Realities Instilled

As with any place, if certain realities are noted but not respected at the beginning, there is always a chance that they will come back to strike later on, as is the case with this blog post. I'm writing about my most recent "raw" experience that really spoke to me in ways that can leave a much deeper sensation and memory of a place, much more than simply seeing new sights and tasting new and interesting foods.

Kathy and I had been warned many times, by most any living and breathing soul in Nicaragua and outside of Nicaragua, Nicaraguan, or from another country, they all tell you that this place is Dangerous! Take taxis, trusted taxis at that, ones recommended by others or that have a running track record of not robbing you while you are in their cab. Aside from that, never walk in the wrong neighborhoods, at night (after 5:30pm), etc etc etc. And we know this, and are aware of it, but we also were going to continue living our lives, without bubbling over with fear of this new impoverished city in which we found ourselves; one must carry on and live without fear as is our personas, or else we probably wouldn't have taken these internships in Nicaragua, and would probably have chosen to find something a little closer to home, with a slightly lower risk factor than living here, in Managua, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Anyways, I digress.

We were out gathering some groceries from the supermarket at the shopping mall closest to our house, and decided to take the bus back as it was dark, and although we had walked the 30 minutes to and from the mall a number of times, we usually did it by daylight. So we proceeded to search out the bus that we needed that took us past our house, but first needed to walk a few blocks to where it picks us up. We made it about half of the distance to where we needed to get, and, to be honest, were not situated in the best of places of Managua, actually, adjacent one of the most dangerous neighborhoods.... woops :s

Almost as in slow-motion I spotted the 5 little hoodlums cross 'Pista Juan Pablo' (a major street) and walking towards us with a certain determination in their step... I knew what was happening immediately as I saw them approaching, looking into the eyes of these 5 boys (between the ages of 14-16 if I were to have to guess). I also noticed that at least one, if not two were already reaching down the front of their pants to pull the all-too-Hollywood/gangster-slick motion of the pistol grab from the crotch area... And there we all were, them surrounding us, pistol drawn on me first, with 2-3 more behind me, and one on Kathy (at the moment). As he drew it on me he cocked it right in my face and I took note of the very plastic sound that it made. I had a very strong suspicion already that they kids were bluffing to some extent, but even if they were, in the heat of the moment, you can never be too sure, and who is to say that the other few behind me weren't armed with knives.

Gun in face/chest (Can't really remember as I was more focused on the ones beside me already) The others began to reach into my pockets prompting me to hand over cellular and wallet. At this point I decided it was time to drop the grocery bags that I had been holding to this point and started to shove back and forth grabbing their hands from my pockets, and fighting to keep the cell phone and wallet in my pockets (where they belonged), as I yelled at them in Spanish as clearly as I could that we didn't have cell phones or wallets, just spare change and groceries. To my sweet lady luck they were not able to gather my phone, nor my wallet, as my own combative hand jerks were making the point clear that I wasn't going to hand them over without a little scuffle. Therefore, my pocket least guarded (I really wish I had a third hand), was that of my keys. I felt them grab hold, and pull out of my pocket before I could send one of my other hands to the rescue. It hadn't made it in time as their hand had already pulled out and away from my pocket. At this point, almost as if the whole quarrel had only been a split second, I saw the same 5 guys bolting back across the street, holding a couple grocery bags, as they disappeared on the other side, slipping into the darkness of barrio Jorge Dimitrov.

I turned to see Kathy, and felt my heart sink as I saw her standing, arms slightly raised from her side, palms opened forward, and tears beginning to run down her face. The feeling that came over me at this moment was something deep, real, something that I rarely feel in my day to day routines, even here in Managua; this raw feeling had hit home and I knew that Managua had flared up to remind us of where we are, how some people live their lives, and how we needed to raise our guard from now on and respect the streets and how things work here.

They had managed to get her wallet (with more money than usual due to a recent withdrawal, debit, and credit card) cell phone, and a couple of her grocery bags, which would not have mattered all that much, except for the fact this was the hiding spot for her wallet, as who would have thought that thieves would go for the grocery bags. Luckily for Kathy, she had forgotten her passport, which was actually one of the main reasons we had gone to the mall, to renew her tourist visa.

We gathered the remaining grocery bags and I hailed a cab to take us home. Upon arrival I climbed outside my room to break into my own room, as I had lost my keys, and opened it from the inside. Kathy began phoning credit card companies etc., and notifying those who needed notifying. As we finally decided it was time to eat a little dinner (as it had gotten late), I began cleaning out the remaining grocery bags we had, and much to my surprise, at the bottom of the last bag were... my keys.... I hadn't been robbed a single thing. I recounted my blessings at this point.

As the cards were cancelled, and the keys recovered, the only real loss was a lump sum of cash that Kathy had in her wallet, and beyond this we were unharmed, still with our lives, and all things of real importance in our lives untouched. We knew we were blessed and that God had watched over us, but also that we were going to take many more precautions to prevent a re-occurrence in the future, and would take cabs at night, especially while carrying large sums of money or passports.

Thank God, and Nicaragua, for this lesson, and for the sparing of our lives. In the end, we truly were blessed.

-Adrien

SJDS (San Juan Del Sur)

The view looking south on the beach

San Juan Del Sur,

What can I say, this place is definitely something else. I'm sure that there are many more places that give off a similar vibe in different locals around the globe, but there was immediately a stark contrast to Managua in which I noted the second I arrived.

SJDS is a hippy/surf/beach town, on the south-west Pacific coast of Nicaragua, that is now fueled by westerners and backpacker tourism. If the stereotypical gringo-breakfast menus of "Banana Pancakes" and "All day breakfasts" aren't enough, the youthful travelers (and some not so youthful) sitting on the curb outside of our guesthouse with their Ipads has got to grab the attention, especially if you are coming from only seeing Managua for a couple of weeks. In Managua I am constantly reminded to keep my phone out of sight, even while in a cab, with the windows up, and the doors locked. These kids are flaunting their wealth in broad daylight and it is no big deal. I guess this is definitely one of the pro's of SJDS, there is a relative security sense that you are safe, and that you most likely won't get mugged for the 20 Cordobas (local currency) in your pocket.

I even trusted the lady at our guesthouse enough to park our rental car right outside on the street. She said that especially during the time we were there - low season - there is virtually zero chance of something happening, she wasn't guaranteeing anything, but I could sense the tranquillo atmosphere as well. People in SJDS have a different way about them, laid back.

First of all I guess we shall start with some pictures of our drive out from Managua. It only was a two hour drive which turned out to be just perfect, as after two hours I was kind of ready to arrive already; driving in Nicaragua, and Managua especially is a lot more trying on the senses and attention than some other corners of the earth - but super fun none the less ;)

The drive along the south-western strip of Nicaragua is beautiful, with rolling hills, lush trees, and horizons speckled with windmills and volcanoes

Ummmmmm, yea.... We are just cool like that ;)

A little pull out we discovered, literally only 20 metres from the main highway we were travelling on

This pullout had a spectacular vista, the two volcanoes of Maderas and Concepcion on the island of Ometepe. The island being located in the largest lake of Central America

A good shot of Kathy with the two bad boys in the back

Pulling into SJDS was quite the sight as well, it was like a reward to a drive that was already a reward in itself.

This little town seemed to have it all, even the Christ statue atop a mountain overlooking the bay, almost a Rio-esque touch to it

A couple of paddle-borders just going about their afternoon

Sun sets!

More sun sets!

Sun sets with boats!

A little selfy of just how relaxed I feel when I get to the beach; the sun, sand, and washing of the waves makes you forget the majority of life's woes

Enjoying a little bit of leftover Lobster pizza from the night before - probably "one" of the best pizzas I've had... but then again... I've eaten a lot of good pizza's in my time :)

 It was only shortly after this slice, well actually, during this slice (about 30 seconds after the picture), that we were flagged down by the police. This was one of the highlights of the drive back really, in addition to the torrential downpour (still to come). We saw two officers in the distance standing in the middle of the highway and waving us down, so we really didn't feel like we had much of a choice. Fortunately the next 15 minutes or so were forewarned a few nights before as Kathy was researching some common occurrences when driving in Nicaragua and how to handle them. Firstly, you need to pretend like you speak minimal Spanish (better if none). I didn't remember this immediately and greeted the officer in Spanish, but as my common sense came back to me I began to shift back towards ignorance of the language entirely, it eventually did the trick :)

He began by asking for my license, registration, the whole bit, and began to propose he would write me a ticket. The funny part was he never actually wrote it, and kept telling me in Spanish that he was going to write it. I kept thinking to myself 'well write it already if you going to!!' - but didn't tell him that :) Finally he so kindly gave us the option of paying him upfront so that he wouldn't write it and he could save us the hassle. Even though we don't know what the hassle would have been, considering he never explained what would happen as we were now expected to just pay him now - 40$! yea right! I wasn't going to pay that guy. I did however want to go so I suggested we had Cordobas only, and not many. He wasn't going for it and asked again for 20$ this time (still way too steep).

I was getting frustrated to began asking him in my very broken Spanish that we needed to collect his badge number and take the ticket in to our embassy upon arrival in Managua. We tried convincing him of our bogus policies from Canada, but he wasn't about to give us any information on himself. I could tell that there was chance of escape at this point, even if we lost a few dollars, but most importantly was that I needed my license and the car registration card back. As he stood near the car I slowly reached out - white still talking "ignorant white" but still throwing in buzz words in Spanish like "embajada" (embassy) and "trabajamos" (we work) to muster up a little sweet distraction of the mind. I then ever so smoothly snatched the cards back and threw them to Kathy to lock back in the glove compartment. It was funny really, you could see on his face immediately once I had done this he had sort of lost the battle, and almost like he had made a huge mistake of giving them back to me.

The bartering was now down to very small offers I was suggesting to him, 60, 40 Cordobas at max (2-3 dollars). He asked for my license back but I told him that I wasn't able to give it back to him and that we needed to get back to our embassy, and that we really needed his badge number also. He asked to see my wallet, and I showed him some small bills, but kept it far away. He asked for everything in it, and I said no, I'll give you 20 Cordobas (under a dollar), but that's all we can spare for now, we still have to eat lunch when we get into town ;p

He was beginning to get frustrated and finally gave us the body language that said "just get out of here already you good for nothing "cheles", your wasting my time and I'm tired of these mind games. We began to drive off without sparing a single Cordoba and completed our adventure with pumping tunes and a giant high-five with a sad corrupt cop in the rear-view.

I know this could have ended worse, and we need to constantly count our blessings, but it didn't and its now a great story to tell :)

Only a good 30 minutes after we had our lovely little police encounter we then hit a torrential downpour, which was quite nice as we needed the car cleaned after some pseudo off roading the day before. The only problem was that it lasted longer than the regular rains we had experienced, and with force! It was quite difficult at times to know where we were even going, but eventually it let up and the car dried off before arriving safe and sound in Managua to fuel up and drop the car with 45 minutes to spare.

A boy caught in the rain

Simply stunning, lush, mountainous roads

A cute little snack stand after the rain stopped, I love these minimal snack stations for the hungry passer-byers

Barcelona & Andorra

BCN  AND' ORRA

Two amazing destinations and only a short drive between each other. One is obviously a much larger metropolitan centre, full of bars, cafes, tourism sites, and beaches, while the other is a much less frequented destination, boasting tiny streets winding up mountainsides, cozy little villa getaways, and amazingly cheap tax-free shopping for the shopaholics.

Barcelona

This is another place I have been before, and will be going again (actually in about 10 days), but is always an overload for the senses, with an endless array of tiny streets to lose yourself in. The old part of town that we stayed in called El Born, was one of the oldest areas and was host to beautiful shops, bars, and restaurants, scattered among winding streets inaccessible to autos, reserving the right for pedestrians to meander at their own leisure.

The picture is the view out of our apartment in the Born district. It was at the top of a building accessible  by stairs only :) The 6th floor or so, but this was well needed exercise to break of the pastries and beers. The area was also close enough to Barceloneta, the old fishing village built on the waterfront, now amalgamated into the city. This neighborhood backs right onto the beaches of Barcelona, where one can soak in the Mediterranean, eat some fresh paella one of the many restaurants, or simply lie on the beach and fend off vendors of Estrella Damm, not always as cold as they insist it is, always feel for yourself before you finalize the purchase!


 
Of course Barcelona goes beyond the beach though, in fact, I  wouldnt even recommend this beach compared to the ones on the north of Spain; stick to the urban sites, for this city boasts an amazing array of activities and sites off of the water as well. The facades created by Antonio Gaudi are simply marvelous, and the way the city has incorporated this entire abstract and intriguing style into the everyday way of life just adds to the magic of the city. One site I never got to see my first times there was the Park Guell, quite something and an amazing view of the city from the very back and atop a hill (facing the sea).

Although la Rambla is a very exciting and happening place to see while in Barcelona, this time around we did not spend much time directly on the street, for we had limited time and wanted to see a few other things. After a couple days of scrambling around the old town, and eating/drinking as many different things as we could, it was time to find the rental agency and get driving to Andorra. This marked the beginning of quite a hectic and fast-paced 5/6 days on the road.




















Andorra

Andorra was magnificent. It remains a fairly hidden gem when it comes to tourist haunts, as there is no easy entry via airports or major land transit terminals. I'm sure that there are options to arrive with public transit, but for the small size and claim to only one "semi-urban" locale, it does not draw in a lot of overseas tourists, and is more a locals getaway for the affluent Spanish and French citizens to the north and south borders. The economy of Andorra is really based on tourism, as the visible activities during our 20 hours staying within the borders revealed breathtaking scenery, for either hiking, skiing, or mountain biking. When we finally did manage to locate ourselves in the small town of Andorra La Vella (translated as the old Andorra), we were quite satisfied with the view that we had from our living room window.

We lucked out with a cozy little getaway on the top floor of an apartment building, although the place seemed more like a high-class tree house overlooking the rooftops of Andorra. The short time that we did have there was consumed with.. well... consumption (more so the females of the group :p). Thats not to say we didnt spend some time exploring and hiking around our newly discovered surroundings, taking in the scenery and peering into the lives of local Andorrans.

Shopping!

And I did NOT buy this giant bottle of... whatever liquor it is.

Needless to say, the time in Andorra was also way to short and it will require a return visit one day.

Budapest

The short, two day stopover in Budapest was about as cloudy and drenched as the previous two days in Copenhagen. Travelling these two cities was quite refreshing in terms of experiencing their unique respective cultures, although it was the beginning of a cough that I am still fighting to this day (almost 2 weeks later) due to the lack of sleep leading up to them and their cooler temperatures matched with constant rain.

Budapest! It was technically my second time in the city, but I still did not give it the respect and time that it deserved, as I still feel I have yet to really scratch the surface. Budapest, along with Riga ;) are two cities that I will visit again and I am sure of this. The difference between the two is the obvious girth of the latter. Even though the commuter area is closer to 3 million, the city proper is now closer to 1.5 million (having shrunk from the 1980s when it was over 2 million). The history of the city is complex and war torn like many European cities, but the direction of this trendy city is a burgeoning travel destination, and unlike Paris and London, still holds a plethora of potential in the upcoming years of tourism growth.

 One of the first splendors of the city is its metro system. The extensive underground network is one of the oldest in the world, with only a couple lines in the UK dating a few years before it. The system carries you from the suburbs, to the centre, and to all of the wonderful bath houses where you can soak in the thermal waters, and all of this on a system of rickety and noisy train cars that sometimes make you a little edgy as their sides are seemingly scratching the sides of the caverns that they are rocketing through.

 Aside from the history and the ornate bath houses that are an obvious must while in Budapest, the cuisine and the beverage culture are another highlight. I say beverage because it was here that I saw endless tiny streets lined with the scattering cafe tables at all hours of the day (although I admit this is much of Europe). The multi-purposed patio design is set to serve either espressos and cake, or beer and goulash. Depending on the time of day and your particular mood, you can enjoy your caffeine fix or the happy hour Pecsi pint. Either of these events is at such an affordable price you find yourself doing so most of the day, every day, alternating between the two if you can manage :)

The pastries are amazing as well, as the shops hold endless viewing galleries where you can marvel at the variations and different creations from behind the glass. Most of these masterpieces are somewhere around 120 HUF (225 HUF to the CAD dollar). I purchased an amazing rice pudding/caramel/whipped cream/pastry one day and was handed the item next to the one I was interested in. After communicating it was the other one, I was showered with apologetic manners and was given 3 of the one I had actually wanted for the price of one.... It took me the rest of my time in Budapest to finish them as it was quite a lot of sweet, but to this day on my travels they were still my favourite of the lot :)











Budapest was incredible, and I will need to go back one day and spend a good 5-7 days more. I still did not manage to find the little old lady in the plaza that my cousin spoke of, who apparently offers an amazing cottage cheese flavoured ice cream.

All of you planning your next big trip to Europe, put the Buda on your list, you won't regret it!

Friezin beyond Reason (Jurmala)

September 9, 2012 - Jurmala, Latvia



Jurmala is a must if you ever find yourself in the Riga area. Just a short ride out of the city center on an old Soviet-style train brings you to an eerily removed beach town with old couples and families walking along the main street, laden with cafes and restaurants, or strolling the white sand beaches covering kilometers of the Baltic coast.
 

The ride up was a real experience because it was so minimalistic and fairly empty; we also had no idea what the recording was saying each stop and needed to somewhat guess at our stop based on the surroundings and fellow travelers seeking their beach escape in September.

The train station coming back was also something unique, as there really was barely anything there, along with the freedom to walk and sit along the tracks. It was the warmest it had been since we arrived in Latvia, and this was important because I decided to submerge myself in the Baltic that day and take a refreshing bath to cleanse the body and the soul :) 

 I must say it was a little chilly, but in comparison to Vancouver island it wasn't really that cold. I mean we are Canadian right? We can't be phased by a little cold temperatures :)

We were even lucky enough to spot a very nice Uzbeki restaurant that we deemed worthy of a visit. We had never been to an Uzkebi-styled resto, so why not check it out. The food was quite nice, as we wanted to try some new tastes. We ordered veal tongue with horseradish, olives, fresh Uzbeki bread, and eggplant stuffed with 'cheese-mousse'. All together it was a nice little snack to tie us over until our return to Riga.

 All in all a very worthy day trip from Riga, as it was approximately only 3 dollars each round trip. A few more photos of our day and what the surrounding scenery held.

 

Riga, Latvia

This place is amazingly quaint, cute, undiscovered, human-scaled, affordable, and simply... charming! Upon landing and finding our way out of the mini arrivals terminal, we were funneled out past a sniffing dog (I made it through, phew!), and then found ourselves in front of a number of seemingly random bus stops. The first one we walked up to had two fellow backpacker-type chaps, both inquiring as to where this bus would take them. Although we had just landed in Riga, Latvia, the bus was scheduled for a couple destinations, and both were international.... One destination being Lithuania; my question being: why fly into Riga and then take a bus out front the terminal right out of the country? Oh well, my sister and I almost did for kicks :p but I'm glad we didn't because this city rocks!

The next event was our arrival at the hostel. After our half-hour shuttle that we jumped onto from the airport off of a hunch (it read Riga Centre, how could you go wrong??), we found ourselves "downtown", and only needed to ask directions once before we ended up at our waterfront view from our hostel bar :) We were instantly offered welcome drinks so we opted for champagne of course, from the finest Latvian champagne company: 'Rigas' I believe lol. So informative and helpful staff told us about everything as we settled into our new home for the next 3 days.

After our little settle-in, we decided to continue on to explore a wee-bit and were immediately welcomed to the streets of Riga with rain :) this was quite nice though, as we had been in hot Turkish sun for a while now and we had packed our umbrella just in case. We strolled around a while until we came to a little frozen yogurt shop called .... ummm... Yo Yo ( I had to good Latvian Frozen Yogurt there) and decided on some espressos and fro-yos to lift our rainy spirits :)

So after the excellent boost of frozen yogurt and espressos, we continued on to a local Rigan Mall where we purchased some groceries and  beverages (excellent selection might I add ;) If it wasnt for one stray boy (must have been no more than 17; asked me for a little favour.... I hesitated, then proceeded) he was thirsty too, and his girlfriend was accompanying him ;)     After this sketchy encounter we finished our purchases and I felt the need for a washroom. This part was a little funny to me, maybe no big deal but still a little novel just because; When I arrived at the entrance door to the washroom another young lad let me in with a mumble in Latvian language, something while he held the door open ( I noticed that the doorknob needed some sort of local currency insert under normal circmumstances), Anywho, this young lad insisted I proceed on his order without this coinage, as I did my business and exited politely with the customary nod :) He returned the nod and I jotted this kind jester in my blog book lol. I guess this guy stands there and... lets people in because they never removed the paying mechanism... Or I was supposed to tip..... :S Somehow it seemed he was just chillin and happened to be there to shed his knowledge on the matter... Just old washroom infrastructure... Iunno :s

 

Moving on... A beautiful city!

 

These shots occured on our way back from the mall where I assisted the young lad and encountered the interesting bathroom incident. It is truely an enchanting old town with a variety of cafes and eateries to explore.

This is our first day. Maybe there will be more photos soon ;)