Nicaragua
Success rate of guessing my nationality before I open my mouth: 90%
Success rate of guessing my nationality once I start to speak Spanish: less than 10% (everyone knows Americans don´t speak foreign languages, duh)
Nationalities I´ve been mistaken for (with frequencies):
Spanish (more than 10)
Costa Rican (2)
Mexican (1)
Italian (1)
Belgian (1)
Last weekend was a holiday in Costa Rica, so we went to Nicaragua for a few days. After spending 6 hours in the nicest bus I´ve ever seen in Latin America (air conditioning, t.v.s, and even a bathroom!) we arrived at the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border. We all had to get out of the bus and wait in line to pass through immigration. There were two other buses there, so the line was really long, and it was starting to get late (7pm), and the border is only open until 8pm! After waiting in line for about 45 min, we reached the front where a guard was letting people into the building to get their passports stamped. He looked at me, LaToya, and Anna, and another American guy who was in the line with us, and said, no, you guys can´t pass, you cut in front of other people in the line. He then pointed to some Costa Rican guys who were behind us and said they could go through! We tried to tell him that we had been in line the whole time, but he wouldn´t even listen to us. He only let us through when some Costa Ricans who were on our bus vouched for us and told him that yes, we had been in line and needed to get through so our bus could move on! So it ended up okay, but we were really shocked at what had happened. Later I thanked the Costa Rican guy who spoke up for us, and he said, yeah, that guard was crazy, he just wasn´t paying attention. But of course, we weren´t finished crossing the border. Between the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan borders is about 2km of no man´s land. If you´re on a bus that goes direct, the bus will take you. If not, you can walk or rent golf carts! When you get to the other side (which is where the Nicaraguan border begins), you have to go through customs and get stamped into Nicaragua. The whole process took about 2hrs, most of which were spent standing. After we got through we really didn´t feel like going through that again to go back to Costa Rica!!
But once we got to Nicaragua we had an awesome time. The people were incredibly friendly and helpful. Since it was getting late, I was concerned about getting to our hotel in Granada, which is a cute colonial town south of Managua. I started talking to some people on the bus to see if anyone knew where the hotel was in relation to the bus stop and/or how much a taxi should cost. Turns out that Granada has experienced tremendous growth in the past few years, and about 50 new hotels have gone up (most of which are small, with about 10-20 rooms), so not even the locals know where all the hotels are! There were two older women who were helping me find people on the bus who were also getting off at Granada, and one guy, probably in his late 20s, said he was from Granada and was going home to surprise his family (he migrated to Costa Rica to work). He said not to worry, that he would help us get there. When we got off the bus, he got into a cab with us (which was grately appreciated since we didn´t want a shady cab driver taking us to a different hotel or totally ripping us off!) and helped the driver find the hotel. We arrived without a problem, and the receptionist at the hotel was waiting for us in front! It was a great welcome to the country!
The next day (Sunday) we took a tour of the islets off the coast of Granada in Lake Nicaragua. Our tour guides were awesome, and we saw some amazing houses on tiny islets! Apparently you can buy an islet for as little as $25,000 and build your own house on it! While there are a lot of rich people now moving into the islets, most of the people who live on them are poor and make their living fishing. We stopped at a restaurant on one of the islets and asked the boat driver to pick us up in a couple of hours. We had food and drank the local beer (which is pretty good, by the way), and then a nice Nicaraguan guy who was sitting with his family came up to talk to us about the U.S. Turns out he immigrated there when he was like 16 and now lives in Texas. He´s a dual citizen, and he loves both countries. He talked to us (in English) for like a half an hour! He just wanted to welcome us to his country, make sure we were enjoying ourselves, and share a little bit about how he loves Nicaragua but he also loves the U.S. and feels that a part of him will always be in both places. We were really surprised to be so well-received as Americans in Nicaragua, but everyone was thrilled to meet Americans who were enjoying their country! Also, most people there know someone in their family or neighborhood who has migrated to the U.S.
The next day we went to Ometepe Island, which has two volcanoes. We didn´t have enough time to hike up the volcano, but we did do a short hike to a lagoon and a beach on the other side of the island. Again, wonderful people everywhere we went. The last day we spend in San Juan del Sur, which is a small beach town on the Pacific Coast. It reminded me a lot of the beach I went to in Ecuador. The bad thing about San Juan is that there is absolutely no shade anywhere on the beach. And there are no beach chairs or umbrellas like there are in resort towns (obviously), so we didn´t spend a whole lot of time on the beach. The water was really warm though, which was nice, but the sun was so hot that we preferred to sit at one of the beachfront cafes and drink more local beer (hehe).
The drive back and border crossing was much easier that the first time around, although I still don´t think I´d like to do that again. LaToya joked that we should go to Panama next weekend, but none of us are really up for the hassle. We are going to go to a beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, though, which is very close to the border. I said the only way I´m going to cross the Panamanian border is if I do so by accident! (only kidding, Mom). All in all, it was a great trip, but I was glad to be back and settle down a little bit. I´m staying at Wendy´s boyfriend´s house with his parents. His parents are Spanish, actually, which is unexpectedly comforting since I´m already familiar with the culture. His mom, Lupe, makes awesome Spanish food, which is far superior to Costa Rican bland rice and beans, which they eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not kidding!). It´s nice to have a comfortable place to come home to, especially in a foreign place!
Yesterday was the first time I got to do some touristy stuff in Costa Rica. I went on a day tour to Sarapiqui, a rain forest. I spent the morning zipping through the canopy suspended by zip lines, and the afternoon white water rafting. It wasn´t intense rafting, but it was all I could handle. I´d rather be hiking anyway. Actually what I´d rather be doing is rapelling down a waterfall, or canyoning. I´m trying to plan a trip to do that soon. This week we have a lot of meetings and some interviews for LaToya´s research, but on Thursday we´re planning to go to that beach on the Caribbean side (it´s called Puerto Viejo). Yes, definitely more playing than working. Pura vida!
Success rate of guessing my nationality once I start to speak Spanish: less than 10% (everyone knows Americans don´t speak foreign languages, duh)
Nationalities I´ve been mistaken for (with frequencies):
Spanish (more than 10)
Costa Rican (2)
Mexican (1)
Italian (1)
Belgian (1)
Last weekend was a holiday in Costa Rica, so we went to Nicaragua for a few days. After spending 6 hours in the nicest bus I´ve ever seen in Latin America (air conditioning, t.v.s, and even a bathroom!) we arrived at the Costa Rican-Nicaraguan border. We all had to get out of the bus and wait in line to pass through immigration. There were two other buses there, so the line was really long, and it was starting to get late (7pm), and the border is only open until 8pm! After waiting in line for about 45 min, we reached the front where a guard was letting people into the building to get their passports stamped. He looked at me, LaToya, and Anna, and another American guy who was in the line with us, and said, no, you guys can´t pass, you cut in front of other people in the line. He then pointed to some Costa Rican guys who were behind us and said they could go through! We tried to tell him that we had been in line the whole time, but he wouldn´t even listen to us. He only let us through when some Costa Ricans who were on our bus vouched for us and told him that yes, we had been in line and needed to get through so our bus could move on! So it ended up okay, but we were really shocked at what had happened. Later I thanked the Costa Rican guy who spoke up for us, and he said, yeah, that guard was crazy, he just wasn´t paying attention. But of course, we weren´t finished crossing the border. Between the Costa Rican and Nicaraguan borders is about 2km of no man´s land. If you´re on a bus that goes direct, the bus will take you. If not, you can walk or rent golf carts! When you get to the other side (which is where the Nicaraguan border begins), you have to go through customs and get stamped into Nicaragua. The whole process took about 2hrs, most of which were spent standing. After we got through we really didn´t feel like going through that again to go back to Costa Rica!!
But once we got to Nicaragua we had an awesome time. The people were incredibly friendly and helpful. Since it was getting late, I was concerned about getting to our hotel in Granada, which is a cute colonial town south of Managua. I started talking to some people on the bus to see if anyone knew where the hotel was in relation to the bus stop and/or how much a taxi should cost. Turns out that Granada has experienced tremendous growth in the past few years, and about 50 new hotels have gone up (most of which are small, with about 10-20 rooms), so not even the locals know where all the hotels are! There were two older women who were helping me find people on the bus who were also getting off at Granada, and one guy, probably in his late 20s, said he was from Granada and was going home to surprise his family (he migrated to Costa Rica to work). He said not to worry, that he would help us get there. When we got off the bus, he got into a cab with us (which was grately appreciated since we didn´t want a shady cab driver taking us to a different hotel or totally ripping us off!) and helped the driver find the hotel. We arrived without a problem, and the receptionist at the hotel was waiting for us in front! It was a great welcome to the country!
The next day (Sunday) we took a tour of the islets off the coast of Granada in Lake Nicaragua. Our tour guides were awesome, and we saw some amazing houses on tiny islets! Apparently you can buy an islet for as little as $25,000 and build your own house on it! While there are a lot of rich people now moving into the islets, most of the people who live on them are poor and make their living fishing. We stopped at a restaurant on one of the islets and asked the boat driver to pick us up in a couple of hours. We had food and drank the local beer (which is pretty good, by the way), and then a nice Nicaraguan guy who was sitting with his family came up to talk to us about the U.S. Turns out he immigrated there when he was like 16 and now lives in Texas. He´s a dual citizen, and he loves both countries. He talked to us (in English) for like a half an hour! He just wanted to welcome us to his country, make sure we were enjoying ourselves, and share a little bit about how he loves Nicaragua but he also loves the U.S. and feels that a part of him will always be in both places. We were really surprised to be so well-received as Americans in Nicaragua, but everyone was thrilled to meet Americans who were enjoying their country! Also, most people there know someone in their family or neighborhood who has migrated to the U.S.
The next day we went to Ometepe Island, which has two volcanoes. We didn´t have enough time to hike up the volcano, but we did do a short hike to a lagoon and a beach on the other side of the island. Again, wonderful people everywhere we went. The last day we spend in San Juan del Sur, which is a small beach town on the Pacific Coast. It reminded me a lot of the beach I went to in Ecuador. The bad thing about San Juan is that there is absolutely no shade anywhere on the beach. And there are no beach chairs or umbrellas like there are in resort towns (obviously), so we didn´t spend a whole lot of time on the beach. The water was really warm though, which was nice, but the sun was so hot that we preferred to sit at one of the beachfront cafes and drink more local beer (hehe).
The drive back and border crossing was much easier that the first time around, although I still don´t think I´d like to do that again. LaToya joked that we should go to Panama next weekend, but none of us are really up for the hassle. We are going to go to a beach on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, though, which is very close to the border. I said the only way I´m going to cross the Panamanian border is if I do so by accident! (only kidding, Mom). All in all, it was a great trip, but I was glad to be back and settle down a little bit. I´m staying at Wendy´s boyfriend´s house with his parents. His parents are Spanish, actually, which is unexpectedly comforting since I´m already familiar with the culture. His mom, Lupe, makes awesome Spanish food, which is far superior to Costa Rican bland rice and beans, which they eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not kidding!). It´s nice to have a comfortable place to come home to, especially in a foreign place!
Yesterday was the first time I got to do some touristy stuff in Costa Rica. I went on a day tour to Sarapiqui, a rain forest. I spent the morning zipping through the canopy suspended by zip lines, and the afternoon white water rafting. It wasn´t intense rafting, but it was all I could handle. I´d rather be hiking anyway. Actually what I´d rather be doing is rapelling down a waterfall, or canyoning. I´m trying to plan a trip to do that soon. This week we have a lot of meetings and some interviews for LaToya´s research, but on Thursday we´re planning to go to that beach on the Caribbean side (it´s called Puerto Viejo). Yes, definitely more playing than working. Pura vida!
posted by Jen at 4:57 PM
1 Comments:
Jen, nice blog! I really want to come and visit you! Do you think that would be possible? The more I`ve been in Japan, the more I realize how much I want to be in a Spanish-speaking culture. How long are you gonna be away for?
Let me know - jkosakowski@gmail.com
Jackie
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