July 6, 2009
Hey All!
As planned, Maria, TimandJim, Dan, Darell, David, David, Cody and I spent last Saturday and Sunday in Leon, which is a colonial city near the Pacific Coast. The five hour bus ride from Sabana Grande was actually one of my favorite parts of our trip, because the route took us through the hills north of Esteli, the mountains surrounding Esteli, the plains near the coast and the volcanoes encircling Leon. Leon’s bus station was massive and overwhelming compared to our clean, neatly-organized bus station/municipal market in Ocotal. There were about fifty stalls packed into a very small sheltered market, with the vendors shouting and josteling us. It was one of those environments that I’m sure would be exciting for a certain type of adventurous personality, but just made me feel frantic. It was an adventure just navigating the parking lot that was full of minibuses, taxis and busses all trying to attract passengers or extricate themselves from the mess. It was quite a shock! Clearly, I have become accustomed to the slow, polite, quiet interactions of life in Sabana Grande. It must have been especially confusing for the two new volunteers, David and Darell, since they just arrived on Wednesday from the US, and we were already taking them on our crazy, spontaneous trip across the country.
On Saturday, we went to the beach. It was a crazy 1 hour bus ride on a dirt road. Since it´s technically the winter season, all of the summer homes were closed, but there were 5 or 6 really cool beachfront hostels open, full of Peace Corps volunteers. We swam in the ocean, but it was pretty dangerous since the rip current is really strong all along the coast, so we stayed close. Maria, TimandJim and I also walked along the beach, picking up seashells. And the Playa Roca bar sold cheeseburgers! Yummmm. After the beach, we went to dinner at a cool hostel across the street from where we stayed. Dinner was amazing, but I had a huge headache from the crazy day and the 17 liters of water that still remains behind my eardrum. I went back to our comfy hostel and slept really really well.
As I mentioned before, I found it exhausting to navigate the city itself, but since it is a touristy city, there are great hostels. We stayed at BigFoot Hostel, which had a café attached. From there, we bought omlettes, bagels and pancakes! They also had fresh wheat bread, which was amazing since I literally dreamed about MelODee bread the night before. Sunday morning, we walked around the central park and peeked into two absolutely breathtaking cathedrals built in the 1700s. I’ll be sure to upload pictures as soon as I can. This trip, I also learned that there is no reason to haul a computer, hiking shoes and enough clothing for a week when I’m just going away for 24 hours. Anyway, we made it back to Sabana Grande around 6, and we met Anna and Lauren, who are in town for the week.
This week, I’ll be finishing up the Franken-Cooker, which I hope will heat up faster than a typical solar cooker so it can be used for the autoclave. Also, on Thursday Maria and I will be going into Managua with Lauren and Anna for a meeting about a possible place to pilot test our design. So this week is going to be very exciting for the project, and I’ll make sure to update again this weekend when we return.
Take Care,
Erin
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4 Responses to “Field Team Visits Leon”
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thanks for the update…can’t wait to hear about the project and fieldtesting! love you sweets, mums
Great adventures! Sean has been telling us about your design. I can’t wait to hear more. Love you bunches! Sean’s mom.
Hello My Love,
Sounds like you had more fun in Leon than I did
I’m glad the project is coming along well. Only a month and small change left there sweetie. You are certainly more of a Nicaraguan than I at this point. I can’t wait to hear more and more about it in your second half and for months to come after you are back. I’m so so so proud of you Erin. Continue your amazing work. I Love you so so so much and it’s an absolute pleasure to read about your progress. Stay safe, pay attention, write neatly, do well…keep in touch. Miluji tě, chybíš mi, lásko, mám tě strašně moc rád.
Love,
Sean
Hi Erin! It sounds like a fun weekend (except for the 5-hour bus ride.) Obviously you’re a lot better traveler than your mother or I. It sounds like your work is progressing well. Keep writing; we’re enjoying your postings a lot.
Love,
Terry and Dave