Trip to Nicaragua

This week was a bit different for me. Monday through Wednesday I exercised in the morning (e.g. went to the beach, biked around town, took long walks on the beach) and then went to CREAR around noon or 1 PM. But on Thursday I traveled with two friends via bus to Granada, Nicaragua. I think we traveled for about six hours from Sámara to Nicoya to Liberia then to the border Peñas Blancas and then by taxi. (Our way back was actually twice as long; apparently a lot of people travel on Sundays.)

It was strange being a tourist. Sámara feels like home and it's smaller, but Granada is a nice city and essentially one of the nicest cities in all of Nicaragua. I stayed in a hostel for the first time (Hotel Oasis - $9/night and extremely nice), ate a lot of cheese (I do not eat any cheese in Sámara actually), and got to see the other side of Central America.

Sámara is nice. Very nice. In fact, whenever I talk about it to anyone it seems like I am living in a beach paradise (which sometimes I think I do.) Yet Sámara is in the region of Guanacaste which is one of the poorest provinces in Costa Rica; despite this, I live in a nice house with a host family, everything here has prices comparable to the United States, and drinking water is safe here. Costa Rica also has a much stabler past than the rest of Central America; think for instance, the 1970s/80s for countries like Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras for comparison. Costa Rica escaped dictatorship (like the Somoza family), US intervention (like contras), and civil war.

Once we left the main part of Granada and walked through barrios, the difference in poverty (especially in comparison of Costa Rica) is noticeable. Some houses are barely what you think of as houses, but there are walls and a hole for a door. Older men would make comments about me and my friend (calling us "morenas/negritas," calling us their lovers, promising us a "good time.") Despite the comments, seeing the difference in socioeconomic status and the amount of trash in the streets and thrown into a ditch makes me want to see other areas of Nicaragua. Obviously I cannot use the outskirts of Granada as a great comparison to Sámara, but it did make me think of what life must be like in other places in Guanacaste, Costa Rica in comparison to Nicaragua.

We also traveled to Masaya which was about half an hour from Granada. Again I got to see a glimpse of what life is like outside of the more-developed (and stable) Costa Rica. I do not get to see markets in Sámara (other than a farmer's market) so it was nice to actually get to see all the different foods on display. I read travel descriptions of Masaya and a lot of people either found the Masaya markets "charming" or "disgusting." I do not know if I would use the word "charming," because it's a way of life and not meant to be for the delight of tourists but there was a lot of mud, feces, and water. It was crowded with people on foot and bikes. If you do not like the idea of seeing raw meat hanging and swarming with flies then you would probably be disgusted. I did not find such things disgusting although we did not spend too much time in this market because we were looking for the artisan markets.

Disappointingly the Masaya artisan markets cater to tourists. Many of the shops carry the same merchandise and it is easy to find shirts that say "Nicaragua." But I got to take a picture of a Sandinista statue and see more graffiti for the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional) along with the ubiquitous pictures of the much-loved Daniel Ortega. The history major in me propelled me to spend about two hours reading up on Nicaraguan history from the 1930s (basically the rise of the Sandinistas, the death of Sandino in '34 then the rule of the corrupt Somozas and the victory of the FSLN and Ortega.) I also noticed a lot of images of both Sandino and Che which I found interesting; I am curious to see how popular Che is in Latin America, especially in Costa Rica. (Sámara does not have any images of anything remotely political.)

I realize this post is meant to be about my time interning at CREAR, but I think I learned a lot about Sámara by going to two cities of Nicaragua. I met a lot of Europeans in Nicaragua, many who were making a long trip throughout Central America. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on what they thought of various countries in Central America. I also met a couple of students interning for a U.S. company (not exactly a non-profit) that educates and surveys rural communities of Nicaragua and Guatemala about health care; they appeared overwhelmed with the disorganization and daily struggles in their organization, how their fundraising efforts in the community were sometimes ignored and they were distrusted, and about living conditions were extremely uncomfortable. It was interesting to meet other people volunteering/interning for essentially another non-profit and we spent about two hours discussing the pros/cons of international development. It was a very interesting discussion to have with the Duke and Georgetown student, respectively, and further makes me question the effectiveness of many international development programs/companies/non-profits.

Thus, I have had another great week here. Now I want to see more of Central America, both as a tourist and in a homestay. I am excited to work this week for CREAR and to start voicing my opinions about things more frequently. I want to say that I enjoy reading other people's posts on this blog and I cannot wait to see the capstone projects from the different regions of the world, especially Central America.

Pura Vida!