2020, a year of highs and lows
Door: Jelle
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Jelle
30 Maart 2020 | Nicaragua, El Gigante
At the end of the next blog, I had just come back from my trip to granada.
The next days were just working in the brewery, making some different recipes, expanding the available beers they had. So far pretty much all the beers they made were variations of American Pale Ales, so there was very little difference between all of them. I made the IPA, a Belgian style blonde, a German style Hopfenweisse and a wheat beer with fresh pineapple. Together with Wilfredo I also wrote a recipe for an English style brown ale. So in the end we had 5 very distinct beers, all of which came out pretty darn good. I also had to move to another house, since there was some issue with the HOA (Home owners association), or the owner of the house, I never really got all the details, but in the end I moved to a beautiful simple house, just outside Iguana. It was very simple and small, with a single room. It was much more in nature, further away from all the fancy houses, and it had massive windows, letting in a ton of natural light, and when I'd open the windows, it would blow through the entire house, giving a lovely breeze. Besides that life continued as normal, with brewing and surfing as regular activities. I'd always eat at the brewery, so I didn't really cook at all.
I also started looking for my own place, as the deal I struck with Mike was that I'd start getting paid as soon as I had my own apartment. Will helped me look around a bit in Playa Gigante, the next town over, where it was mostly just locals, and the prices are a lot more reasonable. Will also lives here, and knew plenty of people. It took a bit of time before everything was taken care of, but in the end I moved into a small room above a restaurant. It doesn't have it's own kitchen, but I can use the restaurant kitchen. I also took a surfboard from Iguana, so that I could still just grab my board and surf whenever I wanted. I go to a different beach from Gigante, but it's not much further, and the waves are just as good. There are several ways to get to Iguana from Gigante, one of the roads is along the beach, where I'd have to climb a small hill, but at times it's so steep it's hard to do by bike. The other way is to first head to the main road, but that means it's a lot longer. As the crow flies it's only some 3 km, but via the main road, it's almost 14. In the end they're both about the same time though. My commute to work was going to take a bit longer now though.
At one point the next day's we didn't have anything to do for a few days, since the fermenter was full, and we had to wait a week for the next beer to be done fermenting. So I decided to take the bike to Omotepe. It's an island in lake Nicaragua, which has two volcanoes. It's a beautiful place, and very good for mountainbiking, since it's not that big, so a bike is a nice way to get around. Some of Alexander's girlfriend's family also lived on this island in Altagracia, so I stopped by there for some lunch, and to say hello. It's a bit hilly, since here and there the roads go partially up the volcano. Only a part of the island actually had paved roads, and a lot is just dirt. I spent the night on the south part of the island, so the next day I could go explore the southern of the two volcanoes.
The second day I started my loop, and then went up the volcano to head towards a waterfall. I decided it'd be fun to try and do so by bike, at least for as long as the road permitted. It was incredibly steep at some points, and I was absolutely drenched in sweat. The heat and the hard work meant I was quite exhausted when I got halfway, where I had to park the bike and continue on foot. The entire climb is some 800m, while actual summit of the volcano is 1500m above sea level. When I got to the waterfall, there was nobody else there, since I had left nice and early. I went for a nice and refreshing dip under the waterfall, which helped cool a lot, since the water was surprisingly cool. Going down was a lot less exhausting, especially once I got to my bike. All the effort I put in going up, I could now reap the rewards. I only had to use the breaks to stop myself from crashing into the trees. What took me an hour to get up, I went down in some ten minutes. Having arrived at the bottom, I realised that I was out of cash, so I continued my trip, looking for an ATM. After continuing my loop of the southern part of the island, I learned that there were only three ATMs on the island, and all of them were located on the North part of the island. The little money I had left I needed to use to get some water on the way, since with the heat there was a definite risk of dehydration. Then I also happened to get another puncture, so when I got to a workshop I asked them for some air, since I couldn't afford to pay for them fixing my bike. After a few hours I got to the first ATM in Altagracia, since the other two were much further away, only to discover that it only took Visa, something I don't have. This meant that my exercise for the day wasn't done yet, as I'd need to do another 30km to get to the other ATMs. With no other choice, I got back on my bike and got on my way. Finally having arrived, I got out some money, found a hostel, and got some food.
That evening I also found a place where they could fix my bike, so the next day I'd be ready for action once more. The following day I went back to Altagracia, to say goodbye to the family, and to stop by a charity project I walked into the last time I was there. They teach English to the locals, and do an English cafe, where they can practice some speaking with tourists. It was a great programme, teaching the kids not just English, but also about the environment, and the guy running the place was even fermenting some fruit juices, and wanted to teach that to some of the locals as well. We had plenty to talk about, and after a while some locals streamed in, ready to practice their English. After a while I had to be on my way though, to get back to my hostel before dark. I stayed close to the ferry, since the next day I'd be taking the ferry home early morning. The way back to Iguana was without much trouble, and once back home I had a nice swim, and relaxed after having done well over 300km on this trip.
The following days were not very eventful, until on Friday the 31st of January my mum called me with some bad news. My grandma had been getting a bit worse over the past few months, and that morning she had fallen and broken her hip. Apparently that was too much, and in combination with medication at her 92 years of age, she passed away the same day. Suddenly I was talking with the insurance about going home, while that morning, I had expected not to go to the Netherlands for another few years. Everything went very quickly, and Sunday I was headed to Managua to take a flight home Monday afternoon. I hadn't really had time to process everything, it all just came so quickly. It wasn't completely unexpected, and before I left on my trip, I did say goodbye to grandma with the idea that that would probably be the final time I'd see her. However, less than two months ago with Christmas she was still doing great, and while not as sharp as she once was, I could not have predicted it to go so quickly. Suddenly I'd be back with friends and family in the Netherlands in a few days.
The first flight was to Mexico City, where I'd have a 7 hour layover. Now México has a very special place in my heart, and tacos have a very special place in my stomach. So of course I could not just stay in the airport waiting for my next flight. I went out into the city with a nice Canadian lady I met on the plane. I also noticed on Instagram that a friend of mine from Utila was also in CDMX (Ciudad de México), so we met up, and with the three of us we went for some tacos. It had been some seven months since I left Mexico, and the food in central America is nothing to write home about. So when I finally had some proper Mexican food again I was over the moon. Maybe it was due to not having had proper tacos for so long, but it was like an orgasm in the mouth, or as we say so eloquently in Dutch, "Alsof een engeltje over je tong pist" (as if an angel pisses over your tongue). After dinner we still had a few hours to kill, so we went for some drinks. We were enjoying ourselves quite a bit, so much in fact, that I might have left somewhat late, and had to run for the plane, but in the end I made it.
After ten and a half hours I finally landed in Amsterdam, where my parents were waiting for me at the airport. It had been 13 months since I'd been home, and it was good to see them again. We went home and had dinner, because even though for me it felt like it was still morning, and I'd slept most of the flight, due to the time difference it was evening in the Netherlands. At my parents house not much had changed. Small things were different, but it didn't feel any different from when I'd left. The next day I hit up the supermarket to buy some food I'd been missing, like stroopwafels, boterkoek, speculaas, and of course drop (licorice). I also went to get a new drivers licence, since my last one got stolen, and that was the one thing I really couldn't get abroad, since I had to pick it up in person. I also got some new glasses, since my previous ones eroded because of the constant sea wind. That evening my sisters arrived as well, and we had some time to catch up. Of course we spoke on WhatsApp and called every now and then, but it's nice to see them in person.
The next day I headed to Amsterdam to meet up with some friends, and to buy some supplies. A lot of stuff isn't readily available in central America, or just more expensive, so after stocking up on some diving gear and other travel supplies, I met up with my friends Thij and Stefan. We always used to go on vacation together, and I've known them for a long time. While I had now also finished my bachelors, Thij had already finished his masters, and is now almost ready to start serious life as a civilian. But really between us it was just like the old days. We played a game of Risk, so by the end of the day I was ready to stab their eyes out, but that's what friendship is. I had planned to meet up with quite some friends, and not everyone lives close to my parents, so it required a bit of planning every now and then, but luckily I could work something out with everyone. That evening I had a nice dinner with my family. The next day was the funeral, so we had all come to my parents' and had everything prepared.
The funeral was a nice service, I got to see some photos of my grandma when she was young that I'd never seen before, and heard some stories about when she was younger. I read a bit from her memoirs that we had once read together a while ago. It was about when she sang a dirty song in kindergarten, and a very happy memory I had with her. I'm glad I came back for this, and even though I had already said my final goodbye to her before I left, it's good to have closure.
That weekend we also went bouldering with the family, at Maaike's suggestion. It was a lot of fun, I've done rope climbing before, but bouldering adds another dimension to it, and it's more free, since you're without the rope, and if you fall, generally it's still fine. My parents also bought a van that they want to transform into a camper, so I'd been helping my dad a bit with ideas about how to shape it, and showed him how to draw it out in 3D, so he'd have some more idea on how to build it. Of course I also wanted to drive around a bit in the van :).
Monday I headed to Utrecht to visit another friend, Lana, who was about to embark on her own big trip to Asia, so as luck would have it I just arrived in time to catch up a bit. She was all panicking about packing, while I just had my small backpack laying at my parents' house with all my stuff in it that I'd survived with the past year. But I started with a lot more too, shedding weight is something that usually happens while traveling.
That week I also went to visit Rick in Amsterdam, a long time childhood friend, who was still studying there. It's funny how some things never change, even though I hadn't seen most of my friends for 13 months, everything is just like old. We might change as people, but the friendship stays. Thomas also came to visit me in Castricum, since me going all the way to Eindhoven was a bit costly without student discount. I had seen Thomas a bit more recently, since he had come to visit me in July-August, when we traveled Guatemala together, and ended our trip with diving in Utila. Still, that had been a good 6 months, and quite a lot had happened in that time. I also brought a beer I made in Nicaragua, that was actually based on a recipe from the beer brewing committee where we met in Eindhoven. We took a quick trip down to the beach as well, some nice wind, and have a look around. It's certainly a lot cooler than the Nica beach.
The next few days were buying some last supplies, and gear, and spending a bit more time with my parents. Then the time came to fly back on the 20th of February. It was once again a very long flight to Mexico City, it took almost 11 hours this time. Once I arrived there I hung around for a bit, since I arrived around 3 in the morning. After a few hours I met up with Vera, who braved almost an hour in public transport to come to the airport! We met many years ago when we both did our exchange to Mexico, and it clearly had a very profound impact on both our lives, as Vera has spent even more time in Mexico than I have, and she's now studying there. We went for some food, and had a coffee with stroopwafels, that I brought from the Netherlands. Then I had to run for my next flight, but luckily I made it just as they were doing the last call. The final flight was a short one, and a few hours later I was in Nicaragua. Unfortunately it was absolutely packed at immigration, and it took well over an hour to get through, as everything was moving very slowly.
Finally out of the airport I got on a bus to the market, from where I could get a bus to Rivas, the city close to where I live. However, in these countries you should never be in a hurry, and everything took quite a while. Everything took so long, that by the time I got to Rivas, there were no more buses headed to Gigante, so I had to grab a taxi. Finally home after a long trip, I happily crashed in my bed and went to sleep.
Figured this would be long enough, the final part will be up in a few days.
The next days were just working in the brewery, making some different recipes, expanding the available beers they had. So far pretty much all the beers they made were variations of American Pale Ales, so there was very little difference between all of them. I made the IPA, a Belgian style blonde, a German style Hopfenweisse and a wheat beer with fresh pineapple. Together with Wilfredo I also wrote a recipe for an English style brown ale. So in the end we had 5 very distinct beers, all of which came out pretty darn good. I also had to move to another house, since there was some issue with the HOA (Home owners association), or the owner of the house, I never really got all the details, but in the end I moved to a beautiful simple house, just outside Iguana. It was very simple and small, with a single room. It was much more in nature, further away from all the fancy houses, and it had massive windows, letting in a ton of natural light, and when I'd open the windows, it would blow through the entire house, giving a lovely breeze. Besides that life continued as normal, with brewing and surfing as regular activities. I'd always eat at the brewery, so I didn't really cook at all.
I also started looking for my own place, as the deal I struck with Mike was that I'd start getting paid as soon as I had my own apartment. Will helped me look around a bit in Playa Gigante, the next town over, where it was mostly just locals, and the prices are a lot more reasonable. Will also lives here, and knew plenty of people. It took a bit of time before everything was taken care of, but in the end I moved into a small room above a restaurant. It doesn't have it's own kitchen, but I can use the restaurant kitchen. I also took a surfboard from Iguana, so that I could still just grab my board and surf whenever I wanted. I go to a different beach from Gigante, but it's not much further, and the waves are just as good. There are several ways to get to Iguana from Gigante, one of the roads is along the beach, where I'd have to climb a small hill, but at times it's so steep it's hard to do by bike. The other way is to first head to the main road, but that means it's a lot longer. As the crow flies it's only some 3 km, but via the main road, it's almost 14. In the end they're both about the same time though. My commute to work was going to take a bit longer now though.
At one point the next day's we didn't have anything to do for a few days, since the fermenter was full, and we had to wait a week for the next beer to be done fermenting. So I decided to take the bike to Omotepe. It's an island in lake Nicaragua, which has two volcanoes. It's a beautiful place, and very good for mountainbiking, since it's not that big, so a bike is a nice way to get around. Some of Alexander's girlfriend's family also lived on this island in Altagracia, so I stopped by there for some lunch, and to say hello. It's a bit hilly, since here and there the roads go partially up the volcano. Only a part of the island actually had paved roads, and a lot is just dirt. I spent the night on the south part of the island, so the next day I could go explore the southern of the two volcanoes.
The second day I started my loop, and then went up the volcano to head towards a waterfall. I decided it'd be fun to try and do so by bike, at least for as long as the road permitted. It was incredibly steep at some points, and I was absolutely drenched in sweat. The heat and the hard work meant I was quite exhausted when I got halfway, where I had to park the bike and continue on foot. The entire climb is some 800m, while actual summit of the volcano is 1500m above sea level. When I got to the waterfall, there was nobody else there, since I had left nice and early. I went for a nice and refreshing dip under the waterfall, which helped cool a lot, since the water was surprisingly cool. Going down was a lot less exhausting, especially once I got to my bike. All the effort I put in going up, I could now reap the rewards. I only had to use the breaks to stop myself from crashing into the trees. What took me an hour to get up, I went down in some ten minutes. Having arrived at the bottom, I realised that I was out of cash, so I continued my trip, looking for an ATM. After continuing my loop of the southern part of the island, I learned that there were only three ATMs on the island, and all of them were located on the North part of the island. The little money I had left I needed to use to get some water on the way, since with the heat there was a definite risk of dehydration. Then I also happened to get another puncture, so when I got to a workshop I asked them for some air, since I couldn't afford to pay for them fixing my bike. After a few hours I got to the first ATM in Altagracia, since the other two were much further away, only to discover that it only took Visa, something I don't have. This meant that my exercise for the day wasn't done yet, as I'd need to do another 30km to get to the other ATMs. With no other choice, I got back on my bike and got on my way. Finally having arrived, I got out some money, found a hostel, and got some food.
That evening I also found a place where they could fix my bike, so the next day I'd be ready for action once more. The following day I went back to Altagracia, to say goodbye to the family, and to stop by a charity project I walked into the last time I was there. They teach English to the locals, and do an English cafe, where they can practice some speaking with tourists. It was a great programme, teaching the kids not just English, but also about the environment, and the guy running the place was even fermenting some fruit juices, and wanted to teach that to some of the locals as well. We had plenty to talk about, and after a while some locals streamed in, ready to practice their English. After a while I had to be on my way though, to get back to my hostel before dark. I stayed close to the ferry, since the next day I'd be taking the ferry home early morning. The way back to Iguana was without much trouble, and once back home I had a nice swim, and relaxed after having done well over 300km on this trip.
The following days were not very eventful, until on Friday the 31st of January my mum called me with some bad news. My grandma had been getting a bit worse over the past few months, and that morning she had fallen and broken her hip. Apparently that was too much, and in combination with medication at her 92 years of age, she passed away the same day. Suddenly I was talking with the insurance about going home, while that morning, I had expected not to go to the Netherlands for another few years. Everything went very quickly, and Sunday I was headed to Managua to take a flight home Monday afternoon. I hadn't really had time to process everything, it all just came so quickly. It wasn't completely unexpected, and before I left on my trip, I did say goodbye to grandma with the idea that that would probably be the final time I'd see her. However, less than two months ago with Christmas she was still doing great, and while not as sharp as she once was, I could not have predicted it to go so quickly. Suddenly I'd be back with friends and family in the Netherlands in a few days.
The first flight was to Mexico City, where I'd have a 7 hour layover. Now México has a very special place in my heart, and tacos have a very special place in my stomach. So of course I could not just stay in the airport waiting for my next flight. I went out into the city with a nice Canadian lady I met on the plane. I also noticed on Instagram that a friend of mine from Utila was also in CDMX (Ciudad de México), so we met up, and with the three of us we went for some tacos. It had been some seven months since I left Mexico, and the food in central America is nothing to write home about. So when I finally had some proper Mexican food again I was over the moon. Maybe it was due to not having had proper tacos for so long, but it was like an orgasm in the mouth, or as we say so eloquently in Dutch, "Alsof een engeltje over je tong pist" (as if an angel pisses over your tongue). After dinner we still had a few hours to kill, so we went for some drinks. We were enjoying ourselves quite a bit, so much in fact, that I might have left somewhat late, and had to run for the plane, but in the end I made it.
After ten and a half hours I finally landed in Amsterdam, where my parents were waiting for me at the airport. It had been 13 months since I'd been home, and it was good to see them again. We went home and had dinner, because even though for me it felt like it was still morning, and I'd slept most of the flight, due to the time difference it was evening in the Netherlands. At my parents house not much had changed. Small things were different, but it didn't feel any different from when I'd left. The next day I hit up the supermarket to buy some food I'd been missing, like stroopwafels, boterkoek, speculaas, and of course drop (licorice). I also went to get a new drivers licence, since my last one got stolen, and that was the one thing I really couldn't get abroad, since I had to pick it up in person. I also got some new glasses, since my previous ones eroded because of the constant sea wind. That evening my sisters arrived as well, and we had some time to catch up. Of course we spoke on WhatsApp and called every now and then, but it's nice to see them in person.
The next day I headed to Amsterdam to meet up with some friends, and to buy some supplies. A lot of stuff isn't readily available in central America, or just more expensive, so after stocking up on some diving gear and other travel supplies, I met up with my friends Thij and Stefan. We always used to go on vacation together, and I've known them for a long time. While I had now also finished my bachelors, Thij had already finished his masters, and is now almost ready to start serious life as a civilian. But really between us it was just like the old days. We played a game of Risk, so by the end of the day I was ready to stab their eyes out, but that's what friendship is. I had planned to meet up with quite some friends, and not everyone lives close to my parents, so it required a bit of planning every now and then, but luckily I could work something out with everyone. That evening I had a nice dinner with my family. The next day was the funeral, so we had all come to my parents' and had everything prepared.
The funeral was a nice service, I got to see some photos of my grandma when she was young that I'd never seen before, and heard some stories about when she was younger. I read a bit from her memoirs that we had once read together a while ago. It was about when she sang a dirty song in kindergarten, and a very happy memory I had with her. I'm glad I came back for this, and even though I had already said my final goodbye to her before I left, it's good to have closure.
That weekend we also went bouldering with the family, at Maaike's suggestion. It was a lot of fun, I've done rope climbing before, but bouldering adds another dimension to it, and it's more free, since you're without the rope, and if you fall, generally it's still fine. My parents also bought a van that they want to transform into a camper, so I'd been helping my dad a bit with ideas about how to shape it, and showed him how to draw it out in 3D, so he'd have some more idea on how to build it. Of course I also wanted to drive around a bit in the van :).
Monday I headed to Utrecht to visit another friend, Lana, who was about to embark on her own big trip to Asia, so as luck would have it I just arrived in time to catch up a bit. She was all panicking about packing, while I just had my small backpack laying at my parents' house with all my stuff in it that I'd survived with the past year. But I started with a lot more too, shedding weight is something that usually happens while traveling.
That week I also went to visit Rick in Amsterdam, a long time childhood friend, who was still studying there. It's funny how some things never change, even though I hadn't seen most of my friends for 13 months, everything is just like old. We might change as people, but the friendship stays. Thomas also came to visit me in Castricum, since me going all the way to Eindhoven was a bit costly without student discount. I had seen Thomas a bit more recently, since he had come to visit me in July-August, when we traveled Guatemala together, and ended our trip with diving in Utila. Still, that had been a good 6 months, and quite a lot had happened in that time. I also brought a beer I made in Nicaragua, that was actually based on a recipe from the beer brewing committee where we met in Eindhoven. We took a quick trip down to the beach as well, some nice wind, and have a look around. It's certainly a lot cooler than the Nica beach.
The next few days were buying some last supplies, and gear, and spending a bit more time with my parents. Then the time came to fly back on the 20th of February. It was once again a very long flight to Mexico City, it took almost 11 hours this time. Once I arrived there I hung around for a bit, since I arrived around 3 in the morning. After a few hours I met up with Vera, who braved almost an hour in public transport to come to the airport! We met many years ago when we both did our exchange to Mexico, and it clearly had a very profound impact on both our lives, as Vera has spent even more time in Mexico than I have, and she's now studying there. We went for some food, and had a coffee with stroopwafels, that I brought from the Netherlands. Then I had to run for my next flight, but luckily I made it just as they were doing the last call. The final flight was a short one, and a few hours later I was in Nicaragua. Unfortunately it was absolutely packed at immigration, and it took well over an hour to get through, as everything was moving very slowly.
Finally out of the airport I got on a bus to the market, from where I could get a bus to Rivas, the city close to where I live. However, in these countries you should never be in a hurry, and everything took quite a while. Everything took so long, that by the time I got to Rivas, there were no more buses headed to Gigante, so I had to grab a taxi. Finally home after a long trip, I happily crashed in my bed and went to sleep.
Figured this would be long enough, the final part will be up in a few days.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
