Peace Corps gives us 2 vacation days each month of service, that we can save up and use whenever we would like (except in the first 3 or last 3 months of service). That gives us a total of 48 days. In addition, every month we are allowed 3 nights "out of site." That means that we can spend 3 nights seeing other parts of the country, meeting up with friends, or visiting other volunteers in their sites. I've used my June and July days to do a little bit of traveling around the country.
The last weekend of June, I headed down to San Juan del Sur with Luis. It's a pretty small beach town in the department of Rivas that is absolutely FULL of tourists. There's a small beach lined with restaurants and the rest of the town seems like any typical Nicaraguan pueblo...park, Catholic church...except tons of hotels, hostels, and restaurants. I should mention that for my fellow PCVs and I, trips outside of our sites to other towns or larger cities usually mean, above all else, a chance to eat non-Nicaraguan food for a few days. Some volunteers cook for themselves, but I don't, so my diet is pretty much the same everyday (bread and coffee or cuajada and tortillas for breakfast; meat, rice and maybe some veggies for lunch; and beans or gallo pinto for dinner). I booked the place we were staying online a couple of weeks before the trip, and because I was on a budget and we were only spending one night, I booked the cheapest 2-person private room I could find, for $11. The room was basically like spending a night with a host family. A family home with some rooms they rented out in the back, sharing the bathroom and shower with the family. But it was perfect for just one night, and, in such a touristy location, you can't beat the price. We hung out by the beach, enjoyed some American food, and spent the evening hopping around to different restaurants, watching the sunset, and eating some yummy pizza. The next day we walked around some more and paid a $5 entry fee to hang out in the pool at a fancy hotel. The tricky part about going to the beach with only 1 other person is that you can't go swimming together because someone has to stay and watch your stuff. In the pool we were able to leave our stuff and hang out for a few hours (with a beer in hand, of course). It was a very relaxing trip. Because it was so far away, I stayed the night before and night after in Niquinohomo (it would have been a total of about 8 hours on a bus, which is a lot to do in one day). Next time I go to San Juan del Sur, I'm going to take a shuttle to one of the other beaches that are close by, which I've heard are gorgeous and more secluded.
 |
| Sunset in San Juan del Sur |
The next weekend marked the beginning of inter-semester break for Nicaraguan schools. One semester down, one to go! (well, really 3 to go, because I'll be here for most of the next school year too). I decided to go to Leon, a colonial city near the coast, which is about 4 or so hours away on a bus. I met up with my friends Chelsea and Robi, and, as per usual, our first stop in Leon was a restaurant with non-Nica food...a yummy French bakery. It was a super chill vacation, exactly what all of us needed to celebrate the end of a crazy first semester in Nicaraguan schools. Leon is a university city with lots of young people, and therefore lots of places to go out and party. Also- quite a few tourists visit the city, especially those interested in adventure type stuff like climbing volcanoes and volcano boarding (basically like sledding down the sandy side of a huge volcano). Despite this, we did not go out on the town at all. The first day we walked around, did some sightseeing, and had some awesome pizza. The next day we organized a "floating" tour of the mangroves in the nearby beach town las Penitas. Due to confusion with the tides, we did a lot of waiting around before starting the tour and then ended up swimming the whole way, because there really wasn't any current. Though it wasn't what we expected, we had a great time. We went back to the hostel, hung out for awhile, ate, walked around some more, met some PCVs from Costa Rica, and then went to a movie (Monsters University- super cute). Robi left the next day, and that afternoon Chelsea and I checked out the Museum of Myths and Legends. The museum is housed in an old prison where they tortured prisoners during the war, so it was a combination of information about the prison and the war with paper mache figures representing common myths and legends of Nicaragua. We walked around with a tour guide who taught us about the prison and described each one of the myths and legends as we walked through. After another stop at the French bakery for wine and cheese, we met up with our friend Tara who was staying in a nice hotel for the night with her parents who were in town visiting from California. They took us all out to dinner, where we also met up with Chelsea A., Patrick, and Chelsea's dad. It's always nice to catch up with other volunteers, especially for those of us (like me) that don't really have any fellow Nica 60 volunteers living anywhere near us. After dinner, the other volunteers headed off with their parents to their fancy hotels and Chelsea and I headed back to the hostel. The next morning after breakfast we headed back to our sites. Leon was a really cool city, with tons of old churches and lots of opportunity for going on tours of the nearby volcanoes. On my list of things to do in Leon before my service is done: climb a volcano, volcano boarding, take a tour of the cathedral and climb up to the top, and maybe some more wine and cheese at the French bakery ;-)
 |
| In front of the cathedral in Leon one of the many pretty colonial churches there |
 |
| at the Museum of Myths and Legends, which also showcases the history of the location....a prison where prisoners were tortured- some paintings of ways they were tortured |
 |
| A room depicting typical dances done in Nicaragua, most of them are historically based on mocking the Spaniards |
 |
| And then in each jail cell there were creepy figures depicting different myths and legends. "Toma tu teta" is a woman who was ugly but had beautiful breasts, but when men got too close she smothered them and killed them. haha |
 |
| After the tour, we climbed up and walked around the edge of the walls around the museum- where the guards probably stood, protecting the prison. |
Another little day trip that I did over our week-long school break was to climb up to the cross that is up above the city of Jinotega. I got my host sister and brother to come with me, and we met up with someone from Jinotega who knew how to get there. Apparently it used to be a treacherous hike, but fairly recently they put in stairs to climb up...a LOT of stairs (about 900, I've been told). It wasn't easy, but wasn't impossible, and we climbed up in just about 40 minutes, took some pictures at the top, and then climbed back down again. It's definitely something I'd recommend to other volunteers or visitors who want to check out Jinotega because it gives you a great view overlooking the city!
 |
| View of Jinotega at the top |
 |
| the cross at the very top |
 |
| With my host brother and host sister, Paco and Seydi |
And now school vacation is coming to a close. I'm crossing my fingers that the garden's doing well. I'm not too worried because it rains at least a little bit everyday, but I know there will be TONS of weeds. Back to work!
Something cool: I was featured in UConn Honors Alumni News..check it out
here
