I’m going to switch to English with these updates so that also the people I meet on my way are able to read it. Sorry if my spelling is not correct but my speaking is still way better than my writing. During my last update I was still in Costa Rica, which feels now already really long ago. I’m now a bit more than 2 weeks in Nicaragua and I’ve experienced a lot of amazing things. This is going to be quite a long story and I’m probably still going to forget a lot of things but these two weeks have so far been the best since I’m here.

First things first.. My journey from Costa Rica to Nicaragua went very smooth. No problems at all and I arrived more or less at the expected time in San Juan del Sur (a coast place in the south of Nicaragua). I was supposed to stay here until I would go to Granada for the voluntary work but the plan changed. San Juan del Sur is a very touristy and party place which is nice for a few nights but I wanted to see a bit more. The hostel in San Juan was beautiful: a bit up on a hill with amazing view and sunset over the ocean. It was a real party hostel; people were drinking rum all day long. At my first night there (while drinking a lot of rum) I met Ryan and Dave, two guys from Canada and Australia and we went the day after together to Popoyo beach (a small surf place a little bit more north).

This was a great decision because we had good fun together and Popoyo is a beautiful place. On our first night we already saw the most amazing sunset and star heaven I’ve ever seen. Popoyo is really really tiny, it has about 25 houses and a very small supermarket with kind of grumpy people but even that was amusing. After two night we’ve changed our hostel because at the first place were some strange people hanging around at night so we’ve decided to move. Our days in Popoyo were very simple: eating, surfing, relaxing and more eating and beers.. Great way of living! Another special thing in Popoyo was the river. There was a river which you had to cross to get to the surf spot. This crossover was quite challenging with the different tides and change in stream. Sometimes it was a bit too much but it created fun moment especially when the surfboards are starting to catch the stream.

Both Dave and Ryan were planning to go to Granada (the place where I’m doing voluntary work) as well so after 4 amazing days in Popoyo we went together to Granada. Arriving in Granada I’ve saw the place I am supposed to stay for the coming 3 months. The place is actually a small Spanish school for foreigners and it has 2 bedrooms in it. I have one bedroom and Wieke (a Dutch girl) is staying in the other room. It’s a nice place with VERY loud neighbors but we have a small garden, our own kitchen and bathroom en even our own bikes which is perfect! Granada is a beautiful and very clean city at the lake of Nicaragua. You can see here quite well how poor some people are. You have a lot of adults and children begging for money or food which is sometimes hard to see. There is a main street with a lot of nice terraces and bars where you can hang out. The local kids are every night doing break-dance performances in this streets (they are really good!). It’s a nice city to stay a few months, not very big but it has a lot of nice places (Dave and Ryan I’m writing this while sitting in the garden café with a smoothie

Being in Granada I’ve also started my voluntary work. I’m working at a Centrum which is runned by nuns to support poor people. Right now I’m working three mornings at a crèche with children until 4 years old; the youngest one is 10 months. This can sometimes be quite exhausting but it’s also great fun! I never realized that I liked young kids this much. These children are all from poor families. They are at the crèche so that their parents are able to work and earn some money. And even when they don’t work the children at least get some decent meals which they might not be able to get at home because they don’t have the money for the food. Further I work 4 afternoons with girls between 11 and 17 years old. These girls are also living with the nuns and go to school there. The background of the girls are very different, some have had serious problems with drugs our have been abused but others are there because their parents are not able to take care of them very well and they have better opportunities when they stay with the nuns. I’m still kind of figuring out how I can help here best. At the beginning they told us to just help them with their homework. Right now I’m assisting two older Canadian people who are here for a few weeks to give them extra English classes in the afternoon. They are just here for 2 more weeks and after that I will take over these classes. Teaching them English is one of the things to help them most because it gives them so much more opportunities later in live. Nicaragua is still developing as a touristy country but the coming years it will just become more and more so if they speak some English they have way more chances to find a good job.

Besides getting used to the working life again I’ve not do that much last week in Granada, just a bit relaxing and going out for drinks and dinner. We’ve even had an afternoon in Nicaraguan style: coffee, rum and cigars). I have to admit that I did not join this whole thing properly because I’ve been sick the day before but I accompanied and the real Nicaraguan vibe was totally present. This way we more or less celebrated our last night with Ryan before he went back to (freaking cold!) Canada.

Last weekend we’ve went to Leon (a university-city a bit more north). I really liked this place and will go back there for sure. We’ve did a lot of nice things: going to the American Sniper movie, the beach, volcano boarding at cerro negro and just hanging around in the city. The volcano boarding was really cool just the walk up to the top of the volcano was a bit hard. The wind over there was very strong and you have to carry your board up and this catches a lot of wind which makes walking and coordinating a bit difficult. But in the end we’ve made it and had a great slide down!! Your face is totally black afterwards and I had a nice black mustache. Before I went back to Granada we’ve climbed the cathedral, up there it was really beautiful. It is totally white and it makes you feel like you’re in Greece.

Right now I’m back in Granada and starting to get used to life here, finding a rhythm, making new friends. But I’m doing great and I’m excited for the rest of my stay here and all the nice weekend trips I’m planning to do!

Lots of love from Nicaragua

xxxxx