Dancing and Nicaragua

imeHola!
So last Thursday night we had a CEA social which wasn't very conveniently timed because Deanna, Yolanda, and I had to leave for Nicaragua at 4 the next morning and the social didn't start until 9 pm, but since we had transportation and all we decided to go and just not sleep at all that night!
For the social, we went to a discoteque called Castro's and surprisingly, I had a lot of fun! It was a bar/dance place and I actually danced (I know you're all shocked!) A nice tico tried to teach me merengue, but I am not very good and ended up accidentally elbowing some poor tica in the head, I felt horrible! She wasn't too mad though so it was ok! I really can't do the whole spinning around thing. Anyway after Castro's I came home and barely managed to stay awake until 3:50 when I needed to meet Yolanda, Deanna, and Katrina at Veritas to catch the bus for Nicaragua. We got there in 2 minutes and then felt like maybe we had a bad idea, we didn't want to be late but being there early standing alone on a street in the middle of San Jose with big bags and our passports on us didn't really seem like a good idea..... Luckily, the driver got there a little after we did and we got on and were good to go!
The ride to Nicaragua took forever and we stopped multiple times to eat/bathroom breaks but every break took FOREVER or we would have been there much faster. We had to get out and stand in a really long line to leave Costa Rica, then we got to get back in the van drive for a little bit and get back out to enter Nicaragua. For some reason here, we only had to give our passports to the driver and he went and took care of it for us and then an official came and gave us our passports back. We were really hesitant to let our passports out of our sight, but we couldn't really do anything about it. It all turned out perfectly fine though because I still have my passport in my possession!
Once we got to Nicaragua we went to Laguna de Apoyo (Apoyo Lagoon) and it was beautiful! I really felt like I was looking at a huge painting or something and not real life! Then we got to shop around for a little and Deanna bought a dress (it's a big deal for her!) After wards, we finally got to our hotel (which was not the hotel we thought we were going to stay at but was amazing anyway so we weren't complaining!) It was in a huge old colonial house and had tons of corridors and what not. We think we somehow ended up in the nicer rooms cause they had air conditioning, hot water, and no bugs! My bed was really comfy too and we figured out how to work the safe so our passports were safe the whole time!
The next day we went to the New Markey in Masaya and it was a world of it's own. We got there and there were tons of people everywhere trying to help you find stuff but probably wanting paid and beggars and street vendors and it was all overwhelming. We were also like the only northern americans there so we stood out like a sore thumb! We really felt like we shouldn't get out of the car, but once we got out and got over our shock and started shopping it was a really cool place! They had leather sandals for $5! I only got one pair though, because apparently 8 is a really big size here and not many people had it!
Then we went to an old fort that had been turned into a prison and toured the cells, which was really depressing. They had torture cells and cells where they was absolutely no light and all the cells held so many prisoners I'm not sure how they all fit. Apparently there was another level of the prison we didn't get to go to that was even deeper but still held human remains, I'm sure glad we didn't have to go to that part!
Then we went to Managua which I'm still not really sure why and got dropped off at this huge mall that had us feeling like we were in NYC in the States. All the stores were expensive and the food court had Quizno's, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. In Nicaragua there are like the rich places and the poor places and there's a huge difference between the two. After lunch we went to the New Cathedral and the Old Cathedral which had been destroyed by an earthquake so we couldn't go in. In the new cathedral, there was a double wedding going on.
After that, we went back to our hotel and then went exploring down the road for awhile. None of us were really hungry so we left our tour group and found a little cafe with great smoothies and chocolate cake! The next morning we got a horse and carriage ride around Granada and then toured the little islands of Lake Nicaragua in a boat. While waiting on the boat we were ambushed by street vendors but they had a lot of cool stuff and we all spent too much money! It doesn't make you feel bad to buy from the street vendors though because you know they need it more than you do! They had cute keychains for $1 and all kinds of jewelry from $2-$6. I bought a necklace and they threw in a free bracelet! When we got back to our hotel two very nice ladies had set up camp outside selling beautiful shoes, I bought 2 pairs because they actually had my size! The ladies were so nice we couldn't help but love them and we wanted to get more so we looked for them the next day too!
The way back was pretty much hassle free. We got to the border at the same time as two public buses so because of that we had to get our bags searched and had to wait for all of them to get theirs searched first. We got our passports stamped right away and waited forever. Our driver said normally the agents don't make their passengers get their bags checked cause they come through so often but since the buses were there we had to do it too. The check was a joke we had to open our bags they guy peered inside and then said ok. They didn't even check the van to see if we left anything in it. I'm pretty sure Katrina's words were "I could've had a baby in there and they would have never known" and Yolanda was like "yeah, a baby with cocaine in it's mouth."
Our travel agent here at Veritas had originally told us we'd leave early morning and get back by 2 pm so Katrina, Deanna, and Yolanda were all planning on going to class in the afternoon (I don't have Monday classes) but we didn't end up leaving until noon and we got back at 11:30pm. According to my host family it shouldn't have taken nearly as long but oh well!
All in all, it was a great trip and pics are on facebook if you'd like to see!
hasta luego,
Chelsey