This week consisted of a week free of classes as we headed
to Nicaragua for a short vacation before heading back to Costa Rica for the weekend.
The following is my week in review(10/28-11/3):
Monday: I woke up
with the sunrise this morning as today consisted of a day of travel to
Nicaragua. This week not only served as a break or mini vacation but also a way
to avoid getting a visa during my time in Costa Rica. We drove for about 4
hours before we reached the Costa Rica/Nicaragua border.
At the border we experienced lines upon lines of trucks and
cars. After weaving in and out of the line of semi trucks, we found a place to
park so that we could enter the building to fill out paperwork and get our
passports stamped to leave Costa Rica. We then drove on a dirt road a little
further down to the next “check point” where we had to get out of the mini bus
and fill out paperwork and get our passport stamped once again, but this time
to enter Nicaragua. All the while there were various vendors and random Costa
Ricans and Nicaraguans shouting and yelling to convince you to buy their
products or change your money with them.
After all was said and done it took us about 2 hours to get
across the border. We then drove for 2 more hours until we reached our hotel in
Granada. Along the drive to Granada, I saw windmills, Lake Nicaragua (the
largest lake in Latin America), cattle along the road, volcanoes and much more!
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| Cattle alongside the road in Nicaragua |
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| Windmills in Nicaragua |
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| The pool at our hotel |
Tuesday: Today
began our day of travel around Nicaragua with our awesome tour guide, Elvis! We
explored the city of Granada including: a cemetery where the first president of
Nicaragua is buried along with many young men who died fighting for their
country in Nicaragua’s Civil War, a beautiful lookout where we could see two
lakes and two volcanoes, a boat tour of a select few of the 365 islands that
were formed by an eruption of a nearby volcano, a pottery shop with natural
pottery made by the indigenous people, and a large market where I tried Baho
(the national dish of Nicaragua).
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| The cemetery in Granada |
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| The beautiful lookout |
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| Feeding the monkeys on 1 of the 365 islands |
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| Beautiful pottery made by the indigenous people of Nicaragua |
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| The National Dish of Nicaragua (Baho) consisting of various meats, plantains, yuka, and cole slaw |
Wednesday: Today
was scheduled to be a fun filled day of visits to a local volcano and touring
the capitol of Nicaragua, Managua. However, as it turns out we were not able to
go to the volcano for safety reasons and a great majority of the city of
Managua was shut down due to the proximity of the president in the area.
Therefore, we were not able to tour around the city and see what we had
expected to see. We ended up seeing Lake Managua and a local mall. Although the
tour of Managua is not what we expected, it was neat to be able to see the
capitol of Nicaragua.
Thursday: Another
early morning and another long day of travel marked the end to our trip to
Nicaragua. We drove for about 2 hours before arriving at the border once again
where we went through the same process as we did upon entering Nicaragua, the
only difference was that we had to take our bags out of the mini bus in order
to be put through a conveyer belt to be checked for content. After this
process, we were on our way into Costa Rica to arrive back in San Pedro with
our host families.
Friday: This
morning Kayla and Tara (my roommates in my new host family) left to head back
to Quepos to visit their previous host family. I decided to stay in San Pedro
and get adjusted to a new environment and explore the new city of San José and
it’s surroundings. Friday I went to San José where I experienced busy streets
bustling with people, many shops, buses and cars everywhere, and much more! The
only difference that I noticed between being in a big city such as Chicago and
that of San José was the fact that in San José they don’t really have huge
skyscrapers or towering buildings.
Saturday: I spent
today figuring out the bus system and making a trip to Wal-Mart with Nina,
Jackie, and Kelly. There are so many buses around the area that we had to
figure out which bus we needed to get on. Once we had successfully figured out
this information, we had to figure out which bus stop to get off at to get to
the Wal-Mart in Guadalupe. After asking a local Tican where to get off the bus,
we had successfully made it to Wal-Mart. We shopped around for a while and took
in what a large chain store such as Wal-Mart was like in a different country.
The only difference that I noticed was that in the cosmetic section of the
store there were employees to help customers to decide on which type of shampoo,
conditioner, mascara, deodorant, etc. to purchase. Although the experience was
a great one and all of us found exactly what we needed, I don’t think I will go
back to Wal-Mart anytime soon as the bus ride is very long, bumpy, and a bit
expensive.
Sunday: This
morning was relaxing and productive as I caught up on journaling before heading
to a local basketball court with a few people from the NCC group. After
watching the guys play basketball for a while we walked to Subway to get some
lunch and then headed home to chill before dinner.
Tomorrow begins my first week of my internship in a local
K-12 private Catholic school…stay posted for new experiences to come. Thanks
for reading!
~Kailey
