Stan is Not Dead

Kimberly reminded me today that I have not written about Stan the Traveling Stent Graft for quite some time. Maybe it was Virginia's dislike of Stan, actually she thinks he is just blatant product placement with sadly no revenue stream, or the fact that I often forget that he sits at the bottom of my purse most of the day as to why he hasn't been mentioned lately. He is still alive and well and I often show him off to fellow travelers along the way as part of my own small crusade to get people to stop smoking. I haven't made any headway, but people like to meet him and hold him. He has seen quite a bit on his travels and as a result, he never wants to be cooped up inside a body. Although, I doubt the FDA will let him after my handling of him and all the germs he has surely met.


Stan joined me in China and although I left him out of all the Olympic parties, I did take him to see the Great Wall. He loved hiking up and along the Wall while reflecting on the history and what life must have been like back then. He particularly liked hanging out with our small Chinese guide who just smiled a lot as we followed him for hours.


In Nicaragua, he toured the Isla de Ometepe and kayaked with me to see the crocks and turtles. He is not a good swimmer or kayaker. Not having arms makes both activities difficult and so he just hung out on the kayak while I did all the hard work for the both of us.



In Colombia, Stan appreciated all the stunning views of the city and countryside. He is not afraid of heights and often hangs over ledges to get a better view. When I'm not careful, he sometimes blows away and I have to run down hills chasing after him. I thought about tying a piece of string around him so I wouldn't lose him, but he didn't like having a leash. I told him that he could pick the color, but that didn't sway him.

I also brought him to Burning Man, but the dust didn't go over well with his asthma. Plus, dust isn't great for his polyester suit and so he had to stay in the tent for most of the time. He did not sleep well because of all the party noise from the playa and unfortunately, I could not find his ears for his ear plugs to help him sleep.

Yes, he is eating and staying strong. He will accompany me on the rest of my travels and I will try to do a better job of updating his status.

Goodbye Nicaragua

On one of my last couple days in Nicaragua, I chose to climb yet another volcano, Volcan Mombacho. I boarded a local bus and met Heather, a 39 yr old woman from Santa Cruz. She is currently studying Spanish in Granada and will look to start a tour business in Alaska and move out there. We joined forces and chose to hike the more difficult El Puma route together. Sweeping views of the line of volcanoes as well as the cities and countryside surrounded us. During the hike, some of the 1000 howler monkeys that inhabit the nature preserve yelled out hellos to us from above. And the strong winds at the top kept us on our toes. We returned to the city to dine in one of Nicaragua's finest steak houses. I broke my budget spending $18 on my meal. ;-)

Tomorrow, I board a flight back to LA and will spend a couple weeks there before heading down to Bolivia. I am saddened to leave this country behind. Nicaragua will always bring back fond memories because of the people I met along the way who enriched my experience. I will carry forward the laughter.

More Volcanoes and Lakes

Worrying about a volcano erupting must be akin to worrying about an earthquake temblor. If and when it will happen is anyone's guess and worrying about it just leads to undue stress. Therefore, people live their lives next to volcanoes throughout Central America without much thought to the potential devastation and destruction. Instead, volanoes are tourist attractions and everyone wants to climb at least one while visiting these countries. I'm not sure how many I have climbed now, but the novelty is slowly wearing off. Despite this, I still enjoy a good hike and lookout points of the country.

The other day, I was driven straight up to Volcano Masaya, one of the few volcanoes in which people can drive up to the crater. Looking down, I could see the stream of volcanic smoke and steam billowing up. Strangely, parakeets live in the crater and seem to be immune to the sulfurous environment. Also, human remains can be found. Locals now don't think much of the volcano erupting, but early indigenous people often feared an eruption and would leave beautiful young women as sacrifices to the volcano god. Not sure if that worked.

Later, I went to visit Laguna de Apoyo, the cleanest water in all of Nicaragua as well as the lowest point in Central America at 200m. Laguna de Apoyo formed tens of thousands of years ago in the middle of the now dormant Volcano Apoyo. I am told that this Laguna has both fresh water and sea water.

I stayed at a lodge on the water's edge and met 12 other solo female travelers. I thought I had joined Girl Camp and loved every minute of the female bonding moment. The 44 yr old owner, Ann from Vancouver, started her business 3 years ago and has traveled all over the world. She even spent 2 years in Africa 15 years ago traveling solo. I also met Karen, a 49 yr old Danish woman who first set foot in Nicaragua in 1979 and traveled solo throughout the country for 6 months. Guide books had not entered into the backpacker scene and she just showed up in each town and asked around on where to sleep. I admire these brave souls and enjoyed meeting the other younger women traveling solo. We are everywhere.

During my time on the Lake, I helped nurse newly born baby squirrels with an eye dropper filled with milk. The squirrels kept falling out of their tree and so Ann decided to just feed them herself. I also swam under the almost full moon and chilled on a floating dock. The rest of my time, I caught up on life at home and am thankful Snowball is here to connect me.

Colonial Granada

Although, I didn't have high expectations of Granada since I figured it would be over run with tourists, I like it much more than I like Antigua, Guatemala. Granada has a similar colonial style to Antigua with colorful shops that line the charming clean streets. However, Granada is more integrated with the local culture than Antigua. Granted, foreign investments have made its way down and I am surprised to see Coldwell Banker and ReMax Realty signs and offices throughout the city. Americans are retiring in Granada and setting up shop. I am certain that in no time, Granada will be just as touristy as Antigua. In the meantime, it is still Nicaraguan.

While strolling along the streets, I can easily peer into many homes and view the old world glamour that once lived inside. The Nicaraguan elite still live in Granada and their homes are filled with old paintings and chandeliers. The air breathes of romanticism and the nights hum with the chatter from the many locals who congregate in central park. The food is superb here compared to my normal gallo pinto diet of rice and beans. And I feel like I am slowly making my transition back to the States by having Thai and Italian food again.


Over the weekend, I witnessed the Ascension of Mary festivities. Being a very Catholic country, many of the cities celebrated the day Mary went up to heaven. A brightly lit float with Mary carrying young Jesus, and not baby Jesus, paraded around town and stopped in front of the cathedral. Possibly disgraceful, but I went for a beer while the entire city watched as Mary made her way, with the help of locals, into the church. The next day, the city celebrated the immaculate conception of Mary, which is not to be confused with the conception of Jesus. A similar celebration occurred in Central Park again.

Isla de Ometepe

In the middle of Nicaragua lie 2 volcanoes on an island surrounded by fresh water. Volcan Concepcion remains active with clouds of smoke billowing at the top while Volcan Maderas is now extinct and the crater filled with a lagoon. Island life is simple and the people friendly. Fresh water breeding sharks are a rare species that inhabit the waters, but due to hunting, these animals are almost extinct. Over the last couple days, I hiked, biked, and swam. Although, a slow pace life, I spent much of my time on an exercisathon.


A bike served my transport needs for most of the time. I rented one and cruised along the bumpy dirt roads to all the scenic locations. Along the way, I passed wandering pigs, meandering cows, grazing horses and the locals walking or biking their way home. At one point, I raced kids on a bike along the road although 3 kids sitting on just one bike managed to beat me; a sad moment in time.

A grueling hike up Volcan Maderas led to a gorgeous cascading waterfal, Cascada San Ramon. I enjoyed the idyllic moments resting under the spraying water drops. Earlier, I kayaked to Rio Istian to see crocks, howler monkeys and tons of birds occupying a tranquil river. On another trek, I biked to a wonderful refreshing pool formed from cold springs and visited old ruins of the Nahutils. A nice diversion from my cluttered head.

Too Early to Leave Nicaragua

Due to pressing family matters, I am returning to LA for a couple weeks. In order to prepare for the harsh realities I face and the unpleasant actions I must take to save a family member, I decided to take a mental holiday and see the rest of Nicaragua before I leave. I hope to return to Leon at some point in the future. I love the vibe of the city and really like the people I have met and the friends I have made.

Before leaving, I invited some friends out for a last drink. The Peace Corp gang and I formed a trivia team to participate in the monthly trivia contest at Via Via. We performed impressingly well, but not well enough to beat Rufus' international team that wins every time. Still, we enjoyed our bottle of wine prize. Lena and Magdalena, the Austrians, said their goodbyes as did Gerry and Carla, the Canadians. I introduced Gerry and Carla to the Peace Corp gang so that they can replace me in the English Camp. As for Fundacion Leon 2000, they are wrapping up their end of year activities and have no funding for new projects and so I didn't leave any projects open.


But most of all, I will miss Mily, the 5 year old granddaughter in my homestay. We would often sit at the dinner table, just the two of us, and have very adult conversations on how our day went. We would then retreat to my room where she would talk about children stuff. Not everything quite registered with my intermediate level of Spanish, but we had fun nonetheless. I will also miss the rest of the family. The grandfather is a chemistry professor and we bonded (no pun intended) immediately when he learned that I had majored in chemistry. We often shared in geeky chemistry jokes and named elements in everything we ate. With Daniela the 54 yr old grandmother, we connected through dancing starting at 6am every day when the music blared from their living room to begin their day.

If all goes well, I plan to fly down to Bolivia at the end of December where I have a job lined up to work on Diabetes education. I will help kids learn how to better manage their disease. When I will return to Nicaragua remains unseen since I could stay in Bolivia for quite some time. All part of the fun of figuring it out on the fly.

English Camp

Today, I joined Lara, Adam, and Jordan, current Peace Corp volunteers, in teaching English to teenagers at a voluntary summer camp held out of Lara and Adam's house. School has ended and the kids now have the summer off. 12 out of the anticipated 16 students showed up for the class. We mainly focused on ice breakers, setting up the rules for the class and how we plan to have fun.

During interviews to assess their initial level of English, I noticed that everyone had problems understanding the word "How". We then broke up into 4 groups of 3 and worked on all the question words, who, where, what, when, why and how. I let Lara take the difficult "how" and I took "where". We practiced using the words in sentences and then I had the students try out questions on each other that they had to answer. One 17 year old student, Glenin, then proceeded to ask me, "Where do you like to dance?" and "How do you like a man?". Jordan scolded him for trying to pick me up. I thought it was funny. At least he is practicing his English. They have a full 2 week schedule ahead of them and hopefully, they will leave having had fun learning the language I now take for granted.

Saved from Another Mugging

Maybe I don't know how to sit still or maybe I just get bored easily. Whatever the reason, I am constantly on the go. Every night, I live the night owl lifestyle and recruit new birds to keep me company. Leon has plenty of action and all the ex-pats and locals congregate around a different hotspot each night. Live music can be heard 4 or more times a week. I usually go to Olla Quemada on Wed, and Via Via on Fri and Sun to hear it. Last night I went to a musical concert of female musicians from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Holland and the States.

The city is small enough to walk everywhere and because people hang out on the streets all night long, I have never felt unsafe getting home by myself. Of course, Pepper, my pepper spray, always keeps me company. I prefer to walk home than take a taxi because I think it is safer than being stuck in a moving vehicle although, in Guatemala, I always took a taxi. Leon is considered one of the safest cities in Latin America although muggings are on the rise.

My friend Rufus, walked me home late last night. I should have known better than to be escorted by a Brit who has been mugged 4x already this year. I probably would have had better luck walking home alone. Sure enough, while walking on a street that I normally don't walk down because it is a little isolated even though it is right next to my house, 2 guys on one bike stopped by us. My 6th sense mugger alert went into overdrive. One got off the bike and started to pull out what looked like a glass bottle or something from his back pocket. I immediately just started running in the opposite direction. Rufus followed suit and I noticed one of them started to follow and so I screamed as loud as I could. The two guys watched us from a far and then got back on their bike and took off. I'm perfecting the art of getting out of muggings although, it's not an artform I'm excited to continue to improve. I do have a couple stalkers that follow me around town and one even wants to buy me perfume for Christmas. I have not adopted these two who appear to be drunks and drug addicts, and if I tell them enough times to leave, they eventually will. No worries, though, Leon is still one of the safest cities I have visited on my trip.

Dia de Gracias and Homecoming Queen

Thanksgiving remains my favorite holiday because of its purist nature. It is the only holiday that has not been totally commercialized and keeps its original intentions intact of reminding ourselves of what we are most thankful for in life. Normally, my family puts together quite a feast with my Uncle Alan leading the troops while adding that traditional Japanese flair of sushi and crab to the dinner. Sadly, I missed it, and instead joined a few Peace Corps folks and we make-shift created our own dinner.

For the dinner, I agreed to make the stuffing and the salad. Uncle Alan always creates stuffing from scratch and as a good soldier, I just do as I am told to help prepare it. I had never created the stuffing on my own and especially with such limited supplies here. The night before, I dried out the bread overnight in the oven, the only place I knew where the cockroaches, bugs and ducks would not get to it. I chopped up and sauteed the onions, mushrooms and beef minus the shrimp and pork I normally would add and then threw in some chopped up celery minus the water chestnuts and mixed it all together before adding the chopped up stale bread and chicken stock. In the end, and after adding a ton of salt and pepper, the stuffing turned out alright.

The others made a damn fine pumpkin/squash pie, green bean casserole, home-made wine (incredible!), mashed potatoes and we bought pre-cooked chickens. I could not have been more impressed with our dinner and was so thankful to be spending the evening with new friends. After dinner, I met up with my party friends and checked out Leon's biggest party of the year, Chica CUUN.


Leon is a university student town and CUUN is one of the major universities. Each year, each of the departments like Medicine, English, History etc, nominates a female student to represent them. I'm sure that the criteria includes good grades and personality. Then, each of these 8 women parade around town on their own flat bed semi-truck wearing a bikini in a themed manner. Wed night, I saw a mermaid, cow girl, and egyptian. The entire student body follows these semi trucks all around town while drinking and dancing in the streets. Judges then picked the winner last night and the queen reigns over the school for the next year. Every young person within a 300 mile radius came out to join in the festivities. I don't know if I have ever waited 90 minutes in line to get into a club, but I patiently did last night. Eventually at 11:15pm, we entered into a large field filled with thousands and thousands of people dancing to the live bands. I got my groove on and danced away until the fights broke out amongst the drunks. I chose to leave at that time while my friends partied on til the wee hours. Leon is similar in nature to Xela, Guatemala, but definitely has a livelier night life.

Simple Networking

How I establish myself in each country is often a mystery to many. I simply network. Within a week of being in Leon, I had found a Spanish teacher, a volunteer job, a family homestay, a gym, and am making new friends. Jordan, a peace corp volunteer who has been in Leon for the last 5 months didn't understand my method until I took her out for a drink and then promptly introduced her to several people who could help her with her project. I also gave her the phone number of a person in Managua doing similar work as well as the phone number for my Spanish teacher. I introduced her to the friends I had made and overnight expanded her network. I like to connect people just as much as I like to meet new people. As a side job, I should work as a professional wing woman since my friends here tell me that I am really good at connecting strangers in bars.



Through a former Peace Corp volunteer with whom I connected through the owner of my hostel, I have a homestay at $5/day including breakfast and dinner. I'm living with 2 parents, a daughter my age, and 3 grand kids along with 2 ducks and 2 chickens we plan to eat next weekend for the parent's birthdays. They bought the ducks 4 months ago and have been fattening them up for this party. The ducks hang out in the small open courtyard located in the middle of the house. Our breakfast and dinner conversations disturb me since when we sit around the kitchen table, we stare at the animals and discuss how tasty they will be once cooked. I try not to befriend the animals and thankfully, the family has not given them names. I stay in a simple room and share their one bathroom with the rest of the family. The family and I connected on the first day when all generations and I started dancing to the blaring music from their living room stereo. I decided on the homestay instead of staying in a hostel or getting my own apartment for the month because I want to work on my Spanish.

Through an American I met in Managua who is staying in Leon, I found a private Spanish tutor, Iliana at $4/hour. She is wonderful to work with and the other day we even went on a tour of the local hospital. She knew of my interest in the health sector and so we went down to the hospital and requested a tour of the facility. The director personally gave us a tour of the 6 floor hospital, which surprised me by the size and shocked me by the disorganization and feeling of being in a building falling apart. They obviously can not afford the medical devices I use to market, and they only have 1 surgery room. Sick kids filled many of the rooms and I left a little depressed and less hygienic.

Within a couple days, I met with just about every NGO in Leon. Although interesting, I decided against volunteering with street kids since I wanted to try something new. Instead, I somehow talked my way into helping at Fundacion Leon 2000, a microcredit organization, that is also linked to KIVA, kiva.org the SF based lending organization connecting ordinary people to small business owners around the world. My Spanish has much to learn and so I'm not sure how useful I can be since I have a difficult time following conversations. However, I did help with a business plan by providing some input and I sat through a business proposal for financing. I think I shadow more than I help right now, and I am learning about the challenges of working and starting a new business in a developing country.

Tomorrow, I will help review business plans as part of a business plan competition for people who have recently completed a 6 month business plan training course. Additionally, I will listen to another business seeking funding. The business ideas are all the same though; they are either another restaurant serving typical food, a photo copy place, an internet shop, or a shop selling pens and notebooks. Every street has one of each of these types of stores and I still am not sure how each business survives with so much competition. In the business plans, the potential owners explain that they are different from their competition because they expect to obtain business from those located within a couple blocks of their business. I can't imagine that people are so lazy that they would not walk 2 blocks to a better shop, but what do I know.

I've also agreed to help with a Peace Corp run English camp for kids to learn English that starts shortly. And tomorrow, I'm meeting with the Director of the Internal Medicine group at the hospital to see if I can learn more about their hospital operations. I had hoped to work with ProMujer another microcredit organization, focusing predominately on women. However, with only a month in Leon, my time is a little constrained for them.

As for making friends, I have met quite a few ex-pats who have decided to make Leon their home for the last few years. One of them introduced me to her gym and although, I haven't belonged to a gym since college, I plan to try it here for only $15/month. Jordan invited me over for Thanksgiving and I've been checking out the night life with fellow tourists. I'm trying to keep my expenses to below $20/day to make up for the money spent in the US in order to stay on budget. All in all, my new life in Nicaragua has begun.

One with Nature

Quick addendum to the election coverage. While driving back to Leon yesterday, I drove past a couple of FLSN blockades. I found out today that the Sandinistas put those up because they didn't want any of the Liberals to enter into Leon for the 2pm protest. Even I was a little afraid of the blockades and put on my sunglasses to avoid being known as a tourist. During the protest, the police had to use tear gas to calm the crowds since the Sandinistas and Liberals started to clash. I missed the riots I had been looking for, but I'm sure there will be more. Considering how the country is reacting to the local mayoral elections, I can just picture how fun the presidential election might be.


Besides the people, I have also interacted with nature. For fun, I climbed a young active volcano, Cerro Negro near Leon, and volcano boarded down. The hike up took an hour and the ride down, a few minutes. Surprisingly, the volcanic rocks were small and didn't hurt much when I fell. I only face-planted once at the very end. Volcano boarding is similar to snow boarding although, I had to keep my weight on my back foot otherwise I would fall forward. To slow down, I had to drop my back hand in the volcanic rock and manually slow down. Thankfully, I had gloves to help with the volcanic rock drag. As much as I enjoyed the new experience, I probably won't do it again; checked off of my life experience list.

In Managua, I zip-lined across a lake inside a volcano in the middle of the city center. I zip-lined down the first leg by myself and got stuck 3/4 of the way. My guide had to zip line down and rescue me as I hung over the lake helpless. On the next leg, my guide turned me upside down and we zip lined together. I only wish I had a photo of this crazy stunt and I don't plan to do that again either.

Near Leon, I visited the Isla Juan Venado Wildlife Reserve of mangroves and tropical dry forest. While there, I had the opportunity to watch newly hatched turtles scamper back to the ocean. The turtles are protected in this area from potential thieves, mainly predators. The conservationists watch over the eggs until they hatch and then free the turtles into the ocean as seen in the photo below.




More nature... Mainly because I'm behind on my blog, I thought I would fill this entry with more pics than content. Over the weekend, I went up to Esteli and then into the Miraflor natural reserve where people live without showers and electricity. I stayed with a local family who allowed me to be a part of their lives for a couple of days. Of course, I didn't shower as they do with bucket water out in the front yard in the freezing cold, but I did capture a glimpse into their farm and cowboy lifestyle. They go to bed by 8pm and wake up by 4am to milk the cows and start their day. Children receive free schooling up until age 12 and then when they enter secondary school, they have to pay about $5 a month to attend. The secondary school only meets once a week on Saturdays so that the kids have time during the week to help earn money for their schooling and to help with the family chores. I'm not sure how much the kids learn in one day a week schooling, but if the family is wealthy, the children can receive schooling every day at a private school. Life is slow-paced here for the tourist like me, but the work for daily survival for the local is tough. Community tourism is helping increase their income as well as educate tourists on their culture. I left educated and covered with a million mosquito bites; hopefully not with Dengue Fever too.