Nicaragua

It is not because things are difficult that we do not try,
It is because we do not try that they are difficult.

Nicaragua, comprising 129,494 sq km, is the largest country in Central America. The country has various types of ecosystems, ranging from dry tropical forest to cloud forest. The Pacific Lowland plain is hot, fertile and broken by 11 major volcanoes. The biggest lake in Central America, Lago Nicaragua, is the only fresh water body on Earth to be inhabited by sharks, the Bull Shark. The Caribbean Coast is the widest lowland plain in Central America, is sparsely populated and covered by tropical rain forest. In between those two plains are the north-central mountains.
With less than six million inhabitants, it has the lowest population density in Cen. Am. but is the second poorest country in the hemisphere (after Haiti) with 70% of the population living below the poverty line. You wouldn’t say so if you watch all the obese people going about their day in the central market or during the miss in church. The one-sided diet with a lot of starch (gallo-pinto (rise with beans), yuka, papa’s (potatoes), plantains (bananas), massa (dough), pan (bread) and pastries) with everything deep-fried at the fritanga or coated with sugar at the panaderia must be one of the reasons.

Ok, now that you know a little more about the country I traveled through for the last two weeks, let me tell you about the wonderful people I met along my trip through dry yellow country sides (it’s the dry season and even the higher mountains are suffering from a lack of rain) and colorful cities.

With 17 busses I made stops in the cities of Granada, Catarina, Masaya, León, Sébaco, Matagalpa, Jinotega and Estelí.

Granada is Nicaragua’s finest colonial town; with wonderful colored architecture, tons of beautiful churches and a grand plazas. This town was absolute the best for making photos. The narrow cobbled streets reminded me of San Cristobal in Mexico, or Antigua in Guatemala. Las Isletas, 365 islands (one for each day of the year) are just of the shore in Lago Nicaragua. I took a panga ride through the maze of those, mostly privately owned, islands and was also blown away with the variety of water birds.

Catarina brought me the most interesting stay in Nicaragua.
In the bus I met Yenner, 28. I asked some questions, he asked some more and when we got off he guided me to the fantastic mirador that overlooks Laguna Apoyo and Vulcán Mombacho. He let me drop my back pack at his family house so I was free to make a wonderful exploration to the lagoon and back.
That evening I met parts of his family. The house I was invited to stay at was owned by his parents who had four children, only one lived with them with her son. Another grandchild also slept in this house.
Families in Central America live very different. Often you’ll see three generations in one house. Rooms are made as necessary and sometimes a bed is put away every day to make walking possible. The living room does not contain any couches, only a cupboard with the TV and stereo (ALWAYS presented), a table with six chairs and some rocking chairs decorate the room. The kitchen is half inside half outside. Almost every house has a wood place that gets used every day. The little gas stove inside only gets used for quick things. Most houses have no fridge. If something is needed the kids run to the Pulperia (corner store) and I thought it very funny to see them pass by at least four times during any preparation of a meal: first one egg, then some salt, a pepper, some more salt and a loaf of bread. And voíla there was my Huevos Rancheros.

The Quintanilla family welcomed me with lots of interest and for two nights I enjoyed their hospitality, the traditional cooking, lifestyle and daily activities. On the second day a pilgrimage came to town, because Semana Santa (Easter) is almost here, lots of people do a pilgrimage from one city to another. This one went from Mangua (the capital) to Rivas. We joint them for 10km down the road. Two cards, one pulled by two oxen, one by a horse, and about thirty people walked the lands of Nicaragua. The chickens on top of the straw roof were half dead at the end of the day, grilled by pure sun, but nobody seemed to notice. It was really cool to join in on this; I got to see some country side off the road and to meet some more people.
That same night, Francisco and Bertha, the 55 year old parents took me to the local bar/disco. Quit a few Flor de Caña (the local rum) were consumed and Bertha got drunk real quickly with her slender body. She wanted to dance, so that’s what we did.

Masaya is where I visited yet another volcano. This one however is active (last major eruption in 1772) and you can peer down into the lava filled crater. Now don’t get excited, you can only see a lot of smoke and moon-landscape, but it’s still impressive as hell, literally.

León is another important town in Nicaragua. It was the capital for many years and it still bears a lot of importance. The streets are not as colorful as Granada, and I did not get that ‘togetherness’ feeling in this city, but the Cathedral is truly impressive, absolutely the most enchanting.
It was at the plaza here that I met Ulises, a student from the university and a fervent English student. We practiced his English and the next day I went to the university to be dragged into a classroom with 25 students who all fired question at me for an hour. I had thought this would be in English, to practice, but instead it was me who had to practice, Damn my Spanish is tested.
Lucky me, in this city I walked into a nice lady who told me that la Cruz Roja could offer me a bed for one or two nights. Arriving there at night I found five men half drunk trying to get through the night-shift. But an old hospital bed in a shady room was indeed mine.

After visiting some geothermal activity from nearby Volcan Telica in the little village of San Jacinto, I arrived in Sébaco. A little town with extremely colorful vegetables: beets, carrots, onions, radish, lettuce and celery were brightly coloring the streets. The season for jocotes and mango’s is here and those fruits are for sale on every street corner for almost nothing. You can also wait and one moment or the other you will find a tree.

Matagalpa and Jinotega are both mountain towns. The air was fresh and the environment a little greener. Both towns are surrounded by mountains and have a cross on one of the tops that you can hike to. Of course I did both and was given absolutely wonderful views of the towns and surrounding landscape. The latter even gave me a rainbow, stretching from one side of town to the other.

The last stop in this country was Estelí. A bigger city that not fancied me much, but the Salto Estanzuela, a 25m waterfall was very pleasant and fun with the boys that gave me some cool pictures of them jumping from rocks.

This short telling of the places I went does not include the part what made my Nicaragua experience so intimate and interesting: the People. Although a bit stern on the outside, a smile definably needs to be won, they are more true and independent then other Central Americans. Life is pretty hard sometimes; wages are low and families big. They don’t fool around, and do the things that only need to be done. Kids in smaller towns only have two hours classes per day and help the rest of the day with selling and producing. But although the hours are long and the pay low, work is not that bad, there is a lot of standing around, chatting and just watching in between the daily deals. There is always time for gossip, a curious minute or a peaceful rest.

I loved my time with the people, many hours I sat with them in the market, talking about their lives, their families. Letting the kids play with my games or my camera. Joining in on a game of baseball or just sitting on the sidewalk with grandma knitting my scarf.
I truly hope that Honduras will bring me the same pleasures and little insights.