Nicaragua
COSTS : In-country: £467.74 (£17.99 a day) // Out of country - £173.36 (see breakdown at the end)
CURRENCY : Cordobas C$
DATE : 22st August 2022 - 16th September 2022
DURATION : 26 days
AGE : 21
TOP APPS : Workaway/Currency Converter/Reverso Contexto/Travel Spend
Contents:
🔵 Finca del Arból
🔵 Granada
🔵 Leon
Finca del Arból
A coffee farm in the North of Nicaragua; this project encourages cultural exchange between travellers and the local workers. For $30 a week, you can get stuck in making tortillas, grinding corn, working in the fields and living in a beautifully rustic house with gorgeously hand-crafted furniture.
I spent three weeks here (the minimum time commitment) and used the time to start practicing yoga again, keep up daily memorisation of Spanish, sleep, reflect on my life through organising photos, and generally recover from a slightly emotionally draining summer.
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There were 3 other volunteers; a french couple, Fleur and Bastien, and Florianna, a Dutch chica who became the closest thing I’ve ever had to an older sister (¡eres mía, mía! ¡mía! 💛). We took trips to Ocotal, the biggest nearby town, to buy veggies to escape the monotony of rice and beans. We enjoyed a coffee tasting, with a 2-hour introduction to the science of coffee, which blew my mind. We played card games together almost every night and had many ‘banana fuegos’ 🎉 (a roasted banana in a tortilla). Finally we also spectacularly celebrated Florianna's 29th birthday (with lots of tequila) 🎉
Another favourite moment was when I took the local bus to get to some canyon, and, realising, I wasn’t going to make it, just stopped in a random town and wandered the streets, watching the people, trying to recognise all the foreign fruit and buying llama pyjamas!!! Then, after chatting with the guy next to me on the bus back, visiting his parents hotel and trying my first local beer: ‘Toña’ :)
I was a bit more silly than that though :( I was found a) smoked a joint and b) with rum in my room. In the project rules, these vices are expressly forbidden, primarily because the workers (local Nicaraguans) are not allowed to drink or smoke. Consequently, I felt very guilty and ashamed as I influenced the perceptions the workers will have of future volunteers (aka we are just privileged foreigners who can do whatever they want whilst they can’t).
On top of that, the ‘final fiesta’ for Florianna’s birthday was ruined a lil l when I got too drunk and was rude. Therefore essentially I definitely learnt some important life lessons here: a) respect the projects I work on (and choose ones which suit the lifestyle of a reckless 21-year-old) and b) no matter how drunk you get be a nice human being.
Final note is that it was very bizarre being in the middle of the Nicaraguan forest when I found out the Queen had died 😭
Granada
After that experience in the North, I headed to the city of Granada. With crumbling churches, colourful post-colonial buildings, bustling markets and a charming hostel, my 5 days here were everything I love about travel.
I loved observing the hectic nature of life, the way people interacted with each other and the way I, in turn, interacted with this.
I enjoyed a long walk along the Malecon (boardwalk), a late-night hot dog in the main plaza and working on this website you’re reading right now in Casa Azul, which was calm and unpretentious. I called friends and planned my future trip, which changed completely, as I realised I couldn’t go to Cuba because there was an outbreak of dengue fever :( Thus I figured out how to travel in El Salvador and Honduras in less than two weeks, which you can read about here.
Leon
I spent a total of 16 magical hours here, Nicaragua’s second-largest city, founded in 1524. Here are the highlights:
A wonderful walking tour
Faced with the decision to stick with the group of 10+ English-speaking tourists or go with the Spanish-spoken option with just one couple from Madrid, I opted for the latter and surprised myself by understanding pretty much everything!
What made the experience even more interesting was when the guides led us to a quiet courtyard at the end to explain to us candidly the political situation in Nicaragua; how there is no freedom of speech, how, if you do speak out, you don’t speak for much longer, how repressive authoritarian governments inflict human suffering and how external perceptions of Nicaragua are often uninformed.
I connected with my tour guide, Antonio, so much so, that afterwards, we hopped on his motorbike and went for a lovely round of drinks at a local bar.
Whilst the proposition to spend the following day at the beach with him was tempting, I decided to forge ahead with my trip and head to El Salvador . . ¡ by boat !
Aside from these locations I also spent a good few nights in a perfect Air BnB in Managua, the capital.
*A little note: Managua is probably one of the least interesting capital cities on the planet. But this is not their fault as there was an earthquake in 1972 which destroyed 70% of the buildings and left 250,000 homeless.
I also really enjoyed all the bus rides in between, which end up forming a good part of your travel experience.
You look out the window, you see the world, you see yourself and you let go of that which does not serve you.
Out-of-country cost breakdown
£ 173.36 Flight : I split the cost across the whole Central America trip
£ 17.16 Travel Insurance : ^ ditto
£ 5 Health-related costs : nothing special, just paracetamol, suncream etc. - make sure to have a yellow fever vaccination before going
£ 0 Visa : visitors are allowed to stay within 90 days without a visa
£ 30 Fees : to pay (to the pooey government) every time you cross in or out of Nicaragua. So make sure you have USD in cash available
(unlike me who had to bribe my way out with blooming African Francs 😂)
✨ Much of this experience was made possible with Workaway - an amazing platform which connects travellers to hosts across the world! ✨
