Day 39 6/30/13 (Chilling, soccer, Wanted, The Fly in the Cathedral and more soccer)

Today has been probably the most chill day that I’ve had in all of my time in Nicaragua. The day started pretty late at like 8 AM after trying to sleep ion a bit. I wasn’t really feeling all that well, so the day seemed to be really long, but I still had a good time. The morning brought forth a fantastic omelet with cheese and ham (always ham, not any other meat). After that I pretty much just puttered around on the internet for a while reading all about different projects to build (everything from alarms using 555 timers to robotic sensors and robot parts to coding contests and projects to buy into online). This further reinforced how much I have to do. Also I started watching Wanted with that dude from The Last King of Scotland and Angelina Jolie in it. The movie was a good action movie (with a quite a high body count, but it makes sense for that type of movie plot). In between watching that and looking a bit at projects I was able to watch the soccer match between Italy and Hungary. It was a long match that went into penalty kicks, but Italy ended up winning the match by 1 penalty kick (3-2). This was to decide places 3 and 4 in the confederation cup. After this I read the first 70 or so pages of the book The Fly in the Cathedral about the race to split an atom (the first part is about Rutherford (who seemed to be quite the character) and the other scientists at Cavendish labs in England). After that I started watching the finals match between Brazil and Spain. Brazil, despite having less ball control percentage during the match, was quite the team to watch as they ended up scoring 3 solid goals against Spain (Spain wasn’t even able to score). The match was also good because Spain got 2 yellows and a red card (the red card was to eject Péque (Shakira’s husband) from the match for tripping the Brazilian striker as he was breaking away for the goal). After this we’ve been chilling after a solid dinner of grilled beef, B&R, a small salad and like plantain thick chips and some tea. Looking forward to tomorrow and hoping that we’ll have some more (any) work to do for the hospital (also tomorrow will be the start of our inventory and meeting the director (and Alex will be visiting as well)). Peace!

Some more photos I had lying about...

Sam and his dog after hiking up Telica

Looking off from that rock I was perched on

Some of the trail we hiked late at night up Telica

Looking off Telica towards León

Hiking down Telica

On the way down Telica

The early morning sunny descent

Pass my sunglasses please

Mystery mountain in the fields around Telica

Just hiking across some dude's field (in a defined path)

Still hiking...

Hiking and it's so hot and sunny...

Dang that's a ton of nature...

Fields and trees and trees and fields for seemingly infinity around Telica

The path through the field

So bright

Mystery mountain again

The trail near the start of the fields

Almost at the entrance (crossing yet some more fields)

The early trail

Narnia perhaps?

Why are there so many danged mosquitoes above where I sit? 

That epic chocolate waffle from Kathy's Waffle House in Granada (it's not 24 hours)

Group 4 for Spanish classes (Kevin, Matt, Dan, Jorge (our conversation teacher and epic guy), me and Kendall)

Group 4 for Spanish (Kevin, me, Mayela (our grammar teacher and awesome person (thought her name used to be Mariella)), Kendall, Matt and Dan)

Looking at Granada's cathedral from the upstairs of the school

The street in front of the school with all the carriages (in front of parque central)

The other upstairs of the school

Looking down on the main dance and performance hall in the first level of the school building (classes were in the room behind where Dan, Ally and Hannah are standing)

Our Lightning McQueen piñata for our fiesta on the last day

What have we done?!

Monsters!

Mayela lamenting McQueen (actually being happy about her thank you card)

The host family and I (I took a shower and that's what happened to me) (Salvador Jr., Salvador, Adrianna Elena, me (Salvador clearly enjoying the photo))

The dead equipment storage ground at San Carlos' hospital (the pit is in front of the dirt bike's tire)

The entrance to the hospital at San Carlos

Some thoroughly dead equipment in the scrap heap

Not sure that equipment will work so well...

Old infant incubators and balances

Took one incubator into the repair shop to work on the controls

The hot plate before we spent so much time on it (before we knew it was dead)

The waterfront at San Carlos (the dude standing on the dock thing is a flat statue (creepy))

The dock at San Carlos on the Río San Juan

The waterfront

Looking outward from a higher town block

The hostel we're staying at for the month (our room is actually the room with the window above the Hostal's name on the wall)

Stairs to the second floor

The second floor of the hostal and our room in the back left

Our room

Day 38 6/29/13 (Staying up late, waking up late, reading about electronics, life and soul searching, chilling and San Carlos)

After staying up till about 1 AM watching several movies (Resident Evil: Afterlife and part of the Hangover) I passed out. Luckily today was one of the first days where I could sleep in and just relax a bit (sleeping in until 9 AM (watch out guys I’m a sleeping fiend)). Today basically nothing has happened (so I’ll try not to make this a boring-fill-up-pages-use-memory-waste-time blog entry). The morning was all about chilling and eventually getting a shower and eating some breakfast (at like 10 AM (getting back on the weekend college schedule I suppose)). This morning was also epic though because I was able to go online and get some time to just enjoy electronics and science. I explored Scientific American’s website and read some interesting articles on extreme tech such as expanding foam (good stuff basically) to be injected into wounds to coagulate and stop the bleeding (it actually works too!) but some are worried that the foam can disintegrate and spread smaller pieces into the blood streams (causing blockages in other critical blood vessels). Another piece of technology I read about was this acoustic sensor that uses three wires to trace the path of individual air particles and create a sound profile given that information. This information can then be extrapolated to pinpoint the origin of the sound and determine the direction of the sound as well (by looking at the displacement of the particles). In essence this allows for quantification of sound origin and one major application is in military devices for pinpointing and classifying gunfire. By far my favorite new piece of technology I read about today is called electro permanent magnet. Basically this technology takes the advantages of an electromagnet and combines them with the toggle privileges of switch to create a magnet with changeable strength (this magnet can be toggled on with electricity and then will stay on after the power is removed (unlike an electromagnet (HOLY FUTZ! SO AWESOME!))). This technology has actually been used by (have to give them credit for this one) an MIT lab group to build these 1 cm cube modular robots that will arrange themselves and stay in the shape (due to the locking power of the magnets) chosen by the group. Obviously this technology can be extended and minimized (and another MIT group was working on a stepper motor using this type of magnetic winding (which shows quite promising capabilities)). Another advantage about this magnet type is that the design can actually hold quite a bit of weight (up to 10x weight of the magnet). This technology is quite applicable to modular robotics as this can help to minimize the current required to keep the robots together (this technology is accomplished through a coil winding around two different permanent magnets such that a current running in the wire induces a magnetic field in the two cores that change the effect of the field (on and off)). Basically I want to buy myself some of these and start putting them on everything I have. Also during this time I realized that I have been wasting too much of my life with useless pursuits and realized that I have to focus more on my work (basically having a mini-life crisis in the sense of I have to start doing more projects and whatnot as I haven’t done anything “quite cool” in my opinion (Thank you Iron Man for getting me stoked to fabricate all manner of projects (I also have revised how I see projects and learning to better understand life (all very important ideals (major life and soul searching going on down here))))). Anyways basically life has been pretty chill here during the time after the morning, just been reading up on electronics, chilling and napping a bit (and eventually Dan and I walked around the city of San Carlos and took in the bustling metropolis of San Carlos (bustling if you’re an a rural farmer in the middle of the nowhere in Kansas)). The city here is rather nice actually as it’s located right on the Río San Juan with the waterfront and the Solentiname islands in the distance. The town is only several blocks with very small shops and a tiny enclosed market. The people are quite amiable here and will say hello and smile. There really aren’t the major dance clubs or major theaters (or any theaters) or major large city attractions (apparently there is an airport) here, but the tradeoff is the quite appeasing relaxed environment. There also is a fort above the town (that Dan and I did not see as we weren’t looking hard enough (-.- dunno how we missed that one)), but we’ll have to see it later (don’t want to wear out all the excitement here in 1 weekend). The town is rather tranquil though. Another note I have to make is the architecture in Nicaragua. Many of the houses and buildings here incorporate the ambient environment into them with open windows and passageways leading between rooms. This incorporates quite a bit of natural light and airflow (as AC is wicked expensive) but this all reminds me of the eco-effective design as brought up by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their book Cradle to Cradle (which I highly recommend reading a bit of). The incorporation of nature (granted the area here has the climate for such interweaving) gives the architecture a more rustic organic and relaxed feel (in stark contrast to the ultra-sterile and nature-opposed designs of some of the eco-efficient buildings in the states). Moreover, the buildings seek to reuse and conserve resources as much as possible (something I think the states should do more often). Anyways not sure what tonight will bring, but take care for now!

Day 37 6/28/13 (Day 1 at the hospital, fluorescents, working with relays, a dead hot plate, an equipment graveyard, no power, a darkened fiesta and chilling with the family)

Day 1 at the hospital was interesting. We showed up at 8:05 AM and the guard at the gate told us to wait over by the ambulance for the head of maintenance, David Diaz Marlon (as listed on the paper of our hospital contacts). It turns out that his real name is Marlon David Diaz (oops on the paper on that one). Anyways we ended up waiting for close to half an hour and met this guy nick-named “Gato” who is a chill dude that does a bunch of smaller maintenance issues around the hospital. Eventually we met Marlon and he took us on a mini tour around San Carlos in a truck (and showed us the bank, market, bus stop, Río San Juan and the beach front with a setup for a huge fiesta tonight). We then got back around like 9:15 AM and we went out with Gato to go install a couple of fluorescents in the ceiling. We took 6 lights and headed off toward the OR and the dressing room for the OR. Gato put in two new lights in the hallway and one of the changing rooms and then suited up to go in the OR (leaving us behind) and taking two more lights. Dan and I then wandered out a bit and put another light up in another hallway and called it a fix. We also waited for Gato to return and looked around a tiny bit (basically just standing in the hallway and looking around). We hadn’t really seen all that much this morning (the hospital is rather small and rather up to date it seems. Anyways one major thing I noticed was many gas canisters standing up without a chain around them or the safety head on them (ready for takeoff). There were a ton of oxygen bottles though (basically every canister we saw was an oxygen one). After the fluorescent job, we headed back to the repair shop where we’ll be working in the coming month. This is in the same room as the new generator (only 2 years old) for the hospital and basically we started with just one table and a shelf already covered in parts and old pieces and some tools. We quickly covered the table with our tools and bags and then started to dig into the old machinery piled around between two storage trailers. The two trailers are the property of SILAS (the medical administration in the area that runs many clinics in the area and the hospitals) and contain some medical equipment that we were not allowed to see. In between these two trailers was this rectangular pit (maybe 30 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot) filled with about a foot of water in the bottom. This seemed to be a place where cars could be rolled over the pit (with their wheels spanning the gap) and the stairs at the end of the pit could be used to walk beneath the car and allow servicing of the vehicle’s underside. Around this pit were piled old medical equipment such as old balances (probably around 8), several wheelchairs, two infant incubators, many feet of old electrical wiring, several air conditioners, dead examining tables and hospital screens, old covers for incubators and some other random items (microscope, electric calculator/adder/printer, surgical lamp). Most of this equipment looks completely old and caked in dust or rust and missing any sort of working condition. Dan and I started picking through some of the equipment to see if there was anything we could start working on as we had nothing to do right away. There’s a nicer wheelchair that we’re working on right now that just needs some WD-40 and some new tires. I started to work on the controls for the incubator with the most obvious issue being the relay connector that was completely cracked in half and broken (this relay connection is a plastic housing that accepts the circular arrangement of 11 pins and then slots into the base that has the wire terminals). The base was cracked and the relay had been pulled out (removing several of the wire terminals from the housing). I took the relay housing from an older incubator and epoxied the connector back together and set the piece to dry for Monday. On Monday I will re-wire the pins for the relay and then connect up the incubator controls to test the unit. Also during this time we found a hot plate missing a power cord and quite rusty from the machine dump. We saved this piece for later. Partially through taking apart the relay connector, another guy working at the hospital came over and started talking to us. He actually is called Barney and works as at hospitals as a trained technician fixing more specialized equipment like x-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs etc. We told him about what we were doing here and told him a bit about the projects we were working on (the incubator and the wheelchair). He asked if we could fix x-rays or anesthesia machines (we think we can fix minor things on anesthesia machines). Anyways by this time it was lunch time (around like 12:30 PM) (we also only were supposed to have a half day of work today for whatever reason (probably the large fiesta tonight)) and we headed off to a local house to eat some lunch (literally just a house where we sat down and had B&R and chicken and coke). After the meal Barney went off to talk to the family and then we just left without paying (don’t know if we were supposed to pay or whatnot because Barney didn’t say anything about it and the family didn’t either (think we heard something about a tab or something)). After lunch we met up with Marlon to take a tour of the hospital and saw the lab (complete with like 4 pieces of equipment), the medicine ward a bit, the main ward for ultrasounds etc, the washing and sanitization areas and kitchen area and OR (not actually inside the OR). He showed us several autoclaves that we’ll probably have to work on in some capacity (either cleaning them or trying to fix them) and showed us a huge washer that has bad and incorrectly sized tubing. There did not seem to be much of any equipment around the hospital (nowhere close to the 88 pieces listed in the inventory from last year). Anyways we returned and continued working on the different projects. We also got to see another workshop filled with old equipment (Defibs, old gas bottles strewn about, printers and old ECGs). We also started sanding off the surface rust from the hot plate and cleaning the heating element. I worked on getting a new power cord for the unit, but the cord was not grounded (-.-) but we continued anyways to test the unit. After a ton of sanding on the element and the interior case, we tried the unit (after soldering the new power cord together). The unit did not work. It would not get hot at all despite being on the hottest setting, so basically we junked the unit and called it a day (considering the heater element didn’t really even have a connection through the element). After cleaning up a bit, Dan and I headed for home at like 4 PM and watched part of the parade on the way home to the hostel where we are staying. Since then have been chilling without power and talking a tiny bit to the host family. Initial hopes for the hospital are a bit depressed as there does not seem to be all that much equipment as most of it seems to be sent to Managua to be fixed (and we haven’t seen all that much either). We’ll see on Monday though. Perhaps when we try to do our inventory or talk to the director we can find some more equipment. Also the two technicians are out of town, so we have to wait to meet them until later. We came back to the house and the power was out. Fortunately it was still light enough outside that it didn’t really matter, and we talked to the family a bit. We even went down to the docks to check out the fiesta which was hilarious without lights and people dancing onstage and this weird like marriage skit with a dude in drag and the other guy getting beat up by that dude. We got some cokes and came back and talked for a while in the dark with candles. Dinner was good (carne asado, B&R and plantains with iced tea and water). We talked about the canal a bit and the problems down here (not that many actually and the place is quite nice). We also talked about the power down here how it’s much cheaper for power and to live. Normal things. The power was supposed to come back on at 11 but it came on at 8:50 PM. Been a chill day. Watching Iron Man 1 in Spanish.

Day 36 6/27/13 (Waking up late, a late bus departure time, Spain vs. Italy soccer, napping across 4 seats in a micro-bus, arriving in San Carlos after 9 hours of leaving (including lunch) and completing our first fix)

Today was okay. After the initial problems early in the morning from yesterday, I woke up around like 7:50 AM to finish packing and eat breakfast (initially the plan had been to leave at around 9 AM), but I’m not sure how I imagined I could pack, shower and eat and get to the school in about 30 minutes, but aw well. It turned out later that due to Lucas’ condition, Alex and he were off at the hospital and thus the leaving of the buses was pushed back by about an hour or so. This was relieving but I would have much rather had the 9 AM leave time and Lucas have been okay. Anyways I tried to eat breakfast, but all I could manage was the gallo pinto as I felt sick (and still don’t feel all that great). After that we said our goodbyes to the family and headed for the school. The walk seemed to take forever, but we made it there around like 9:30 AM and met the others there, who were anxious to hear about last night. I also went on a quest to find some Canada Dry for my stomach (and succeeded at the good old Euro Café). After that it was just waiting for Lucas and Alex to return followed up by the buses arriving. After that we only packed like 10 people into the bus for San Carlos route (including that woman named Sarah from Moyogalpa during my biking experience two weekends ago). The ride was supposed to take 9 hours from Granada as we had to drop off Akshay, Matt, Mark and Karthik in different towns. It was a decent ride save for the fact that I didn’t really feel all that well (but I could nap across the entire backseat, so that made up for it). We eventually stopped for lunch at the homestay of Matt and Akshay (a pizza restaurant) and watched the conclusion of the game between Italy and Spain in the trial run for the world cup. The game went for 120 minutes (two 15 minute overtime sessions (as the score was 0-0) and then went into penalty kicks). The first 5 kickers from both teams scored without issue and the score was 5-5. Then it went to other shooters and it was 6-6 when a player from Italy missed a goal and then Spain scored and won 7-6. It was a crazy game. Anyways lunch had been Hawaiian pizza which was actually legit. After leaving at like 4:20 PM (we had another 2 hours or so to San Carlos) I passed out for a while and then woke up for a bit before the police stopped us and checked our passports (trying to get a bit of extra money), but we rolled on after that minor hiccup and I was finally able to catch up on my blogging. Whew. So much writing. Anyways we arrived in San Carlos at like 7 PM so it ended up being a good like 9 hours of travelling. Our first challenge was to get rid of this browser hijacking page called qvo6 which takes over the browser homepage instead of something usable like Google. Anyways we had to change this on the homestay dad’s computer and changed all the settings in the browser (using googled tutorials), but the page kept showing up until I changed the shortcut properties (which had a line in it to direct to the qvo6 homepage). Now we’re plus 1 for fixes. After that we had a quick dinner and chilled a bit. Been a long day, but I’m satisfied now and have to get ready for bed as I need to work in the hospital at 8 AM tomorrow (we’ll see how that goes!) So stoked! Peace!

Day 35 6/26/13 (Kathy’s Waffle House, the ultra-marathon on Ometepe, getting prepped for San Carlos, a fiesta, Kelly’s bar and a reason to take a taxi home late at night)

Today was an early morning as I intended to (and successfully went to Kathy’s waffle house two streets parallel to Calzada. I met Evan for breakfast at around 7 AM. As I heard the chocolate waffle was delicious, I ordered that and waited patiently with my real orange juice in a glass (not the ½ cup sugar per serving soda we normally have). The chocolate waffle was an interesting beast which consisted of a waffle with chocolate chunks in the recesses (the chocolate was immensely satisfying). Then we went to class and talked more about the ultra-marathon on Ometepe (fuego y agua) and detailed the tasks involved in the super endurance test (including carrying the chicken, carrying a huge tree, digging a hole, swimming a bit with a plastic bag of plastic bottles attached, climbing Concepción and descending the mountain, carrying a tree used later as a ladder for climbing a 10 meter high tree and carrying an egg for a long distance. Dang! Anyone that finishes this is a boss. We then worked a miniscule bit on our presentation for grammar and went over the verbs and their use as commands). The presentation was a dramatization of a medical scene and we had to use terminology and act out something. We did a crazy hilarious part about trying to fix a pulse oximeter and then Kevin and Matt came up and asked how we all woke up (it’s very important). Kevin then had a heart attack and we had to come up with devices to save him. We finally got a defib (like 5 minutes later) and we revived him and then Matt asked him how he woke up. Scene. It was Academy Award worthy (where’s my nomination? (at minimum it was probably better acting than Keanu Reeves)). Anyways after that we had fried fish for lunch which was legit. After lunch was a long chill 3 hour time period where Alex and Kevin talked to the groups individually about the upcoming trips to the hospital and the status of the hospital and the homestay. During this time I also went out to buy syringes (for applying small volumes of oil into hard to reach places (what were you thinking I was buying them for?) from a street front store for 11 cordobas for 3 mL, 5 mL and 10 mL ones). After that I got my debit card from home and withdrew some money for later. I then returned to watch part of Resident Evil Extinction on my laptop (from a plethora of movies I got from Mark). After that we heard about Alex and Kevin’s experiences in Nicaragua and Tanzania respectively. It made me so stoked for my project! LIKE SO STOKED FOR FRIDAY AND THE NEXT MONTH! Anyways after that we had the surprise which was a fiesta with our teachers with a piñata (of Lightning McQueen) and candy and cake and coka cola. It was a blast and of the first hour with the piñata I have 40 minutes of video (O.o that’s what the 1 Tb drive is for). I even got to wail on that piñata a bit (sorry McQueen). After the piñata we had a bit of dancing with some of the teachers and gave them thank you cards and said our goodbyes. After that I returned home and chilled and eventually had repochete (those epic filled tortilla jawns). I worked out and then showered and left for Calzada street to find the group of people heading out for the last night together in a month (little did we know how the night would turn out). The night started out sort of poorly with me just chilling with the group members as we drank (differing beverages and alcoholic contents (I don’t drink)). Anyways at around 11:30 PM or so and after much futzing around and waiting, the group finally left for Kelly’s Bar (where there was a decently sized party with dancing around the bar going on). We arrived with one of the spokespersons for Kelly’s (the guy that walks around and talks up the bar and gives out papers telling of the night’s activities there). We walked in and saw the raging crowd just chilling around the side of the bar with the DJ station at the one end (just as before). It was quite a ton of fun dancing there, as this one English chick named Hailey showed up (after being with us on Calzada) and she and I danced for almost an hour (just doing the Meringue and also learning some Salsa as well (good clean fun)). After she left it was sort of downhill from in terms of excitement, but I was able to rage with the group a bit and to throw down some of my moves (even my handstand and handplant!) (the two younger Spanish teachers had also come out with us and were dancing with the group). The time was pretty fun. Kasper and I also started doing different everyday activities such as digging, hammering, sawing, sewing etc (as pantomime dance moves which was hilarious). After a good while of this, we decided to leave around like 1:50 AM. Several members of the group were not is a great mental state and the girls took a taxi home. A larger group of us (Dan, Soorya, Jack, Ringo, Lucas, Mark and I) started walking back up Consulado. The group stopped to talk to this one dude sitting outside of one of the houses (who is always sitting there) and it turns out he is a paid security guard with a knife that is looking after that garage because it has been broken into in the past. Anyways several members of the group were taking forever talking to this dude and it was really late at like 2 AM, so Ringo and I left for our houses a couple blocks up Consulado (we arrived without any issue). I started packing for the trip to San Carlos and was gathering all my things and it was like 2:20 AM and I had still not heard from Dan. So I texted him and he said that Lucas had gotten surrounded and they were heading back. Eventually Dan returned at like 3:30 AM and I heard the full story (I had heard parts over texts and then just waited). So what had happened was that the guys walked Mark home (as he lived on a side street) and had run into this group of young kids who harassed and joked with them a bit and then Dan gave them cookies and the kids left. Later when they were walking back to Consulado, another group of 6 or so approached the group carrying rocks (and acting as to inflict harm with these weapons), so several members of the group ran, but Lucas got caught up and surrounded and hit with some rocks (one hit to the head that wasn’t all that bad) and some other beating areas. The kids that were doing this also took his wallet, shirt and belt. Meanwhile Dan, Jack and Soorya had watched this take place as they were unable to do anything as another young dude from the group was holding a forearm sized knife and keeping them away from Lucas. Eventually the delinquents let Lucas run back and threw rocks at him as he ran. The group then ran back to Consulado and got help from some security guards and Alex. After calling several hotline numbers for help and talking through the situation, Alex took Dan home with Lucas in a taxi then headed for the hospital. At this point, it was 3:30 AM and Salvador and I listened to Dan tell the story (I had been home for the whole situation) and then basically went to bed. Long day and little sleep.

Day 34 6/25/13 (Wakin’ up early, free heart transplants in Cuba*, the coolest ultra-marathon ever, Ron’s leaving and a hardware store)

Today was the standard day. Wakeup early at like 3 AM. Fall asleep until like 6:40 AM. Attempt to get up. Fall asleep until 7:05 AM. Wake up panic and shower in 5 minutes and eat at like 7:15 AM. It wasn’t all that normal of a morning I suppose (except for the wakeup early part). This morning’s breakfast was a double egg sunny side up together in the egg white with ham and cheese (1 more egg than usual!) and some cornflakes with milk. The newbie from Massachusetts (who arrived on Sunday) was also up for breakfast although he rejected one of the eggs (Tisk tisk dude, you don’t do that) (he had rejected all the cheese basically from last night’s dinner too). Anyways Dan and I were still on time for school. Conversation was a tad rough this morning for the sole fact that I was still quite tired (remember that I pulled an all-nighter on Sunday night?). We went over medical equipment that we had written about over the weekend (as I had done phototherapy lights (which are used to kickstart the digestion of bilirubin in a baby with jaundice)). We also talked a bit about the medical system and how people fly to Cuba to get free heart and kidney transplants *(paid for by the Nicaraguan government and Cuba a bit as well) (talk about social welfare!).There also is this agreement called the ALBA agreements between Nicaragua, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba where these groups provide for one another and help each other out (Nicaragua supplies vaquillas (young cows to Venezuala)) and gets medical supplies and drugs (good med drugs)). Nicaraguans living in the US also fly back to Nicaragua to get dental work done because it is free or much cheaper (ivory teeth at $800 a pop (check out ‘dem elephant grillz (suitable for a baby grand or a grand baby))). We also learned about this series of marathons and ultra-marathons on la isla de Ometepe (organized by a US dude). These come in distances of 25 km, 50 km, 75 km and 100 km. The 75 km race is particularly interesting as it’s called the “fuego y agua” and costs $300 to enter (usually only like 17 people do it a year and it’s a huge tourist attraction). The race is not just running, but also includes: running several kms with a gallina (a live chicken), carrying a tree on one’s back, digging a hole at the beach (1.5 m by 1 m by probably at least 1 m), climbing and descending Concepcrace is particularly interesting as it’s called the “fuego y agua” and costs $300 to enter (usually only like 17 people do it a year and it’s a huge tourist attraction). The race is not just running (starting from 4 AM and going for 16 hours), but also includes: running several kms with a gallina (a live chicken), carrying a tree on one’s back, digging a hole at the beach (1.5 m by 1 m by probably at least 1 m), climbing and descending Concepción, swimming, climbing a tree, cutting down another tree and then carrying an egg for a while. BAM! That sounds epic though. There aren’t any awards for the first finishers, but rather just the pride of completing the arduous tasks (I would hope that someone would buy me like 4 pizzas if I did that). I think I might have to try training for that one day. Anyways the grammar was about using commands and wasn’t terribly exciting. I had to run home to pick up my engineering notebook and grabbed lunch for Dan and I, which ended up being that good pasta, B&R, a small salad and the warmed bananas that had dried out a bit. It was still a good lunch.

            After lunch was engineering that was about boring stuff like water purifiers and the resources in our book for parts and something else that couldn’t have been too terribly important. It was Ron’s last lecture and we gave him a standing ovation. Gonna miss you Ron. Alex then had us start the lab which was talking about finding needs and doing inventories and whatnot. He tried to talk to us about the forms we have to fill out and how to do them, but it started DUMPING (that was an understatement too) because it was so stormy that I could not see more than 1 block up Consulado and it was coming in the sides of the open air tin-roofed area where we were sitting (forcing us to move inside the building). We then covered the remainder of the forms and gave Ron his going away presents (a random bowl from Nicaragua and a thank you/miss you/photo card from all of us). Dan, Mark and I then went to the market to get some tools for the upcoming hospital stay. At the hardware store we got 500 grit sandpaper, 3 in 1 oil (for loosening connections), a screwdriver kit (with longer shafts to reach inside the recessed screws on outer cases) and a triangular file for renew-ing heater connections (hopefully I can get reimbursed for those parts). After that we came back to the house and went out to play some soccer which was fun although the one guy managed to kick me in the forehead by accident (when I was going for a header -.-). S’all good I thunk I canz stils peka gud so I donut have cuncusion. After that dinner was normal with some scrambled eggs and bread and what not (I also had purchased a snack on the way home of that epic good apple cinnamon jawn and this new cake that was the thickest cake I have ever eaten (just the texture was so thick with purple icing (O.o))). Now just chilling and blogging and being behind on my blog.

Day 32 6/23/13 and Day 33 6/24/13 (Nacatamal, heading to León, intercepted at the mural, buying a daddy shirt, chicken bake del sur, the Quetzal Trekkers, suiting up for the EPIC hike, coffee, hiking after midnight, let there be light, a massive-A crater, LAVA, the super moon, LAVA, a hazy scene, LAVA, infinite beauty in nature, mud pits, coming home)

Today marks basically one half through this program (tomorrow at like 12 PM if one want’s to be supremely technical (but seeing as we’re not build Legos or AutoCADing anything, then what’s the use?)). Last night had been pretty chill; culminating with some local kids and Dan playing Super Smash Bros. Melee on the Gamecube. I had spent most of the time watching and writing to folks on FB, but I had to play in the last three games for old time’s sakes (remember those epic days Liz? With playing in the VW or Mario Kart Double Dash? Animal Crossing with annoying people with the butterfly net? Or trying to get all the money? Or that Seagull dude that would always wreck himself on the shore and give us random junk? Or all those times we would play the campaign or just battles in Smash to get coins for trophies. Ah good times…). Anyways I was playing as Fox and Captain Falcon and doing an okay job (having not played Smash in quite some time). The controls were coming back with smash attacks and whatnot. The matches were fun but it was super late and I headed to bed not too long after. This morning was Nacatamal morning! Been waiting for this corn/meat/tomato baked goodness for almost a week. It was so good and we also had some of the coffee with it too. Not quite as good as the coffee we first had here, but still good. Although I’m not sure it really woke me up at all. Today is also the day where we find out if that hiking trip up the Volcano tonight under the full moon has spots or not (Kasper is calling them and talking to them). Got the call from Kasper at 12:15 PM that hiking was a go and I quickly rushed to pack my things (packing all the essentials like a headlamp, flashlight, bug repellent and writing paper and neglecting such things as long sleeves, a rain jacket and food) (realistically the hiking company Quetzal trekkers provided food, so I was good on that count). Anyways the clock was slowly measuring digital pulses on my wrist while I packed and then headed to the school to meet Kasper and grab the 12:45 or 1 PM bus to Managua. We arrived a bit early and walked across the street to get some food (pico (small triangles of dough and sugar inside (so delish))) and Kasper recharged his phone. The ride to Managua was pretty uneventful save for me trying to make small talk with this German chick travelling to León (didn’t really work). Anyways the “bus station” in Managua was more of a pull off (like a weigh station on the side of a highway) packed with open air garages (with a roof) and signs for the different bus routes out of the station (hanging from the garage roofs). Kasper and I found a good mini-bus (not cheap as it was 51 Cord) travelling to León and settled in for the long 2 hour ride (long but bearable since we could talk to each other and to that British Couple from Ometepe (Lindsey and Tom (‘suppose they finally descended Concepción) who were ironically travelling to León (and Kasper convinced them to come along on the hike with us)). They were hilarious on the way there as they were recounting all their stories and sketchy times in Nicaragua (pronounced Nic-AR-AG-ua by Tom) where Tom had bought a vintage hockey hat and had it stolen from his head while sitting in a taxi by someone running up and then away. Another notable incident of theirs was when someone tried to sell them weed and literally ripped grass off the ground and gave it to them (“you said grass right dude?”). After the ride we were dumped in a busy market (somewhat like Masaya) and we had to find a taxi to get us to the Quetzal trekkers group from there. After some shuffling around and comparing of prices, we ended up on our way to the place, but when we arrived, the building had a sign on it that the Quetzal Trekkers had moved (but were close by to their past location). Several minutes later the new place with its school bus logo and inviting environment showed up. From there Kasper and I paid our deposits for the hike later in the night and then headed out to venture around León as it was only like 3:15 PM (and the hike was 9:30 PM (for dinner and then leaving for the hike)). León is apparently the city of cathedrals and churches (and indeed it seemed to be) as there were so many on the skyline (and ones that could be seen by just walking around). Most of the old churches date back to Columbian or early times as León is also this old in some places. The Quetzal trekkers had recommended that we bring some long sleeves up the mountain as it was going to be cold at like 3 AM with the wind on the top. Conveniently that was the one piece of clothing I did not pack -.- (got my headlamp and flashlights and water and bug repellent, but not any one of the 3 long sleeve shirts I packed). Anyways the first destination of Kasper and I was the street of thrift stores/the open market street to find me a long sleeved shirt. On the way, we passed this mural (the famous mural of León that shows the different historical periods of Nicaragua’s history. This mural also encompasses the well-known political caricatures of Sandino crushing Uncle Sam and Samoza. While we were walking up to the mural this woman kinda came out of nowhere and started talking to us about the murals. She said that we were going to pay her 50 Cordobas to have her describe the mural and its significance to us (apparently she works with an organization that helps deaf people gain access to hearing aids to enable them to talk). She spent like 15 minutes touring us all around this mural (which was 2 sides of a building), talked about the political caricatures and then talked about the statue thing in the center of the mural (the mural was around the outer edge of a building plot (on the back of two adjacent buildings) and the statue was in the center of this plot). Anyways the history was interesting and I decided to record the entire encounter on my video camera, so I have a walking and talking tour of this cool mural to share with anyone that’s interested. From the mural I saw more about William walker (“the crazy gringo”) who came down to Nicaragua and declared himself president until being killed several weeks later in an epic battle. Anyways I also learned of a student protest back in ’96 where several students were shot and killed by the militia (don’t recall what it was for though). At the end of the tour, the woman was asking us for 50 Cordobas (which Kasper and I were not going to pay) so we said we could only pay 20 Cordobas each and we gave her the money and she walked off (she also said she works as a tour guide in the area for the mural, but who knows). After that Kasper and I were looking at the political figures in more detail when a couple asked if we could take their photo between the two paintings (the paintings were two figures on either side of a garage entry type open door). After taking their photo, we started talking to them and they actually spoke English and were from Hungary initially, but had moved to the US and had been living in Arizona. More impressively they had driven down to Nicaragua from the US in their rental car (O.o dang. That’s some persistence right there). Their major complaint was how corrupt everyone in Honduras was (how cops would stop one for doing the correct driving directions, and then demand a bribe).

One of the churches around León

The main cathedral in the center of León

The political caricature

Another part of the huge cathedral

Yet another church in León

            The market and thrift shops (bada bada badadaba bada bada badaba…cue Macklemore) were mainly closed save for this one store that was pretty cool (cheap clothes at like $1-2 and a bit more for jackets and shoes) and the lady running the place was quite friendly. She talked to us for quite some time about all manner of topics ranging from Gringos down in Nicaragua to climbing the Telica volcano to serpents to how she prefers the smaller mountain near León because she can actually climb that one. I saw this cool daddy shirt for 50 Cord (about $2), but I wasn’t super convinced to buy it based on that price, so we chatter on with lady until she was closing and then I asked what the minimum price I could pay was (ended up being 40 Cord). Bam! So I bought the black long sleeve daddy shirt and walked happily back toward Quetzal Trekkers with Kasper and we passed several other churches along the way. Another interesting experience was buying Coka Cola from a street front vendor and he asked us to drink the Coke there as he wanted the deposit of the bottles (5 Cord each), but we were happy to do that. Initially we were thinking of having them put the Coke in a bag with ice but we decided against that, so we got change for the Cokes (12 Cord from a 20) but I only got 8, so I had to politely ask for 4 more Cord because they had shorted me the money (which would’ve paid for the bag and luckily they were friendly enough that I was able to get my change back). The store owners were an older couple with apparently 3 daughters (which the dad was lamenting and joking how the boys flow through the house).After this Kasper and I tried to find some food on one of the streets (after looking at the main Cathedral and square of León. Success was had as we found a pizza/Italian place on one of the streets (I’ve noticed that there are a ton of Italian places around Nicaragua (literally tons (more than I can count))). I bought his chicken bake del Sur jawn with actual Ranch dressing to dip into (so tasty) and for only 55 Cord! Evan joined us (as he was travelling from Matagalpa to meet us for the hike later that night). After some chilling at the Italian place, the three musketeers (Kasper, Evan and I) returned to Quetzal trekkers to drop our bags and head out to check out the street of bars and clubs (as we still had like an hour until we had to be back for dinner). Kasper passed out in a hammock at QT (and I don’t blame him) so just Evan and I headed out. A side note here about QT: QT is a non-profit group dedicated to providing support for local development and education programs for troubled and more poor kids in León (through programs such as after school help, a mobile library (book bike mobile), vocational skills training and other mentoring programs). QT is also run by a group of dedicated volunteers (from such places as Germany, the US and Canada) who volunteer for a minimum of 3 months to help the programs or to help with tour guiding (which brings in the money for the program support and for scholarships they offer too). Basically I whole-heartedly support this group. I cannot speak enough about them (check them out online!) and if you find yourself in León and want to do an overnight, multiday hike or volcano boarding swimming and hiking experience check them out! The volunteers are super friendly and so helpful (I even met one guy who works there with his wife (his name is Brock and her name is Heather) who is from Bend Oregon of all places! Such a small world! I’ve actually met quite a number of folks from Oregon; it’s quite fascinating and makes me proud to be an Oregonian (represent!). Anyways, QT has the hiking and tour guiding and the programs and runs the hostel there too. The whole place has this relaxed, chill, inviting, down-to-Earth, organic and hardworking atmosphere reminiscent of a mixture of So Cal and Bend. Whew! I love the QT group and I really want to help them out in the future somehow (so I’ll be back Nicaragua!).

 

The chicken bake del sur

             Evan and I headed out to check out the bars and clubs (just a reminder that I do not drink, but I still go to the bars to see them and hang with peeps). On the way I saw this Red Green inspired tour bus (with the whole roof chopped off (except the back door and windshield) to allow for 180 viewing vertically as well as 360 horizontally). Also Evan and I picked up this guy in a wheelchair who was in the street and put him on the sidewalk (over the steep curb) because the bus was trying to eek past him in the crowded street (and the only thing he did was start making sounds like aungrh and then got out of his chair and sat on the sidewalk) (we thought that was minimally helpful and pressed on (turns out later he was asleep on the sidewalk, so we felt good he was there as opposed to the street)). The street with the bars was hoping in some places with this one club open on a Sunday night (? Why?), but Evan and I checked out this placed called Barbaro (in the guide book it was two words), which had this awesome medieval feel to it with high ceilings and castle buttress like supports in some places. I ordered a green tea (which they had none of) so I had to switch to a raspberry tea (which was still quite refreshing). The drink list here was so long (like 6-8 pages) in addition to several pages of pasta, pizza and Italian foods in addition to steaks etc. One interesting note on the drinks was that the place actually sold Champagne (classy!) and had this $339 bottle of whiskey too (as well as a plethora of oddly named mixed drinks (Kamikaze was in there, but no Buttery Nipples (I know the drink names from LMFAO’s song Shots)). After that Evan and I checked out the club (basically just asked how much it was (50 cord) and then left for QT (to have dinner at 9:30 PM). By this point of the night, QT was starting to have quite a few more people in it (as 45 people total (a record for the full moon hike (which cost 45 well-spent dollars)) and Brock was cooking coffee in a pot over the fire and stirring it with a machete (the only true way to brew coffee (take note Starbucks)). The dinner was a serving of shells, elbows and other pasta with a salad and a homemade meat sauce for the pasta (so delish). Also I must confess that I indulged in two cups of coffee from the gigantic cooler (which kept the coffee hot (that is why I suppose English can be difficult to learn)) (I never drink coffee in the states). Anyways it was some black-straight-up-no-sugar-no-cream coffee from America that thrashed around my body imparting a massive wave of energy (so much that after two cups of the stuff I was rocking in the hammock without trying to) (in my original notes from the day (as I only brought paper to León to write on for my journal) one can observe a noticeable shift in my handwriting after having those two cups of coffee and I start scribbling and was really wired on that caffeine). The dinner was also tasty enough to warrant seconds. Also during this time, Kasper, Evan and I spoke to this chick from Norway named Monica about her life and whatnot. I then packed up my gear and 5 L of water for the trip and we all left around like 11 PM for the base of the Telica hike.

The gates to start the hike up Telica

Early morning haze atop Telica

The early morning at the Telica crater

The super moon setting behind the Telica crater

The path leading up to the Telica crater

The Telica crater

 

            The trip to the base of the mountain was gnarly because we were riding in the back of trucks (army style with the top and just benches in the back) and I kept thinking we could be going to do an epic night raid or something (or a hike, as that’s equally plausible). The hike actually commenced around 11:30 PM after a quick talk about safety and the guides who were carrying the different resources (bathroom kit and supplies etc). Unfortunately for us, the night of the hike was actually somewhat cloudy; mostly obscuring the super moon (the largest moon in 2013), but still allowing a decent amount of light to percolate to the ground (not enough to be super helpful, but enough to occasionally walk without a headlamp light). The trip was already pretty good as it was cool and I had my headlamp and hat on (ready to take on the hike which was supposed to take until 9 AM the next morning (without sleep too (best reason for an all-nighter ever))). I was walking at a decent pace and would occasionally pass others (as the path was wide enough in some cases to facilitate a down-shift and slingshot maneuver). There was one guide (named K up front (not Tommy Lee Jones) from Canada) and one in the middle with another in the back (don’t remember their names -.-). Anyways the group was actually hiking pretty quickly as the first part of the hike was more or less over rolling farm hills and across a planted crop field or two to reach the base of Telica. The hiking was pretty sick as the light would illuminate just enough to avoid the rocks and roots strewn across the trail (a good trail though, no issues with it, despite for the occasional loose dirt area causing a minor slide). I was doing pretty well (rolling with my headlamp and LED flashlight (one use of the multitude of Harbor Freight lights we have)) until the danged bulb in the headlamp (still old school with filaments *shudder shudder*) blew out, leaving me in the dark (with quite a bit more hiking to do). Given that I was in the middle of nowhere, I pulled out the broken backpack rubber cord (for tightening the front part) that I had kept and tied my Harbor Freight limited edition LED flashlight on the headlamp and continued on without issue (this put me at the back of the group though and I spoke to the woman at the back and met Sam (another one of the volunteers at QT who was taking his dog up the hike too)). Not too much later, we came upon a huge field (where we stopped in between several huge ridges to admire the hills and Telica rising up off in the distance through smoke and clouds in the moonlight radiating through the clouds (this was around 1:15 AM). We regrouped and pressed on; anticipating the ascent of Telica. Probably about an hour later we stopped under this tree and had snacks consisting of Tang (and brandless Tang), carrots and epic trail mix. We chilled here for close to 20 minutes and watered up (and realized that Kasper had gotten to ride a horse partially up the trail (what a pro)). We then set off again and the trail took a turn for the uphill. The trail was more switchbacks and dense forest cover as we started plowing through the forests covering Telica’s sides. At this point I had lent my flashlight to another woman on the trip who didn’t have anything to light the path (and I pulled out the trusty Claro phone with the blinding “lantern” feature (which would light up a bright white LED on the bottom of the phone case to see) and began using that to climb with). The Claro light actually worked really well. Around like 3 AM we rolled up to the last slope before the valley below the crater (the crater was above a small valley between two larger peaks). As we waited for the group, we lamented the hike a bit (I was feeling still pretty good from that coffee and didn’t really have any complaints). The last bit up to the valley wasn’t a challenge: save for the occasional small rocks that would loosen and tumble a foot or so. It was 3:30 AM when we reached the valley and had to walk through a camp or two with people in tents sleeping to reach a small fire pit. By this point of the night, my t-shirt had been thoroughly soaked from walking for like 4 hours and I was happy to change into that daddy shirt with the wind blowing up in the valley. The fire we started was pretty small, but appreciated as it helped to stave off the cold (maybe around like 50 degrees?). At this point the group also took a sandwich break to eat the cream cheese and bread sandwiches the QT volunteers had prepared for the hike (2 sandwiches a person). There were also tomatoes and zucchini that could be added to the sandwich (from a designated veggie bin as to avoid making the sandwich soggy) and this made quite the delectable sandwich. I also made an adventure of going to the bathroom as I travelled pretty far from the group and then found bones of dead cattle on my way back (normal things for me I suppose) and there were also wild horses milling around the valley (maybe they were owned, who knows). At around 4 AM, we did the little hike more to reach the crater with the lava in it (by this point, the moon had come out a bit more and was a huge white disc suspended above the crater spewing sulfur gas). The crater was huge. Just basically a gigantic seemingly infinite pit down into white gas. The guides told us to approach the crater on with caution (as even though we had to stay between the two safety rocks (where the seismic activity was less)) as the ledge could be unstable. So some of us crawled to the edge to peer over into the white gas and we could hear the roiling and boiling of the gas and lava in the crater. The sulfur was in rare form and was pretty strong, although it started to get a bit better after the wind started blowing. It was too dark for any sort of photography at this point. All of a sudden out of the white gas appeared very distant lines of red trickling around. LAVA! Ladies and gentlemen this was some legit LAVA! Not that cooled lava rock, but actual molten rock so hot it glowed (now this was pretty far from us (as the drop below the lip of the crater was an initial drop of 200 meters followed up by a more substantial drop)). It was epic and made the trip totally worth it! The lava would appear and disappear back into the gas and we managed to see the lava upwards of 5 or 6 times (sometimes for like 15 or 20 seconds at a time). It was truly awe-inspiring (as was lying on the lip of this enormous crater).

Super moon and Telica crater spewing sulfur

Who's that dude? (sporting my newly acquired daddy shirt)

The 3 Musketeers atop Telica (Kasper (center), Evan (right)) 

Watching the sunrise

Kasper watching the sunrise

The sunrise atop the Telica crater

             After about 20 or 25 minutes at the lip of the crater, we decided to head to the other smaller peak to watch the sunrise as it was approaching 5 AM. The early morning light immediately prior to the sunrise was this WWI-esque haze from the smoke and clouds and the moon (which was still bright as ever). The sunrise was incredible (although it was pretty shrouded in clouds -.-), but we could see the sun come up over the horizon and light up the path we’d trekked up the volcano. It also illuminated the hill we were standing on and showing this intense view of the surrounding fields and hillsides (absolutely epic and not describable through words). The moon also was setting directly behind the smoldering crater (and was incredibly picturesque with the contrast between the new day and the beautiful views and the old ancient night and active crater. The sun couldn’t completely break (initially) through the clouds which was somewhat disappointing. Also during this time it was another sandwich break and I had two more sandwiches (the other I hadn’t eaten earlier and a spare (from a mess of extras)). I also decided to talk a walk down the hill and sit down on this rock and take in the valley. I cannot describe the feeling on being perched on that rock and looking off into the hills below. It was akin to seeing infinity and beauty all rolled into one lush green backdrop for this frothing crater. The walk down was in many ways an eye-opener for what we had accomplished (seeing the brightly lit terrain and what we climbed in the dark was impressive). The way down was also adorned with forest and an explosion of green in every direction. We stopped several times on the way down because the group became more dispersed (as some folks were quite anxious to finish the hike as it was getting close to 7 AM). For whatever reason I ended up in the front until I decided to start being creative and take photos of everything, but no regrets on that one. Somewhat near the entrance to the mountain were these cool bubbling mud pits (super-heated mud bubbling and popping in the cracked ground (it was like Yellowstone, except we could walk right up to the pits (just don’t fall in))). Anyways, we “finished” the hike back at the entrance around 9 AM (and the walk across all the rolling fields and hills had been quite the taxing walk in the blazing sun after the long night). So all in all, the entire trip took about 9.5 hours and took up the entire night without sleep (but I have absolutely no qualms about that as I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it). We waited for the trucks and the rest of the group to finish the hike. Tom and Lindsey were some of the last folks to finish the hike and Tom said Lindsey was “an absolute delight” to have along for the hike (I can imagine as she was probably complaining quite a bit and throwing insults around (judging by how well she did with Concepción)). Everyone on the trip was tired (even the guides) and we were quite happy when the trucks arrived and we headed back to QT in waves.

Found in a field at the base of Telica (near the mud pots)

The mud pots at the base of Telica

A turkey in Nicaragua?

Unimog for the win!

             Back at QTHQ breakfast was oatmeal and granola with bananas and papaya and some melon with real milk! It was a solid breakfast to make up for the epic hike, but I had hoped for eggs and whatnot (but the oatmeal and granola was filling after several bowls). At this point it was around 10 AM or so and I talked to K about QT and the programs and how to become involved. After that we journeyed out after saying our goodbyes to the Norwegian chicks and the QT folks (got a free QT t-shirt too!). We managed to eventually reach the bus station and head back towards Managua (after I had gotten separated from Kasper and Evan and I had ducked on their bus right as it was pulling out) (the coffee I had in the morning with breakfast did not help keep me awake and I became temporarily narcoleptic on the bus back). The ride wasn’t bad, but we ended up at the wrong bus station and had to take a taxi close to the other bus station and then walk through the rain to the road to hail a bus for Granada (on the way we ended up in an intersection and I looked at another bus driver’s face, made eye contact and he made a face like he had no idea what was happening (it was hilarious)). On the bus to Granada I ended up talking to another set of Mormons down here for a mission trip. The woman was pretty young (mid 20s probably) and from the US. She first asked if I knew about the Mormons and had to tell myself not to mention the Book of Mormon (the Broadway show). I was so dirty and tired when I got back to the homestay that I basically just showered and then passed out for 3 hours. I woke up for dinner and then went back to bed. Solid trip.