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.