Nicaragua was absolutely amazing--I fell in love with it's rich culture and history, the bright colors and friendly people. It has me wishing I could say Soy Nica (I'm Nicaraguan)! Washington DC has moved to my second favorite city behind Granada, Nicaragua--I didn't think it could be done, but it has. I have so many memories from the past four days--it's absolutely crazy.
We arrived in Granada, Nicaragua around 8pm on Friday night. We settled into our hotel rooms and then I decided to walk around the town. It was just another girl and myself walking around the town, checking out the central square and getting a feel for the Nicaraguan culture. Now if we would have been in San Jose, we wouldn't have ever thought about walking around downtown at night by ourselves--with purses in hand. From day one, in Costa Rica I knew walking around at night wasn't a good idea--even in groups. Surprisingly, Nicaragua, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, is much safer than Costa Rica.
Granada is this colonial town with tons of brightly colored buildings. Everything truly looks colonial style--you can't find many modern buildings. I'm not sure how someone could be sad in Granada, the bright colors and the lively people are enough to turn any frown upside down. Granada is what I expected San Jose to look like before I arrived in Costa Rica. I expected bright colors, hot weather, friendly people, living history and a friendly atmosphere.
Walking around the first night was my first experience with the beggers in Nicaragua. Primarily, they asked for food and money. It was annoying at first but I just got used to them after awhile. The worst though was the kids asking for money and food--I felt bad for them, but I realized I couldn't help them all, so I just chose to not help any of them. Adding on to that, our tour guide said that some of the kids aren't really that poor and are sent out by there parents.
My best memories from the trip are from walking around Granada, sightseeing, people watching and talking to locals. On Saturday night, I was walking down one of the main streets with one of my friends. We were looking at the tables of jewelry for sale and stopped at one stand and got to talking with the man who had made all the jewelry. I just got to talking, in Spanish! Having conversations in another language is so rewarding. It's genuinely hard to learn a foreign language and knowing enough to have a 30 minute conversation with a local is an awesome feeling. I love learning Spanish so much because it allows me to communicate with so many more people than I would be able to if I just knew English.
The Nicas (the locals of Nicaragua) are so incredibly nice. Over the course of the weekend I never encountered a mean one--they were only kind and welcoming. All the people genuinely wanted to talk to me--or at least were really good at pretending. They would be patient with my broken and slow Spanish, and willing to help me learn--it was great. There were several times when I was walking down the street and the Nicas would walk up to me and want to talk and shake my hand. It was really strange, and I'm not sure why it happened. I don't know if it was because I was white, a girl or they wanted money--I'll never know.
Another thing I noticed through talking to people is that Nicaraguans are proud to say "Soy Nica." Nicaraguans are incredibly proud to be from Nicaraguans and to have a rich culture. I don't think I ran into one that didn't saying something about their love for their country. It was funny too because if I mentioned that I was studying in Costa Rica, they would make some sort of comment comparing the two countries--it usually went something along the lines that Nicaragua is better than Costa Rica, Nicas are friendlier or something about the strong culture of Nicaragua compared to Costa Rica. What's interesting is that even though Nicaragua is a state with many problems ranging from social to economic, the strong Nicaraguan culture hasn't faded.
The Nicaraguan culture is beautiful and makes me want to learn more. The first night I walked around Granada made me sure that I wanted to visit again.
Ending the post with Pura Vida, seems wrong, so Ciao!
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