I will be the first to admit that I’m not much of a traveler.  For most of my life, my travels have been limited to the east coast of the US, with a couple of trips beyond that. However, this past Spring Break, I decided to take a huge leap outside of my comfort zone and go on the Alternative Spring Break to Nicaragua. Although my trip got off to a bit of a rocky start, I had a very nice time. Experiencing the culture of another country was something that I had never gotten the opportunity to do before and going on this trip has encouraged me to pursue other travels abroad in the future.

Since we had an evening flight, I was able to capture the last bits of the sunset out of the plane window before we left US soil.

The city of Granada has several cathedrals. On our walking tour, we were able to visit three of them. Our guide, David, told us that each cathedral was built at a different point in Granada’s history, and that their architecture reflects it. This cathedral was the last one that we visited. Both its exterior and interior are in the Baroque style with large amounts of ornamentation throughout. The bell tower serves as a lookout point over the city. I think the views were well worth the harrowing climb to the top!

In the evening, we had plans to visit one of Nicaragua’s five volcanos.  The tour was set for the evening since the internal lava pool would be most visible after dark.  Before going to the volcano, David arranged for us to visit Granada’s waterfront, where we were able to look out over the crater lake to our future destination.

The inner lava pool of the volcano.

On our second full day, we were given the chance to visit the island community of Lake Granada.  People have lived on the islands for generations and have developed a society of their own.  The entire culture of these islands is centered around the water.  Children row their boats to school.  Fishermen row their boats to the markets on the mainland.  Some people even build their vacation homes on the islands.

We spent our third and fourth days in San Juan del Sur, a beach town in the southern part of Nicaragua.  Since it is a Pacific town, the weather in San Juan del Sur is very windy and very humid, but it was perfect for the beach!  The water also made for excellent sunsets, such as this one.

After leaving San Juan del Sur, we took the ferry to Ometepe, a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua.  The island is predominantly self-sufficient and is home to the indigenous people of Nicaragua.  During our first day on Ometepe, we had the chance to walk through a botanical garden and visit a second crater lake.

We were also able to experience another of Nicaragua’s fabulous sunsets.  This picture was taken overlooking Lake Nicaragua, back toward the mainland.  In the distance is the Department of Rivas (departments are similar to States).  Thanks to the heavy winds from Lake Nicaragua, Rivas has a number of wind turbines that generate power for the people who live there.

We spent the next two days on Ometepe at the Bona Fide permaculture farm.  The people who live and work there are working to establish a sustainable and self-sufficient farm that includes fruits, vegetables, trees, and medicinal plants.  On our first day, we helped with some of the farm chores (I got to repot seedlings for Vetiver grass, which serves as a sort of wind and water barrier for their terraced beds) before taking a tour of the farm.

Back in August 2017, Nicaragua was struck by Hurricane Nate.  The hurricane damaged and even collapsed many of the structures at Bona Fide.  On our second day there, we reviewed their plans for rebuilding and made some suggestions regarding the materials they wanted to use and how they could improve their designs.  We also met this cat named Shondra, who was very sweet and kept us company throughout the day.  Since I did not go home to see my own cats over the break, I was extremely happy that I got to meet one on this trip.

Isn’t she cute?  Shondra spent most of the day sleeping on the tables, “helping” us with our work.

After taking the ferry back to the mainland and driving back to Granada, David decided to take us out for Nicaraguan fast food, known as Frito.  It was a wonderful final meal for our trip.  We had the option of having chicken, beef, or pork (I had chicken), which was then covered in rice and beans, cabbage salad, fried sweet plantains, plantain chips, and, if one so desired, cheese.  All of this was served on a banana leaf.  While all of the food that we had in Nicaragua was delicious, this was probably my favorite meal.  Not only was the food probably the best I had had, but I felt that at this point, we had all become really good friends and weren’t quite ready to fly out the following morning.  I guess it was kind of bittersweet, knowing that we were finally comfortable, yet having to leave so soon.  Regardless, the food was great, and the conversations were even greater.

Some additional fun facts on the food:

• Beef is one of the primary exports of Nicaragua. As a result, steak is something they do very well.
• There are eight types of cheese in Nicaragua. The most common one was served with several of our meals and is very salty.  I liked it, but most of the rest of the group did not.
• Plantains can be cooked a number of ways, depending on their ripeness. Yellow plantains are usually referred to as sweet plantains and are cooked until they are caramelized.  Green plantains are considerably less sweet and are served fried as a substitute for potato chips.  The green ones are, in my opinion, much better.  Also note:  plantain chips in the US are not nearly as good as plantain chips in Nicaragua.
• Rice (with or without beans) is served at nearly every meal, including breakfast.
• Fanta Orange is made with real sugar instead of corn syrup and tastes much better than it does in the US.
• All of it was delicious.

This was one of the last shots I took as we left.  I developed a mild obsession with the volcanos while we were there, and so I was happy to be able to get a picture of one from the plane.  It was a nice tribute to the trip, and I hope to go back again someday.