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.

You know its a good day when. . .

You know it is a good day when pop into the present moment and find yourself sitting on a beautiful deserted beach, a cold beer in hand, talking politics in Spanish with a Garifuna local and a Honduran business man. Actually the story is even better because just two hours ago you thought the morning had started off terrible and the twelve hour travel day you had ahead of you was going to be more of the same. But then it happens. A drop-off at the wrong bus park on the opposite side of town from an overpriced taxi leads to us walking down the highway with our backpacks and complete stranger who was merely pulling into a fastfood restaurant to grab some breakfast stopping to see if we need help. Actually Jorge (the Honduran business man) was not a complete stranger, as he had been on our ferry from Utila (our home for the last seven weeks) to the mainland of Honduras. All the same, he didn’t have to stop. But he did, and as “luck” would have it, we were going to the same city, San Pedro Sula, a four hour drive into Honduras. And then it just got better and better. One of many great conversations about local culture and a discussion of an interesting medicinal moonshine (called guifiti) that is made in the small Garifuna villages along the coast, led us to taking a detour in our plans and a stop in one of these villages for Jorge to visit a friend. Unfortunately, Jorge’s friend was not around; however, the beautiful deserted beaches outside her house and the delicious fruit trees in her yard alone made it well worth the trip. After a really nice walk down the beach an emergency trip to the bathroom (could have been seen as a negative) led us to the perfect small restaurant and the start of this story. And of course as our luck would continue, the local Garifuna happened to make some of the best guifiti in the area, of which he was happy to let us try, complete with the great tales of how and why it is made.

Although the Garifuna village was certainly the highlight, our luck continued along the rest of our travels throughout western Honduras and into El Salvador. Our views of the trip changed and now the negatives seemed to just float away, while each additional positive confirmed our good fortune. Missing other (right) buses led to quicker trips on wrong buses, great conversations, and beautiful views. A chance meeting of a Peace Corps volunteer led to cheap hotel and great night of watching an exciting Honduran futbol (soccer) match with some very friendly locals. The trip fittingly ended with another stranger sending his kindness out in the world through a memorable free ride in the back of his pickup just in time for us to make the food festival we had traveled two days to get to.

So now whenever something is going completely wrong we are not going to let it upset us. After all when one door closes another one opens. And when it does, who knows, you might find a “Jorge” standing on the other side.

WE´RE BACK!

Not back in the States, but back on the blog. Sorry about the short hiatus but we are no longer in Guatemala and actually not much longer in Honduras. Yes, Honduras, coup or not! Well, we’ve been here over 7 weeks now so the coup is probably old news anyway. It seems like once we are stationary in a place for a while, somehow we are even worse at things like keeping up with our blog. Less travel time, but all in all we are busier than ever! We just "graduated" and are officially now Dive Masters. Parrots Dive Center here on the Bay Island of Utila in Honduras has treated us well and we will be sad to leave tomorrow. While diving has been the main focus here, we have had the opportunity to explore some of the beautiful island, volunteer a little (Brooke on the Coral reef and Donny helping educate locals and tourist about Dengue Fever. See www.GROWInitiative.org later this week for more info), and meet some great new friends. So those from Honduras reading this we thank you for your hospitality and hope you continue enjoying your incredible journey underneath the sea. Check out below for a day in the life.

A Day in the Life

A typical day for us at Parrots Dive Shop on Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras where we have been the past 7 weeks:
Wake up 6am, make a delicious breakfast that is generally some version of rice and beans (we are on a budget after all). 6:30, start assembling gear for the morning divers, carry the tanks, load up the boat. 7:00, divers arrive. Help everyone get their kits together, load all equipment in the boat, give the briefings and by 7:30 you’re taking off.
We get to the dive site and start getting everyone in the water. When you hop into that crystal clear blue, the refreshing cool of the water pulls you out of that last bit of sleepiness still lingering. Once all buddy checks are done it is time to descend. It’s an Open Water Course you’re assisting on this morning which means brand new divers, their first time in the open water seeing the fish and the corals. Through the obstruction of their half water filled masks, you can still see the excitement in the eyes, yet some apprehension as well as they struggle to attain "neutral buoyancy." Kneel on the sand to do some skills, then the real excitement begins. It is time to explore the reef. Picture holding on to someone’s fin to keep them from making a rapid assent to the surface after dropping their weight belt, while with your other hand you’re holding on to another student’s tank valve telling them to put air into the BCD. Your broken strapless mask that you exchanged a student for is rapidly filling full of water and is in danger of falling off if you stop sucking in the air and now salt water with your nose. The fins, that because of equipment shortages are two sizes two big, are also coming lose while your two students that can swim are wondering off chasing a butterfly fish. But amazingly enough you some how gain control, start your slow breathing again and say to yourself, just another crazy day at the office. The students eventually start to get it and you surprisingly find yourself smiling as you see all your class gliding through the water. When the dive is done and you get to the surface, everyone is excitedly talking at once about all they saw and how they felt and no one seems to remember the chaos and the near hart attack they almost gave their divemaster.
Now on to the boat, pulling up gear and students like Jaws is on the way. Change out all the tanks, it is time to dive again! Same routine, but this time a little smoother and you can see the students’ comfort level in the water rising. Once dive 2 is done we reach back to the dock at Parrots, unload all the gear, wash it, put it away. We’re on an afternoon boat so no need to take off all the other equipment just yet.
About an hour and a half before we need to start preparing the gear for the afternoon fun divers. Time to get in some (never ending) reading of our Dive Master book so we can prepare for our class and exam this evening, this time it’s on the physics of diving. Need some lunch as well so we go out and get baleadas, the local fare of a flour tortilla with refried beans, cheese and onions- delicious and about US$0.50.
The afternoon boat goes just about the same way, gear on, take off, everyone in the water and go down. But this time it’s certified advanced divers, which means we get to make deeper dives and we’re visiting a wreck. No skills to do so we are just searching for creatures- and we see a lot! A huge green moray eel, schools of colorful fish, lobsters trying to hide but their antennae sticking out from the rocks give them away. Topping it all off on the second dive we see two spotted eagle rays. Everyone on the boat ride back is excited and we still have a few hours of sunlight left to enjoy over the water.
After cooking up some fresh (like caught that day fresh from a crazy local named Zorro out of his wooden canoe) fish for dinner and eating as the sun goes down with new friends that are here for diving and some "old" friends that are fellow DMs here at Parrots, it is time to finish getting ready for class. Finish the homework and our mentor goes through the highlights of the chapters. Check our answers, take the exam and whew, we pass (actually we aced it because we are by far the biggest non partying nerds here). Another thing checked off and we are that much closer to becoming actual DMs.
To finish off the night we go for a beer at Tranquila. Having a bar right next door with good music, you don’t have to go far to go out. It’s been a long day though, so fairly early to bed as we have another dive in the morning. So we walk the 50 feet back to our door, that of the Dive Master room and pass out.
So that’s basically how it’s been going. Except now there’s been none of the studying and exams as we are official Dive Masters and actually working now! Many days it’s not so many dives, or maybe we’re in "confined water" right off the dock with new students. Some days we see only the fish we are very used to everyday, though they still are spectacular. Other days we get treats from the huge to the tiny like a manta ray, a nurse shark, rays, a nudibranch, octopi. Days with less diving, sometimes we get to explore the island, like the bat caves, or hike up Pumpkin Hill. Life is good and we have enjoyed our time on Utila, but now it is time to move on- an occasion both happy and sad. It’s on to El Salvador next, so stay tuned!
(and as always, check out our Picasa Web Albums, pictures tell it better than our blog ever does!)