10 Things I Did Over Spring Break

I went to Nicaragua for Spring Break.  It was the most amazing vacation I have ever taken.

1.  I did things with transportation I didn't know were possible. I am seriously considering starting a TV show called Ridiculous Feats of Transportation Starting Nicaragua.

There was a bus that was full with people standing in the isles and hanging out the doors before the driver let on a group of 20 school kids. I particularly like all the decorations on what used to be Canadian school buses.

I rode in a banana truck.  I think they took pity on me when they saw me walking up the road with my big pack.  When they finished delivering all their bananas, they let me climb up.  I count this among my list of "things I would think twice before doing in the US but seem normal here."  I also saw people riding horses while herding cows down a highway, motorcycles careening down unpaved roads, ferries named after Cuban revolutionaries carrying dump trucks, ambulances and fancy Escalades, taxis playing Frogger with bicycles carrying three small children, and grannies walking with buckets of tomatoes balances on their heads.

2.  I learned to surf.

My teacher (the shirtless man in the pic) was ruthless.  He would be like, "some people complain because they don't like to work very hard.  You will work very hard and not complain."  And when I would fall off and swallow a gallon of salt water, he would look at me and say,  "Now get on the board."  I was thinking about hiring him as my personal trainer.  I totally got up on the board though.  Rode a wave all the way in without falling off.  BAMF!

3.  I went scuba diving.  Sort of.

I went out on the boat, got to where we were going to dive, got all my gear on, jumped into the water, tried to dive under, and had a panic attack.  Something about the water being too cold, the waves too rough, my guide not speaking English and me not having enough weight on to submerge freaked me out.

So I got back on the boat with our captain, Sancho Panza, and took a nap.  Sancho was fishing off the back of the boat and a pelican tried to steal his lure.  Harrowing moment of man vs. animal.

4.  I ate delicious food.

There were soooo many types of fruit juices.  This is a guanabana...it looks even crazier in person.

This was a little market in San Juan del Sur.  I ate gallo pinto, like, every day.  Also good was the fish and what they called brochetas, which were like shish kabobs.

5.  I slept in a tree house.

In a bed, but the hammock was nice, too.  There were a whole bunch of crazy hippies staying with us.  Many of them had jobs like "building an industrial park in China" or "harvesting shale oil in upper Canada."  They earned lots of money at their crazy jobs, came down to Nicaragua and basically drank a lot and laid on the beach for months at a time.  Strange life.

6.  I hung out on the beach.

I only got a little sunburned but my hands are still peeling.

7.  I traveled around an island made of volcanoes.

We went kayaking up the river between the two volcanoes that make up Ometepe Island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua.  It felt more like a lagoon because of the plants growing over the whole river.  Saw many birds and even a little alligator-like creature.

8.  I rode in a horse-drawn carriage.

My last night, I stayed in Granada, a bit fancier town near Managua.  Went salsa dancing, acquired a souvenir wallet made out of a toad (disgusting...), stayed in an old Spanish colonial hotel with a pool, and was able to shower for the first time in days after sleeping in a tree house.

9.  I watched the sun set.

On the Island.

Over Lake Nicaragua

10.  I swung through the canopy on a zip line.

Again, BAMF!  There were howler monkeys.  I was reading "The Hunger Games" at the time and went ballistic when I heard the monkeys.  I was CONVINCED that they were muttations sent by the capital to keep me from winning the Games.  So I put on my awesome costume Cinna made me, waited until lightening hour had passed and then ziplined across the cavern to get away from the Careers.  Or something like that.

But now it's back to law school.  Boooooo!  But only ONE MORE MONTH TO GO!!?!?!?!