Throwback Thursday

While we are having a very busy month already with our planned move to Tola, we decided to squeeze in a visit to Pearl Lagoon. Jean's mom had gone through a period of sickness and also had a surgery on her hand, so we felt we needed to go and spend some time and help out around the house.

We started out by catching the circuit assembly in spanish in Ticuantepe. This is the circuit assembly for the Tola congregation so it gave us a chance to meet some of the brothers in our new circuit. Even more exciting, my nephew got baptized. I am still so amazed that my family are here in Nicaragua to stay, and that my own nephew was answering the questions from the platform with "Si" instead of "yes". Right after the assembly my Brother in law gave us a ride into Managua. He insisted on driving us all the way to the bus terminal even though none of us were sure how to get there. We had always gone by taxi in the past. We consulted google maps to plan our route through the city, which gave us a very quick and direct way to get there. Unfortunately Google Maps does not have ALL the information... It didn't send us the wrong way, into any dead ends, or down any one way streets... but it did give us a lovely tour of the ghettos of Managua. We drove fast and kept the doors and windows locked, and we made it to the terminal. My brother in law and family took a different, somewhat longer route along the main highways to get back out of the city.

We were able to get our tickets that same day from the Wendelyn Vargas terminal at the Ivan Montenegro market. The bus would depart at 9:00 pm and travel to Rama overnight. We like this method for several reasons, one being that the night bus is always "express" meaning that it doesn't pick up extra people along the way. The trip took us about 5 hours, our chicken bus rolling through the night like a disco ball. We were in rama by 3:00 AM. Our bus ticket also garunteed us a seat on the 6:00AM panga to bluefields. The town of Rama never sleeps, so we were able to get some good breakfast for about 30 cords each while we waited for daybreak.

Another panga and lots of heavy rain and we were in Pearl Lagoon. The town has changed a little bit since we were last here, but not that much. It is still a quiet, friendly and slow paced town where it is easy to feel relaxed. Everywhere we go people are waving at us and shouting greetings from inside their house. "Ey! Wen yu reach back!?" And things like that. It looks like the rainy season is starting, although it's still fairly dry for lagoon. The entire area is still Incredibly lush and green compared to the pacific right now, due to the atlantic getting regular rains all year.

The congregation is also just as we remembered. Warm, friendly and crammed into a tiny house for the meeting. Although word is that they will be renting a larger house out towards Haulover to accomodate the rapidly growing congregation. Just like before it was so hard to get out the door of the kingdom hall because nobody wants to leave after the meeting.

It all feels so nostalgic being back "home" in Pearl Lagoon, the place we met and were married. We celebrated our 1 year and 6 month anniversary by having dinner at Casa Ulrich, the same restaurant where we went on our first date and where we had our wedding reception, which is still the very best in town, maybe even the best in Nicaragua.

In another post I plan to make a tourist map for Pearl Lagoon much like the ones I made for Corn Island. It will Include an up to date list of hotels and restaurants and also some travel tips, like how to get here and how to evade the town drunks.

Corn Island Travel Blog

One of the things that Jean and I tried to do in order to make a living back on Corn Island was help plan people's vacations. We had a service of booking hotels for people and recommending good and safe places to stay and where to eat. Many awesome hotels and restaurants don't have websites and are not listed on tourist maps so one can miss out a lot without some insider information. As well, some of the "best" hotels and restaurants online have long since gone out of business or are run down and don't offer many of the services they claim.

Well, since we obviously can't do this anymore even though it was doing alright and we made some great friends in the process... I've decided just to share our information publicly. Below are some of the custom maps we made for our clients. You may notice the Little Corn map is a bit lacking but that's because we didn't have any clients who went to little corn yet. You may also notice a recommendation to steer clear of a few places. I have nothing against these places, and perhaps you may like them yourself, its just that having been there in person and seeing what they have to offer, and more importantly what their competition has to offer I did not feel their prices were justifiable.

Big Corn

Little Corn

Here's some good hotels on Big Corn:

Treehouse - Private cabins on long bay, absolutely amazing. Hot water, kitchen, wifi (thats hard to get on Corn Island by the way) and great service. Around $50 per night

Picnic Center - Best beach on the Island, possibly best beach in Nicaragua. Rooms around $40 per night. AC, hot water, stylish.

Hotel Morgan - prices ranging from $20 to $40. Very nice location, breezy. Good looking rooms with AC. Restaurant has good food for good prices with big portion sizes.

Alal Suite - Upstairs rooms have an amazing view of the ocean and all day breeze. AC not necessary. $25 per night

Some places to avoid:

Arenas beach - Looks pretty fancy. They have gazebos on the beach which are nice. We wanted to go there one day and they wanted to charge us $20 per person (5 of us) to sit in the gazebo. We asked the people next to us what they paid (they were Nicaraguan) and they said $10 for their entire group, which was 5 or 6 people. We asked to speak to someone inside and they simply said "The price changed, sorry". On top of that everything is 2x the price of Picnic center which is literally right next to the place. That being said its really a nice looking place if you're OK with being lied to about the prices and taken advantage of for being a gringo.

Paraiso - Used to be a very nice place, unfortunately it hasn't been maintained and has become quite run down. Some friends stayed there recently and left after the first night because of the poor conditions of the room. A lot of the services they offered online weren't there (like hot water).

Little Corn hotels:

Mostly, just wanted to add one we recently discovered while staying for a wedding on Little Corn. the aptly named "Grace's cool spot" which located right where "elsa's" is on the map above. $10 a night for a simple room, $20 for a private cabin. Probably one of the coolest places I've ever stayed in. All the cabins are actually on the sand, on the breezy side of the island, with the waves splashing just a few steps from your cabin's door. One of not so many hotels on little corn owned and run by local islanders.

As for the ones listed as overpriced, its just that. Too darn expensive. Yemaya for example is supposed to be a "resort" for $300-500 per night. I've been to resorts in Mexico. Yemaya is not a resort. It is a hotel. They also offer a private boat to pick you up from Big Corn, but if I were you I'd stick with the panga. Yemaya's boat is tiny.

Speaking of boats, if you're thinking of going to Corn Island, here is a video tour we made of the largest of the passenger boats that takes you from Bluefields to Big Corn. In this video we are on our way to Rama from Corn Island.

Atlantic and Pacific

Its often said that there are two sides of Nicaragua. The yearbook even called the Atlantic coast "The Other Nicaragua" highlighting the vast cultural differences between the two sides of the country. Having lived in both sides now we have experienced this first hand and can really confirm that it is true. The east side of Nicaragua, divided into two departments: Region Autonomio Costa Caribe Norte, or "R.A.C.C.N." and Region Autonomio Costa Caribe Sur, or "R.A.C.C.S." These when translated basically mean "North carribbean coast autonomous region" and likewise as the south. Many maps still show the old name of these departments: RAAN and RAAS, however this was recently changed likely due to RAAS being uncomfortably close to a curse word in the local Creole language.

Many people in the Atlantic regions still speak Spanish, however many do not speak it as their first language. Some speak either Creole which is a dialect of English, or Miskito which is an indigenous language of its own. Economically the Atlantic coast is far behind the Pacific. Many in the Pacific believe that people from the Atlantic coast are wealthy because the cost of living is higher, but the opposite is true, wages are generally lower while cost of living is higher. Having just moved to Jinotepe, Carazo we have found that prices of everyday household items like soap, as well as food are generally twice as expensive on the Atlantic coast, becoming more expensive the further east you go. Corn Island and Pearl Lagoon being the most expensive. This seems to be in part due to the lack of transportation. The highway stops at Rama, and any travel beyond there must be done by boat, or if you're brave by dirt (mud) roads. Another reason for the prices likely is the lack of competition, there are very few shops and no supermarkets besides the ones in Rama and Bluefields, so if someone is selling anything from the pacific they can charge any price they want even for basic necessities.

On the Pacific side of Nicaragua, first of all there's a lot more people. According to some sources 5% of the population lives in the two Atlantic Regions, and 95% in the Pacific. The Pacific is divided into many departments, all of which I have yet to memorize. We live in Carazo, other well known departments are Rivas, Granada, Masaya... names you have likely heard of. There is more business over here and many cities as well. Cost of living over here is generally 50% of what it is on the Atlantic side, although tourist areas may cost many times more. We pay a little bit more for rent over here, but that comes with conveniences that are hard to get in the Atlantic, such as wifi and hot water. We can even drink from the tap in Jinotepe, something we wouldn't even dream of doing in Pearl Lagoon.

Grocery store in Jinotepe

Tourism has a much bigger impact on the Pacific side as well. On Corn Island (RACCS) tourism is only beginning, and any tourists found in Pearl Lagoon are either hard-core adventurers or hopelessly lost. San Juan Del Sur on the other hand, in the Rivas department of the pacific has a lot more in common with tourist hotspots like Cancun or Hawaii. many things are priced according to "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". Rental apartments or houses in SJDS are rare, as most opt to rent on a per-night basis and are unlikely to agree to long term. Other communities away from the beach are quite different however and rent can be very cheap. Although the Pacific coast may be more popular with tourists, the Atlantic has natural beauty that is beyond compare, just lacking in accessibility.

Sunset in San Juan Del Sur

Crystal clear water of Corn Island

Architecture on the Pacific side resembles the rest of Latin America. Cities are made up of blocks laid out on a grid, and the buildings in each block are built with their exterior wall immediately on the sidewalk, and their interior walls connected to each other, making the entire block resemble one large building.

San Marcos

In the Atlantic however, houses are well spaced out and disconnected from each other. In fact, in smaller communities the houses may not even be built near a street, but rather be behind another house or simply standing on its own.

Haulover

These are just a few of my observations, but it really feels like two countries in one, and if you spend any time in Nicaragua its definitely worth going to the other side to get the full experience.

Moving on

After a full year on Corn Island, Jean and I have come to the difficult decision that we will be moving away from Corn Island for the time being. It was a decision we made fairly suddenly and It really wasn't something we wanted to consider, but for various practical reasons we are unable to stay on the Island any longer. Corn Island is a wonderful place and we will really miss the congregation here, there is a lot of need for brothers that can stay here long term, and we really thought we could stay longer.

Some of the reasons for our move were discussed in my last post, namely the amount of time it takes to travel to and from the Island, this has meant at times we spend more time off the island riding buses and boats than we do on the Island itself. Cost of living is also much higher here than on the mainland, but still manageable. One of the main reasons for our move is that its hard to find work here. Our situation is rather unique and different than I would have expected. When we came to Corn Island I was teaching English online over skype, but after about a month of being on the Island i lost the job due to poor internet connectivity. At times the internet was fast enough but it would often cut out without warning or any reason. Also having to pay for data made it unprofitable to do video calls to teach.

Claro que no.

Since then I've tried many other things, I've applied for many of jobs online and even tried starting a business. We've sold food on the street and homemade jewelry. Selling food seemed to do the best out of everything, but this is unfavorable because my wife has to do the selling while I make the food at home, because as a foreigner my hands are tied when it comes to making a living inside the country. I'm not allowed to work, except online for a business outside the country (such as teaching English). And then, even if I could get a job in the country, I'd be looking at a wage of $5-10 US per day, and the process of getting residency takes years.

At one point we decided to give in, and go to Canada to work for a few months and save up. But those plans came to a sudden halt when Jean's visa application was denied. We had applied for a 3 month tourist visa, expecting that should be easy since she's married to a Canadian... but no. They claimed that because of her "family ties" that is, being married to a Canadian citizen, it was too high of a risk that she would attempt to stay in the country illegally, therefore her tourist visa would not be approved. Believe it or not, its easier to get into Canada if you have nothing to do with any Canadians. After some consultation it may still be possible for her to get a 1 month visa at some point in the future to go to Canada, but 1 month is not enough time for me to work enough to even pay for the flights.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, I just want to share our experience in the hopes that maybe it could help someone in a similar situation. Some may use our situation as an example for why its a "bad idea" to marry someone from another country, and may use our problems as "ammunition". But as Jehovah's Witnesses we are not confined by national boundaries. As citizens of god's kingdom we are above such things. We have these problems because we live in Satan's world, and if someone isn't ready to face these kind of obstacles for the sake of the person they love, then they aren't ready to commit to marriage either.

Of course at any moment I COULD go to Canada on my own, work for a few months sending money and come back. I could buy a plane ticket, go to the airport and be in Canada within 24 hours, and be working in any minimum wage restaurant within a couple days which would easily pay all of our expenses for a good while. We do not consider this to be an option. Matthew 19:6 says "What God has yoked together, let no man put apart". We've had many articles in recent years about the problems that arise when a husband leaves his family to work abroad in hopes of making more money. We feel that this counsel now applies to our situation, and so we refuse to live apart. Where I go, Jean goes. Where Jean goes, I go.

And so finally, after considering all these things and what options we have we have decided to leave Corn Island. Jehovah has provided a way out for us, that doesn't force us to live apart or sacrifice our spirituality. We are moving to another part of Nicaragua where reliable Internet is easily obtained, and costs of living are much less. We will be moving to Jinotepe, Carazo and serving in the English Congregation in San Marcos. This way we will also be closer to Managua and to the border so that we won't lose time and money traveling, and the process of my applying for Nicaraguan residency will be much easier.