I’ve been meaning to write this post after my buddy Kevin
left in the beginning of February, but there was so much to cover that it was
almost a daunting task because I wanted to do his trip justice. Kevin, long-time friend from my
internship at Vanguard and U of A, came down to Nica mid January to pay me a
visit. Kevin served as a Youth
Development Volunteer in Ukraine, which is partly why we hadn’t seen each other
in 2 years! It sounds like
forever, but our lives have paralleled so much that we jumped right back in
where we left off. In fact we even
found some interesting parallels between Nica and Ukraine while he was here:men
flipping up their shirts to reveal their bellies when they are hot, tons of
stray dogs, machismo, etc.
Kevin and his Dad Kaz started their trip in Mexico City for
NYE and worked their way down to the Yucatan where they caught a flight to
Managua. We went straight to
Little Corn Island to relax and catch up as we soaked up the scenery from Casa
Iguana’s deck. It was a real treat
to travel with Kevin’s father. At
69 he went barefoot running with us, took a discover scuba course and even did
a little yoga. I was thoroughly
impressed, as I can’t say I don’t know many 69 year olds who can keep up with
us 20 somethings like he did. He
said he came only for the lobster dinner, but participated and contributed so
much more to the experience as a wise Japanese man who moved to the States at
age 27. It was an amazing 5 days
on the island scuba diving, yogaing, playing photography, and just plain
chillen. Kevin engaged in some
competitive volleyball with the local boys and we met some Canadian girls who
became our dinner dates as we bounced between restaurants comparing the quality
of lobster and island fare. In the
end Rosa’s had the best Run Down soup and Bridget’s had the best lobster. The last evening we made the god awful trek across sea to Big Corn Island where Kev and I almost threw up from sea sickness. After a few hours in a hammock we were able to enjoy the beautiful Italian owned hotel and restaurant we were staying at. On the shore of Big Corn we had a three course amazing Italian dinner cooked by the owners who were from Rome.
Kevin is a professional photographer so I took advantage and
picked his brain while he was here.
We spent several hours just playing photography with different subjects
and I learned quite a bit. Hopefully
Kevin will bless this post with some of his awesome photos.
After leaving Corn Island I was expected in Managua for
training so Kevin and his Dad made their way to Leon for a few days until Kaz flew out and Kev and I continued our travels. The next stop
was the island of Ometepe. Are you
seeing the island theme here? As
we could not make it all the way to the island from Managua that day, we made a
stop off in San Juan with my friend Noelle to eat some delicious Mediterranean
food. The vegetable curry and shish
kabobs were a nice break for all of us as traveling tends to take a toll on
your diet, especially in Mexico. We
stayed in a quaint little hostel perched up in the hills over looking the town
of San Juan. The next day we
headed out towards Ometepe and realized once we got there that we wouldn’t be
making it to the other side of the island as planned. So on a whim we decided to stay in Noelle’s town and hike
the La Concepcion volcano the next day.
That whim turned out to be a very good decision. We woke up at 5:30 to start our climb
up the second largest volcano in Nicaragua. I had been planning on running the Fuego y Agua marathon up
this volcano, which I wrote a post about, so it was a great chance to test her
out before race day. As we started
the climb a local was kind enough to cut down some branches and shave them down
in to a walking stick, at the time little did we know how much we would need
them on the way down. So I would
consider myself athletic or at least in shape and Kevin is an expert hiker
having spent 3 months on the Pacific Crest Trail. I’ve hiked other volcanoes, but this was by far the hardest
climb I’ve ever done. We were
pretty determined to get to the top quickly and pushed ourselves with out much
rest at all. As we climbed we
started to hit different patches of climate. The cloud cover started to play a roll in cooling us down
all while the wind started to pick up.
We encountered enormous Venus fly trap looking plants and other exotic
leafy vegetation. The moisture in
the air became so thick that drops of water were falling from the tip of my
nose and whisked from my eyelids.
It was hard to keep our balance, as the wind was incredibly strong. I couldn’t even hear what Kevin was
yelling to me as the terrain changed to volcanic rock approaching the crater.
Kevin has a video on his iPhone and it looks like we are in the middle of a
hurricane climbing to shelter. At
one point our guide just stopped and sat down on the rocks that were emanating
heat and explained he would go no further because it was dangerous and one
could actually be blown over the edge in to the crater. That was it for me.
About a third of the way down the volcano, the clouds began
to disperse a bit and the breathtaking view submerged. By now you may know that Ometepe is an
island formed by 2 volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. As we looked out we could see volcano
Maderas looming next us, and the enormous ocean like lake that surrounded the
island. It was an amazing site to
see. I can only imagine what the view
would have looked like from the top had the weather been better. As we worked our way down the energy we
had exerted on the speedy ascend caught up to our muscles. My legs were starting to give up as
well climbed down the rock faces.
My walking stick helped to catch me when my knees buckled, but it felt
like the descent would never end.
Kev and I started laughing hysterically from exhaustion, as our arms
would fling up over our heads when our knees buckled in effort to regain our
balance. When we finally reached
flat land I couldn’t bend my knees in fear that my quads wouldn’t hold my body
weight. Back at the hostel we
drank some well-deserved litros and peanut butter sandwiches, our staple for
the trip. We still had to make it
to Finca Mystica that afternoon which is where we were staying for the next few
nights. It was a much longer trek
than I expected and when the bus dropped us off about 40 min walk short of our
destination I wanted to cry.
Luckily alternate transport showed up and we enjoyed the sunset from the
bar/restaurant. The next few days
were spent chillen, eating amazing food, story telling about our volcano hike, playing
photography and hunting for monkeys.
Next stop was Granada as we were determined to visit a cigar
factory. We made some Canadian
friends along the way, a really cool couple from Whitehorse. We got to see first hand how they roll
cigars and press them. We made our
own and smoked a bit. I ended up
buying a few aromatic cigars as I can only handle so much of the extremely bold
flavor of tobacco. After our
purchase we made our way to the Calzada for Sangria and dinner. The rest of the night was spent playing
cards, smoking cigars and watching my own team the Tigres from Chinandega win
the Baseball Championship!
Last but not least we made our way up to Chinandega. We stayed a night at Coco Loco and then
at my host family’s house on the beach where we played with my puppy, surfed,
and tried to skin board. One
morning we rented a boat with my friends Jackie, Jamie, Victor, Daniel and
Nikki to go fishing. Our fishing
with rods made from branches and using our empty tona bottles as weights didn’t
prove to be very functional so we resorted to wakeboarding in the estuary. Apparently there had been reports of
small crocodiles in the estuary, which was incentive to stand the hell up on
the wakeboard, but I never did. Wah wah.
The last night of the trip my host parents Martha and Julio
came back from their grandson’s birthday party in the city around 7 pm. Julio was full on drunk off Vodka and
proclaimed that he was going to speak in English with us tonight. Kev doesn’t speak much Spanish and
Julio is usually too embarrassed to break out his English so this was a real
treat. It was hilarious the
stories we got out of him! We were
all drinking vodka for a good few hours until Julio declared bedtime and
proceeded to give Kevin a big hug and tell him that he was always welcome here
and to let him know if he could find him land here in Nica. Julio’s hug literally engulfed Kev. It was the perfect way to end a great
trip.
It was awesome having Kevin come see my life down here and I
realize that the best of friends never change over time. I wish you luck Kev as you move back to
the Ukraine and start a new chapter with Natalia. You are truly an amazing friend. Thank you for visiting!
