From Rica to Nica and back again!

Note: written on a bus somewhere between the Nicaraguan border and Arenal. 

It’s been another whirlwind week! It’s only taken me half a semester to realize that all of our weeks are whirlwinds.

On Tuesday we left home sweet Las Cruces and headed to San Jose. We stayed at the same hotel as we did on the way in, and eagerly ate dinner at the most American place we could find (Pizza Hut for me!) Then we had a bit of time to work on group projects. I’ve learned that writing a 12 page paper with 7 people is harder than writing a 12 page paper by myself. We have sooooo many group projects here. For example just this week we had our mini research project (8 people), a market observation and write-up (5 people) and our long-term research proposal (4 people). Trying to coordinate all of that, especially when different groups are meeting at different times can definitely be a challenge!

Anyway, Wednesday, after only 4 hours of sleep (that sounds more like Duke than anything else), we boarded our bus to Nicaragua. There was much loading and unloading as we all realized last minute that we needed to keep out clinic appropriate, as in not my pj pants, clothes for once we got to Nica. We managed to get on the road by 4:00, and were at the border by 8:00. It took a while to cross, but definitely not as long as it could have. We entertained ourselves with mind games…like “how many agoudi?”

After crossing the border, we ate lunch at a kind of sketchy Chinese place, but everyone survived without food poisoning. We wandered around town for a bit and then changed clothes and headed to Nicaraguan clinic so that we could compare it to what we’d seen in Costa Rica. I won’t bore you with the details, but I will say that I was shocked at how politicized everything has become in the last few years since I was here last. The president’s logo, font, colors and face are all over everything…even health care forms, educational literature and hospital buildings. It’s an election year, which I’m sure exacerbates that, but still…he’s everywhere.

Our time in Nicaragua was a little more relaxed than in Costa Rica. We stayed at a very nice hotel in Granada—it had a beautiful pool, comfy beds and big, non-lumpy pillows which made me very happy. We were able to do more touristy things, too. Our trip included a visit to the craft market in Masaya (which I’ve been to 5 times now), a visit to Volcan Masaya (also for the fifth time, and after writing an entire semester’s worth of essays and editorials about it) and a boat ride on Lake Nicaragua—something new! We got to see monkeys on the boat ride, which was lots of fun, but I got a bit sunburned! 

Sunday was our day off, and I spent a lot of it working. Our TV got American football though, so that was on in the background, making it feel a little more like fall. Sunday evening, Allison, Bre and I went to mass at a gorgeous church in the downtown square and then got ice cream for dinner on the way back. My eating habits have severely deteriorated in Nicaragua—there’s a bigger risk of getting food poisoning and you can’t drink the water, so safe things to eat are bread products, chips, ice cream and soda. There weren’t a whole lot of vegetables this week. We did, however, find a Greek place for lunch on Sunday and I got my hummus fix!

Now we’re on our way back to Costa Rica and I have to start thinking in Colones again instead of Cordobas. This week we have a couple of classes, but mostly we’re studying for midterms (which happen on Friday) and finishing our research proposals. Then we have Saturday off, and on Sunday, my mom and Aunt Sarah come to visit! I can’t wait to have a week off relaxing and exploring Costa Rica!