Nica Trip Report- Day 1

Saturday

Picture from the airport waiting for our connection in El Salvador.

After driving 3 hours to Portland, flying to 2 hours Oakland, (having a 5 hour layover in Oakland), flying 6 hours to El Salvador (having an hour layover in El Salvador), and finally flying 1 hour to Nicaragua, Jesse picked us up from the airport, and to be honest it felt really nice to have him waiting there for us. I was a little nervous that he wouldn’t be there and we’d be left waiting at the airport with no number or person to call. But lo and behold, we could see him waiting for us as we queued up to have our customs papers checked. Once we meet up with Jesse, we went to the rental car desk to get the car Jesse and Ashley (from a Bend clothing store which carries Rise Up and also on the Rise Up board) used for the three days they were there before us exchanged for a 15 passenger microbus. After some talking with rental car agent, we walked to the car lot and met up with Jesse’s wife’s cousin, Guillermo, who was waiting with their car. He came running up and gave me a hardy handshake and Carrie a big kiss on the check while saying, “Beinvinidos, mi amigos!!”

We piled into the sub-compact car and instantly were thrust into the wild flow that Nicaraguans call traffic. While driving, I couldn’t help but try to take in my new surroundings, which were different from America in many ways. For one, the traffic was crazy. There were cars everywhere and they weren’t modest with using their horns. With Guillermo shouting directions to Jesse in a Nicaraguan Spainglish, we finally made it to a petrol station. I immediately noticed that the cost of gas was $22.9; yet I had no clue how much that was nor how much gas you got for that price.

As we filled up the tank in the car, I asked Guillermo how much we could expect to get in Nicaraguan money (Cordoba) for one US dollar. “Diez y nueve,” he quickly responded. I looked at the rolling numbers on the gas pump as the attended stood filling our tank and tried to do some quick mental math. By the time the tank was full, we had two attendants talking loudly into each side of our cars and I couldn’t understand anything. While trying to decipher what was going on, I had given the attendant $20 US plus like 400 Cordoba. I was so confused and had no clue how much money we actually gave him. As we drove off I asked Guillermo to explain what happened. He thought for a moment, the replied in broken English, “Basically, they will and you lose.”

After getting gas, we went back to the rental car place to trade in the sub-compact car for 15-passenger microbus. We were on our way to the house to meet up with Ashley and Jesse’s good Nica friend named Carlos. After meeting up, the six of us had lunch at a pretty expensive (in Nica terms; it was like $8 US a plate) restaurant that over looked a beautiful lagoon. The lunch was pretty uneventful other than me trying to explain to the waiter that I ate “no pollo, no carne.” Following the lunch, we went back to the airport pick up Kevo and Seth. We were late (which became a general theme) but luckily they were able to get a hold of Jesse on his Nica cell, so they weren’t too worried.

Following picking them up, we went to Masaya to have dinner. We ate another nice restaurant that overlooked another beautiful lake. The beauty was stunning.

View from the top Masaya, after eating dinner just 50 feet away.

We walked around the top of the lake for a while and I was even more amazed at the beauty of this country. After walking around, doing a little market shopping, we drove back the Rise Up house (which is located in Ticuantepe, just outside of Managua) and hung out on the porch for a while. We went to bed pretty excited about going to the beach the next day!

The Rise Up house in Tecuatepe.

Seth, Jesse, Ashely, Kevo, and the stray dog (we named Mimi) on the porch of the house.