Back in the beginning of 2016, I did a study abroad to Nicaragua through one of my college programs. It was a trip I impulsively joined since I love travel, but I knew none of the other students beforehand so it became intimidating rather quickly. At this point, all of my previous travels were with my family so going to Central America by myself was scary.
We had a long flight and arrived in Nicaragua late at night, from what I recall. I remember waiting outside the airport for our bus and traveling through the dark to wherever our first accomodation was. I was able to make our some sort of mountain in the distance during the drive and then the tour guide stating "That's one of the volcanoes. Yeah, it erupted the
other night - it was pretty crazy." Definitely not something you want to hear, but alright.
I had also never stayed in a hostel before this trip, so when we pulled up to a small one story building with a gate in the front on a deserted road, I was pretty scared. We were split up into separate rooms of 3 or 4, and told to settle in for the night to get some sleep. At this point, I remember all I wanted was to be able to connect to Wifi to get on WhatsApp and message my family because I was regretting the study abroad already.
The first few days where we visited a coffee plantation, toured different towns, and even hiked a beautiful waterfall trail went by painfully for me. I was experiencing true culture shock and refused to take in what an amazing adventure I was on. It was not until we were taken to the middle of a rainforest and split up into groups yet again in order to stay at villagers' homes did I experience even more culture shock - but this time, for the better. We walked for a long time through a ton of mud to arrive at our homestay. I still miss the mother's cooking and how good the plantains were. We did, however, have to sleep in mosquito nets. Which wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't see the gigantic spider crawling on the ceiling a few hours prior. I treated the net like my own lifeline after that.
We stayed at the homestay for about 3 days of our entire trip. One of those days, our tour guides tried to take us hiking further into the rain forest, but after scaling practically a 90 degree hillside and continuously sliding back down from the mud - we had to accept defeat and turn back. And I had to throw out a good pair of hiking boots. There was no saving them after that.
Remember in my past posts where I've stated (as cringey as it may sound) that there have been a few moments where I felt truly alive? One of those was during this trip. That night after the failed hike, while we took turns showering in an outdoor makeshift shower that the village family made for us, I remember looking up at the sky. I had never seen so many stars in my life. You do not realize it, especially when you are from residential or city type areas, but when you are where there is barely any pollution in the sky, the sight is truly one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. Just always remember to look up!
I've also got to say that I remember our specific homestay was the farthest from any of the others. So the one day we hopped on the back of a pickup truck to take us to the main part of the village. The ride was incredible bumpy and at one point we hit a pothole and I was thrown from the truck - luckily one of the villagers had the reflex to quickly grab my shirt and yank me back just in time. That was definitely a wild ride.
After we left the village, I started to get closer to certain people on the trip and make friends. I finally started to enjoy myself and have fun. Of the last few days there, we hiked up an ACTIVE volcano (I still hope it was not the one that erupted before we arrived, but they never confirmed that) and we even got to visit an inactive volcano that had become a lake and we swam in it! It was so amazing. I wished I remembered the names of these places, but those memories escape me now.
All in all, traveling to Nicaragua was one of the scariest yet also most amazing experiences that I have ever been a part of. And - I will never regret taking that leap into adventure.
"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go."
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