I entered Nicaragua full of excitement and energy - more so than normal - for a couple of reasons. The first was simply due to my attraction to the country - I had always felt an inexplicable pull towards Nicaragua, as if something inside of me was gravitating towards it. I never really understood why - it could perhaps be due to its revolutionary history, the international significance it has aquired in the last couple of decades, the dozens of volcanoes scattered throughout the land, or just the temptation of that big lake in the middle - whatever it was, something was pulling me to Nicaragua.
But that aside, there was another, more important and more personal reason for my anticipation. My best friend from my days in Guatemala, Luke, or Lulu as I like to call him (and he in return only refers to me as Dotty, my Yoga House name), was passing through as he makes his way to Colombia by bike, and we had made plans to meet up, and take the country by storm together. With the two of us, adventure, and definitely mischief, are never far away and I was tripping over myself with excitement to see him, and see what we would get ourselves into.
Logistically, we knew things would be a bit difficult, what with him traveling by bike and myself on foot/bus/horse/tractor - you name it (pretty much everything but bike). But in all reality, it was nothing that we couldn´t figure out, and so we set the meeting place for León, Nicaragua´s second city. León has the privelage of boasting both a strong, colonial heritage and a large university student population, making it a thriving, young, and exciting city. It is also, and has always been, a strong Sandanista heartland, contributing to its interesting dynamic, and for me, its appeal. Not only is it absolutely gorgeous (it has the largest church in Central America) but it´s also very Nicaraguan and doesn´t feel overladen with tourists. All of this combines to make a fascinating mix and a wonderful place to visit....or perhaps live???
The choice to meet up in León wasn´t random - a few days earlier, while chatting it up with some Nicas on the street, I found out that soon approaching was one of the biggest fiestas of the year - the Día de la Purísma Concepción (the Day of the Pure/Holy Conception) - and the biggest party of them all was in León. Never shy to get involved in some good old fashioned Latina fiesta-ing, it seemed like the perfect way for us to reunite.
Just hours before the festivities began, as we were aimlessly wandering the streets, we randomly ran into my couchsurfing hosts from a few nights before in the north of the country. Rudy, the hombre of the pair, is originally from León, and they too had come to the city to get in on the fun. They invited us to come to Rudy´s home, in a poorer part of the city, to celebrate with them and get to see a more realistic, Leónese version of the activities. Of course we followed them straight there.
In describing the Purísma, it´s best to imagine it as Nicaragua´s version of Halloween, with a Catholic spin. Starting at exactly 6pm in the evening (for once Central Americans are on time for something!) groups wander through the streets, stopping at each and every house displaying an alter out front, and yell out, ¨¿Quien causa tanta alegría?¨ (¨Who causes so much happiness?¨), to which someone from inside replies, ¨¡la concepción de María!¨ (¨The conception of Mary!¨). And then follows the best part - they proceed to give you candy, matches, lighters, or any other little gift you can imagine.
Wanting to get in on as much of the action as possible, we assumed both roles - the gift giver, and the receiver- with much vigor. And it was in both capacities that we definitely shocked the hell out of Rudy´s neighbours, who upon seeing two gringos at the doorstep of his humble home, would usually turn away - at which point we would have to yell out, ¨aquí! Tenemos!¨ (Here! We have some!) The night was definitely a blast and we had a great time, and aquired not only a lot of candy, but other useful items too (toothbrushes, hair elastics....).
From León we were headed to a finca in the Masaya region, but as Luke couldn´t cover the whole distance in one day, we had to find a spot in the middle to crash for the night. Using Google Earth we found a tiny little lake (in a country of maaaaany lakes) that seemed just right for our purposes - it appeared calm, peaceful, and devoid of any real development in the surrounding area, meaning we could probably camp there for the night before moving on to the finca. However, as we found out when we got there, camping is strictly prohibited, and few exceptions are made - especially not on our behalf. Not really ones to seek permission to do anything, we decided we would simply make ourselves as inconspicuous as we could (I guess you could use the word ´hiding´) until the security guards left, and then set up camp for the night, and be on our way in the morning, no one any the wiser. Luckily, such measures weren´t necessary, as as we were scouting out a location to be inconspicuous, the owner of a lakeside restaurant spotted us, and not wanting us to spend the night outside alone, offered us his establishment as a place to sleep. He turned out to be an extremely friendly and chatty man, who was incredibly excited about his upcoming trip to Canada, to visit his daughter who lives there. He was so excited that I didn´t have the heart to tell him that his dream of shooting a deer probably wasn´t going to happen in the middle of winter, nor did I think the government of Nicaragua would let him bring the carcass back in the country even if by some miracle it did.
Next, we found ourselves as the privelaged guests on the finca of Don Jorge - such a beautiful and tranquilo place that we ended up spending a few extra days than originally planned. From the gates of his finca we hiked to the mighty, and very active, volcán Masaya - described by the Spaniards as the gates of hell - and easy to understand why, as it omits massive amounts of smoke and the sulphur can be smelt from very far away. We set out for our hike without a map, or any real sense of direction except for the view of the beast and the idea that we wanted to go ´that way´. We got lost, but eventually found ourselves emerging at the edge of the crater, coming from the area cordoned off by a ¨Peligro! No hay paso!¨ sign. (Danger! No entry!)
As the time came closer to when Luke would eventually have to start making headway into Costa Rica, we decided to spend the last bit of time together on little Isla de Ometepe, the majestic island composed of two towering volcanoes rising out of Lake Nicaragua. To really make the most of our last day together, I rented a bike and we set to exploring the island - finding delicious homemade dark chocolate (the first chocolate I had eaten in AGES) and a nice waterfall on the way. At the bottom of the cascade we sat, enjoying a deep conversation and reflecting on all that had happened not only in the last 11 days together, but in the last 6 months we had got to know each other, and on what was yet to come in both of our lives. When he finally had to leave, and I wished him ¨Que te vaya bien¨ surprisingly, it wasn´t a sad goodbye. On the contrary, I felt very excited for him and what is coming down the road for him - and what´s coming for me as well.
(Unfortunately the computer I´m using won´t recognize my camera so I can´t post any photos - I´ll add some later when I find a friendlier machine).
