Thursday, April 12, 2007

Spring Break in Nicaragua

Before I begin, thank you to the UCLA MBA students who warmly accepted Ami and I as part of their Spring Break trip. The trip was well planned and an amazing experience.

We met up with the group in order to visit and travel with our good friend, Sonali. Along the way, we were able to get to know 18 other individuals, all of whom were fun to visit with. Here is a quick recap of the places we saw and the experiences we had:

First, we met the group up in Managua, spending one night in the city before making our way down to San Juan Del Sur. What an amazing little town. The town is set on the Pacific Ocean and offers some great beaches and views of the Pacific Ocean; a small group of us split off one day and spent a few hours at Playa Majagual swimming and baking in the sun. We spent a lot of time just relaxing here and looking out over the ocean. It felt a lot like home, minus the fog and obviously minus the cooler weather; looking out over the ocean and listening to the waves crash against the shore were the real reminders of home. We spent two days in this town and on both evenings we watched gorgeous sunsets, one from a resort, set up on the hillside overlooking town and the other from the beach itself. So, the first day was spent swimming and chilling in the sun, splitting our time between the beaches and the resort pool, where you use the facilities at a $5 per person fee. During our time in San Juan Del Sur, we were also introduced to Flor De Caña, a great Nicaraguan rum. If you see it available in your area and enjoy a nice rum, I would recommend giving it a try.

During the second day Ami and I traveled a bit north to San Jorge and visited an orphanage, NPH, where one of my mom's close friends is actively involved. Unfortunately she was visiting family in the states during the time of our visit, but nonetheless we enjoyed it. There are 41 children at the site we visited in San Jorge. All of the children in this location are ages 7 or younger. They basically live here, eat here, are educated here, grow up here. On the Ometepe island (a short boat ride away and set within Lake Nicaragua) is a location for children ages 7 to 18, where the concept is the same. They are cared for and educated until the age of 18. The children in San Jorge move to Ometepe when they turn 7. It was great experience to see and play with the children briefly, and we are looking forward to return for another visit and hopefully help out where we can. We hope to learn more about the organization, but for now this the key information we extracted with our Spanish.

The next destination was the island of Ometepe, but we had to opt for an alternative location because of a worker's strike going on with the boat conducters to Ometepe and the bus drivers on Ometepe. So, our alternative location took us to a hotel, La Abuela´s, set on Laguna de Apoyo. We spent two nights at this place. The hotel was set on a hill overlooking the lagoon. Closer to the lagoon, about 15 feet above water, but still over land was the hotel restaurant. A deck extended out from the restaurant over the lagoon to a 15 foot high platform to relax on, and more importantly to jump into the lagoon. Some did not hesitate and jumped in as soon as we arrived. Everyone jumped at least a few times, as it was nothing challenging at all, but a good rush. The water was not salty and was a very very comfortable tempature, great for swimming.

During the free day at the lagoon, Ami and I opted to join some on a day trip to natural thermal baths. The hot springs contained pools with varying degrees in tempatures with which to relax. We also received massages and grubbed on some good BBQ! After enjoying the pools, the massages and the meal, we laid out in hammocks...some may have even got a nap in there! Afterwards we returned to more the of the same at the lagoon...jumping into and swimming in the lagoon.

The next stop was Granada, a more touristy location, up the shore of Lake Nicaragua. We spent one night in this town before spiltting off from the group and beginning our travels south into Costa Rica and Panama. The town had a great feel, but honestly we did not do anything super cool to write about.

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