Semana Santa and Kyle's Visit

I can't believe it is now June 1st and I haven't updated my blog with all that has happened since April!

In April, we had the week of Easter off from teaching in the high schools and I had my first friend, Kyle, visit from the USA. Kyle, another volunteer Jake, and myself spent about 10 action packed days traveling to all corners of Nicaragua.

Kyle flew in to the beautiful city of Managua and the three of us immediately made our way out of El Gran Mango and up to Leon for some Volcano Boarding down Cerro Negro. We traveled like locals on my Peace Corps salary and gave Kyle an authentic Nicaraguan experience throughout his entire vacation. It was interesting for me to see the things that Kyle was taking photos of, the things in his mind that were "photo worthy" and to me had simply become natural. His photos of farm animals on the roads, the abundance of  horseback riders, and the dilapidated infrastructure put into perspective exactly how different our residing countries are and how strange it was that I had become completely and utterly accustomed to these rarities.

Group Photo

We stayed only one night in Leon, woke up early the next morning with a well deserved hangover, and Kyle and I (without the seasoned volcano boarder Jake) hopped on a truck to hike and surf down a volcano. An hour later through a long and bumpy road, we arrived at Cerro Negro and grabbed our gear, took a photo, and began the hike up to the active volcano's crater.

We climbed and climbed for about an hour up a rocky volcano passing fallen and dying victims along the way being rescued and carried down by rescue teams.

Proceed with caution. This person did not.

Just kidding, it was a training, but it had originally scared me like none other before I knew it was just a training exercise. Once at the ridge at the top, we were struck with 60 mph winds and were hanging on tight to our boards for fear of them flying away with the wind. We walked around, taking photos of the beautiful scenery and landscape, even getting as close as possible to the volcano's crater without getting lava juice on us.

That white speck is our truck, a very far and steep ways away.

At the top!

Standing in front of the volcano's anus

Pumped and ready to 'board' down the volcano!

Looking down the steep volcanic slope, I was immediately apprehensive and doubting myself, therefore I proceeded to do what I always do when I'm in these situations (which I (un)surprisingly find myself in rather often) and I just say to myself something along the lines of let's do this and then went for it. And I'm glad I did. I clearly remember the feeling of pure joy as I descended on my board sled down the volcano that seemed to go on forever. Even with some breaking, I made my way down to the bottom cruising past the slow 200 pounds of Kyle. We reunited at the base and met up with Jake back at the hotel soon thereafter and traveled back to Managua in order to spend the night uncomfortably sleeping on the hard tiled floor of the great Sandino Airport.

Miserably tired and uncomfortable

After a quick early morning cross country flight to the Corn Islands followed by a surprisingly long boat ride to Little Corn Island, we found ourselves on a small Caribbean island camouflaged in palm trees surrounded by bright blue water. The island was void of any roads, cars, or really any form of modernity in general - exactly what we'd been looking forward to. The next 5 days or so were spent between hammocks, beaches, scuba diving, delicious meals and drinks, and walking the white sand/palm tree lined paths of the island.

So excited to board the little Nica propeller plane

Every meal was absolutely delicious on the island

Fresh cocos everywhere

nom nom nom all over jake's arm

Little Corn Island Highway 3

Mainstreet

#peacecorps

We met up with Matty Wood and his father on our last day and went fishing for dinner 

Caught a few yellowtails, nothing too big, but everything tasty! 

Diving on Little Corn was fun but besides seeing a Hammerhead shark (awesome), the diving wasn't spectacular or as good as I was hoping. Jake and Kyle both spent several hours at the dive shop getting their open water diving certificate so they are both now certified divers and have joined the club. These few days here (besides the quick trip North to go volcano boarding) were Kyle's first few days in Nicaragua and Jake and I had to explain to him that the rest of the country doesn't speak English in a Jamaican accent, have no sense of time (sort of), or live a carefree life on a tropical Caribbean island. Ironically we would soon arrive on a different tropical island just hours later.

We soon had to leave and board a little boat that bounced along the waves splashing us to get back to the main island that housed the airport. On the way it started to rain and we had to cover ourselves with a large tarp to avoid the rain - Jake wasn't so lucky and dunked by a nice big pool of water that had quickly built up from the downpour. Great start to the morning.

Providing shelter

Sad Jake :(

Returning to real Nicaragua, we hopped between busses and taxis from the airport to Peace Corps office then down south to board another boat to take us to my island - Ometepe. 

La vista del barco

We spent the first afternoon and night at my hotel that I call home, touring my community, lunching at Cornerhouse, and ate my host family's Friday night barbecue which Kyle took full advantage of - eating the average amount of food that a local family of four consumes. The following morning, we headed over towards a hostel on the other side of the island with my local Nica friend, Alvaro, and stopped at various viewpoints and attractions along the way. That afternoon we continued to eat well at the other notable restaurant on the island, met up with some other PC volunteers vacationing that week on Ometepe and eventually went to bed just to wake up early for a nice volcano hike. 

If you need a guide for Maderas, I recommend you do NOT take my good friend as you will certainly get lost on the way down and a 2.5 hour descent will turn into a 4.5 hour never ending one

Feeling absolutely wonderful after a few hours hiking

This hike, as opposed to the other active volcano on the island, is all rain forest and in this trail you have to use your hands nearly as much as your feet to conquer some parts of the trail.

Finally arriving at the top of the volcano! No lava here, this dormant volcano has a lake instead of liquid fire

You can't see it, but there is a sign right there that says we are going towards the opposite side of the volcano on the way down. This 2 hour detour would prove to be an extremely poor decision resulting in a trip to the local hospital.

Turtle!

 

Best view of the island! 

Getting lost, we stumbled through various backyards and farms littered with ancient petroglyphs

On the way down Kyle slipped and stabbed himself with a branch, so we went to the local health center/hospital and got him stitched up. 

We certainly weren't expecting to have such an audience. The neighbors came in to see the crazy Gringos and watch the show of Kyle getting stitched up. 

Overall, it was a non stop moving (less the hammock and beach time) and action packed 10 days in Nicaragua. Kyle was, hopefully, the first of various friends to visit me and I will do my best to show them as good of a time as I managed to show Kyle.