Sorry it took me so long to post these, but here they are.
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Sunday, March 16, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Costa Rica is Rica
C.J. and I just got back from Costa Rica on Monday. We needed to renew our visas (which were already 24 days overdue) and we figured we´d take the chance to have a little vacation. We would have gone sooner, but we´re so American that we feel guilty taking vacation from our volunteer responsibilities. We just can´t do it, Martin. (Martin is our German friend who spends more time vacationing than working... just kidding :-) )
So, we set off to Costa Rica last Wednesday. The plan was to take the express bus to Managua (3.5 hours) then the Tica Bus to Liberia, Costa Rica (5 hours), spend the night and then figure out how to take local buses to Monte Verde, our final destination. Tica Bus is supposed to be the quick, comfortable way to travel because it is a real express bus that only stops at the border, has air conditioning and movies. We were looking forward to a stress-free trip, but when we arrived in Managua to catch our Tica Bus, we found out that the guy in Ocotal never actually called in our reservation and we didn´t have seats! Fortunately, the boss got us on the bus with no problem but a little added stress our our side. It also turns out that the air conditioning was broken, but they wouldn´t let us open the windows because the air conditioning was on, so we cooked all the way to the border. How TIN.
At the border, we had no problem with our expired visa we just payed the $1 a day fine. The guy was actually very chatty, especially when his friend came in to show him the passport of the guy he swore was Jean Claude Van Damme. It clearly wasn´t him, but they were convinced. They went on and on, looking at the guy´s visas and saying ¨Look, he was everywhere that there was a Van Damme movie made.¨ TIN, seriously.
At the border we also met a couple who had a newer version of the tour book we were using, and it didn´t have any information about busses from Liberia to Monte Verde. We kind of paniced and decided to take Tica Bus all the way to San Jose (4 extra hours) so that we could be sure to get an express to Monte Verde the next morning. Fortunately the air conditioning worked for the Rest of the bus ride (how unTIN... ironic isn´t it), and we watched a Jim Carey marathon in Spanish.
When we got to San Jose, we shared a cab with a backpacker couple and we got unwittingly tricked into staying at a backpacker place with dorm rooms. Ick. I´ll never do that again, I´ll always pay more for a private room, thank you. The next morning we took the 4 hr. express to Monte Verde and arrived at our final destination only 28 hours after we left home! When we got off the bus we were imediately bombarded with people selling tours and handing out maps, but we quickly slipped away to the Tica Bus office to make our return researvations. We found out that you can take Tica Bus directly to Monte Verde (WHAT?!), well sortof, and so we faxed in our reservation, since they wouldn´t pick up the phone at the office.
Then as we were walking around town I suddenly realized we left our bags on the bus!! Ahhh! How could we have been so stupid, we were so distracted by all the people in our face that we forgot our luggage! Crap, we quick took a taxi to the bus station, where luckily our bus was still being serviced for the return trip and claimed our bags, and we only paid double the normal taxi fare. Whew!
The following morning we went for our zip lining canopy tour. Now that was awesome! We zipped from the top of a tree on one mountain, over the valley, to the top of a tree on another mountain. We saw the most gorgeous views of the rain forest and we had so much fun. We also have tons of pictures to share later. Zip lining wasn´t scary for me, it was an amazing experience that I would do again in a heart beat. We also took a walking tour over a set of suspension bridges in the forest, which was neat because we got to see the forest up close. One of the cool things about Costa Rica toruism is that everyone speaks English and since C.J. and I speak Spanish we get special treatment everywhere... just for asking nicely in Spanish we got to see the Hummingbird exibit for free!
Since, we were planning to take a more direct route home, we were able to stay another night in Monte Verde, and go on a canyoning tour - that is repelling down waterfalls! That´s me at the tippy top of the waterfall on the left! Now that, my friend, was scary! You have to really rely on your rope and you have to actually know what you´re doing... which is why I have a huge scape on my left shin. We went down six water falls, and after about two, I was like, ¨OK, been there, tried that, ready to go home.¨ But no, there were four more to go! I made it out alive thankfully, and I do have to admit that it was really fun. I would definately recommend it to anyone who likes adventure and adreneline!The next morning we took the recommended 6AM bus to the highway to catch our Tica Bus. Our bus driver took his sweet time getting us there, he even took a five minute snack break at one point. That´s actually very unTIN, because the busses in Nicaragua are serious business. Anyway, we arrived at the highway at 10 minutes to 8, and apparently just after the first Tica Bus passed. We waited there until like 9:35, when the 2nd Tica bus came. We yelled, we held up our tickets, we ran after them and waved our hands like maniacs, but the Tica Bus passed us by, leaving us on the side of the road in Costa Rica with no plan an no more Tica Busses coming until 2PM.
Ok, 1, 2, local busses to the border, then an express to Managua. Not actually that bad, if we had been planning for it. Unfortunately all the time we wasted waiting for Tica Bus got us to Managua too late to get home, so we were delayed until the next morning. We stayed near the Tica Bus office so that we could give them hell in the morning... which we did and we were reimbursed for our return ticket. We were still ticked though because we had spent twice that to get to Managua and to stay an extra night, plus we were stressed beyond belief.
So in summary... travelling was horrible, but the activities were fun (yet ridiculously expensive). We´re glad to be back in Sabana Grande and we have lots of pictures and videos to share later!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Our secret weapon
Jenny and I reached our limit. The mice and bats have been invading our house on and off since we got here. I had the mouse on the inside of my sweatshirt (while I was wearing it), Jenny found that a mouse had eaten a bunch of holes in our dirty laundry, and the bats have been swooping through our house every night, between 2:30 and 5:00 am. We tried using some rat poison to get rid of the mice that would make mi casa su casa. That didn’t go so well. It killed the mice alright; it just didn’t get rid of them, then after a week or so the stench would reveal a favorite hiding spot. I have been in the process of putting up some plastic screen material between the top of the wall and the roof around the house to prevent the bats’ nightly squeaky visits. This idea was good, but the screen cost me a fortune (in nica money) and it has taken me hours to put up, still not totally done. We noticed that it cuts down on the number of bats, but there are some areas that I just can’t seal off and we are worried that one will come in and not be able to leave so easily. Short story long, as I like to do on my blog here, Jenny and I have been pushed to the edge and it was time for a secret weapon.
Our secret weapon is a cute cuddly 4 month old kitten. She is adorable, and very effective. The day before we got here we were being taunted by a little mouse that was running around the top of our walls; now we haven’t seen a single mouse, or found evidence, in a week. I have never had a pet before, aside from the goldfish Spike for 2 weeks. I always thought I was a true blue dog lover, but I never knew how cool a cat could be—especially a little kitten. She doesn’t even have to kill any mice, she just showed up and they are gone. Her innocent little meows and purrs are all it takes. Or maybe she has already killed tons and completely eaten them with out a trace, but I doubt it. And the bats, they were pure bonus; they just don’t seem to want to fly through our house any more with the ferocious 4 lb kitty we have hanging around.
We named our snuggly little weapon Virginia, pronounced in Spanish as Veer-hin-ya, because we only speak to her in Spanish. I figure its only fair since we will probably not take her back to the states with us and she needs to be used to Spanish. We decided this name was perfect since she would make our home more like it was in Virginia without mice. Virginia loves to be pet and cuddled, which is great for us because both Jenny and I love cuddling her. She especially loves it if you tickle her under her chin, she will move her chin forward following my finger if I try to pull it away. The other day she jumped up on Jenny while she was in the hammock, then curled up and napped with her; lets just say Jenny is totally won over.
Even though she is small and sweet Virginia is total force to be reckoned with. She is very curious and loves exploring all the nooks and crannies of the house, where she would find any lingering intruders if they are around. She also climbs up on top of the walls and patrols around the top of the house and outside like a sentry. She will go after spiders, moths, and especially ping pong balls. Ping pong ball + kitten + hard concrete floor = fun! I gave her a ping pong ball the other day and she loved it. She will smack it with one paw and then follow up with other as she chases it around the room. Its really bouncy on the concrete floor and she totally shows off her ¨cat-like reflexes¨. She will play with it for 20 minutes straight at full speed sprinting around the house. If she gets lost outside in the evening when we want her to come in all we have to do is open the door and bounce that ping pong ball; Virginia comes darting in the house like a torpedo and the poor little ping pong ball never even had a chance. I think our mouse problems are as good as over.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Mortifying
I had an experience a few nights ago that I don´t know how to describe except as mortifying.
It gets chilly in the evengings here during this time of year. By chilly I mean 60-70 degrees; I know, we are total wimps but that´s cold when you are used to mid 80´s and no a/c all the time. We were getting ready to head down to the main house to have dinner with our family so I figured I´d throw on my sweatshirt. My sweatshirt was hanging from a wire that I strung across the ceiling so that we could put up towels to dry and hang a couple jackets and sweatshirts for easy access. I pulled down my favorite VT hoodie and threw it on. I walked across the room to put away a few things before leaving and I noticed that it didn´t feel quite right. I quickly noticed it was my right shoulder and when I reached around to adjust it I felt a soft lump on the back of my shoulder inside of my sweatshirt! I totally freaked and instantly knew it was some kind of animal. Instinctually, I clenched it with my left fist so that it couldn´t scurry across my back or bite me. While still squeezing the fist-full of soft lump and sweatshirt I threw it off of myself and onto the floor as fast as possible. I stared hard at it waiting for something to come crawling (or flying) out of it. Nothing happened. I poked and jabbed at it a little but still nothing. Then I carefully shifted it around and pulled one arm inside out. Still nothing. Then I shifted it some more and saw a furry brown and white mouse tucked into the folds. It was already dead. I had crushed it with my bare hand in the heat of the moment.
I still can´t believe a mouse got on the inside of my sweatshirt while it was hanging on a line in the middle of the room. The little rascal had nibbled a good sized hole in the left arm pit and then cuddled right up at the top of my right sleeve. He had to crawl up a vertical wall then across a smooth metal wire about 2 mm diameter to get to my favorite sweatshirt in the middle of the line. Of course it was my favorite one. He had good taste, it is the coziest. Even Marcio and Alejandra shuddered a little when I told them what happened. Marcio consoled me with a little advice: He went into his room and came out with his jacket in his hand and said when ever I take clothes off the line I give them a good shake (snaping his jacket in the air) before putting them on. Thanks alot for the tip.
Now I have a new chore; I have to shake out Jenny´s sweatshirt whenever she pulls it off the hanger. It was pretty freak having a mouse on the inside of my sweatshirt with me; but I figure I got the better of the deal than him.
It gets chilly in the evengings here during this time of year. By chilly I mean 60-70 degrees; I know, we are total wimps but that´s cold when you are used to mid 80´s and no a/c all the time. We were getting ready to head down to the main house to have dinner with our family so I figured I´d throw on my sweatshirt. My sweatshirt was hanging from a wire that I strung across the ceiling so that we could put up towels to dry and hang a couple jackets and sweatshirts for easy access. I pulled down my favorite VT hoodie and threw it on. I walked across the room to put away a few things before leaving and I noticed that it didn´t feel quite right. I quickly noticed it was my right shoulder and when I reached around to adjust it I felt a soft lump on the back of my shoulder inside of my sweatshirt! I totally freaked and instantly knew it was some kind of animal. Instinctually, I clenched it with my left fist so that it couldn´t scurry across my back or bite me. While still squeezing the fist-full of soft lump and sweatshirt I threw it off of myself and onto the floor as fast as possible. I stared hard at it waiting for something to come crawling (or flying) out of it. Nothing happened. I poked and jabbed at it a little but still nothing. Then I carefully shifted it around and pulled one arm inside out. Still nothing. Then I shifted it some more and saw a furry brown and white mouse tucked into the folds. It was already dead. I had crushed it with my bare hand in the heat of the moment.
I still can´t believe a mouse got on the inside of my sweatshirt while it was hanging on a line in the middle of the room. The little rascal had nibbled a good sized hole in the left arm pit and then cuddled right up at the top of my right sleeve. He had to crawl up a vertical wall then across a smooth metal wire about 2 mm diameter to get to my favorite sweatshirt in the middle of the line. Of course it was my favorite one. He had good taste, it is the coziest. Even Marcio and Alejandra shuddered a little when I told them what happened. Marcio consoled me with a little advice: He went into his room and came out with his jacket in his hand and said when ever I take clothes off the line I give them a good shake (snaping his jacket in the air) before putting them on. Thanks alot for the tip.
Now I have a new chore; I have to shake out Jenny´s sweatshirt whenever she pulls it off the hanger. It was pretty freak having a mouse on the inside of my sweatshirt with me; but I figure I got the better of the deal than him.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Vacation (Adventure) in Ometepe
Jenny’s sister Katie came to visit us for New Year’s and to participate in the January solar culture course given by Grupo Fenix. She came a week early to hang out with us so we decided to take the opportunity to go some place cool, la isla de Ometepe. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. It is in the shape of a figure eight because it was formed by two volcanoes, one of which is still active. Our travel book said it had beautiful beaches and tons of cool outdoorsy activities so we figured we should check it out.
No matter what kind of traveling you are doing in Nica, it can always be a challenge and an adventure, our little vacation was no exception. Katie flew into Managua at 9pm so Jenny and I took the second to last bus out of Ocotal to Managua, it was at 2:30 pm. We packed up our stuff that morning, and left the house at 12:20 pm, we walked a mile with our bags to the bus stop, took the 12:45 bus to Ocotal (20 min ride), then we got on a 4 hour “express” bus to Managua. Upon arrival to Managua we negotiated with the taxi drivers trying to give us gringo prices to take us another 30 minutes to the neighborhood where we stayed with some nuns which was arranged by Grupo Fenix. Then we had a little luck, my friend Douglas who takes me on the solar panel installations, has a pick up truck and offered to drive us the last 15 minutes to the airport to meet Katie. It didn’t hurt that we told him she was a cute single muchacha in her 20’s. It just so happened that Douglas had just returned from an installation with 3 of our other volunteer buddies so we all piled into the pickup together. On the way to the airport we got pulled over, not for having 3 dudes riding on the highway in the back of the truck—that’s legal, it was for having 3 dudes riding in the back incorrectly. We finally arrived back at the nuns’ house with Katie at about 10:30pm, what a day. If we were to take that trip in the states it would have taken about three hours instead of ten. We capped off the day nicely by going through all of Katie’s luggage, which was full of gifts and goodies from the states for Jenny and I.
We woke up at 5:30 am to get a jump on our next day of travel from Managua to La Isla de Ometepe. We had a wonderful breakfast of huevos rancheros cooked by the nuns and paid only 300 Cordobas ($15) for the 3 of us for the night and breakfast, it was also the nicest home I had been to since leaving the States complete with a modern bathroom and running water—what a deal! Traveling was the same drill as the day before. We cabbed to the bus stop, then “express” bus for 2 hours (standing up in the aisle) to Rivas, then bus to San Jorge, then Ferry across Lake Nicaragua to Ometepe, then cab to the hotel (because busses don’t run on Sunday on the island). When we got on the first bus to Rivas it was totally packed and the three of us took our positions standing in the aisle, I told Katie that it was about a 2 hour ride and she was like “yeah right C.J., quit messing around”. Well, I said, this is Nicaragua, this is normal; and our bus ride actually took nearly 3 hours. Our acronym of the vacation was birthed from that moment TIN(This Is Nicaragua), which is pronounced tin, like the metal, because Nicas all like to say all their acronyms like words, which is kinda fun. The TIN theme carried on throughout our whole trip, but it was good for us to have the mindset of TIN, because that way we were more prepared for all the new experiences and silly screw-ups that are part of vacationing in the third world.
We stayed at the Villa Paraiso, which means paradise villa. It was the nicest, most expensive hotel on the island, for US$63/night. Not bad. The hotel pretty much lived up to its name. We were in this cute little cabana right on the beach with electricity, a/c, running water and a modern bathroom, and direct TV, totally sweet. (Thanks Mom, Dad, and Grandma!) Taking a real shower was totally glorious. It was kind of a let down that they didn’t have hot water, but it was awesome none the less. I butted heads with the owner at the front desk until they gave us a discount for not delivering on the hot water, which they advertised, but TIN. The Direct TV was also a total crock, it only had 6 channels, and they were direct TV feeds, but only 6 channels and all in Spanish, TIN. The hotel restaurant was great. I had some delicious spaghetti bolognese with actual meat sauce made with real tomatoes, not ketchup and mayonnaise. The ladies sucked down some margaritas and I had so-cold-it-will-give-you-a-headache beer, again, it was glorious.
Our vacation consisted of hanging out on the beach, eating good food at the local restaurants and partaking in the outdoor activities. On our first day we decided to start the day off by doing a zip line canopy tour that was nearby, so we figured we should walk. We had a leisurely breakfast and then got to hiking at about 9:15am because the lady at the desk said that the canopy tour place opens at 9. We ended up walking for about 2.5 kilometers in the wrong direction before turning back and we realized it was only about 100 yards from the front door of our hotel. It turned out that it was just a small booth, and we arrived at 10:30 but it still wasn’t open. We went into the hotel next door to ask about what activities they had and we ran into the two guys that run the zip line. They were like “oh, you want to ride it? I guess we will open then.” TIN. The zip line was cool, but kind of anticlimactic because it was only 4 lines and it took all of 15 minutes to do. For the afternoon we decided to schedule a personal horseback riding tour for the 3 of us to see some of the Nicaraguan petroglyphs, which are 800 to 1200 year old carvings in rock that have been preserved. The ride was pretty cool, it was the first time I ever rode a horse. My horse was a total ego maniac and he would refuse to let any of the other horses get in front of him the entire trip. He even got to the point where he would break into a full speed gallop just to keep the other horses behind. Unfortunately due to this being my first time on a horse and that I had no freaking clue what I was doing, I pulled a muscle in my back that still hurts. It was still a pretty fun 4 hour excursion though. Katie said she was unimpressed with the petroglyphs because other civilizations had been writing books already and these were just stick figures carved into rock, my response was ¨TIN¨. Later in the week we went kayaking with all 3 of us on a 2.5 person kayak to a small island off of Ometepe inhabited by monkeys. Katie and I paddled while Jenny got a free ride and took some pictures. It was ok, but we couldn’t get too close because the monkeys are apparently aggressive and would even go as far as jump in your boat from overhanging branches if we got close. We rented mountain bikes one day and rode around the area of Playa Santo Domingo and stopped off at a natural watering hole in the forest where a lot of the locals like to go. It was called Ojo del Agua and it was beautiful and even had a cool rope swing that you could get to from climbing part way up a tree, then swing into the deep water. Jenny and Katie were like the only women there in actual bathing suits and there was plenty of staring going on. I felt like the lucky dude but it was a little awkward.
New year’s eve was pretty cool. Our hotel had a big party that they planned for the guests and anyone local that wanted to reserve a table. They had a late buffet and live music all night with a cash bar. We learned about the Nicaragua tradition that when you want a rum and coke you don’t just get a glass with some coke and a shot of rum. They bring you a 375ml bottle of rum with some ice, limes, a shot glass, and 355 ml bottle of coke. Lots of rum, not much coke. It was a good night. Being that I am a total light weight now and Jenny and Katie always have been, the bottle of rum along with a few other drinks had the 3 of us ¨happily¨ celebrating the New Year.
Our original plan was to book 3 nights at Ometepe, then decide if we wanted to stay for a 4th night or head back to main land and go see Granada for our last day. We were enjoying Ometepe so much that we opted for a 4th day there. Unfortunately our hotel didn’t have any rooms for us to stay in so we got bumped to another hotel two doors down. Everything looked nice, the rooms were big, had modern bathrooms, a/c, TV, and all that, but the price was 50% less and we couldn’t figure it out… until later. Our last day was so windy that going to the beach was torture; we would get pelted by sand, our towels blew all over the place, and tossing around the frisbee was out of the question. We kept ourselves busy by taking a bus ride into the nearest town to tour around and have dinner; I even caught a little bit of one of the bowl games at a bar. When we got back to our hotel for the night we discovered why it was so cheap. We were the only ones staying at the place so they had made special arrangements for one of the staff members to stay in a guest room for the night in case we needed something. We did. When we got back to our room I felt something fall onto my shoulder, it was a really small baby frog. Then I looked at the wall and it was covered with them. I pointed it out to the girls and they freaked. The frogs were inching their way up the walls, and when one would get almost to the top, it would slip and fall all the way to the floor. This made Jenny scream, because she thought they were splatting on our floor, and occasionally they would fall off the wall near the bed and land on it. This was unacceptable; I had to go wake up the staff guy. He moved us to another room, that was frog free, but it had a large ceramic frog lamp on the table--weird. The frogs weren’t all of it. There was a TV in the room, but I turned it on and they didn’t have a single channel, suddenly 6 channels of Direct TV Spanish looked good. Why in the heck did they even have a TV in the room if they have no channels? I looked outside and could see that the room next to us where the staff guy was staying had a hole cut in the screen window with a wire running out of it that went up the wall and was wrapped around a make-shift antenna on the roof. TIN. Also, the water in the bathroom didn’t work and we had to ask them to turn it on. The reply was that we needed to wait 20 minutes for the pump to kick in and fill the tank. There was also no hot water here, there was a hot water knob in the shower and on the sink, but they didn’t do anything. Only in Nicaragua.
Remember how I said that it was really windy on our last day? Well it was still really windy the next morning, but we didn´t think anything of it until after our expensive cab ride to the ferry port 30 minutes away. We got to the ferry to find that there was a ton of people and other tourists all waiting at the gate to the ferry. We heard from some of the people in line that none of the ferries had left all day due to the wind. A ferry came into the port full of passengers after about 30 minutes of waiting, and we all boarded the boat. We waited for about an hour an a half, then finally got official word through the gossip channels that the authorities were closing off the ports for the rest of the day due to wind. I had never heard of this before, its not like we were going in a sail boat, or like we were going to cross the sea, it was just a 1 hour ferry ride to shore. We luckily caught a bus that was passing by as we got off the boat and headed back to the same town as the night before. We stayed the night and I went back to the same bar so I could watch the VT bowl game. It was great that I could see it live, but pretty depressing that we lost our 4th BCS bowl game in a row—the last two being by only 3 points each. The next day we got up at 530 and hustled to the bus stop to get the first bus back to the ferry and when we arrived we found out that they had already cancelled all boat traffic for the second day in a row. We took the 1 hour bus ride again back to the town of Altagracia to get an available hotel room one more time. We found out that we could skip the one hour bus ride the next morning if we took a 6 am ¨lancha¨ out of the local port about a 20-30 minute walk from town. We stayed the night again and got up this time at 4:30 am to check out of the hotel and get to the port in time to catch the plantain lancha. We walked about a mile and a half with our bags, which were heavy as heck by the end and happily found a small boat loading up to leave. We were the only gringos around and they spent the next 45 minutes loading plantains by hand. When they were done the boat was chock full of plantains. They only took about 10 passengers and we set off. It seemed just as windy as the two previous days but for some reason the ports were opened again. The ride on the lancha was 3 hours of the rockiest boat ride I have ever been on. I would look out the opposite side of the boat and see nothing but sea, then I would see nothing but sky, sea, sky, sea sky, ugh… Lucky for me I was smart enough not to eat breakfast that morning; I had nothing to barf up. We had already spent 2 extra days in Ometepe and Katie had missed the first day and a half of her solar culture course in Sabana Grande. So, we took a cab straight from the ferry port for 2.5 hours to the bus station in Managua, then we took another ¨express¨ bus to Ocotal and finished off our 13 hour travel day with a 1 mile up hill walk from the bus stop to our cozy mud home in the mountains. It was a fun vacation but maybe a little too heavy on the adventure. At least we got a chance to show Katie the real Nicaragua.
No matter what kind of traveling you are doing in Nica, it can always be a challenge and an adventure, our little vacation was no exception. Katie flew into Managua at 9pm so Jenny and I took the second to last bus out of Ocotal to Managua, it was at 2:30 pm. We packed up our stuff that morning, and left the house at 12:20 pm, we walked a mile with our bags to the bus stop, took the 12:45 bus to Ocotal (20 min ride), then we got on a 4 hour “express” bus to Managua. Upon arrival to Managua we negotiated with the taxi drivers trying to give us gringo prices to take us another 30 minutes to the neighborhood where we stayed with some nuns which was arranged by Grupo Fenix. Then we had a little luck, my friend Douglas who takes me on the solar panel installations, has a pick up truck and offered to drive us the last 15 minutes to the airport to meet Katie. It didn’t hurt that we told him she was a cute single muchacha in her 20’s. It just so happened that Douglas had just returned from an installation with 3 of our other volunteer buddies so we all piled into the pickup together. On the way to the airport we got pulled over, not for having 3 dudes riding on the highway in the back of the truck—that’s legal, it was for having 3 dudes riding in the back incorrectly. We finally arrived back at the nuns’ house with Katie at about 10:30pm, what a day. If we were to take that trip in the states it would have taken about three hours instead of ten. We capped off the day nicely by going through all of Katie’s luggage, which was full of gifts and goodies from the states for Jenny and I.
We woke up at 5:30 am to get a jump on our next day of travel from Managua to La Isla de Ometepe. We had a wonderful breakfast of huevos rancheros cooked by the nuns and paid only 300 Cordobas ($15) for the 3 of us for the night and breakfast, it was also the nicest home I had been to since leaving the States complete with a modern bathroom and running water—what a deal! Traveling was the same drill as the day before. We cabbed to the bus stop, then “express” bus for 2 hours (standing up in the aisle) to Rivas, then bus to San Jorge, then Ferry across Lake Nicaragua to Ometepe, then cab to the hotel (because busses don’t run on Sunday on the island). When we got on the first bus to Rivas it was totally packed and the three of us took our positions standing in the aisle, I told Katie that it was about a 2 hour ride and she was like “yeah right C.J., quit messing around”. Well, I said, this is Nicaragua, this is normal; and our bus ride actually took nearly 3 hours. Our acronym of the vacation was birthed from that moment TIN(This Is Nicaragua), which is pronounced tin, like the metal, because Nicas all like to say all their acronyms like words, which is kinda fun. The TIN theme carried on throughout our whole trip, but it was good for us to have the mindset of TIN, because that way we were more prepared for all the new experiences and silly screw-ups that are part of vacationing in the third world.
We stayed at the Villa Paraiso, which means paradise villa. It was the nicest, most expensive hotel on the island, for US$63/night. Not bad. The hotel pretty much lived up to its name. We were in this cute little cabana right on the beach with electricity, a/c, running water and a modern bathroom, and direct TV, totally sweet. (Thanks Mom, Dad, and Grandma!) Taking a real shower was totally glorious. It was kind of a let down that they didn’t have hot water, but it was awesome none the less. I butted heads with the owner at the front desk until they gave us a discount for not delivering on the hot water, which they advertised, but TIN. The Direct TV was also a total crock, it only had 6 channels, and they were direct TV feeds, but only 6 channels and all in Spanish, TIN. The hotel restaurant was great. I had some delicious spaghetti bolognese with actual meat sauce made with real tomatoes, not ketchup and mayonnaise. The ladies sucked down some margaritas and I had so-cold-it-will-give-you-a-headache beer, again, it was glorious.
Our vacation consisted of hanging out on the beach, eating good food at the local restaurants and partaking in the outdoor activities. On our first day we decided to start the day off by doing a zip line canopy tour that was nearby, so we figured we should walk. We had a leisurely breakfast and then got to hiking at about 9:15am because the lady at the desk said that the canopy tour place opens at 9. We ended up walking for about 2.5 kilometers in the wrong direction before turning back and we realized it was only about 100 yards from the front door of our hotel. It turned out that it was just a small booth, and we arrived at 10:30 but it still wasn’t open. We went into the hotel next door to ask about what activities they had and we ran into the two guys that run the zip line. They were like “oh, you want to ride it? I guess we will open then.” TIN. The zip line was cool, but kind of anticlimactic because it was only 4 lines and it took all of 15 minutes to do. For the afternoon we decided to schedule a personal horseback riding tour for the 3 of us to see some of the Nicaraguan petroglyphs, which are 800 to 1200 year old carvings in rock that have been preserved. The ride was pretty cool, it was the first time I ever rode a horse. My horse was a total ego maniac and he would refuse to let any of the other horses get in front of him the entire trip. He even got to the point where he would break into a full speed gallop just to keep the other horses behind. Unfortunately due to this being my first time on a horse and that I had no freaking clue what I was doing, I pulled a muscle in my back that still hurts. It was still a pretty fun 4 hour excursion though. Katie said she was unimpressed with the petroglyphs because other civilizations had been writing books already and these were just stick figures carved into rock, my response was ¨TIN¨. Later in the week we went kayaking with all 3 of us on a 2.5 person kayak to a small island off of Ometepe inhabited by monkeys. Katie and I paddled while Jenny got a free ride and took some pictures. It was ok, but we couldn’t get too close because the monkeys are apparently aggressive and would even go as far as jump in your boat from overhanging branches if we got close. We rented mountain bikes one day and rode around the area of Playa Santo Domingo and stopped off at a natural watering hole in the forest where a lot of the locals like to go. It was called Ojo del Agua and it was beautiful and even had a cool rope swing that you could get to from climbing part way up a tree, then swing into the deep water. Jenny and Katie were like the only women there in actual bathing suits and there was plenty of staring going on. I felt like the lucky dude but it was a little awkward.
New year’s eve was pretty cool. Our hotel had a big party that they planned for the guests and anyone local that wanted to reserve a table. They had a late buffet and live music all night with a cash bar. We learned about the Nicaragua tradition that when you want a rum and coke you don’t just get a glass with some coke and a shot of rum. They bring you a 375ml bottle of rum with some ice, limes, a shot glass, and 355 ml bottle of coke. Lots of rum, not much coke. It was a good night. Being that I am a total light weight now and Jenny and Katie always have been, the bottle of rum along with a few other drinks had the 3 of us ¨happily¨ celebrating the New Year.
Our original plan was to book 3 nights at Ometepe, then decide if we wanted to stay for a 4th night or head back to main land and go see Granada for our last day. We were enjoying Ometepe so much that we opted for a 4th day there. Unfortunately our hotel didn’t have any rooms for us to stay in so we got bumped to another hotel two doors down. Everything looked nice, the rooms were big, had modern bathrooms, a/c, TV, and all that, but the price was 50% less and we couldn’t figure it out… until later. Our last day was so windy that going to the beach was torture; we would get pelted by sand, our towels blew all over the place, and tossing around the frisbee was out of the question. We kept ourselves busy by taking a bus ride into the nearest town to tour around and have dinner; I even caught a little bit of one of the bowl games at a bar. When we got back to our hotel for the night we discovered why it was so cheap. We were the only ones staying at the place so they had made special arrangements for one of the staff members to stay in a guest room for the night in case we needed something. We did. When we got back to our room I felt something fall onto my shoulder, it was a really small baby frog. Then I looked at the wall and it was covered with them. I pointed it out to the girls and they freaked. The frogs were inching their way up the walls, and when one would get almost to the top, it would slip and fall all the way to the floor. This made Jenny scream, because she thought they were splatting on our floor, and occasionally they would fall off the wall near the bed and land on it. This was unacceptable; I had to go wake up the staff guy. He moved us to another room, that was frog free, but it had a large ceramic frog lamp on the table--weird. The frogs weren’t all of it. There was a TV in the room, but I turned it on and they didn’t have a single channel, suddenly 6 channels of Direct TV Spanish looked good. Why in the heck did they even have a TV in the room if they have no channels? I looked outside and could see that the room next to us where the staff guy was staying had a hole cut in the screen window with a wire running out of it that went up the wall and was wrapped around a make-shift antenna on the roof. TIN. Also, the water in the bathroom didn’t work and we had to ask them to turn it on. The reply was that we needed to wait 20 minutes for the pump to kick in and fill the tank. There was also no hot water here, there was a hot water knob in the shower and on the sink, but they didn’t do anything. Only in Nicaragua.
Remember how I said that it was really windy on our last day? Well it was still really windy the next morning, but we didn´t think anything of it until after our expensive cab ride to the ferry port 30 minutes away. We got to the ferry to find that there was a ton of people and other tourists all waiting at the gate to the ferry. We heard from some of the people in line that none of the ferries had left all day due to the wind. A ferry came into the port full of passengers after about 30 minutes of waiting, and we all boarded the boat. We waited for about an hour an a half, then finally got official word through the gossip channels that the authorities were closing off the ports for the rest of the day due to wind. I had never heard of this before, its not like we were going in a sail boat, or like we were going to cross the sea, it was just a 1 hour ferry ride to shore. We luckily caught a bus that was passing by as we got off the boat and headed back to the same town as the night before. We stayed the night and I went back to the same bar so I could watch the VT bowl game. It was great that I could see it live, but pretty depressing that we lost our 4th BCS bowl game in a row—the last two being by only 3 points each. The next day we got up at 530 and hustled to the bus stop to get the first bus back to the ferry and when we arrived we found out that they had already cancelled all boat traffic for the second day in a row. We took the 1 hour bus ride again back to the town of Altagracia to get an available hotel room one more time. We found out that we could skip the one hour bus ride the next morning if we took a 6 am ¨lancha¨ out of the local port about a 20-30 minute walk from town. We stayed the night again and got up this time at 4:30 am to check out of the hotel and get to the port in time to catch the plantain lancha. We walked about a mile and a half with our bags, which were heavy as heck by the end and happily found a small boat loading up to leave. We were the only gringos around and they spent the next 45 minutes loading plantains by hand. When they were done the boat was chock full of plantains. They only took about 10 passengers and we set off. It seemed just as windy as the two previous days but for some reason the ports were opened again. The ride on the lancha was 3 hours of the rockiest boat ride I have ever been on. I would look out the opposite side of the boat and see nothing but sea, then I would see nothing but sky, sea, sky, sea sky, ugh… Lucky for me I was smart enough not to eat breakfast that morning; I had nothing to barf up. We had already spent 2 extra days in Ometepe and Katie had missed the first day and a half of her solar culture course in Sabana Grande. So, we took a cab straight from the ferry port for 2.5 hours to the bus station in Managua, then we took another ¨express¨ bus to Ocotal and finished off our 13 hour travel day with a 1 mile up hill walk from the bus stop to our cozy mud home in the mountains. It was a fun vacation but maybe a little too heavy on the adventure. At least we got a chance to show Katie the real Nicaragua.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
another solar installation adventure
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.
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