Nicaragua Part 2

On March 16^th, we left the beautiful island of Ometepe. I was sad to leave such a beautiful place, but I was excited to explore the rest of the country. We first traveled to the city Managua, where we began our economics field experiment. We were researching how people of Nicaragua perceived climate change, and my group was focused on how people understood its causes and consequences. This experiment was also conducted in other cities throughout Nicaragua. We conducted a survey that collected anecdotal data to support the numerical data collected in previous summers. People’s answers varied greatly; some were more aware of current effects and were able to fully articulate their responses, whereas some had no idea what we were talking about. One of the fruit vendors on the street we asked (who interestingly enough was completely illiterate) had no idea what we meant by climate change. We had to try to explain (in Spanish, just to make it that much harder) what a climate was. It was a very interesting project, and I really enjoyed being able to talk to people about how they thought. It was also really interesting to see how (for the most part) they were much more willing to answer the surveys. When we conducted surveys for a different research project in Poas National Park in Costa Rica a few weeks prior, most people refused to answer the questions and were very rude about it. Our experience in Nicaragua was drastically different- even the people who said no were very nice about it.

For those who only want to read about the happy parts of my trip, please skip this paragraph. Rivas was completely different from Ometepe. We were warned ahead of time that the poverty in this city was going to be a lot more apparent, but I was not prepared for when I actually had to interact with the people. There were homeless people everywhere, ranging from the elderly to children. And these homeless were much more aggressive than those I have seen in any other city I’ve traveled to. Many would come up to our group asking for money, and continue to follow us for at least a block. The children were especially hard to ignore, because they would hang on to your clothes to get your attention. Apparently most children are instructed by their parents to beg like this. Many leave school at an early age or skip school to make money on the streets from tourists like us. The most upsetting thing of the entire trip (and for those who get upset by disturbing things please skip the rest of this paragraph) was a woman we passed on the side of the street. At first, she just looked like a normal woman with her child. But then she started saying “ladies. Please help me.” And then we saw her baby. He was obviously ill with a horrible disease that caused his head to swell to a tremendous size. I have never seen such an upsetting situation in my life. There was nothing we could do for this poor child or his mother. That feeling of helplessness stayed with me for the rest of the day, and came back with a vengeance during lunch. We went to a pizza place and sat outside by the street. There was a man who came up to our table before ordered asking if he could have some food. A policeman came and kicked him away. We felt so bad about sitting out and devouring our food when so many were clearly starving that we ended up giving away most of our pizzas. This was definitely the worst part of the trip.

A view of one of the markets

After we left Rivas, we went to Granada, which used to be the capital city of Nicaragua. Granada was absolutely beautiful, and had a very interesting history. There is not much of the original city left, as most of it was either burned down by William Walker (a former US Confederate soldier that tried to take over Costa Rica and successfully took over Nicaragua) or demolished. We got a brief tour of the city, and then were let loose to interview more people. We talked to one gentleman on a park bench who at first thought was a crazy man, but it turned out he was the most intelligent person we talked to. He was a former farmer who knew a great deal about climate change. He knew a lot about current impacts, and talked a lot about international agreements and organizations that were trying to help Nicaragua. He talked to us for over fifteen minutes. It was very interesting, and I was happy to find that I understood most of what he was saying. After we completed our surveys, we walked around the center park and explored the local market. We got to eat dinner on our own (the first time we have been allowed to do so on program time), and a few friends and I ate on a place on the main strip. The main strip is a strip of restaurants, bars, and tiny shops for pedestrians. We ate a three-hour meal on a table outside facing the strip, people watching and having a great time.

And speaking of food- I have to say, meals were definitely my favorite times on this trip, especially dinners. We went to several amazing restaurants in Grandada. The second night in the city we went to Nectar, which was a delicious Mediterranean place where we ordered babaganoush, hummus, and I got beef with mushroom sauce, which was all to die for. The third night we went to El Tercer Ojo, which was very good.. The ambiance was really cool- it was semi indoors (walls with no roof), and I had delicious sushi, mussels, and chocolate-banana crepes. And while the food was good, eating it was pretty stressful because you had to be constantly aware of what you were eating. They cautioned us against ordering anything with raw fruits or veggies, and no water or ice. I ignored it for the most part, and was lucky. Other people… not so much. But I guess that’s the risk you take!

Cynthia, Lauren, me and Sarah in Nectar Restaurant.

The other days were spent doing more econ research in Masaya and Managua. We also visited a giant market that sold different trinkets. We got to visit the actual capital and see the national museum with traditional Nicaraguan art. I loved seeing the art, and wish they had more on display. Next to the museum was an old church that had an unsound infrastructure, that was absolutely beautiful. We hiked Masaya Volcano, which is one of the most active volcanoes in Nicaragua. It was only smoking on the day that we visited, and had apparently erupted about a year ago. There were two different craters- one active, and one not. 

According to our guide, this cross has been here since the Spanish colonization.

Fun fact- When the Spaniards first saw the volcano, they called it the opening to Hell.

The church next to the National Museum.

Another fun fact- this clock tower does not have the accurate time. The time seen here is the time an earthquake hit in the mid seventies, and the clock has not worked since.

           I have to say, my birthday day was my favorite part of the whole trip. We hiked Mombacho Volcano, and had an awesome time. The car ride up to where we were hiking was kind of rough. It was almost vertical, and I was in the back of a pickup truck with five other people (including Achim, who is one of my professors). The ride down was also fun- Achim had never heard of madlibs before (he’s originally from Germany and later moved to Costa Rica), and so we introduced the game to him. His reaction was hilarious. He is normally a fairly serious person, and I have never seen him laugh so hard.

My friend Hannah and me on Mombacho Volcano.

       After we got back from the hike that afternoon, a few of my friends surprised me with a chocolate cake (candles and all), a birthday card, and some presents. It was wonderful. My friend Sarah S. (there are four Sarahs in the program) and I went to the church steeple to watch the sunset. It was absolutely spectacular, with views on all four sides of the whole city. As we watched the sun set, a man was setting off some sort of explosives in honor of St. Michael, and a mass was going on beneath us. We visited a local bookstore, and then headed back to the hotel.

Sarah and me in the church.

One of the many beautiful buildings in Granada.

       We later went to dinner at the Garden Café, which was one of my favorite restaurant I have ever been to. I had hummus with veggies and some of the best pesto pasta I have ever had (it almost reminded me of Mom’s pesto). We had a nice leisurely dinner, and then headed out to meet up with the rest of the people from SFS. My friend Kait and I shared a birthday, so we celebrated after dinner by going to Reillys (an Irish pub- her choice, not mine. I would have picked something with a little more local flair). I got my first drink as a 21 year old, which honestly wasn’t very exciting (the drinking age is 18 in Costa Rica).  But it was fun to hang out with everyone and celebrate our last night in Nicaragua.

My friend Lauren and me.

Cate, Lauren, Sarah, Evin and me.

The strip at night.

We saw this sign of gas prices on the way out. It may look like a lot, but this is in Cordobas. It's about 24 Cordobas to every American dollar, so gas was actually a little over a dollar!

It was truly a wonderful trip, and I will definitely be going back there some day. Although we did have classes and work to do on this trip, it felt in many ways like a mini vacation from our normal chaotic schedule. And in some ways, I like Nicaragua more than Costa Rica. The people seem to have a lot more character, and less of a European influence. The Ticos seemed to have embraced the Spanish colonizers and absorbed them into their culture, which is definitely not the case in Nicaragua. They seem to have kept a stronger hold on their culture, which I really love. It will be interesting to see if they can keep their strong hold on traditions  as tourism increases, or if they succumb to the pressures of pleasing their new visitors. What a beautiful place.

And things are just getting better- this upcoming week is spring break!!

Nicaragua Part One.

           This past week has been one of the most amazing weeks of my life. We went on our mid-semester trip to Nicaragua, which was completely different from anything I was expecting. We had several lectures on the history and current socioeconomic status of the country before going on this trip. Nicaragua is the poorest country in Central America, and second poorest in all of Latin America. Their education is incredibly poor (most children only go to school for about five years), and twenty-two percent of all people above the age of fifteen are illiterate. They have been dramatically impacted by political upheaval and governmental corruption. Almost half of their land has been converted for agricultural purposes, and more will most likely be converted in the next few decades. There is little incentive to protect their natural resources, and most national parks are considered “paper parks,” which exist in name only. There is no enforcement of regulations, and people are basically allowed to do whatever they want. I was expecting to be horrified at the horrendous environmental degradation, and prepared myself for the worst. Although many places in Nicaragua were obviously poor and not the best in terms of environmental stewardship, I was blown away by the beauty the country had to offer. Since it was a rather long trip, I’m going to break it into two different parts. This first part is on the first half of the trip.

            Our first few days were spent on Ometepe Island, which is the largest island on a lake in the world. It was a two hour ferry ride from the mainland, which was incredible. It was pretty windy that day, and so the waves were pretty intense. I got to stand at the bow of the boat for the whole ride, and it was like a rollercoaster. I personally loved it, but many friends got pretty sea sick. As we approached the island, I was blown away by how beautiful it was. Ometepe is a volcanic island that was formed by two different volcanoes on either side of the island. This island is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. We stayed in a hostel on the beach which was the nicest place we had stayed at up to this point. It was honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed in. Every night we watched the most brilliant sunsets, had amazing food, and then played card games with everyone there. Once it got dark enough, I would go out on the dock, sometimes by myself, sometimes with other people to go star gazing. There was no light pollution on the island, and the stars were brighter than I have ever seen them. You could see the Milky Way painted clearly over the entire night sky, and every night saw several shooting stars. I spent many hours on that dock in awe of the beauty that surrounded me. If you asked me to go back to that place, I would go in a heartbeat.

The Captain of the ferry's chair.

Our view from the hostel's dock.

Some of the hammocks in the hostel.

My view from just a few steps outside my room.

            On our first full day on the island, some students went on the nine hour hike up the Maderas Volcano. Unfortunately, I was still not fully recovered from my illness, and couldn’t go. I was very bummed at first, but had a lovely time on the alternative trip, which was to a coffee farm that was on the island. It was a fairly popular tourist place (considering how few visitors they got) because it had several trails with petroglyphs. They reminded me a lot of the ones we saw on a family trip to New Mexico a few years ago. They varied in subject, from various animals to people to unknown designs. After, we ate a delicious lunch overlooking one of the volcanoes. We then went to a beautiful natural watering hole and got to swim for a few hours. All in all, it was a really nice break from our normally insane schedule.

One of the petroglyphs on the trip.

Our view at the farm after the hike.

Our view during lunch.

One of the flowers in the garden.

The swimming hole.

            The other days on the island were spent in similar fashion- hiking, classes and traveling around the island to get a better feel of how the people lived. The people on the island were incredibly poor. It was the first time I saw this level of poverty in person, and it was very upsetting for me. As we drove around the island, we passed many houses that were little more than shacks. Several homes had walls made out of plastic garbage bags and thatch roofs. Most clearly did not have indoor plumbing, and had to rely on an outhouse that was also made out of garbage bags. There was a huge disparity between the incredible natural beauty of the island itself and the overwhelming poverty of the people that lived on the island. It was very hard for me to see such a large number of people who were barely able to put food on the table when I am so incredibly lucky to have access to virtually anything I wanted whenever I wanted it. I felt guilty for ever complaining about any “issue” I had in my life, because it could not even come close to comparing to what these people had to go though on a daily basis. The island didn’t even have a hospital- if they ever got sick, they needed to scrape the money together to go on the ferry and then take a bus to a nearby town. In addition to poverty, there is an issue with general health issues and sanitation. Stray dogs wandered freely throughout the outdoor part of the hostel, which we were not allowed to touch. They often carried parasites that could be transferred to humans and give you disgusting diseases you definitely didn’t want. I have to say, that was also pretty hard to see so many dogs clearly starving, and not be able to do anything to help them.

One of the houses on the island. Not one of the "nicer" homes, but definitely not the worst either.

One of places we had several of our lectures while on the island.

There is some interest in attempting to alleviate these people’s situation, but not much has come out of it yet. The island has a very weak governmental system that lacks the ability to enforce most environmental regulations. There is talk of building an airstrip on the island in order to increase tourism. But this increase in tourism is a double-edged sword. Although it has the potential to improve the livelihoods of the people and reduce their dependence on subsistence farming, it has many drawbacks. The first of many is that the decrease in farming on the island would force them to import necessities that cost far more than they are able to afford. There is also a great need to improve the infrastructure to better support an increase in tourism. The roads we traveled on were the worst I have ever been on. There was no correct side of the road to travel on because they were so heavily eroded. There were some parts of the road that had giant boulders in the middle of the road we had to drive around (since it was a volcanic island, the ground was littered with rocks of all different sizes). There is also a desperate need for an increase in education (since most of the people most likely don’t even have a high school level of education), especially in general business management and tourism. Without these improvements, any attempts to help the island will ultimately result in tourism swallowing the local culture and mutating it into a homogenous unauthentic tourist trap. The resources must be provided to allow the people to improve their own situation in a way that will be sustainable for generations to come.

The main road on the island. I wish I got a better picture of just how bad the roads were. This picture doesn't do it justice.

But despite its obvious hardships and future challenges, Ometepe Island is truly stunning in terms of natural beauty. It was an incredibly peaceful place. You could spend days just relaxing in the many hammocks at the hotel, or wandering around both the property and the rest of the island and watch the many animals that called that island home. There were many domestic and farm animals (including a little pony the hostel owner’s daughter would ride around on during the afternoon) that wandered the island. Cows, horses, chickens, pigs, and dogs all wandered freely doing whatever they wanted to do. Horses would chase dogs, dogs would chase chickens, and chickens would run around scratching for insects in the leaves. Welcome to paradise.