Scalped ticket... $30
El Salvador replica jersey, outside the stadium... $5
Being in the sea of white and blue filling the largest stadium in Central America when El Salvador took down Mexico... priceless
Turn your speakers up, the announcers are amazing...
Goal 1
Goal 2
6.01.2009
Nicaragua... a thumb and a pair of sunglasses are all you need
Now I get it. That feeling parents have when their kids come running up to them demanding to know who they love more. And all parents can do is stare down at them with that concerned look and equally concerned tone of voice, assuring them they love them equally, yet secretly patting themselves on the back for dodging another bullet. A job well-done.
Why am I talking about all this? Cause it's been a month now since Lauren and I spent that crazy week in Nicaragua and my children are here at my feet with those same questions. And what do I do? Oh Sal, why can't you be more like your brother Nica? If only you were a little cleaner. And more tropical. And had monkeys. You live so close to Nica, why don't you have monkeys? And so many people! How can you fit so many people in such a small country?
Not that I don’t love El Salvador. Or that I'm unhappy here. Totally the opposite. It’s just that Nicaragua really is a magical place. Volcanoes and monkeys and islands and a lake almost the size of El Salvador with sharks in it. Sharks that eat people. And incredibly cheap food. I sorta loved my time there more than life.
But why?
Well, imagine coming from a tiny country with the highest population density in Central America to the country with the lowest population density, where empty lots are filled with local kids playing pickup baseball, where the government made literacy and protecting the poor and the environment a top priority, and with colors and colonial architecture that just blow you away. Add to that the challenge Lauren and I took on, to go there and back using just our thumbs, and you can start to see why it was such a memorable trip.
By the way, we pulled it off. The hitchhiking part. Didn't take a single bus. Crossed El Sal with one kickass big rig, snagged a ride in another at the border and crossed Honduras in a few hours, and then shot down to Nica. Seriously fun.
In the back of our heads we knew our luck was going to run out at some point, but somehow, it never did. With every ride, we realized we were meeting the most amazing people along the way.
Truckers running loads of bottle caps destined for distant Costa Rican Pepsi factories...
Families driving a Toyota Previa from Florida and moving back to downtown, dirty Managua after seven years living in West Palm Beach...
Shoe factory owners who just bought their own island, conduct business in Iran (what?!!!) and who filled me in on the Sox-Yankees brawl the night before...
Real estate brokers with bachelors degrees from VMI, enlightening us on the mad rush for Nica property (how does $1000 for a beachfront property sound?)...
Government water inspectors telling us all about how the Nicaraguan government cares for its people and natural resources...
Rich PR directors recalling their days studying business at Babson and doing 90 down the highway in a silver RAV4 that looked just like Kate’s...
Two guys driving around in a minibus loaded with gumballs and children’s toys filling up supermarket vending machines...
A gringo who moved down to the southern coast three years ago to get married and open up an auto shop...
The ambassador to Palestine, in a hawaiian shirt, talking on two cell phones, going to buy some wicker furniture...
A trucker who went to the University of Arkansas and drove us 30 minutes out of his way so he could keep singing Lauren’s mom’s alma mater.
You may not believe it, but most of those were in the same day.
Actually, for a quick taste of a typical big rig experience, check out the video...
You should have seen her 30 seconds before, passed out in the cab. You don't believe me? Here ya go...
At every juncture, Lauren and I went for the cheapest, simplest option. Most nights we slept in hotel hammocks for 2 bucks, or on a windy dock on the beach, or just in the sand wrapped in blankets. We couch surfed and rewarded people's generosity with harmonicas and candy bars Lauren brought along with us. On our way back we started to calculate how much we actually spent and were kinda shocked to see that we'd only spent 50 bucks each.
It was an incredible week.
A shot of a typical $2 "bedroom"
I have way more to say, but I've been sitting on this too long and I gotta get this up. As usual, I'll probably edit the hell out of this. But for now, enjoy the pics and random thoughts...
What's a hitchhiking tale, without the obligatory hitchhiking self portrait?
So we started off with a magic ride across Honduras. Piece of cake. A border cop flagged down a trailer for us and when I woke up, we were at the Nicaraguan border. There we started up a conversation with a family and ended up snagging a miracle ride all the way to Managua. A family coming back from the states, driving all the way down from West Palm Beach. Crazy.
They ended up being an amazing group of people. Super energetic, super positive. I think they were jesus freaks. That might have done it. In the span of a few hours, we ended up getting 3 flat tires. We'd repair it, and then get moving again. Then an hour later, another. Repair that, then not 5 minutes later, another blowout. But the third time we were out of spares. So the father hitchhiked into town, found a tire shop, ended up trading his gold watch for a tire, took the bus back out to us, and then off we went again. Crazy. Here's a shot of one of our pit stops
What's kind of funny is every time we blew out a tire, I ended up being the one to change it. Hmm, any connection between that and the blowouts?
Lauren usually entertained the kids. She's good at that. We also collected mangos across the highway
Later in the car, after stuffing our faces with mangos, we handed out floss and gave a dental hygiene charla. Go rural health!
After we passed through Managua, we spent a few days in Masaya, couch surfing at this amazing house and taking day trips to nearby towns and Granada, an incredibly beautiful city. Bright colors, colonial architecture, little league baseball in every open lot. So fun.
Lauren picked up a bug, but was a trooper. I, on the other hand, am a jerk who likes to take photos. For your enjoyment...
Lauren's stomach problems 1
Stomach problems 2
Stomach problems 3
But she recovered.
In Granada, the colors and architecture were amazing.
¡Viva la poesia!
Hammock tree? Sure, why not.
Central cathedral
After that, we headed down to Rivas and onto the ferries to the Island of Ometepe. Our buddy Brad had said this was a pretty cool place and man, that kid was dead on. Imagine an island made up of two enormous volcanoes, surrounded by an immense freshwater lake nearly the size of El Salvador. And toss in howler monkeys, organic coffee plantations and rainforests and you can start to see why. Not to mention the sharks. Real ones. That eat people. Yikes.
On our second day, we decided to climb the smaller of the two volcanoes. Part of me wanted to try the big one, but a decent amount of people fall to their deaths in the ravines near the top. So um, yeah. The small one was adventure enough. More on this later.
We hired a guide for 5 bucks from the coffee plantation where we were staying and headed up into the clouds. As we started up, we passed through their coffee fields. Here's our guide next to their nursery.
On the way, you pass through all sorts of forests, see cool indigenous petroglyphs, and hike among the clouds. Amazing.
When we reached the top, we hiked down to the crater lake inside the volcano. Spooky.
Sidenote: what's better than seeing a landslide? Being part of one.
At one point, I leaned over a cliff to glance down into a ravine, and the earth just sort of disappeared beneath me. No idea how, but I bounced off a few rock walls and landed in a pool of water at the bottom of a ravine, about 5 meters down. The guide was way up ahead with Lauren, but they heard my girlish screams and came back to help. The guide climbed down along the side as far as he could and pulled me out with his leather belt.
I still remember the look of concern on his face, surveying the damage and clearly imagining what could have happened. I'd say I got my money's worth for the tour right there. By the way, if you look close, you can actually see my claw marks as I spun and tried to catch myself. Sweet.
The next day, back on solid ground, we paid some kids a few bucks to ride their horses for a while. Good times until we realized they had gone through our bags when we weren't looking. The little bastards stole my phone but we contacted the police and got it back. What an ordeal. Still love the country though!
Cowgirl Lauren
My view for the most painful 30 minutes of my life
Later on, we left the island and headed down to the beaches around San Juan del Sur. Super chill place and the definition of utopia. Ate food from a beach shack, prepared by a one-armed women, and slept in the sand.
Madera beach, Nicaragua
The next day, we stuck out our thumbs and hitched from the Costa Rican border to El Sal in one day. It was insane but we did it.
And now I can't wait to go back.
I guess the moral of the story is all that stuff you read about certain places - crime, hatred of americans, everything - means nothing until you actually go there and see it for yourself. Too many people tried to talk us out of even going to Nicaragua, for fear. Their own fear. Based nothing on reality. Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador. It's all the same. To experience them is to understand them.
I'll leave it at that.
Why am I talking about all this? Cause it's been a month now since Lauren and I spent that crazy week in Nicaragua and my children are here at my feet with those same questions. And what do I do? Oh Sal, why can't you be more like your brother Nica? If only you were a little cleaner. And more tropical. And had monkeys. You live so close to Nica, why don't you have monkeys? And so many people! How can you fit so many people in such a small country?
Not that I don’t love El Salvador. Or that I'm unhappy here. Totally the opposite. It’s just that Nicaragua really is a magical place. Volcanoes and monkeys and islands and a lake almost the size of El Salvador with sharks in it. Sharks that eat people. And incredibly cheap food. I sorta loved my time there more than life.
But why?
Well, imagine coming from a tiny country with the highest population density in Central America to the country with the lowest population density, where empty lots are filled with local kids playing pickup baseball, where the government made literacy and protecting the poor and the environment a top priority, and with colors and colonial architecture that just blow you away. Add to that the challenge Lauren and I took on, to go there and back using just our thumbs, and you can start to see why it was such a memorable trip.
By the way, we pulled it off. The hitchhiking part. Didn't take a single bus. Crossed El Sal with one kickass big rig, snagged a ride in another at the border and crossed Honduras in a few hours, and then shot down to Nica. Seriously fun.
In the back of our heads we knew our luck was going to run out at some point, but somehow, it never did. With every ride, we realized we were meeting the most amazing people along the way.
Truckers running loads of bottle caps destined for distant Costa Rican Pepsi factories...
Families driving a Toyota Previa from Florida and moving back to downtown, dirty Managua after seven years living in West Palm Beach...
Shoe factory owners who just bought their own island, conduct business in Iran (what?!!!) and who filled me in on the Sox-Yankees brawl the night before...
Real estate brokers with bachelors degrees from VMI, enlightening us on the mad rush for Nica property (how does $1000 for a beachfront property sound?)...
Government water inspectors telling us all about how the Nicaraguan government cares for its people and natural resources...
Rich PR directors recalling their days studying business at Babson and doing 90 down the highway in a silver RAV4 that looked just like Kate’s...
Two guys driving around in a minibus loaded with gumballs and children’s toys filling up supermarket vending machines...
A gringo who moved down to the southern coast three years ago to get married and open up an auto shop...
The ambassador to Palestine, in a hawaiian shirt, talking on two cell phones, going to buy some wicker furniture...
A trucker who went to the University of Arkansas and drove us 30 minutes out of his way so he could keep singing Lauren’s mom’s alma mater.
You may not believe it, but most of those were in the same day.
Actually, for a quick taste of a typical big rig experience, check out the video...
You should have seen her 30 seconds before, passed out in the cab. You don't believe me? Here ya go...
At every juncture, Lauren and I went for the cheapest, simplest option. Most nights we slept in hotel hammocks for 2 bucks, or on a windy dock on the beach, or just in the sand wrapped in blankets. We couch surfed and rewarded people's generosity with harmonicas and candy bars Lauren brought along with us. On our way back we started to calculate how much we actually spent and were kinda shocked to see that we'd only spent 50 bucks each.
It was an incredible week.
A shot of a typical $2 "bedroom"
I have way more to say, but I've been sitting on this too long and I gotta get this up. As usual, I'll probably edit the hell out of this. But for now, enjoy the pics and random thoughts...
What's a hitchhiking tale, without the obligatory hitchhiking self portrait?
So we started off with a magic ride across Honduras. Piece of cake. A border cop flagged down a trailer for us and when I woke up, we were at the Nicaraguan border. There we started up a conversation with a family and ended up snagging a miracle ride all the way to Managua. A family coming back from the states, driving all the way down from West Palm Beach. Crazy.
They ended up being an amazing group of people. Super energetic, super positive. I think they were jesus freaks. That might have done it. In the span of a few hours, we ended up getting 3 flat tires. We'd repair it, and then get moving again. Then an hour later, another. Repair that, then not 5 minutes later, another blowout. But the third time we were out of spares. So the father hitchhiked into town, found a tire shop, ended up trading his gold watch for a tire, took the bus back out to us, and then off we went again. Crazy. Here's a shot of one of our pit stops
What's kind of funny is every time we blew out a tire, I ended up being the one to change it. Hmm, any connection between that and the blowouts?
Lauren usually entertained the kids. She's good at that. We also collected mangos across the highway
Later in the car, after stuffing our faces with mangos, we handed out floss and gave a dental hygiene charla. Go rural health!
After we passed through Managua, we spent a few days in Masaya, couch surfing at this amazing house and taking day trips to nearby towns and Granada, an incredibly beautiful city. Bright colors, colonial architecture, little league baseball in every open lot. So fun.
Lauren picked up a bug, but was a trooper. I, on the other hand, am a jerk who likes to take photos. For your enjoyment...
Lauren's stomach problems 1
Stomach problems 2
Stomach problems 3
But she recovered.
In Granada, the colors and architecture were amazing.
¡Viva la poesia!
Hammock tree? Sure, why not.
Central cathedral
After that, we headed down to Rivas and onto the ferries to the Island of Ometepe. Our buddy Brad had said this was a pretty cool place and man, that kid was dead on. Imagine an island made up of two enormous volcanoes, surrounded by an immense freshwater lake nearly the size of El Salvador. And toss in howler monkeys, organic coffee plantations and rainforests and you can start to see why. Not to mention the sharks. Real ones. That eat people. Yikes.
On our second day, we decided to climb the smaller of the two volcanoes. Part of me wanted to try the big one, but a decent amount of people fall to their deaths in the ravines near the top. So um, yeah. The small one was adventure enough. More on this later.
We hired a guide for 5 bucks from the coffee plantation where we were staying and headed up into the clouds. As we started up, we passed through their coffee fields. Here's our guide next to their nursery.
On the way, you pass through all sorts of forests, see cool indigenous petroglyphs, and hike among the clouds. Amazing.
When we reached the top, we hiked down to the crater lake inside the volcano. Spooky.
Sidenote: what's better than seeing a landslide? Being part of one.
At one point, I leaned over a cliff to glance down into a ravine, and the earth just sort of disappeared beneath me. No idea how, but I bounced off a few rock walls and landed in a pool of water at the bottom of a ravine, about 5 meters down. The guide was way up ahead with Lauren, but they heard my girlish screams and came back to help. The guide climbed down along the side as far as he could and pulled me out with his leather belt.
I still remember the look of concern on his face, surveying the damage and clearly imagining what could have happened. I'd say I got my money's worth for the tour right there. By the way, if you look close, you can actually see my claw marks as I spun and tried to catch myself. Sweet.
The next day, back on solid ground, we paid some kids a few bucks to ride their horses for a while. Good times until we realized they had gone through our bags when we weren't looking. The little bastards stole my phone but we contacted the police and got it back. What an ordeal. Still love the country though!
Cowgirl Lauren
My view for the most painful 30 minutes of my life
Later on, we left the island and headed down to the beaches around San Juan del Sur. Super chill place and the definition of utopia. Ate food from a beach shack, prepared by a one-armed women, and slept in the sand.
Madera beach, Nicaragua
The next day, we stuck out our thumbs and hitched from the Costa Rican border to El Sal in one day. It was insane but we did it.
And now I can't wait to go back.
I guess the moral of the story is all that stuff you read about certain places - crime, hatred of americans, everything - means nothing until you actually go there and see it for yourself. Too many people tried to talk us out of even going to Nicaragua, for fear. Their own fear. Based nothing on reality. Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador. It's all the same. To experience them is to understand them.
I'll leave it at that.
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