Sunday, November 11, 2007

Day Trip

New Pics Posted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dwnicaragua


Yesterday I went on a day trip organized by our language school. Sadly, Lauren was feeling a bit too ill to join me so I took a cab to the school alone.

Our first stop was in Masaya, where we walked through the famous outdoor market. It was pretty interesting but I think that I prefer the Huembes market here in Managua. We then traveled to Mombacho volcano to do some hiking. It was quite different from Volcan Masaya, the volcano I visited a few weekends ago. While Volcan Masaya was very dry and barren Mombacho was plush with beautiful vegetation. I felt like I was hiking through a forest rather than on a volcano. Also, Volcan Masaya was clearly very active, as it was impossible to miss the gigantic brewing crater. Mombacho is also active although the only indications of such were a few vents spewing some hot, humid air.

Hiking around the volcano was fun, but the highlight of the day was certainly going on a zipline course. Seven of us enjoyed a beautiful decent down the volcano strapped in harnesses. In typical Nicaraguan fashion there were no release forms to sign or thorough safety instructions. Before I knew it I was flying down the line towards the next station. I really enjoyed the 17-station course. The views were beautiful and one of the guides took some cool pictures and a great video.

After the zipline we stopped by Granada for a bit before returning home. It was a fun day. The sites were enjoyable and I took pleasure in meeting the other language students and hearing their stories. No one here ends up by accident so it’s always interesting to find out why people are in Managua. I met this Canadian guy who is interning with a microfinance firm. He loves his work, but after hearing that he spends his days in an office looking at charts and writing reports I became glad that my volunteer position with a microfinance firm fell through. Although his work is certainly very valuable and interesting, I will likely spend my working years behind a desk at home, so it’s nice to get out and experience some other things while I’m here.

I’m not sure if my body or my mind is having a harder time becoming accustomed to “Nica Time.” A key difference between Western culture and Nicaraguan culture is the value placed on punctuality. At home, if something is supposed to start at 6pm, it usually does. If it starts at 6:05 or 6:10 we complain. Nicaraguans seem to have a more relaxed interpretation of timekeeping. As a Type-A guy I often have difficulty conforming to their standards. For example, we were supposed to return to the Spanish school between 4-5pm yesterday and actually got back a little after 7pm. Our guide made no apologies or even commented on the 2-3 hour lateness. In addition, we were served lunch (a white-bread sandwich with a piece of unidentifiable meat and some creamy red spread) at 4:45pm(!). Between my love for scheduling and eating every 3 hours it was a challenging day! Nica time…

Today I am going to go to a baseball game in town and then hopefully watch the Ravens if they are on tv. Hopefully they will show up this game.

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