My SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!

The greatest event of the past weeks was the visit of my big sister, Miriam. When I spend extensive time in another culture, I want to share what I see, hear and feel with my family but often find it hard to describe everything sufficiently. So in addition to being able to see her ,it was great to have the chance to show my sister around my world here and even places in Nicaragua that were new to me.
We spent her first few days here exploring the older parts of Managua. Since I was stuck in snowy Virginia during orientation, I missed the trips to Somoza´s former palace, the new government buildings and the old cathedral. Managua was leveled in the 1972 earthquake and was never rebuilt as Somoza pocketed all the aid money coming in and sold the supplies. Playing catch-up, we wandered around the palace ruins which sit on top of a hill from where you can see all over town and out over Lake Managua. At the base of this hill, are the new government and military buildings and the shells of older buildings that now serve as homes for some of Managua’s poor. The cathedral is especially striking as only parts of the other walls survived so one can see right through the heart of it. Since you can see all of Managua´s tourist sites in about a day (we stretched it out into two), we had to find new places to explore pretty fast.

Our first weekend, the two of us and Meredith, one of the girls from my program made our way to Ometepe, an island with twin volcanoes in the middle of Lake Nicaragua. According to poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra, “Si el lago Cocibolca, es el corazón de Nicaragua…Ometepe es la esencia de ese corazón”. In other words, Ometepe is the essence of the heart of Nicaragua. An hour´s boat ride away from the port of San Jorge, Ometepe is striking from the first site. Removed from the rest of Nicaragua, the island remained untouched by the Revolution, the war and more recently by development efforts. Almost all the roads are unpaved and Nicaragua´s poverty is on plain view as many of the houses do not have indoor water, adequate latrines and the public transportation system is marginal. That said, this island has become a tourist site and is now dotted with hostels and eco-hotels. We stayed our first night at Finca Magdalena, a collectively owned hostel and farm that supports 24 families. Situated on the Maderas volcano, it is the starting point for hiking to the summit of this peak. It also boasts a beautiful view of the beaches below and the sun setting behind the volcano Concepción. Early to bed and early to rise was our motto as we set of to hike to a lookout at 8am the next morning. Hiking up the steep, muddy path, we passed banana fields, coffee plantations, petroglyphs from some of Nicaragua´s earliest peoples, the Nahuatl, and cacao plants. When we finally made it to the lookout, the clouds had closed in leaving it up to our imagination what the island looked like from up there. On our way down we were serenaded by howler monkeys and came across a whole family of them chattering away. We spent the afternoon on the beach at the little town of Santo Domingo where we ran into a pair of Swedes down here to work on agricultural research. After a tri-lingual dinner, we settled down in our posh hotel to enjoy out direct TV (5 channels). The next day was taken up by the long trek back to Managua.

Miriam passed the week in Granada as I was stuck in classes but the weekend brought our next adventure to Leon and Las Peñitas. Saturday we set off to Leon, a former capital of Nicaragua and hotbed of revolutionary action. After checking in at our hostel, we set out to see as many churches as we could walk to; in total, I think we visited about 10 churches not including the modern evangelical churches we passed. Every since taking a colonial art history class, Latin American churches have fascinated me and Leon has plenty. From the top, of the Cathedral (where Ruben Dario is buried) you can see out over the whole of the city and to the volcanoes that seem to ring it. Leon is beautiful city in that it has retained its colonial charm however, it has also seen the passing of time and one can sense that it is a truly alive city. Not as touristy as Granada, Leon shares some of the working class energy that fills Managua. The revolution and its history as a university town are still very present as many walls are covered in murals depicting the martyrs of the revolution. Leon has some of the best fine dining in Nicaragua which is probably the reason Miriam was so insistent we came here.

Sunday, we visited UNAN-Leon, the mother university of mine, and then leisurely made our way out to Las Peñitas , a small beach town on the Pacific. The beach here is lined with crumbling mansions, half cared for hostels and few nicer places. Although it was Nicaraguan mother’s day, the beach was nearly empty. The general feel of these kinds of towns is that their glory days are already over but in reality the glory days are probably Semana Santa, when even the most backwater towns are filled with merrymakers. We just relaxed, walked on the beach and stared out at the ocean. Our only companions were two 70 year old men from North Carolina who kept us on our toes as our conversation swung from traveling, women (one may have been looking for a 20 year old El Salvadorian wife), politics and their search for a cheaper place to live. We ate lunch with them (they paid) and then made sure they got back on the bus to Leon alright. Monday we leisurely made our way back to Managua to get ready Miriam ready for her departure the following day.