Laguna de Apoyo

This is a picture taken by one of my site mates from training. It is from when we went to the lookout for the Laguna de Apoyo. It is a really pretty place and this picture actually does it justice. 

IST

On July5^th, I travelled to Managua to meet the other business volunteers for our In Service Training. We were at a beach resort from Friday evening until Wednesday morning. It felt quite fitting for the time of year. Here it is the rainy season and the low season for the beach, which is why we were there. It only rained on Tuesday. We were in charlas all day, from about 830-5 so we didn’t get much beach time. Since I’m not a beach person, I didn’t mind. I really enjoyed the time with the other volunteers. Friday night and Saturday the business volunteers of the earlier groups were there for an idea exchange. One group was getting ready to leave Nicaragua after 2 years of service and the other has been here a year. It was very powerful to be in a room of people of all different stages with the same overall goal. The trainings were very useful; I learned a ton. And they also gave me more confidence in what I am here to do. I understand the curriculum a little more and now have materials to do business advising/consulting, personal finance consultingand also entrepreneurship and personal finance classes. I have to do a community analysis over the next 2 months to see what my community needs.

My host sisters have never been to the beach so I brought home a bag of shells for them. They loved them! We played with them for quite a few days. They have asked me a million questions about the ocean. Since it’s far away, the nearest ocean is probably 6 hours, they have never been and most kids they know have also never been. They are completely fascinated by the waves and keep asking me about sharks. Hopefully they will be able to make it to the beach one day!

El Mirador de Nandasmo

For our last class, we took our LCF (language cultural facilitator) out to the Mirador de Nandasmo. Like the other Mirador, we had to pay to get in and it was really like we paid to enter a restaurant. The view was pretty and we practically had the place to ourselves. We sat on the second floor and there was a strong breeze and it was actually not that hot.
We practiced for our upcoming language interview with this Candy Land-like board game with questions the interviewer might ask us. We spoke about our college experiences, first boyfriends, things we like and do not like, and some other similar questions. It was an interesting way to learn a little more about each other.
The ride home was an adventure. It difficult to get to the Mirador. It is near nothing and at the end of the dirt road. We got the number of the guy who drove us on his mototaxi and we tried to call him but he was about 30 minutes away. So we decided to wait for this guy who said he just had to drop off someone close by and then he would return. He returned quickly and all five of us climbed into his tiny mototaxi.  On the way, he ran out of gas. We had to hail down another moto and ask for their reserve, which is a water bottle half filled with gas. Then a few feet later, he told us we had to get out of the moto because he does not have a license and their was a police checkpoint further down the road. We then got onto another moto who took us a roundabout route on a dirt path because he also did not have a license. Ultimately, he dropped us off at the elementary school in our town because he wanted to pick up more clients. In the end, it worked out but we all said to each other, Only in Nicaragua!

El Mirador de Catarina

For our last week of classes with our LCF (Language Cultural Facilitator),we convinced him to do a part of our lesson at El Mirador de Catarina. It is a touristy site near our training town. We actually saw some Americans from California while we were there. It was the first time I have seen other Americans in our area.
To enter the area, it costs 24 cordobas (or $1) as an American or 2 cordobas for locals. With our Peace Corps ID, we are able to get the cheaper rate and good thing because otherwise the entry fee would be almost our pay for one day.
The view from El Mirador is beautiful! We were there on a hot sunny day, since every day is hot and sunny here. It overlooks the Laguna de Apoyo, where we went a few weeks ago to go swimming. There are stores and restaurants once you enter and Nicaraguans and tourists alike definitely go there to enjoy the breeze and the view. The city in the distance is Granada. I still have not been there but it is one of the top tourist sites here.

Volcán Masaya

Two days last week were filled with the volcano near here. On Thursday night, I was sitting in my room
reading and I heard them call my name, which is Maria here.  They called it twice so I came out of my room and they were all were pretty excited speaking quickly about the volcano nearby. They kept saying “incendio” and I wasn’t sure what that really meant in terms of a volcano so I decided to just join them and ask no questions. I threw on pants and real shoes and minutes later we were in the pick-up trip. On the way there I realized what we were actually doing. We were driving to Masatepe, a nearby small city, where there are views of the Volcano. One of my host sisters was called by her friend that the volcano was on fire. We went to the church in the center and climbed the steps to see it better. At this point, all of us were unsure if it was a manmade fire or volcanic activity.  We then drove to a better look out point to see the volcano. Along the way, we asked around and people had mixed opinions about what was happening. Then we saw someone with binoculars and he said it was just on fire. It still was pretty amazing to see. These towns are pretty small. On our small trip, my host family saw their uncle and also many coworkers. Everyone was out in the street, I thought I might see another aspirante but I didn’t.

On Saturday, we had classes at the Volcán Masaya tourist area and then we had some time afterwards to drive up to the crater. Unfortunately, since they just were able to put the fires out Saturday morning, some of the paths were not opened. But we still got to drive up to the crater and see what everyone talks about.  The picture below is from the visitor center.

To give you some background from the guidebook, “The Spaniards said this was the gate to hell… Volcán Masaya is the most heavily venting volcano in Nicaragua, and in a more litigious nation there is no way you would ever be able to drive up to the lip of a volcanic cone as volatile as the Santiago crater. There is always lava bubbling at the bottom and a column of sulfurous gases… in 2001 an eruption hurled heated rocks 500m into the air, damaging cars and narrowly missing people.” – Lonely Planet

They do suggest that you park your car in the direction the exit in case you need to exit quickly.

We did not get to see any bubbling lava due to sulfurous gases but we were able to see the incredible views both into the crater and the surrounding area. It was our first time really seeing tourists too. A lot of them go see the Volcano since it’s close to many towns that tourists visit, such as Masaya and Granada.

Laguna de Apoyo

Sunday the 17th, I went with two of my site mates and one of their host brothers to the Laguna de Apoyo.  It is pretty close to where we live. We met outside my house at 8am to head over there by mototaxi. We took it to Catarina. We picked up one of the host brother’s friends and started the trek to the Laguna.  We are training in towns pretty close together so we saw two of the other aspirantes while they were on their run (they live in the town next to Catarina).  My host family kept telling me that it was a pretty tough hike and I thought I was prepared.  It was almost all downhill and pretty rocky. We took our time and eventually reached the bottom, the lagoon. Along the way we took some pictures of the view and the famous monkeys. 

According to the guide books, the Laguna de Apoya is one of Nicaragua’s cleanest places to swim.  It’s a lake that formed over 200 centuries ago in the drowned volcanic crater of the now extinct Volcano. The lake is deep, 200 meters in the center, which makes it the deepest in Central America.

While we were at the bottom, we ran into 3 more aspirantes who were also there with their host brothers. It is always nice to see some different faces. We had all just seen each other the day before so we caught up on what we did Saturday evening and what our plans were for Sunday night, exciting stuff!

The walk back up was brutal! We were in a rush because the two Nicas we were with had a football game so we had to walk as quickly as we could, which ended up not being that quick. We had to take a few breaks to catch our breath.  Of course the two in shape soccer players had no problem making it up the steep trail. In the end, we all made it, thankfully. 

It was definitely a beautiful place. I would love to go back. Hopefully next time we can go and get a ride up. Being down at the lagoon was extremely relaxing. Fingers crossed we have time to go back.