The Other Side (backside) of Traveling

So when I turned to Brooke and told her “I have to get off this bus!” her first thoughts were that my conversation with the 17 year old know-it-all missionary beside me was not going so well (which is wasn’t) but that a simple seat change would be a simpler solution than getting off a bus we just paid 50 Cordovas for in the middle of nowhere in the rain. It wasn’t till I asked her where the toilet paper was that she saw the panicked look in my eyes and immediately understood the direness of the situation.
“Top of my bag!”
Damn! the zippers caught in the rainfly!
Can’t you hold it? We are in the middle of nowhere.
(No answer. . .Must concentrate on the zipper.) Ahh got it! I will meet you in Matagalpa!
What about your pack? Do you have enough money? How are we going to find each other? Its raining!
(No answer)

It is really amazing how after all the problems I’ve had communicating to bus drivers over the last eight months, I didn’t even have to finish my jumbled non-English or Spanish sentence before the driver had stopped the bus and opened the door. They say it is remarkable how much you can communicate with your eyes and perhaps that is what this was. Or maybe it was the fact that I was frantically trying to gather up the flowing role of toilet paper that to the entire buses delight was following me down the isle. In the end we will never know.

So no need to go into detail about what happened next except for it was in that time that, after swearing off any street food, raw fruits and vegetables, and anything but bottled water, I finally realized that I have no idea where I am, I have none of my stuff (except for a half undone roll of toilet paper), and it is raining. But as I came out of the not so well covered woods and saw the bus still there, the look of embarrassment was only slightly overcome by the look of relief. And to my surprise, my walk back on the bus was not topped off with standing ovation from the crowd (as it would have been in the U.S.) and all of a sudden, life was good again. And of course the first thing we did when we finally got off the bus in Matagalpa and were greeted by countless stands of hanging meat and beautiful stalls of fresh fruits and vegetables, was walk up to the first parrilla (grill) we saw and ordered some more delicious street food and a nice refresca (blended fruit drink) with extra ice, please.

(I will start off by apologizing if there was not enough warning before what could be aptly named the Poo Chronicles, but a blog like this or similar stories have been a long time coming. The truth is, while this may seem a little crude to those of you back in the states, especially compared to our normal beautiful, happy waterfall blogs; but amongst backpackers and Peace Corps Volunteers in developing countries this is probably the second most popular conversation; right behind talking about the food that is going into our bodies. Poo is certainly not taboo. And while we have many witty anecdotes and stories and different headings for this type blog, this one seems like a good one to represent the little less glamorous side of it all. For the rest of the chronicles you will just have to wait.)

El Campo

When one thinks of the most rural farming communities in central Nicaragua, thoughts like quiet, slow, and even boring might come to mind. And if you consider that 7:30pm is late for bed and the quietness that you not only hear but feel at that time may fool you into believing that these adjectives ring true. But unfortunately this time does not last long as someone forgot to tell the roosters, hens, pigs, birds, dogs, cats, cows, and horses about the quite hours and by 4:30 or 5:00am the hustle and bustle of farm life has begun. Locking yourself away from the action is rarely an option as everyone in the community knows exactly where you are and what you are doing. So early wake up calls of little children poking their heads in your window or in some cases around the partition of your shared room, practicing their adorable attempts at an English “good morning” become the norm. This wake up is soon followed by the first of numerous visits from community that are just stopping in to say hello, ask you questions, tell you about a meeting that may or may not happen later today, or to bring you some great new food (often some slightly different version of corn product) that you have to try.

If you can somehow pull yourself away from the multitude of conversations you have in your house, on your doorstep, on your front porch, in your driveway, and every 20 feet as you walk down the road, you can make your way in to the fields and find that peacefulness you originally envisioned as you look out over amazing vistas on property that would be a premium in the U.S. but here is just ordinary farmland.

All these wonderful things are exactly what happened to us as we were able to spend time with two amazing PCV hosts in their very small pueblos. Our days spent with Travis and then Laurie had us seriously asking the question “want to do Peace Corps again?” thinking about how wonderful it would be to do Peace Corps again as a rural agriculture volunteer.

There are certain aspects of rural farm life that we are certainly going to miss when we leave here. When you become part of a community you gain this connection that for good or bad is always with you. While in the U.S. people would erect privacy fences so they don’t have to have any interaction with neighbors, when Laurie moved in next door to her old host family, her “mom” chopped down all the bushes between the homes saying “so I can know what you’re doing.” Not exactly being nosy (though everyone in the campo knows everyone’s business) but to keep an eye out as a protector of sorts. In the campo people look after one another. You have a wide range of an extended family and living alone here, especially as “the gringo” does not really mean living alone, and that is a good feeling.

Other life in the campo happenings:

Great food
Climbing fruit trees
Roosters, hens, pigs, birds, dogs, cats, cows, and horses
Fresh milk
Making cheese
Baking in traditional hornos (clay ovens)
One or two or a million mosquitoes
Amazing hospitality
Gossip
Making peanut butter and soy milk from scratch
Celebrity status
An address that is simply “The Gringo”
Trips to the outhouse
Carrying your water
Sleeping and waking with the sun
Gardens
Fresh greens and veggies
Constant visitors
Amazing vistas after walking through farm fields
Great conversations
Extremely hard conversations
TONS and TONS of adorable children

A quick look at El Salvador

As usual a quick “fly through” plan of seeing El Salvador has turned into a month long all out head first dive into an amazing culture and people that is still incredibly too short. It doesn’t seem possible that each day, complete with a new experience, could be a slight bit better than the untoppable previous experience, but that is what we keep seeming to find. Unfortunately though, while many events of the past month have inspired us in ways we never thought possible, that little spot somewhere deep in the brain that controls the blog inspiration of witty anecdotes and exaggerated stories has not been tapped. So that being said, I am going to try to explain this last month in El Salvador through a technical bulleted list (not quite as exciting) that can be expanded on in the future or in the least, verbally exaggerated over a couple of cocktails once prompted. So here is El Salvador:

• A crazy boarder crossing followed by a 8 hour chicken bus ride and hitchhiking that brought us to the small pueblo, Jauaya.
• A lapping up of new smells and tastes as we tried everything we could at a food festival that had us asking “do you think this could be heaven?” Then highlights were trying conejo (rabbit) and rana (frog).
• A beautiful hostel (Anahuac) that was the perfect first look at a country that prides itself on its art.
• Hikes to four gorgeous waterfalls.
• A trip through La Routa de Las Flores, complete with beautiful crater lake hikes, inspiring artistic villages, great hitchhiking, tasty new food, and crazy trees to climb.
• After being picked up hitchhiking, being invited in to a local’s home and sharing cookies and coffee and a great conversation.
• Great hospitality and a great stay in a tiny village with Marcus, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) / Couch Surfer (CSer) that opened us up to the PCV network we got to tap into from then on.
• A epic day of hiking, rain, floods, and waterfalls (including crossing a raging river clinging onto cables that stretched above from bank to bank)
• Our first of many tastes of the local pupusas (El Salvador’s national dish, corn tortillas filled with beans and cheese, topped with pickled cabbage and salsa, or some version thereof- delicious!).
• Playing softball with the local women (pretty funny)
• Another great stay at a PCVs house on the southern coast, Barra de Santiago. Thanks Meredith!
• Children giving us candy and attempting to give Brooke their earrings (unparalleled generosity)
• More pupusas
• Spent a late night searching for turtles nesting and FOUND ONE! A meter long green sea turtle (an endangered species) that laid 110 eggs, some right in our hands.
• A backdoor, wonderful hike in Parque National el Impossible lead by local PCVs, jumping off waterfalls and incredible scenery including an ancient cieba tree it would have taken 8 people to ring around it.
• An eighty-four year old man (local) making us (tourist) take 75 cents for bus fare instead of walking.
• Staying with PCVs / CSers, Wendell and Chad in La Hachadura
• More pupusas
• Being hosted by a local CSer, Jose, and his family in San Salvador.
• More pupusas
• Walking around the crazy markets of San Sal, going to museums and enjoying the city.
• Independence Day Party with Jose and friends, not the most traditional food as we bbq’d burgers, but they were delicious!
• Latisha’s generosity. Another great CS experience.
• Playa del Tunco, with an unexpected meeting of an old friend from Guatemala, fantastic lightning storm, surfing.
• Being hosted by another great PCV / CSer, Brian, in his pueblo Jocoro.
• More pupusas
• Beautiful Perquin and PCV Linsey
• More Pupusas
• An awesome hike in San Fernando to a huge waterfall with Brady, including illegally crossing into Honduras, Zelaya style, but all we had to do was hop back across the river to be back in El Salvador.
• Informative yet heart wrenching tours of museums and battle grounds of the mostly heavily affected area of the Salvadoran Civil War.
• The start of another GROW Initiative project – this one starting an Environmental Education Program and teaching English to adorable Salvadoran children at Amun Shea in Perquin. Check out www.GROWInitiative.org this week for more on the projects
• Incredible views, meals, and people, compliments of Ron and the Perkin Lenka Hotel, the founder and main supporter of the Amun Shea School. Thank you once again Ron!
• Teaching about the environment, purchasing recycling receptacles.
• Cooking with the staff at the Hotel Lenka
• More pupusas
• Field trips to the dump to see first hand recycling and composting (over 70 children in all)
• Teaching about and starting a composting program
• Lots and lots of hugs from the children
• A good project finished
• Sad goodbyes

So that was our time in El Salvador in a nutshell- too small of a nutshell to do it any justice, each one could have its own blog! But we’re in Nicaragua now and there’s more to see and do and you have to have priorities in life. As always, the pictures tell it better than we can so check them out!

Our Wonderful Hosts

Our amazing experience in El Salvador was 100% due to the wonderful kindness and hospitality of the people we met there. These photos are some but not all of the “gente amable”, that took us in and treated us like family. Thank you all, we will miss you dearly.