My First Day in Nicaragua

I can't promise I'll be writing an update everyday, but as long as I have internet I figured I would take advantage of it to let everyone know how my first day went.

Day 1

My first day in Nicaragua felt like a long day. This is partly because of my normal habit of being unable to sleep well before I leave for a trip and partly from just having a full day of getting used to being in a new place.

Flying in to Managua is quite beautiful over Lake Nicaragua with views of some of the vivid green islands that dot the gigantic lake. I got through immigration and customs easily. I spent more time at the airport trying to figure out about getting a telephone and changing money.

Then it was off for a taxi ride to the Airbnb that I had chosen. Danny, the taxi driver, was a chatty fellow and we talked the whole way through Managua which is not the most interesting city that I’ve seen so far although I haven’t ventured far, and my dislike of cities in general will probably have me avoiding it in the future. What can I say? I’m a country girl at heart. Although there are parts of it that remind me of the Dominican Republic.

The Airbnb house is in a quiet neighborhood. There’s a lovely courtyard with a mango tree and a few hammocks out back. It’s a house full of Italians. They are all very friendly and outgoing. Most of them work for an NGO that works to protect the environment. It was just me and one of the Italian girls who was working from home for the first several hours. Luckily there’s internet which kept me entertained, checking out things about Nicaragua, playing on Facebook, emailing. Also, a visit by the Nicaraguan girlfriend of one of the housemates. Although I have to say there were some quiet moments when I was quite homesick thinking of the farm and my family and friends back in White Salmon.

Oddly enough, I ended up going to the pizzeria next door for dinner since it was dark and I didn’t want to wander very far. It is definitely not pizza by Italian standards but I was again reminded of the Dominican Republic and the pizza they made there. It was quite similar, including the waiter offering me ketchup to put on it which made me smile. I also had my first Toña, the national beer of Nicaragua. It was about what I expected, an ice cold lager served with a napkin wrapped around its neck.

After dinner I came back to the house and took a shower to wash off the sweat and grime from a day of traveling and adjusting to the tropical weather. It felt unbelievably good to hop in the cool water. I forgot how much I like cold showers on hot days in the tropics. It was 93 degrees when I landed at noon and I’m not sure how much hotter it got.

I had already met everyone in the house at least once but they began trickling home about 9 pm and the Flor de Caña rum came out. We sat around the table outside talking until about 11:30. Spanish is the common language now that I’m here and they were very nice in using it most of the time as we talked so that I could understand everything. We talked about the work they do with their NGO in Nicaragua on environmental protection and sustainable agriculture and I talked about my work with Gorge Grown Food Network and what we've done there. We talked about the United States, and Italy, and Nicaragua. None of them had been to the United States before. We talked about food, health, soccer, baseball, folkloric stories, and present day and customs that are carryovers from days gone by.

Finally it was time to climb into bed for the night and I was ready. Speaking in Spanish pretty much all day after not having done so in a long time is exhausting. Although it makes me feel quite good that my Spanish is still pretty strong considering I haven’t used it much recently. My mind is making the switch to speaking in Spanish again and I keep realizing that even when I’m just thinking to myself I’m doing so in Spanish already. It seems easier now than it used to. My almost three years in the Dominican Republic seem to have cemented it in my mind in a way that my other travels and time spent abroad had not.