Wednesday, November 29, 2017

NICARAGUA!


We are almost off! Two months seems like a long time but I know when we get back it will feel like the whole trip never even happened so I'm trying to put it in perspective!

Here's some questions I've been getting about the trip and the answers in case you are curious.

Why Nicaragua?
My first thought for the trip was to try and stay in the same time zone. Lee was amazing at adjusting to the time in India but, he talks now. This limited us to the Americas. I really want to see all of South America one day and spend more time moving all over the various countries but I didn't feel 2 months was enough for that. Then we looked at Central America. We cannot afford Costa Rica or Belize which leaves Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua left on the list. We ruled out a few based on political unrest and crime problems and settled on Nicaragua.

Two Months?! HOW?
Tommy and I are really lucky to have amazing jobs. He gets about a month vacation a year and he has to plan it over a year in advance. So we decided that this years vacation he would take in December and next years in January. This allows us a two month window of off time every two years. I'm working part time and am required to work a certain amount of hours quarterly. I have been able to schedule those shifts in the two months of the quarters we aren't traveling.

Where are you staying?
Everywhere! We've booked a couple airbnb's and some hostels but are hoping to be pretty mobile. We are not driving while we are there so we will take buses and taxis and maybe even a boat or two. Nicaragua has the pacific coast are which is surf town beachy vibes. A Caribbean coast that butts up against dense jungle with some pretty dreamy looking tropical isles. Then a mountanous central area with massive lakes, volcanos and a few big cities. We are hoping to see it all.

You're taking the kids?
Yep. We got all of our travel vaccinations and we are ready to check out some Nicaraguan playgrounds! I'm excited to do kid things there and find Grant a first birthday cake. We are insanely privileged to be able to take trips like this and share the world with our kiddos. Sometimes it means not having all the fancy things at home, working extra and traveling on a shoestring budget but it's what we love to do making it an easy trade off.

We ship on early Saturday and spend the first night in Liberia, Costa Rica(in our only hotel! I booked it online and has since seemed to have disappeared...website gone, no email, so we will see what happens!). Then we take a bus across the border for a couple weeks in Granada, Nicaragua!

Here are some helpful maps and I'll try to keep this as updated as possible!

Map of Nicaragua