Nicaragua: Stark Reality and the not-so hidden Potential
February 6, 2012
Alana Anderson
Nicaragua is a land of impressions: physical, emotional, and spiritual. It is a land encompassing rich jungle soil and the coffee that flourishes on it; to an un-paralled shoreline, Atlantic and Pacific; to the sparsely populated and dusty highlands. Nicaragua is rich in history and possible new markets but encumbered by poverty only the most unfortunate Americans know. Yet it is a country comprised of villages, towns, and cities of people who desire the education to better their circumstances and Nicaragua’s future. To put it succinctly, Nicaragua is a stark reality converging with unlimited potential.
As you can tell, Nicaragua, her people, land, culture, and agriculture overwhelmed me. This was not my first visit to a third world country, nor my first time in Central America, but it was my first trip designed solely around agriculture. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I was extremely apprehensive. I was still trying to learn about PGL and their mission in Leon and Talolinga, and I was nervous/ intrigued about Javier and his progress thus far. We know how difficult it can be to achieve multiple goals in a year here, despite our modern conveniences, but we cannot truly understand how many obstacles Javier could encounter in a day attempting to communicate, travel, or obtain materials for his education and projects.
To better illustrate my trip, I will briefly outline each day’s activities and exploits in three blogs. It is too much information for one blog so I think this will work better. I am not attempting to do anything other than inform you of my experiences so take from it what you will. I wrote in a rather haphazard manner, as sights or people struck me, so please bear with me. 
Thursday January 19, 10:15pm
In the hotel in Alexandria before our 6am flight tomorrow to Nicaragua. Lord guide us safely there and back again without harm or illness.
Friday January 20, noon
Left Managua airport in a bus with Greg from PGL and headed to volcano lagoon in Masaya for lunch before hiking in the national volcano park. Land is very similar to El Salvador, perhaps a tad greener.
I saw volcanos while flying in and crater lakes of gorgeous blue hues. It’s very warm, slightly humid from the early morning rain.
Random cows pop up in fields, lanes, and back yards. Also, chickens- everywhere.
Much like San Miguel (town in El Salvador), there is corrugated tin for homes, roves, latrines, and much more.
Trash. So much trash. Lining the road, in lots, being burned constantly in areas that would have our fire departments sweating in anxiety.
Peanut plantations appear to go on endlessly with gleaners dotting the fields. They harvest by hand, plow with tractors if the plantation can afford it. Small farms use mules, horses, and/or oxen. Horses are tied by string to signs.
We had lunch at a crater lagoon-phenomenal-probably 2 miles long and 1 mile wide. It was a beautiful open air restaurant built right up to the edge of a high cliff. The restaurant is popular with tourists, national and foreign. It was pretty packed but we managed to get the closest table to the edge and enjoyed a spectacular view and meal. I ate ceviche and tostones con res.
After lunch we drove up to the park and parked near the lip of the volcano-which is still active, like the majority of Nicaraguan volcanos. Sulfur smoke lazily made its way from the chasm before spreading in all directions in the wind gusts. It was quite windy up on the volcano and was pleasantly comfortable due to the cloudy sky, elevation, and breeze. We walked up to a scenic view area marked by a 30 ft. wooden cross. It overlooked the whole crater, which appears to be more than a mile long and the same wide. The sediment layers are amazing, I could only identify 4 by color but I am sure that there are more that are covered up. The high altitude grass reminded me of Rocky Mountain Park vegetation in Colorado. It looked like the stiff heather colored grass on the alpine slopes.
I can’t get over the view. We could see most of Lake Managua, Managua, and part of Lake Nicaragua. The entire view was actually a crater formed by an explosion several million years ago. Scientists acknowledge the activity of the volcanos and say that it is liable to erupt on a large scale in the near future, i.e. several thousand years. Kinda scary to think too intensely about, eh?
We then walked up a steeper part of the crater where it was much breezier and it began to spit rain. Quite nice, actually as it was so much hotter here. I could see the crater lagoon from lunch and more of Lake Nicaragua, which is like an inland sea it is so large, thus making it one of the coolest views ever.
We left the park and drove for 2 hours to Leon. We arrived at the Hostal Mariposa, a hostel owned by a young French couple, and were relieved and elated by its simple elegance. It has beautiful bungalows, and enclosed outdoor showers for each cabin. You could literally shower under the stars. The couple is fluent in French and Spanish, with some limited English. After we quickly unpacked and cat-washed, we drove to Café Rosita in Leon for dinner. It is a small restaurant and gelateria and boasts some of the most delicious coffee in Leon according to Greg. The group discussed tomorrow’s visit to Nuevas Ezperanzas, our agenda and goals for Javier. Realized we need to earmark funds for a zip drive and memory stick for his documents, possibly computer classes as well since he has only recently been exposed to one.
It’s been a long day. Bed now. Early morning tomorrow.
*I will post the second blog this coming Friday*
Alana
