Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

Hola! We arrived in Nicaragua Saturday night, appreciating the dry heat we were met with (much better than -25)!  There are three other medical students from my school and we were met at the airport by Omar, our trusted driver.  We drove through the capital city Managua.  I was amazed by the good conditions of roads,  much better than many Michigan roads.  The streets were also filled with people.  The homes were very similar to those in San Jose, Costa Rica,  small concrete one story houses.  We drove two hours to the town of Granada.  Granada is a cute town with dirt roads and small concrete homes.  They also have a plaza in the center with all outdoor tables and bars along the street.  At the bars there were many young people dressed very american (guys in plaid and girls in heels).  I'm assuming its the wealthy part of the country.  We went out for drinks ($1 beer) and there was a mariachi band as well.  There were also 4 boys between 8-12 years old who played until 1am then came over to the drunk people at the bar to beg for money.  We were thinking maybe they were homeless because they were out so late.

Our room in Granada, with                           gecko!

Sunday morning I woke up to a typical Nicaraguan breakfast of gallo pinto (rice and beans) , Plantains, vegetables, and cheese with salsa on top of a tortilla.  After breakfast we drove 2 more hours to Limon through the rural countryside on dirt roads.  I am amazed at how many people are out everyday.  At one point we have to drive through a herd of cows walking down the road.  Also,we passed many men in baseball uniforms and a few baseball games. That seems to be the big sport here. We eventually made it to our residence which is down a rural road,  the closest grocery store is 1.5 hours away.   

I am staying at a complex about A 5 minute walk from the Pacific Ocean and it is gorgeous!  

I am at the back of the complex which borders a rainforest so the howler monkeys wake me up in the morning!  There are also a fair share of insects.  The first night there was a scorpion-spider in my bed which made me nervous but now it just hangs out on the ceiling and I've adopted it as a resident of the room.  

We have a Nicaraguan cook at the house who cooks gallo pinto and eggs for breakfast.  That is all for today but tomorrow I will give more details of the clinic and what I am doing here!