Nicaragua – Just Some Wandering

Happy New Year – 2018 Review

Within each of these simplified paragraphs, lies a wealth of other stories. Stories of different experiences, friends we have made, people we have seen, and places we have witnessed.

In 2017 we packed up our life, and quit the 9-5 to head out into the world. We came with no expectations, we only wanted to experience life. Since we have left, we have packed more fun and adventure into our lives than we ever could have imagined. Being on the road now for over a year, has brought with it the freedom to explore what it is that we want to do to create an income for ourselves, the time to pay attention to the things that are truly important to us, and the adventure to truly make life fun and interesting once again. We left seeking an exciting life, and we have not been disappointed! Join us as we explore as much of this big old world that we can!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, we have all collectively made it into another year, and the last year of the 2010’s. This last year has been a hell of a ride for us as we have lived in 3 different countries! When I sat down to do some writing today, I realized that it had been almost a month since my last blog post, and that I kind of left everyone hanging. I still haven’t written my “San Cristobal Part 2” yet, and I kind of had plans to do that today. But then I realized that with the New Year, comes a good time to reflect on all that we did in 2018. And so, my San Cristobal Part 2 post will have to wait, as I decided that instead, I wanted to do a recap of what this last year has been like for us. I must say, after writing it all out, it’s amazing to see all the things that we have done and the places we have been. Within each of these simplified paragraphs, lies a wealth of other stories. Stories of different experiences, friends we have made, people we have seen, and places we have witnessed. Along with each of these paragraphs, we lived a wild and exciting life, and we are both incredibly grateful for all that we have seen and done in the last year. As you read, you will notice highlighted words. These are links to relevant blog posts that will catch you up on that particular area if you are interested. Unfortunately, I lost my mojo to write around October, so the last bit is missing some posts, but I hope to get caught up on those in the next couple weeks, though I’m also not going to put too much pressure on myself to complete them, as we have some big experiences coming up right around the corner. We will see. Anyways, for now, enjoy the recap!

January started us off managing a cabina rental in Matapalo, Costa Rica. Matapalo is located right on the beach in the southwest corner of the country. It is smack between popular tourist spots of Dominical and Manuel Antonio National Park, and it is often overlooked as people pass right by from point A to point B, not realizing that there is a 12 km stretch of beach adjacent to the highway, that barely has any people on it at all. We didn’t complain about that though, as we enjoyed the first 2.5 months of 2018 (following 2 months at the end of 2017) hanging out on this perfect, quiet, and picturesque beach.

In February we volunteered at a huge music festival called Envision. It is held annually in February near Uvita, which was only a short drive south of us. We spent 6 days frolicking about, dancing and partying and really had a great time.

The middle of March saw us moving up to El Silencio, a remote mountain village set just at the base of the mountains. We rented a house there for 3 weeks, and enjoyed watching the toucans, scarlett macaws and many other types of wildlife pass by our place. We visited an incredible waterfall, swam in the river and hung out with our Canadian friend who owned property adjacent to where we were renting. It was a lovely break from the more hectic life at Matapalo where we were managing the cabinas and taking care of 3 dogs.

By the beginning of April we were eager to move on, and because we had a housesitting gig set up in Nicaragua at the beginning of May, we decided that we were finished with Costa Rica, and we longed to see something new. So we packed up and headed north to volunteer at an earth bag construction project with a girl that I had gotten contact for when we were volunteering at Envision Festival.

We were located in a very rural part of Nicaragua, well off the beaten track. We volunteered and lived in our tent for 3 weeks in very dusty conditions, and literally had to pull at least one tick, if not 4, off of our bodies every night before bed time. It was an interesting experience and we really enjoyed it, but I’m not sure if it is one that I would want to repeat. April 18th, a civil war broke out in Nicaragua, and as we were supposed to start housesitting in May, it made for an interesting couple of weeks, trying to decide if we actually wanted to stay in the country or not.

20180518_140628 — San Jorge Beach looking out over Lake Nicaragua and the to volcanoes that make up the island in the middle.

We did decide to stick it out, and met the homeowners at the beginning of May. We were supposed to housesit until the beginning of September but we only lasted about 4 weeks. We hated to leave Nicaragua, but the political scene was volatile, many people were getting shot in the streets, and all but a handful of tourists had fled the country. It wasn’t a very nice scene, but again we hated to leave. As most of the violence was in the north of the country, we had no choice but to retreat back to Costa Rica, to try and figure out our next moves. At that time, the only other concrete plan we had, was to housesit in Guatemala at the end of November. So we had a few months to fill in and try to figure out what we wanted to do.

Not realizing how shell shocked we actually were from the experience in Nicaragua, we arrived to a hostel in Samara, a place we had stayed almost immediately after arriving in Costa Rica at the beginning of this trip in October 2017. It felt good to get back to some familiarity and the warm, welcoming and safe arms of Costa Rica. We were surprised when we arrived at the hostel to find a small group of us that had fled Nicaragua. We called ourselves the Nicaraguan Refugees, and we made fast friends and shared many stories. The owner of the hostel ended up asking us to paint a mural for him in exchange for our accommodation, and we happily obliged. We really didn’t know where we wanted to go anyways, and we took the time we needed to fully recover and feel like we were ready to move on in our journey and figure out a plan.

We spent about a month in Samara, and left the hostel bound for San Jose, the capital city of Costa Rica, on July 4th. We decided that it made the most sense to fly north, as we needed to get to Guatemala to housesit anyways, and had discovered the city of Flores in the northern department (like provinces and states). It is an island city, located on Lake Peten Itza, and upon arrival we immediately fell in love with the area, and started searching for a house to rent for a couple months. The universe provided for us and we lucked into a perfect rental house for about $220/month. While in the area, we of course visited the famous Mayan city of Tikal, once the center of the Mayan culture. We fell in love with the jungle, the people and the area, and we extended our initial 2 month rental period to 3.

After a couple of months of being there, my parent’s came down to visit us for a week. We had some nice days with them, and headed back to Tikal. Unfortunately Dad got food poisoning the day we arrived, so he spent a couple days in bed. Shortly after they left, we started painting a mural for a coffee shop/restaurant/bar owner that we had come to know as it was our favourite place to hang out and use the internet. However, after 90 days of being in the country, we needed to leave Guatemala to renew our visitor visa, but we still weren’t finished the mural. So we headed up to Mexico for a week with the plan to renew our visa, then return to Flores to finish it.

On the steps of Temple IV at Tikal with my Mom.

We headed across the nearest border crossing, finding ourselves in Palenque in the Southern State of Chiapas. We were anxious to see how the internet speed was in Mexico, as we had struggled with it immensely in Flores for the time that we had spent there. As we were both still in the progress of really getting our online shops going, we found the internet issue really challenging especially when we needed to upload high resolution images to our online shops. So we thought of Mexico as a place where we could get caught up on some projects as well. Unfortunately, the internet in Palenque wasn’t too much better than in Flores, but we did take a few days to get some work done, but we also frolicked in some amazing waterfalls, relaxed in the park, and headed to the equally famous to Tikal, Palenque Mayan Ruins. After the week was up, we returned to Flores to finish our mural(s) (there was actually 3 different walls that we painted on, so I guess it was more ‘murals’ instead of just a ‘mural’.)

By October 19th, we had finally completed the murals and headed back to Mexico as we had plans to go to Oaxaca City to be a part of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festival, one of Mexico’s premier celebrations, at the beginning of November. We first headed back to Palenque, then we were off to San Cristobal, high up in the mountains. We spent about 5 nights in the busy city, then continued on an 11 hour bus ride north east to Oaxaca.

The city of Oaxaca and the festivities of Dia de los Muertos did not disappoint! We took part in multiple days of festivities, hung out with friends that we had initially met in Costa Rica, visited a Mezcalaria, visited some artists workshops, went to the botanical gardens and visited the cemeteries to see the fiestas that were happening amongst the families. It was an incredible cultural experience, and I PROMISE that I will try and get a blog post written about out time spent there. It was a wonderful 2 weeks, and we FINALLY had found some fast internet. So we wasted no time in updating our shops, and really getting the balls rolling with them again before the busy Christmas season descended on us. After 2.5 weeks there, it was time to return back to Guatemala to start preparing ourselves for our upcoming housesitting job.

We returned through San Cristobal once again to REALLY cold temperatures. We had found it cool on our initial visit, but this time it was down right COLD! The nights went down to about 9 degrees, and a couple of days it was only about 12 in the day time. Not too mention that the city is at 7000 feet, so we were pretty much in the clouds which made everything damp and bone chilling. This normally is not too big of a concern in the north where you have a nice warm house to go into at night, but bear in mind that there is no central heating in these places, and because it was only just a cold snap, nobody had fires burning in their hotels either. We wore our long johns and toques and pretty much ever other layer that we had, day and night. We had returned because Chris wanted a tattoo from our new friend that we had met there, so once that was finished, we were happy to be moving on.

Getting back to Palenque (after a bit of a hellish 11 hour bus ride on an alternate route because the normal route was closed by a teacher strike road block) we were so happy to see the jungle again and sit in the warm tropical air. We decided that 3 days in San Cristobal in those conditions was winter enough for our fragile, and obviously spoiled, bodies. Living in the tropics for a year has clearly made us soft. We spent a couple nights back in Palenque, staying in a completely different part of town, which was pretty neat as we hadn’t even realized that that part had existed on our previous 2 visits. The last day we left San Cristobal, I received news that a childhood friend of mine had succumbed to his short battle with cancer at the age of just 40, back in Canada. So the time in Palenque served as a mourning stage as I wrestled with the first feelings of homesickness that I think I have ever felt. With all of my friends from my small home town gathered together to mourn and celebrate his life, I felt very distant and alone, and it took a few days to get back to my normally cheerful self.

We left Palenque and headed back to Flores where Chris had some unfinished tattoo work that he had to complete. We fell back in with our Flores family like we had never left, and spent another week there visiting and hanging out with the gang.

On November 25th we descended down the Rio Dulce by boat to our next housesitting post in Livingston, Guatemala, which is where we sit now. Livingston is located on the Caribbean Coast of Guatemala, on a tiny bit of land between Honduras and Belize. It has a very funky and lively Garifuna (they came from the Island of Trinidad) culture which is mixed with the latino Guatemalans (think reggae culture but speaking spanish). The community is water access only, no roads reach here, but there is a decent population base, which makes it feel like it isn’t too remote. We are staying in a fantastic wooden house that was built by the owner. He grew up here, but his wife is from Holland, which is where they went for Christmas because she likes the Christmas celebration better in Europe (it really doesn’t even exist here), and he doesn’t like the heat (go figure) and loves going to the European winter for a break.

Over the course of our time here, we have had 3 sets of visitors. Alejandro visited us from Guatemala City. He was one of our fellow Nicaraguan refugees that were staying in the hostel in Samara while we were there. He is Guatemalan and has returned home to make some money and save up to go travelling again. Tom is from England and we met him on our last return from Palenque to Flores. He spent a few days in Flores, and we got to know him quite well. After travelling around Guatemala a bit, heading down to Honduras and El Salvador, he decided that he wanted to come and spend Christmas with us instead of in a hostel with nobody that he knew. And finally Sandra and Ed are friends from the town we last lived in in Canada who are currently travelling around Belize by camper van. They popped down here for a couple nights over New Years. So, our time here has been eventful and busy, but we have enjoyed it immensely.

As I type this, we have 2 days left before the owners arrive back, and we will be continuing on our journey. We have a very exciting month ahead of us as Chris’ Mom and Step Dad are arriving to Flores to see us on January 10th and we will be travelling around Guatemala with them for almost 2 weeks. Then at the end of January, we fly off to the US and British Virgin Islands where we will be spending 2 weeks with my parents for my moms 70th Birthday celebration.

Beyond that, the only plan is that we have no plan. Our hope is to find some work there on boats, and somehow make our way back to Guatemala, before we head north to Canada next summer. Between now and then we have about 6 months to fill in, and I am realizing by now, that 6 months can contain a wealth of experience and excitement like nothing I could ever plan or expect.

If you have read this far, I thank you. It was an event filled year, and it’s so hard to pack so much stuff into a few words, but I hope it gave you a good over view of how our life has looked for the last 12 months.

We both wish you all a wonderful 2019, and hope that you too can find some time to get out of your comfort zone and find a little adventure!

Thanks for reading! Please know that above all else, I aim to inspire others to just get out and see the world. Traveling is such an enriching experience, and I can’t even comprehend how much it has shaped me as an individual. If you have ANY questions, or need travel advice of ANY kind, PLEASE don’t hesitate to email me at the address below! I will do my very best to help you in any way I can!

Xoxoxo Happy Travels!

Current Location: Livingston, Guatemala

Travelling Plans: We are housesitting here until January 5th. After that we are headed up Rio Dulce for 2 nights to stay on the river. Then we are off to Flores to meet Chris’ Mom and Step Dad for 2 weeks of travelling around Guatemala.

To head back to the beginning of our journey, and the moment we decided to sell all of our possessions to travel the world, click here.

To see many travelling photos and to learn about where we are travelling, please follow our Facebook and Instagram accounts by clicking on the appropriate icon in the right hand column.

To learn about where I have previously traveled, visit my Countries Page.

To see all of my blog post headings on one page, (including all of the ones about letting our stuff go) head over to my Blog Post Menu.

To contribute to our Patreon account, please click here.

To learn about housesitting, please click here.

To email me directly, please do so anytime at jillamatt@me.com.

If you like my writing, and want to follow along on our journey, please put your email address in the right hand column to subscribe. That way all of my posts will go straight to your email inbox:)

Venga Vale Vamos Guest Interview

I am honoured to join the ranks of many before me, and have been featured in this section with regards to our recent experience of travelling and living in Costa Rica.

Kristie Jeffries is a traveller, blogger and digital marketer. She has been on the road for a few years now, and has travelled to 72 countries…….and is still going! Her website offers a wealth of information about travel around the world, expat life, budget backpacking, working as a digital nomad, Australian working holidays/work visas, the Spanish auxiliares de conversación program, and so much more.

She has a section of her website where she features interviews from fellow travellers, called the Travel Talk Interviews. These interviews run the gamut from learning about being a Digital Nomad, to becoming a Spanish Teacher’s assistant in Spain, from travelling on a budget to seeing the world in style.

I am honoured to join the ranks of many before me, and have been featured in this section with regards to our recent experience of travelling and living in Costa Rica.

You can read that interview here.

Thanks so much Kristie for the opportunity to share my travel story and my tips to travelling in Costa Rica!

Xoxoxo Happy Travels!

Current Location: We are currently in Flores, Guatemala. We have rented a house and expect to stay here for a minimum of 2 months.

Travelling Plans: Our next plan is to head to Livingston on the Caribbean coast of Guatemala, where we will be housesitting for roughly 6 weeks at the end of November.

To head back to the beginning of our journey, and the moment we decided to sell all of our possessions to travel the world, click here.

To see many travelling photos and to learn about where we are travelling, please follow our Facebook and Instagram accounts by clicking on the appropriate icon in the right hand column.

To learn about where I have previously traveled, visit my Countries Page.

To see all of my blog post headings on one page, (including all of the ones about letting our stuff go) head over to my Blog Post Menu.

To contribute to our Patreon account, please click here.

To email me directly, please do so anytime at jillamatt@me.com.

If you like my writing, and want to follow along on our journey, please put your email address in the right hand column to subscribe. That way all of my posts will go straight to your email inbox:)

Nicaragua – Should We Stay or Should We Go Now? Part 3

We had heard reports that a roadblock was set to begin in Rivas around that time. We were concerned about what this would mean to our tranquil little corner of the country, but until we felt like we were in danger, we obviously weren’t going anywhere.

We arrived in Nicaragua on April 9th, 2018. On April 18th, we got news that President Ortega had put into law a new social security reform which would negatively affect the entire population. The students took to the streets to protest, and in what would become the historical beginning to this crazy civil war that they have now entered, over 70 people were killed, mostly students, and many more hundreds were injured, around the country. On May 10th, we began a housesitting job in Rivas. Things had calmed down a bit, and we felt right in our decision to stay in the country. The violence had’t reached where we were, we really felt like it would stay calm. Day by day we watched as things escalated around us. We started to feel trapped. Roadblocks made travelling impossible and we weren’t sure if it was even safe to go anywhere. Maybe it is best where we are, we thought. On May 30th, a peaceful Mother’s Day March took place in Managua, the capital of the country. Estimates of 200 000 people took to the street to show solidarity and a will to make a point, to tell Ortega they wanted him out. They marched to remember their children that had already been lost in this bloody war. They were thousands upon thousands strong, mostly waving the Blue and White striped flag of Nicaragua. It was a sight to behold and I felt a surge of pride for the country and what it was representing. We read the following morning that late in the day, Snipers located high off the ground, started shooting into the crowd. That day they killed upwards of 15 people and injured hundreds more. One boy was shot right from his mother’s arms. On Mother’s Day. This was the turning point for us. This unspeakable and despicable act is what forced us from the country. Because you realize that if a person is capable of that, he is capable of anything. This is our story of 8 weeks in Nicaragua, when a civil war broke out.

To start with part one of this story, please click here.

Our first few days on our own, in the house we were housesitting at, were spent hanging out in our Nicaragua neighbourhood. It was fun to meet the neighbours and explore the streets around our house. Having already lived in the city for a couple weeks, we had our favourite spots to visit at the market, we shopped from vendors in the park and pretty much had our lay of the land figured out.

The National Dialogue, or commonly known as ‘the talks’, was ordered by the priests and was set to begin on May 16th. The residents of the country, and the visitors alike, seemed to be waiting with baited breath for this to begin.

Surely something would be sorted out, and all of this bloodshed and violence could be put behind us. Couldn’t it?

On May 16th, the students, the church and the government met to begin a dialogue to move forward. The message from the students was clear, Ortega was to step down immediately. A young Lesther Alleman, a University student, took the charge and declared directly to Ortega that the country, the people, wanted him to step down. He insisted that there was no other way to move forward. (Please see articles here and here.)

Ortega had likely never been spoken to like that, and certainly not from a young person like Lesther Alleman. He immediately became a national hero, the voice of the people. Watching the videos brought goosebumps to my skin and I felt like in some way, despite it only coming from one young man, the people had spoken. Indeed at this time, I had read that upward of 70% of the country was not happy with Ortega’s direction and where he was leading the country. Surely Ortega would listen, surely he would understand that he is not liked, not wanted, not appreciated.

Nothing was solved at ‘the talks’ that day, Ortega insisted that he didn’t know who was killing people, he said that he had ordered the Police to break up protests with non-violent tactics. He also insisted that the only thing wrecking the country at that time was the road blocks and that they should be lifted immediately to try and recoup the lost economy that had happened since their beginnings.

He didn’t apologize for anything. He didn’t accept responsibility for anything.

The talks were finished that day and it was declared that further talks would begin in two days.

That night, the following occurred according to the Havana Times:

Proof of Ortega’s intransigent stance is the fact that on the same day of the installation of the dialogue, on Wednesday, his paramilitaries attacked the Cathedral of Jinotega in the night, where students protesting against the regime were given refuge. And on Thursday the attacks continued at the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (Upoli), where a 16-year-old boy died; and in Masaya, the siege and looting of shops continued on the part of the mobs launched by the Ortega regime.

It’s impossible to report on all of these sorts of activities as this was the normal run of events. We heard of students living in the Universities, using them as some sort of bunker. We heard of them being poisoned by rations that they had coming in. We heard of all sorts of atrocities that were being committed, all the while Ortega declaring that he was not directing it and that he had nothing to do with it. In fact his wife (also Vice President) declared that those protesting were the vermin of society, further enraging the students .

On day 2 of ‘the talks’, they began with Ortega’s representatives showing up in his place. Word travelled fast that he hadn’t even shown up. Apparently he didn’t want to be talked to like that again. Memes flooded the internet about him being a chicken, and not manning up to his position. However, it turns out, that him and his sidekick did attend, but much later then they were supposed to. By then, most of ‘the talks’ had been completed by his cohorts. But, yet again, it seemed, nothing was solved and nothing decided on.

Ortega wasn’t going anywhere.

Violence continued in the streets, Tranques (road blocks) were erected, the students were mobilizing, and they were becoming more organized and more determined by the minute.

However, all was still tranquillo in Rivas. We had seen no road blocks in our area, supplies were getting in, there was no violence, no bloodshed. We felt like we were living in an alternative reality. It was hard to comprehend that so much craziness was going on in the rest of the country, when we felt completely safe and normal where we were.

However, we were also keenly aware that things weren’t normal, and that we, ourselves, were also becoming a rare thing in Nicaragua. At that point, the travellers had mostly ceased to exist and this became very apparent to us when we took a walk to San Jorge one day.

San Jorge is located 5 km from where we were living. It is the gateway to Ometepe Island, one of the main tourist attractions in the country. Ometepe is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua, the largest lake in Central America. It is composed of 2 volcanoes which are popular for tourists to hike and climb on. It is a beautiful island, but it too had been blocked by roadblocks over the last couple weeks. We heard that these road blocks were actually in retaliation to gas prices that had gone up. But I’m sure it’s all related, and the bottom line is that nobody was travelling to Ometepe anymore, let alone the rest of the country. Screenshot 2018-06-23 12.09.06

As we arrived to the beach where the ferry dock was, and where restaurants, normally hustling and bustling with travellers, lined the ocean front, there was nobody. Not one tourist was in sight, let alone barely any Nicaraguans. We walked along the beach and finally got waved into one of the restaurants where we were the only people in the place. We sat in disbelief as we drank our Tona’s (local beer) and stared out at the spectacular view in front of us. I think this is when it really started to hit home. This is when we realized how few of us were still in the country.

Maybe this is when we started to get a little more worried then we had been before.

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On May 23rd, I started to write some thoughts down about how I was feeling about the situation. Day by day we heard horrific reports of terrible human rights violations. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) had visited the country and had declared that awful human rights violations were occurring. (This article came out June 1st, but it states many of the same things that the IACHR had declared when they initiated their investigation.) Things were not getting better, but we still had not seen any violence or felt unsafe at all. In fact, the more we left our house, and walked the streets, the more we were reassured that all was just fine. Why would we leave this place when we were still having such a positive experience.

Here is what I wrote on May 23rd:

Today we hear this news:

Starting today at 6:00 am, it has been declared by the Campesino Leader, Francisca Ramirez, That road blocks along the Pacific Coast will become permanent.

What does this mean to us? What does all of this craziness mean?

The truth is, we aren’t sure either.

It has been a day to day following of events around here for the last month, tying to decipher what really is going on, vs what we are reading online.

My emotions run the gamut from completely freaked out and thinking that we are over the top CRAZY for still being here, but I also have days where we walk into town, the people are friendly, life is normal and business is as usual.

Our own Canadian government website has stated that we should avoid unessential travel to Nicaragua. But somehow that seems unjustified. I can’t explain the feelings that we are going through, at times it doesn’t even make sense to us, but we feel like we need to be here right now. We feel comfortable, and settled, and mostly at peace with what is going on around us.

Are we burying our heads in the ground? Are we purposefully rationalizing what is going on around us, so that we feel justified in staying? I really don’t know. But I do know this. Until we personally feel like we are in an unsafe situation, we aren’t leaving this place.

I’m sure there are thousands of people out there that think we are fools for staying. And believe me, I have been there. THIS is not a place I would choose to visit. I would never purposefully travel to a country with any sort of drama or unrest happening.

But yet here we are. Here we sit. Waiting and watching to see what unfolds. Trying to focus on the day to day and not some point in the future. We are dealing with this as we have dealt with every other challenge that we have had in regard to plans or planning of any kind, each day we make a decision of what we are going to do that day, and that is all.

We have focused really hard on this trip to not contrive our future too much. I mean, it’s one thing to book a housesitting gig at a far off point, just to secure accommodation of some sort moving forward. But mostly we are living in the moment. We are taking the time we need to focus on what is important to us. To work on our online businesses and to carve out our niche in this world of Digital Nomadism.

So far we have kept a low profile in Nicaragua. So far we haven’t felt threatened in any way. So far the people are amazing. So far we love our neighbourhood. So far we really have no complaints.

So why fix what’s not broken? When we move into a different phase of emotions, we will act on that. That is it, that is all.

To be continued………

Disclaimer: The information provided in my writing is based on articles that I have read from many publications, information gathered from Nicaraguan Expats and Locals, and from videos that I have seen posted online. I don’t pretend to be an expert on Nicaraguan politics, and if you feel like I have misrepresented information in anyway, please email me at jillamatt@me.com.

For news on what is happening in Nicaragua and to learn all about this crisis, please visit the La Prensa or 100% Noticias websites. Their online newspapers have covered this from the beginning and continue to do so.

After selling all of our possessions in Canada in 2017, we flew to Costa Rica to do an initial housesit for 2 months. Our journey has continued and we have now been ‘on the road’ for just over 8 months.

Current Location: We are currently in Samara, Costa Rica where we are staying in a familiar hostel with others that left Nicaragua around the same time that we did.

Travelling Plans: Depending on whether or not we get some work here painting another mural, we will be headed up to Mexico at some point. But nothing is set in stone yet.

To head back to the beginning of our journey, and the moment we decided to sell all of our posessions to trave the world, click here.

To see more travelling photos, and to follow our progress on Facebook, please follow our Facebook page Just Some Wandering.

Please follow my Instagram Page Just Some Wandering by clicking on the bottom right hand corner of this feed.

To learn about where I have previously traveled, visit my Countries Page.

To see all of my blog post headings on one page, head over to my Blog Post Menu.

To email me directly, please do so anytime at jillamatt@me.com.

If you like my writing, and want to follow along on our journey, please put your email address in the right hand column to subscribe. That way all of my posts will go straight to your email inbox:)

Nicaragua – Should We Stay or Should We Go Now? Part 2

Of course, we were all horrified by the lives that were being lost by the hands of the government, but the ‘talks’ were coming, surely something would be sorted out then. Wouldn’t it?

To start at the beginning of this story, click here.

I think back to the days when we were at Amanda’s farm and wonder what our decision would have been had we not have been housesitting. Would we have stayed in Nicaragua anyways?

We stayed on the farm for a week more, just to see what would happen. We were safe there, it is a remote area well off the main roads, and her small community has a road that links directly to the local center, where we would go to the market and do our shopping. As it was, we knew that we didn’t want to go to Granada, but where else would we have gone? The north end of the country would have been hard to get around, as Leon, Masaya and Matagalpa were hot spots right off the bat. Perhaps we would have chosen to go see the Corn Islands off the East Coast of the country? As it turned out, one of the guys staying at Amanda’s farm ended up doing just that on May 4th, and wasn’t able to return to Managua by road, he had to fly as the roads were all blockaded and no buses were running.

However, as it was, we were supposed to be housesitting starting somewhere near the beginning of May, so we decided to stay. The town where we were going, Rivas, is in the south of the country, there had been no violent conflicts there so we felt that it was safe to stay there, and we would just take it day by day and see how things went. We rationalized that if we didn’t find ourselves in any danger, then what was the problem?

It seemed simple enough.

As stated in the previous post we had had it with the conditions on the farm, and we really just wanted a bed to sleep in and a dry place to hang out as the rainy season was just beginning, and having a sopping wet tent day in and day out didn’t seem like much fun. Plus there was the fact that my business is based online, and with having no wifi access for 3 weeks, it was time to get somewhere that I could get all caught up.

We weighed our options and knowing that the North of the country was already unstable, we opted to just head straight to Rivas and hang out there until our housesit started.

We arrived in Rivas on April 29th, 11 days after the chaos had begun. Rivas was business as usual. Tourism had dropped a little bit, but we stayed in one of the more popular hostel type hotels in the area , Hostel Julieta. When we arrived, we were the only ones there, but over the course of the next few days, a few more travellers arrived here and there and it seemed to be business as usual. Some of them had retreated south from some of the Northern Cities and were leaving Nicaragua. Some were staying, but were headed to quiet and quaint San Juan del Sur which is just down the road.

During this time things had calmed down a little bit. However, we did hear reports of attacks on the Universities, and even reports of some of the students being poisoned by the rations and water that were being brought in for the ones that had holed up in there. So I guess in saying that it “calmed down”, was relative to where you were in the country. The Universities had become battlegrounds, and the buildings served as make shift fortress’. There were still demonstrations and small road blocks up north, but Ortega had agreed to talks with the church at this time, so it seemed to be like everyone was just holding their breath to see what would happen next, after the “talks.”

To us, it was business as usual. I think we both still felt like things would just blow over. At some point this craziness will all end. Won’t it?

We walked the streets at night, we hung out in the central park and watched the kids play and the world go by. Nothing, I mean nothing, seemed out of sorts at that point. It really felt safe, and we maintained that until we felt unsafe, we weren’t going anywhere. We didn’t want to jump the gun and deny ourselves of a great opportunity to see and experience Nicaragua by letting fear get the best of us.

But on the other hand, we also didn’t want to act like we had our heads in the sand. It was important to stay on top of the news and to pay attention to what was going on. I joined a couple facebook pages for Expats in Nicaragua, and followed along on the progression as good as I could. And of course there were still horrors happening, but our immediate experience was just so safe and non threatening, I think we brushed it off a little bit and just thought of it as a problem in the North, not where we were.

On May 3rd we met the home owners that we were supposed housesit for. Our housesit was to start on May 10th, and while we were now all in the same city together, it just made sense to get together with them and get to know them a little bit. We had a hilarious first 5 minutes of conversation as we found out that they are from British Columbia, Canada, the same province we had been living in before leaving on our travels. We thought they were Americans for some reason, and unbeknownst to us they thought we were Americans. Nobody knows where either of us got that info from, but here we were…….practically neighbours after all.

As we hit it off so well with them over Pizza at a local restaurant, we decided that it be best if we just went and stayed with them for a few days before we started the housesit, so that they could introduce us to their friends, and show us the good spots to go around in the neighbourhood.

We headed to their place on May 7th, giving us a full two days to do some touring around, meeting people and learning the ropes of Rivas, before they left on the 10th. Things really seemed to have stabilized at that point. We went down to Cardenas, along the south shore of Lake Nicaragua, and a stones throw from the Costa Rica border. As the entrance off the highway to Cardenas was pretty much right at the border crossing to Costa Rica, we saw miles and miles of trucks lined up along the road, waiting to cross the border. I was told that this was the normal scene down here, always tons of trucks.

We visited their friend Kelly in Cardenas and spent the night in an idyllic setting. We chatted about what was going on, but really at that point it wasn’t affecting peoples lives the way that it would in the weeks to come. Kelly has lived in Nicaragua for 15 years, and even has a resident status. So clearly, she had a much bigger concern on her hands then we did. Of course, we were all horrified by the lives that were being lost by the hands of the government, but the ‘talks’ were coming, surely something would be sorted out then.

Woudn’t it?

The owners of the house where we were to housesit left on May 10th to fly out of Managua. It was clear sailing all the way to the airport, no blockades, no hassles. Good news, things MUST be getting back to normal up there!

We had almost 4 months in front of us in a great Nica house, in a tiny Nica neighbourhood, in a safe city, and we really felt hopeful that everything was going to be just fine.

To go to part 3 of this story, click here.

For news on what is happening in Nicaragua and to learn all about this crisis, please visit the La Prensa website. Their online newspaper has covered this from the beginning.

After selling all of our possessions in Canada in 2017, we flew to Costa Rica to do an initial housesit for 2 months. Our journey has continued and we have now been ‘on the road’ for almost 8 months.

Current Location: We are currently in Samara, Costa Rica where we are staying in a familiar hostel with 2 others that left Nicaragua in the last few days. We have also met 5 other people in town that just left. We call ourselves the Nicaraguan Refugees.

Travelling Plans: Our ‘plans’ have been flipped upside down and we are now trying to figure out a new one.

To head back to the beginning of our journey, and the moment we decided to sell all of our posessions to trave the world, click here.

To see more travelling photos, and to follow our progress on Facebook, please follow our Facebook page Just Some Wandering.

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To learn about where I have previously traveled, visit my Countries Page.

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To email me directly, please do so anytime at jillamatt@me.com.

Nicaragua – Should We Stay or Should We Go Now? Part One

This unspeakable and despicable act is what forced us from the country. Because you realize that if a person is capable of that, he is capable of anything. This is our story of 8 weeks in Nicaragua, when a civil war broke out.

We had been staying at Amanda’s farm for about 10 days when we started to feel like it was time to go somewhere new. We had been living in our tent, it was dry and dusty, we were covered in ticks every day and we were dirty. It was time to move on, we both felt it.

It was April 19th, and we were scheduled to start housesitting around the beginning of May. So we had a few days to kill and we thought that spending them in Granada, would be a nice way to see another part of the country, before settling into our house in Rivas. I instinctually looked on Booking.com and found a place. I booked it and paid for it, but it didn’t go through for some reason. After a while, I received a message from the owner saying that they are not taking bookings because Granada was under attack. Under attack?? What do you mean under attack?? We had just been there the day before. Amanda had commented on the amount of police vehicles around, but other than that we didn’t see anything else unusual.

The man said that there were blockades and fighting in the streets and that they were closed. That was it. He suggested that we leave the country as soon as possible.

I went to find Amanda to tell her what I had heard. Mostly dumbfounded and really not sure what to think. It was all beyond comprehension to me. When I found her she said she knew. I don’t know for how long she had known, but she was in close contact with her Aunt in Managua and things didn’t sound good. But we were in Nandaime, nowhere near Managua, and everything seemed normal there. The 4 of us decided to just see what was going to happen. This could go many ways, and we wanted to make sure that what we were hearing was fact based, not just based on fear. And none of us were going to make any rash decisions about leaving, until we heard the outcome of this.

Because at some point this “fight” will end. Won’t it?

Obviously, we were as glued as we could be to the internet. Looking on Instagram and Facebook for updates. Many expats had started reporting about what was happening in their neighbourhoods. It was frightening and terrifying and we really weren’t sure what to think. But that was there, and we were not. We felt safe where we were, on a small farm well away from main roads and big cities.

Amanda’s Quidador (property caretaker) who is roughly 70, would come around our camp a couple times per day reporting in on the numbers. Letting us know how many had died that day. Stating that the revolution had started. Fearful for what he remembered from the last one. Sickeningly, looking back, we joked about it. “Viva la revolucion!” we yelled as we all laughed, his Nicaraguan nephew included. I think about that scene now and it makes me angry at myself. How insensitive were we? To think about what that man had been through, and for him to know what’s coming, and we all just made light of it. Maybe I only feel bad because I know now what I didn’t know then.

I mean really. How bad could it get?

There was a general feeling around us of “NAH, it can’t be that bad!” We knew it was serious and that people had died, but we really just thought it would blow over. Nobody really gave it too much credit. Or maybe that was our brain’s defense system. We went to town in numbers in the day, and we didn’t go anywhere at night. We hung low. We were cautious and we knew crazy things were going on around the country.

But they would sort themselves out. Wouldn’t they?

We stuck it out through the weekend hearing reports of more and more dead. By Monday upwards of 65 to 70 people, mostly students had been killed in various locations around the country. Mostly they were marching peacefully. They wanted Ortega out, and they were making a show of it. Somehow people got killed. Many say it was government trained snipers, other say it’s junior Sandanistas that have been groomed to kill. Who ever it was brought violence to the equation, and with that brought a fight.

Somewhere amongst it all, the students and their supporters started building barricades in the streets. They literally pulled the bricks up that were laid in the streets and built walls out of them. They staggered them through towns and cities, intermittently, with not much organization. Some road blocks turned into shields as the odd time guns were involved, and they would all crouch down behind them to dodge the bullets. These road blocks are meant to put pressure on the government to halt deliveries of supplies, and cause general disfunction in the country.

And oh ya, by Monday morning the newspapers were ordered to stop reporting and a national radio station was closed down. He was censoring the news. Our hearts sank.

After the weekend ended, Ortega finally agreed with the church to have talks. They were going to do some negotiating. The priests were tired of blood shed. Videos on Facebook and You Tube showed them walking into the conflicts, dressed in full regalia, to halt the fighting. They were tired of the violence and they knew that it needed a solution.

Day one of the talks, a young Lesther Aleman, a University student, told Ortega point blank to his face that the Nicaraguan people want him to step down. They are tired of his regime, and his presidency had gone on long enough. In fact, Ortega himself was the one to decide that he could be president for a third term, and in effect for life, by changing the laws that stated presidency was two terms, maximum. He also somehow decided while entering into his third term that the rules should state that his wife be allowed to be Vice President. You can imagine my shock when I read this in an article shortly after this all started. I remember distinctively thinking “His WIFE is the Vice President??” My heart sunk with this knowledge as right there laid out before me was the perfect dictatorship. Complete power.

The thing is that the people knew it. They knew that he was amassing an empire. They knew it, but it didn’t matter as much because their lives were good. Nicaraguas economy was booming, tourism had never been better. Expats were buying up land in droves and new guest houses, cottages and hotels were popping up everywhere. What’s to complain about?

But apparently however good Nicaragua seemed on the surface, things were not so good behind the scenes. Bit by bit Ortega had been amassing unbelievable wealth, and power. He made himself the head honcho to every branch of government, took over the countries electrical company and bought many more businesses and things to create a very powerful and dominant structure. Even if he did step down as President, he would still be controlling the structure of Nicaragua. It’s very scary to think about how entangled he is in the country. Taking notes from Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and the Castro boys, he seemed to be following a game plan. A long strung out government take over that would be done so slowly that nobody would notice. However, his plan backfired, Venezuela stopped their supports for Nicaragua, and a desperate government, one that knew that it was about to go broke, made a decision that stepped over lines and crossed boundaries.

I was told by a Nicaraguan friend that two years ago, Ortega was told that if he didn’t fix the Social Security program, it would be broke by June of 2018.

So it was in April, not even 2 months before that fateful month, that Ortega decided to finally do something about this. I read that he did it without speaking with the business sector, and without asking for any input from any other branch of government.

He just decided that it was so, and so it was.

His new bill would instantly increase the Social Security rates that the current employees AND employers were paying, and simultaneously reduce the current amount that seniors were getting now, and in the future. Thereby affecting the entire population of the country.

This is what started it all. This was the tipping point. The people had had enough of his power. This time he had pushed too far. It was time to say no to the monster! It was time to take their country back. It was time to rise up.

To continue to part 2 of this story, click here.