nicaragua!

i had a short layover in panama city, just short enough to step outside the airport and breathe the humid air. unfortunate that i wasn't able to spend some quality time there as i had planned due to accidently missing the previous day's flight from mexico city. then, it was on to managua, nicaragua for three days in paradise!

at the last minute, i had the realization that i could rent a car and make getting around the country much easier and more fun, so i did it! it was a tiny little old compact with a manual transmission, and it was perfect! i headed first to granada, the main tourist destination in the country and the colonial capital, arriving at around one am. i had read lots about numerous police roadblocks at which bribes may be demanded, but i only encountered one and they just waived me through after examining my driver's license for an inordinate period of time. i stayed at a cheap and very nice hotel on the outskirts of granada called hotel estacion antigua granada, which had great little breakfasts and local coffee in the courtyard!

on the first day, i decided to go on a little roadtrip to leon, the main city in the north of nicaraugua. throughout nicaragua's history, the capital has alternated between the more conservative granada and the more liberal leon. it only recently was moved to managua as a political compromise, which is now a huge, cement urban aggomeration that i circumvented. on the road to leon, stopped at a little town on a lake where people come from miles around to eat the specialty cheese curds. leon is full of fascinating political murals, as they strongly supported the sandinista regime in their efforts to resist the americans in nicaragua's relatively recent civil war. there is a museum of myths and martyrs, with a larger than life replica of a rebel throwing a grenade, across the street from a church that was partially destroyed by a recent earthquake. in the center of town there is large, beautiful cathedral in front of a bustling parque centrale, and there was even a wedding occurring! every town in nica has a central park, often with a communal party atmosphere, and it is a great place to hang out.

i spent the next day in and around granada. granada is on the largest lake in central america, lake cocibolca. interestingly, it is a potential location for another canal between the pacific and the caribbean, and the united states has held the exclusive rights to build such a canal for the past 100 years, which they have not acted upon to protect the monopoly of the panama canal. the lease recently expired, however, and a chinese company now has the nicaraguan exclusive lease and are planning to build a rival canal! the city of granada has many colonial buildings, including some great churches. one has a spire you can climb for a nice view. being a major tourist town, another highlight is the great food. i had steaks for dinner twice for excellent price, on a pedestrian street with live performers. great ambiance. in the afternoon i took a drive to the masaya volcano, an amazing nearby wonder. you drive up about 5 km up a mountain, through moon-like terrain of lava-turned-rock. you then arrive at the cusp of the simmering active volcano, and can peer into the huge crater at top, from which sulfurous smoke is constantly billowing. large signs are present, denoting a maximum viewing time of 5 minutes. apparently a few years ago a large chunk of rock the size of a car flew out of the cone and totaled an italian tourist's car. it was a very fascinating place, probably my favorite of the trip. then i drove to a little town called catarina, which overlooks the laguna de appoyo, a massive defunct volcano crater filled with fresh water. the view from catarina was amazing, and many hundreds of locals thought so as well, filling bleachers to watch the sun set over the lake, with snack and drink stalls on offer as well. after the sun set, i drove on a little dirt track down into the crater to a hotel on the lakefront, and had a nice swim with a group from china. great day!

the next day i drove 2 hours south, along lake cocibolca. to the left was a large island in the lake called ometepe, which is composed of two huge volcanoes! all along the coast of the lake are massive new wind turbines, making nicaragua's electricity. i continued driving south all the way the border of costa rica, which i wanted to step foot in! i parked near the border at a little roadside diner, and walked the rest of the way to the border. lines were a bit long, but the process was quite straightforward. after stepping foot in costa rica and taking a self-indulgent photo in front of the sign, got back to my rental car which had thankfully not disappeared in my absence, and headed west to an idyllic town on the the nicaraguan pacific coast famous with surfers called san juan del sur. there, i ate some excellent ceviche and hung out on the beach. i hiked up the hill to a luxury property called the pelican eyes hotel, which has an infinity pool overlooking the bay. they let me chill by the pool for the sunset with just the purchase of a drink. very nice last day in nicaragua!

don't throw away your customs form in mexico!

at the end of june, my sister got married! ann and i went to my hometown of grande prairie, alberta for the wedding, which was excellent. we were also honored to be the mc's for the reception which was a lot of fun. in classic maria form, my sister had procured some indian-canadian guys who worked at the local tim hortons to cater curry and rice for the reception meal. it was nice to see a lot of people from our childhoods again!

ann then had to head back to the east coast for a summer language program, but i had a few more days off, so flew down to central america. i was supposed to have a short layover in mexico city before continuing to panama and then nicaragua. i went through customs as i was required to, and was given a customs card. after security i figured i was done with my customs card, and threw it away. i availed of some luxury lounge access i have through one of my amazing credit cards, and there filled up my backpack with some free canned beers for the rest of the trip. then i went to the gate to board the next flight. however, i wasn't allowed to board without my customs card! a flat-faced airline rep continually reminded me despite my pleas that there were "no exceptions." if i wanted to get on the flight, i would need to get a replacement customs card, outside of security. so i exited security and ran around the bowels of the massive terminal three of benito juarez international airport trying to find the applicable office. evidently, this happens to unsuspecting stupid foreigners with regularity, as there were a gaggle of others trying to do the same thing. they don't make it easy though - you can't just pay the $30 fee for a new customs card at that office, you need to pay it at a specific bank elsewhere in the airport. so i ran to that bank, but you need to have mexican pesos to pay. of course i had used all of mine, and the atm at the bank didn't work, so had to try a few others to find some cash. back to the bank and back to the customs form office. new form in hand, i rushed through security, only to be pulled aside for having 20 cans of beer in my backpack. lol! the guys were pretty nice about it; hope they kept them. finally made it back to the gate as the airplane was pulling back. missed it.

procuring my checked bag after missing my connecting flight was another adventure, but it worked out. they let me into the underground baggage sorting area to wait while they located it, which was kinda cool. i was supposed to be in panama that night, and go to nicaragua two days later, but obviously needed to come up with another plan. new flights were prohibitively expensive, and missing mine was my fault. spent much of the rest of the day trying to figure out a plan. kind of exhilarating actually. flirted with all kinds of wacky ideas for getting to nicaragua before i finally found a multi-leg flight for the next day through panama and managua, nicaragua, with an overnight layover there before a final leg that i would skip, which saved a bunch of money. thankfully the next day they were amenable to checking my bag just to nicaragua, and it worked out! spent the night in mexico city, and ate some really great tacos multiple times. this was just 2 months after i had spent 3 days there earlier that spring. funny how it goes, but there could be worse places to be stuck!