Friday, April 10, 2015

The adventure has begun! I arrived in Managua, Nicaragua on Wednesday afternoon and it has been a whirlwind ever since! My goal is to blog every few days, but with limited wifi and my other goal to make friends and say "yes", I might be slacking sometimes. So don't think that I got kidnapped. Also I'm typing on a baby keyboard so please forgive typos and such.

So far my trip can be considered a great success! I've already tried new things, made new friends, sat on a gorgeous beach, negotiated a taxi, navigated a crazy market, lounged in a hammock, sipped on the national drink of Nicaragua, surprised myself with how easily Spanish escapes from my mouth, taken a picture of a fuente, and more.

I've struggled with deciding what form this blog is going to take - only the funny stories? Only the good? The bad? The ugly? The day to day? Honestly I'm still not sure, so here is a list of random thoughts and observations that I've made in the last two days (in no particular order, but kind of a particular order):

1. Nosebleeds at 3am before a grand adventure are some of the worst timed nosebleeds

2. Despite popular belief, the 76 and 74 buses do NOT run all night

3. Pretty sure I snore on planes

4. Hydration is good and important and airport water bottles are stupid expensive

5. Backpacks trump rolling suitcases

6. Unless your shoulders are a bit sunburned

7. ATMs at Nicaraguan airports do not work

8. Therefore, be sure to always travel with cash dollas

9. The giant line to get out of baggage claim is to prove that the suitcase that you grabbed matches the tag that was given to you when it was originally checked. Therefore, if you did not check a bag, you do not need to actually wait in the 20 minute line (oops)

10. It costs $10 to get through Nicaraguan customs. This is less than cover to some clubs in the United States.

11. It's hot in Nicaragua

12. Granada's Central Park has no grass but is still a cool plaza

13. Granada has no grass

14. Most buildings have an inner courtyard that is open air and often contain hammocks and vegetation, and they are very lovely

15. The best thing that I packed were facial wipes to easily refresh my sweaty face. The pack is only of 10. I will need to acquire more.

16. There is always a spot that you miss covering with sunscreen. For me, it was my inner thighs (oops)

17. The Laguna de Apoyo is not too touristy and is beautiful and super rocky and refreshing and gets real deep real quick 

18. Air conditioning exists in Nicaragua in airports and banks and that is all

19. Outlets for things like phone chargers only work when the light switch is on, so if you expect to charge your phone overnight, you will wake up and it will be low battery

20. A beer here is occasionally cheaper than water. Water is $1.50 at most

21. Getting lost is liberating

22. It's fun not having a plan

23. Toilet paper is not flushed down Nicaraguan toilets, it is disposed of in the trash can next to the toilet. This is surprisingly hard to get used to, as I have thrown toilet paper straight into the toilet literally millions of times. 

24. Sunglasses make the greatest people watching accessory

25. Despite hot temps, many Nicaraguans wear pants

26. I hope to adjust to this temperature eventually as well

27. The national liquor of Nicaragua is rum, and it ain't too shabby

28. Nicaraguan coffee is darker and delicious 

29. Public transit buses within Nicaraguan cities are called "chicken buses" and are used yellow school buses purchased from the States that are painted all funky and awesome by local artists

30. On this keyboard the = key is where the delete key should be so most of what I originally typed has many ==== 

Today is my last day in Granada, then off to Ometepe!