NicAdventure

So I know everyone's going to fall of their chairs when they see I did a post.  I'd hate myself if I didn't blog our adventure to Nicaragu.  First of all, since the most common question people ask is "Why Nicaragua?"  I'll just answer by saying, we saw a show about it and it's been all I can think about ever since.  That was a couple months ago and after looking into airfare and hotels we decided to go down for my Birthday.  Below is a play by play of our adventures (some may seem boring and feel free to skip over those parts but I really want to remember every minute there)

Thursday May 3rd (not the best day):  We headed to Durango to catch our first flight.  As we left Jeremy asked what time the flight left and I quickly looked at the email and saw 12:47.  We planned to be there an hour early since it was Durango and there were never lines there.  At 11:30 we were in Durango had eaten lunch and were headed to the airport when we decided to stop at a bank and get some cash on the way.  We punched Wells Fargo into the GPS and it sent us on a wild goose chase.  After going WAY out of the way and not finding the bank we gave up and decided to head to the airport.  This wild goose chase had eaten up about 15 minutes and our GPS now said we'd be to the airport by 12:02, which we thought would still be fine.  We walked into the airport at about 12:05 and the only one at a counter was a United Airlines agent.  We tried to check in there but he couldn't find our reservation so I opened the computer and realized it wasn't United but US Airways that we were flying.  The agent said they stop checking people in 30 minutes before departure, I assured him that our flight left at 12:47 so we should still be fine, but I double checked and our departure time was 12:30!!!  12:47 was actually the time we would be landing in Phoenix.  So we had missed the deadline for check-in by 5 minutes.  We waited anxiously for the US Airways agent to return (he was loading the plane).  When he returned at 12:20 I did my best begging ever and he just looked at my and said that he couldn't get us on the flight.  The next flight left in a couple hours but it would miss our connection in Phoenix by 15 minutes.  In the end we searched and searched for a way to catch up with our original reservation but there just wasn't any way so we painfully paid for all new flights to Nicaragua.  The other bad part about the new plan was that it involved spending a night at DFW- it was a long, uncomfortable and miserable night. 

We finally landed in the Managua Nicaragua airport at 11:00 the next morning and we got our rental car. With hand-drawn maps in hand we headed for the two and a half our drive to San Juan Del Sur. Not five minutes away from the airport we were pulled over by a policeman. He tried to explain in Spanish what Jeremy had done wrong. He drew a picture and in the end I'm pretty sure he was claiming that he used the wrong lane in the roundabout. I'm 100% certain that we didn't do anything wrong, we had read about the corruption in the policemen down there and we knew that all he wanted was for us to pay him off. After some painful negotiating (since he didn't speak English and we didn't speak Spanish) we settled on fifty dollars and he ripped up the ticket. And we were on our way again. On the way to SJDS we only took one wrong turn and had to back track a little but after about three hours we finally made it to Mango Rosa- the resort we'd be staying that night. We were exhausted and wanted to crash but our little bungalow was pretty hot so we turned the A/C on and headed to the pool to cool off. After a quick refreshing dip we crashed for a nap for a couple hours. When we woke up it was time for dinner and it was also obvious that our AC wasn't working so we went to dinner and told the guy at the desk that it wasn't working. After dinner he moved us to another bungalow where the AC worked. We just hang out that night and went to bed early. That night around midnight I woke up in a pool of my own sweat and asked Jeremy why he'd turned the AC off, he let me know that the power had gone out. I tried to sleep but realized quickly that there was no way I'd be sleeping until the power was restored so we went and sat on the porch. We were happy to see people from the resort were running around trying to fix the power and after about an hour they had it back on and we were comfortably sleeping again. One thing that this made me realize is how spoiled I really am. Very few Nicaraguans have AC- honestly I don't know how they do it.

Cute little town on the way to SJDS (Nandaime)

 Our Bungalow at Mango Rosa

The pool at Mango Rosa

Enjoying a hammock

On the drive into town they were digging a water line- no machines needed here.

Saturday we left the resort and headed to town.  We stopped at the local Pali (grocery store) and got a soda for Jeremy, a water for me and a couple snacks.  The total at the register was just over 2.00 US and when Jeremy pulled out a 20 dollar bill to pay for it the clerk had to get permission from the manager to cash it for us.  They were all a little annoyed with us.

We walked around the town, saw the market, got some lunch and checked into La Posada Azul- the hotel that we'd spend the rest of our vacation in.  It was really cute and had a nice pool that we once again cooled off in.  That night we ate at a place called El Timon and had some really good seafood.  It was right on the beach so we watched the locals play Volleyball, soccer and just have a really fun Saturday evening.

Sunday we went to Rivas (a town 30 minutes away) for church.  We got there just before 9:00 and just as one sacrament meeting was ending, we joined them for Sunday School.  With the help of an elder from Gallup New Mexico we enjoyed a message about Mosiah chapter 4.  When Sunday School ended it was time for another ward's sacrament meeting so we stayed for that.  A couple sister missionaries were in that ward and one of them translated the meeting for us.  It was an awesome testimony meeting, almost every member of that little ward shared their beautiful testimony.  One amazing little girl got up, I expected the normal "I'd like to bare my testimony, I know this church is true. . . " but instead she gave an amazing testimony of the things that she knew and believed. 

One of the many horse-drawn carts we encountered on our drive to church.

Lake Nicaragua, in the middle there is an island that has several volcanoes.

After church we decided to check out Hacienda Iguana- a resort about an hour and a half from SJDS where the only golf course is located.  It was right on a beach that is known for good surfing.  We walked up the beach and watched a surfer for a while.  It was such a beautiful beach and other than the one surfer we had the place to ourselves.  The drive to and from Hacienda Iguana was mostly dirt roads, we shared the road with several carts pulled by donkeys or horses, lots of locals either walking or on bikes.  A couple parts of the road were under construction, there were no cones diverting traffic, no men holding signs telling us to slow down, you just carefully made your way around the holes in the road, or the large piles of gravel.  You have to pay attention 100% of the time when driving in Nicaragua, we decided that they have the key to eliminating distracted driving.  If you get distracted for even a minute there you will most likely crash.

Beautiful Beach



Here we had to dodge road construction as well as livestock.




A cowboy moving some cattle (made me feel right at home.)


Sundy night we once again made our way to the beach and had some delicious pizza and pasta.

This picture is what convince Carter that Nicaragua was a good place to go.

Monday we met up with a local guy who showed us around.  He suggested that maybe we would like a beach called playa el coco so that afternoon we drove there.  It was about 25 minutes south of SJDS.  Once again it was a beautiful beach that we had all to ourself.  We played in the ocean for a while and relaxed on some beach chairs.  That night we went to a place called Bamboo Beach for dinner, it was amazing.  I had lobster tempura and Jeremy had surf and turf, they were amazing. 

Tuesday we booked a surf lesson.  Even though the lesson included the transport to the beach we decided to drive so we'd be able to leave early and head to the airport.  As we pulled away from the hotel people started pointing at our back tire and saying something (in spanish so we didn't understand the words but we figured out quickly that they were telling us we had a flat tire).  We pulled over and with the help of a couple locals we quickly changed the tire to the spare and made our way to the place that would be taking us surfing.  Surfing for the first time was amazing- it was not easy but it was easier than I had envisioned it being and we were both able to stand up a few times.  When you did stand it was so much fun, but even just lying on the board and being carried by the waves was amazing.  We had a blast, definitely something we will do again. 

I didn't get to spend nearly enough time in this hammock.

That afternoon we headed back to our hotel to pick up our bags, on the way we stopped at a "tire shop" (I use that term lightly as it was just a roadside lean-to that had tires all around it so we figured they could help us and they did- they fixed our tire, replaced it and put our spare back where it went and asked for fifty cordobas (just over $2.00 US).  At the hotel we showered and got changed and headed to the airport.  At this point the relaxation ended and the stress of finding our way back to the airport and avoiding la policia set in.  Our navigator (aka me) did a fabulous job and only led us astray once for a short 5 minute drive through Tipitapa city. 

We made it to the airport by about 6:00 pm and settled in for a long night.  Our flight left at 1:00 am- there was no way we were missing another flight.  The next 24 hours were spent making our way home.  When we got here we hugged our kids and crashed for a few hours, we woke up in time to put the kids to bed and found out that my wonderful mother had fed them dinner, got Logan to his Tee ball game, Carter to his baseball practice and they were all ready for bed. 

It was an amazing vacation that I'll never forget.  We loved the people there, unlike some of the other places we've been nobody was pushy or annoying.  The people that were selling stuff would show you their stuff and when you said no thanks they'd walk away and leave you alone.  Not many of them spoke English so we definitely need to learn a little spanish before making our way back.  They were a very friendly and humble people.  I wished so badly I could talk to them because I know I'd be even more impressed with them if I could.  I can't wait to show my kids how little other people have and yet how happy and content they are.