Set A Course

After two hurricanes and an earthquake this fall, our November travel plans had changed multiple times. The original plan was a week in the British Virgin Islands sailing with Olivia and Cleo. Due to the increasing intensity and frequency of storms, those plans were dashed. Immense gratitude to Debbie for taking on most of the planning that led us to Nicaragua. It’s not hard to get on a boat with few plans, but to plot a course across Nicaragua took a lot of time.

We had breakfast at the airport on the way out of town. Cleo set up her computer so she could submit a few more college applications before we were off.

Flying into Managua, we were met by Julio, who works for the Airbnb at which we stayed. He greeted us with hugs and tutored Liv on her Spanish during the one hour drive to the house in Granada.

The house was lovely. It reminded us of a riad in Morocco. The living space was an open courtyard in the center, walled in but with no roof over half of it. So you get to live outside, while inside. It had a lovely little pool and garden. We thought it was paradise.

We spent day one in Granada exploring the city. We walked all over town visiting the beautiful colonial sites and experiencing the feel of a Central American urban city. Late that afternoon Debbie, Vince and Liv went on a carriage ride through town to visit the largest cemetery in Central America. Cleo stayed at the house to swim and relax. When time for dinner came, Cleo said she wasn’t feeling well. She spent the next 14 hours vomiting. We are not sure why, because we had all eaten the same food. Dehydration? It had been a very hot day. Needless to say none of us got much sleep. At 8 am in the morning, Debbie texted Julio. He was at the house within 20 minutes, and off Vince and Cleo went to the pharmacia where a doctor examined Cleo, gave her an injection for nausea and sent us home with fluids. All for $24. An hour later, Julio’s sister and son showed up at the house with a big pot of chicken soup. Within 12 hours, Cleo was back to herself and we felt as if we had been cared for by our own family.

Things have been great since then. Both Liv and Cleo fell in love with Granada and the experience of being in a culture so different than ours, and they were sad to move on.

Our next post will be an update on Ometepe, the crazy island paradise from where we are currently writing this update. Like most travel, it’s often the challenges that you remember, and from which you really get to learn about another culture. We all feel we are on a marvelous adventure.