and we are lucky they were less than an hour late. We arrived in Quilali at about 11am where we met at the cooperative´s ware house and stocked up our beastly toyota deisel pick up truck with several panels, deep-discharge batteries, tons of wire, compact flourescent bulbs, and all the works. We also picked up two more team members. The truck was packed to the brim, we had our driver/manager Douglas in the front, with both Martin and I crammed into the passenger seat, yes both of us are 6´3¨, and the two technicians, Larry and Emilio somehow both found space in the back. This time we drove only a hour and a half deep into the mountains to find the first installation.
The first instal was for a small young family that was running one of the ventas (small convenience store) for their community. We put up a simple 50 watt panel with 4 bulbs, a power inverter and a charge controller- very typical for Suni Solar. I have to say Suni banged it out fast. Emilio and Larry are total pros, they went to work mounting the panel on the roof, putting up bulbs, switches and wiring it all together in no time, while Martin and I slowly learned how to mount and connect the charge controller, inverter and battery. We had it all done, including a full personalized training session in 3 hours. It was 4pm, and we headed off to install numero dos.
Coincidentally, the next one was his next door neighbor. Unfortunately, that doesn´t mean much in the mountains of Nica. We drove for about 10 minutes down a much rougher, bumpier path, which shocked me because I didn´t think it could get much rougher. After the short 10 minute drive we were met by the next owner in the road. We were all like, yeah we are here already - sweet! I jumped out of the truck, grabbed the 75 pound battery for the system and started walking to the house just to the right of where we stopped. I started entering gate and the man who met us said, no es, esta mas adelante, hasta alli no mas (thats not it, its farther ahead, just over there, no more). I was like, where? I don´t see it. He put his hand on my shoulder and pointed to the top of the mountain,¨arriba, hasta alli no mas¨(up there, up to there, no more). I couldn´t see anything, i was thinking you have got to be kidding me. The path was so bad that even our 4 wheel drive primo truck couldn´t go any farther. I started walking and one is his sons met me on the path. He pointed again to a place at the peak of the mountain and said just up there, no further again. I have been here for 5 months now, I know that ¨hasta alli, no mas¨ is pretty much a bunch of BS, so I hunkered down for the long haul. We walked for 20 minutes straight up hill, me with the seventy-freakin-five pound battery until we arrive at the house, completely hidden by trees, just below the peak of the mountain. I was completely drenched in sweat, it was already starting to get dark and I didn´t even have my tools or my water yet, so I headed back down.
This install was for a much bigger house and had 6 bulbs instead of 4, plus it was almost pitch black by the time we got started so it took a little longer. In these remote locations you work until its done because you can´t afford to go back to the hospedaje to sleep and return tomorrow. We finished at about 9 pm and as a thank you the family gave us a huge ayote, which is a gord-type of thing. We hiked back down to the truck, realizing that the path was much more slick because it had been drizzling nearly the entire time- dry season my butt! This proved to be a really bad sign. We packed up and got in the truck to only get stuck 5 minutes later. We couldn´t get up this one hill. It was pretty steep and had these huge gouges cut in it from the water during wet season. One was right in the middle of the road and was about 2x our tire width and 3/4 its depth and became our nemisis for the next hour. Afer more tries than I could remember we got past it by digging up the ground with our hands (because we forgot the shovel) and racing across the ditch to get across with a little momentum. Douglas lost control just after crossing and crashed into a tree, which left a big dent in the front driver side door. Luckily we were up the hill and ¨thats what trucks are for, yeah!¨ So, since the speeding over the gouge in the hill worked the first time we continued this method as we came across more in our path through out the night. We went over this one big one and as we crossed it at break-neck speed both Martin and I yelped simultaneously from the passenger seat; 20 seconds later we heard Larry banging on the truck yelling ¨parre! parre! Emilio se cayo!¨(stop! stop! Emilio fell off!) We looked at each other and all thought ¨aw $*&t!¨ I got out the truck and shined my light down the path to see Emilio stumbling to his feet about 50 meters back. He had a smile on his face and he was totally fine, thank God for the rain to soften the ground. Emilio was a really good sport about it and the next morning he wasn´t even sore, but you better believe that every time we got back in the truck he sat really low and held on tight.
We didn´t get in until about 11pm so the whole team slept in until 7. While we were checking the inventory and reloading the supplies for our next day of installs Larry realized that we forgot to take the copper ground cable with us from the last install. Result: Martin, Emilio, and I sat on the curb for 3 hours while they drove back through the path from hell to recover the wire, which is really expensive valuing at about US$200 for the reel they left. The entire systems we were installing were worth about US$650, so I understand why it was a big deal. That typifies what working in a 3rd world country is like.
We spent the rest of the day driving between the ¨cities¨of Quilali and Wiwili. Once we finally got to Wiwili at about 4pm we realized that we had to get across a large river called the Rio Coco in order to get to our next instal. We had been searching all day during our trip for a place to cross but everytime we got close we would get word from the locals that it was impassible because the river was too strong or the water was too deep. Once we arrived at Wiwili we realized it was our last chance, if we didn´t cross here we would drive 4 hours out of the way to get to the closest bridge. We pulled up to the river banks and saw a bus (see awesome picture above) and we asked the driver if we could cross. He said no way, and we sat around while Douglas made some phone calls and we contemplated on what we were going to do. Then another local came by and said that we could cross a bit farther down stream. We arrived and it didn´t look any different from up stream, but the local insisted that it was fine and that we could make it in the truck.
I looked at the rushing river and I asked Douglas if he thought we were actually going to cross that, because I thought it was crazy. He talked to the local again and he said no problem, so we went for it. We entered the water and it was pretty deep, the water went about half way up the door of the pick up. We rumbled over the rocks of the riverbed and it was a little freaky to see the water rushing past us, but we were moving. We were about dead center, then we got stuck. We got stuck good. I thought, O my God, I can´t believe we did this, we are going to lose the truck and the thousands of dollars of solar panels and equipment in the back. Douglas was calmly, but urgently revving the enging and shifting gears. The water was getting higher on the door and began rushing in the cracks. The cab was filling up, past my ankle, then finally the truck jolted loose and we got moving again. Then I breathed. We made it the rest of the way with no problems and when we reached the end I opened the door and water poured out of the truck for a good 30 seconds. It was one of the scariest and most exhilarating experiences of my life, and the best part is I got it all on video with my camera! I have to admit, I was so freaked out when we got stuck that my camera work was horrible and I pretty much was just filming my legs, what can I say, I am a rookie. I´ll see if I can load the video sometime, but no promises because it is huge and our connection is, well, Nicaragua.
The install was another 2 hours drive after crossing the river, but it was probably less than 20 miles. The guy at the local cooperative office told us it was only 20 minutes drive. It was deep-mountain-woods-up-hill-perfect-for-a-truck-commercial driving. There were places that tough toyota truck climbed that I still can´t believe we got up. We were lucky this time because there was no rain and the paths were nice and dry. There are no real addresses out here and all along the way we kept stopping for directions to make sure we were still headed to the right town. I kid you not, every single person from about an hour and a half away would say ¨hasta alli no mas¨ We were expecting a 20 minute drive and every person Douglas asked for directions he would interrogate to find out how far ¨hasta alli no mas¨ really was.
We finally arrived at the house and it had already been dark for an hour. We were so far from the rest of the world that our arrival in the truck was the biggest event of the century for the neighborhood. I couldn´t even count how many kids were running around the house, looking over our shoulders, and helping out holding flashlights for us. I guessed it may have peaked at 20 kids, but I gathered a good group of them for a picture. (above) They stole my hat and a couple of the guys´ sunglasses for the picture, they got such a kick out of having their picture taken, which is why some of them are going nuts. We had another late night, but made it back to a hospedaje for the night.
The next morning I left the group to take the bus back to Sabana Grande. What I didn´t realize was the ride I was in for. I got on the bus in Wiwili at 8:30 am and I arrived at Sabana Grande at 5:15 pm. Thats right, nearly nine hours on the bus, a school bus, 3 per seat crammed packed with people, so packed that they had about 20 on top of the bus at one point. Keep in mind, that the bus only passes some of these places once a day-if they are lucky. So I got home feeling dog tired and every part of my body hurt from being folded up into that bus, but I feel pretty good because I helped give light to three families just in time for the holidays.
