December 26th my fellow volunteers and I hightailed it out of site and fled to Nicaragua for a much needed vacation. First, Tyler, Jamie, Kara and I headed to Granada. We didn't do anything of merit in Granada besides wander around the beautiful colonial city, eat at every establishment we could find (falafel! bagels! $1 shots of rum!), and learn how to roll cigars at a small factory.
Granada
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| granada cathedral from the top of another cathedral |
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| jamie, me, tyler & kara |
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| rollin a cigar |
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| granada cathedral and cart horse |
Playa Popoyo
After Granada, we hopped on a bus and headed to the coast to visit ex-PCV friend Cory, who now lives and works as a professional surf bum at a beautiful hotel on Playa Popoyo. We ran into some Nicaraguan PCVs and spent New Year's Eve with a beautiful view of the ocean, tossing dynamite "fireworks" and generally having a pretty good time. Also, Tricia met up with us down there, fresh from a United States Christmas and laden with amazing gifts for those of us who were Central American campo-bound (cheezits, chocolate, scented hand sanitizer, etc).
After a few days at the beach, we picked up and headed up the coast to Leon, another of Nicaragua's big cities. We brought Cory along and met back up with a traveling couple we had met in Granada. In Leon, we continued our trend of behaving like bums and spent most of the time wandering around (the rest of the crew decided to try their hand at "volcano surfing", but knowing my accident prone-ness I chose to sit that one out), and ended our stay there with a much needed trip to the Flor de Cana factory. Flor de Cana is a very delicious, very cheap rum that is fabricated right there in Leon and which we drink by the gallon here in El Salvador. In Nicaragua, this already ridiculously cheap rum was about half price (we're talking $4 for a litre, and this is good rum), so when we realized that we were spitting distance from the birthplace of this magical ambrosia we scurried on over for our own personalized tour.
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| whole gang |
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| Jamie and I arrive in style |
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| FLOR! |
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| so so so much rum |
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| ready to sample... |
Esteli
The last stop of our trip was Esteli, a self-proclaimed "cowboy" town in Northern Esteli (actually close to the Honduran border, and therefore en route to El Salvador) with a few PCVs from Nicaragua. We didn't spend much time in actual Esteli itself, although it is the leather and cigar capital of Nicaragua, but from there we took a trip to the Somoto Canyon. The Somoto Canyon is a gorgeous, sheer rock canyon that the Somoto River runs through. We did a trip in which we hiked down into the canyon, then floated a few kilometers down the river in life jackets. It was a stunningly beautiful trip and we had a lot of fun doing it, and disclaimer: the pictures do not do it justice.
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| Esteli center |
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| Nicaragua and El Salvador PCVs |
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| Tyler being a gentleman |
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| pouncing into the water gracefully |
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| floating!!! |
After Esteli and the canyon trip, we morosely re-boarded the Tica bus for the lovely 12 hour journey back to El Salvador and "real life". It was not the most relaxing trip in the traditional sense of the word, but it was a really fun vacation and I can finally say I've seen another Central American country!
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