Saturday, March 9, 2013

Kev and Kaz Go South


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!