Let’s Backtrack to October 2012…
First, my college friend Lindsey wrote about her visit to Panama on her blog with photos. Check it out!
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| Granada |
After traveling around Panama for a week with Lindsey, we took a long bus ride through Costa Rica to arrive in
Nicaragua where Lindsey is doing her Peace Corps service as a Maternal Health
volunteer.
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| A "Ropa Americana" store in Granada full of used American clothes. |
We started off our trip in Granada, a well-preserved
colonial city on the edge of Lake Nicaragua.
The city was a bit touristy but very clean and beautiful.
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| Street scene in Granada |
Next, we headed to Masaya where we were able to go to what
Panamanians call a baile, a dance
with live music. I had a great time dancing to a combination of
Nicaraguan music as well as bachata, salsa, and reggae in a huge crowd of
fun-loving Nicaraguans. The city of Masaya is located at the edge of a volcanic
lake below a large volcano. We hiked to
the laguna and spent Sunday swimming in the warm lake in full view of the
majestic volcano.
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| I love markets! |
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| It looks like Panama! |
As I had shown Lindsey a rural indigenous community near
where I had lived in Panama, I wanted to be able to see a rural community in
Nicaragua as well. So we headed up north
to Matagalpa and visited another volunteer living in a rural town about 2-1/2
hours from the provincial capital in school bus, the usual form of public
transport. The town was a lot larger
than my little village with a used clothes store, a bakery, a small health
center, and a few cantinas
(bars). It definitely gave me a good
sense of the campo (country) vibe
though – people just hanging around talking and cooking. We also walked down to a beautiful river swimming
hole not far from the volunteer’s house.
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| Entrance to Lindsey's apartment! |
Next we headed to the place I was most excited to see –
Lindsey’s house and community, the city of Chinandega! It is a large city with a population of
122,000: comparatively, David, my nearest city, 2-3 hours away and the 3rd
largest city in Panama has 83,000 inhabitants.
(Thanks Wikipedia for the numbers)
So, Chinandega has lots – markets, thrift stores, a mall, international
food, nice parks. But it is also
noticeably not as developed as Panama’s similarly sized cities- there is no bus
terminal, for example. Instead,
residents know on which street corners specific buses park, and when they
depart. Also, there is much more street
food available in Nicaraguan cities, which I loved, but there was also much more
child labor selling the food even during school hours, which I connect to
extreme poverty and lack of government regulation.
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| Cosiguina fishing village, with pig grazing the on the beach in foreground and volcanoes in the background |
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| Super Plastic store! |
Lindsey’s apartment is beautiful with the safety element of
having a shared entryway with the landlords/neighbors, but the privacy of
having her own kitchen and bathroom. I
loved seeing her various work places, including the maternity ward of a
hospital, a live-in center for pregnant women, horseback riding therapy for
special needs kids at a farm outside the city, and a music school where she
teaches violin. She certainly is the
shining example of a volunteer who fills her time doing productive things!
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| We summited Volcano Cosiguina (872 m), no sweat (or not much) because we left at 5 am. |
We took a quick trip up to the Cosiguina peninsula in the
Chinandega province and scaled Volcano Cosiguina there. From the top we could see other volunteers in
Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua.
The nature imagery reminded me of Panama, except the presence of a
volcano with a huge crater lake.
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| Hanging out with the cook at the pregnant women's center (Casa Materna) |
I had a great time seeing the beautiful landscapes of
Nicaragua, almost all including water – during my time there I swam in a
volcanic laguna crater lake, a river, a natural hot spring, and the Pacific
Ocean. The best part for me though was
definitely seeing Lindsey’s work and site.
Living in a tiny community, it was easy for me to get to know everyone
and stay busy hanging out and working with them. I never really knew how this was possible on
a larger scale, but Lindsey seems to have achieved it in Chinandega! Good luck to her in her last 3 months in
Nicaragua!
