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In just over a week’s time, I have I have logged a lot of airline miles.  Leaving Germany last Saturday morning, I have flown to Salt Lake City, driven to Salmon, Idaho, flown back to Denver, and finally onto Managua, Nicaragua.  I arrived yesterday in San Juan del Sur (the location of my Spanish school that I will be attending for the next 4 weeks).  After only 8 days since the beginning of this journey, I feel a long ways away from both my life in Germany and my grandparents in Idaho.

First of all, Nicaragua is hot and humid.  I don’t want to sound like I am complaining, but it is true.  One of the teachers at the school said today that this is the cold time of year for Nicaragua (and that she was a bit cold).  I do not understand how anybody can believe this and I would hate to be here during the ‘hot’ period. 

Today I moved in with my host family.  I will be living with a large (4 adults and 3 children) extended family.  They are very warm and friendly.  I believe it will be a great experience.  I start classes tomorrow. 

The past few days have been spent traveling from Managua to San Juan del Sur (located on the SW coast of Nicaragua, just a few miles north of Costa Rica) and relaxing.  Good food, lots of coffee, long mornings, swimming in the ocean (with my new surfing shorts) a couple days, and generally enjoying life.  There have been (of course) a few experiences that are not completely normal, but I have come to accept these happening as just part of the ‘traveling bob experience.’  On Friday, we took a taxi from the hotel to the bus depot, where we were met by a couple people that were taking the backpacks, throwing stuff on a bus, and demanding tips.  My guidebook warned me about the overly aggressive people at the bus station, but it was still a bit of a surprise.  The same thing happened again in the town of Rivas (about 20 minutes from San Juan del Sur) where we were nearly forced into a taxi.  A bit frustrating since we were not really given the opportunity (it felt anyway) to figure things out for ourselves.  Hopefully after a few weeks of Spanish class, this will get better, or at least be able to handle myself better (athough it was not a bad experience).

Other first impressions of Nicaragua include lots of noise and sounds from all directions.  People honk horns constantly for no apparent reason.  I think there is some sort of psydo-code/meanings assocated with the horns: 1) hi, 2) watch out I’m coming through, and 3) get the fuck out of my way.  My basic conclusion is that #3 is used the most.  Along with the sounds are lots of bright colors everywhere.  Great sunsets, warm nights and a continuous warm wind in San Juan del Sur. 

I guess that is enough for now.  I will try to get some pictures posted in the next days.