It took a 3 hour van ride, which reminded me of a real life version of Indiana Jones the ride at Disneyland, to reach our hotel, Surf Sanctuary, in the little town of Limon, Nicaragua. Surf Sanctuary is a family owned hotel and run by Americans so they had similar amenities we would find in America, like hot running water. This was a life saver since we were in a rural area and locals did not have access to hot water or flushing toilets. One thing I did notice was that almost every house (or shack) had satellite dishes on their roof; surprising to see they can afford cable but not hot water. As we settled into our rooms, which were filled with mosquitoes, we were told to eat at a nearby restaurant since our group could not be accommodated at the hotel restaurant for the night. We had made plans to eat at a local restaurant called Yolanda's which was well known to many of the locals. I was excited to try the local Nicaraguan food, obviously because I love trying new things. The menu contained a variety of dishes from beef, to chicken, seafood, and of course plantains. The staple of Nicaragua is usually gallo pinto (mixture of rice and beans) and plantains. I wanted to try a seafood dish, since we were near the beach and I knew the seafood would be fresh. I ordered the camarones de ajillo, or garlic shrimp.
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Camarones de ajillo |
Now if you're a garlic lover, you would love this dish since it's aroma filled the area with garlic. It was a bit salty for my liking (although the amount of sodium leaching out through my sweat could easily be remedied with this dish), I did, however, enjoy the garlicky taste of the delicately sauteed shrimp and the tajada de meduro (or sweet fried plantain).
It's not a Nicaraguan dish without gallo pinto, but at this restaurant they had huge bowls of rice and beans to serve family style with each of our dishes.
The next day, we had orientation at the FIMRC clinic which was about 10 minutes from our hotel. We made posters of our different nutrition topics. Me and my fellow classmate made diabetes and food safety posters. Don't they look cute?
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Thank you to Tammy for being our awesome hand stencil, and sorry about the markings on your hand |
After discussing our itinerary for the week with Jessica, the clinic director, we visited a natural healer to diagnose us with any health problems. The natural healer can sense if something is wrong by moving her fingers up and down your body while lying down. If she senses something is wrong she flicks her finger in that area and provides a diagnosis. Lucky for me, I was diagnosed with nada (that's spanish for 'nothing'). We then headed over to the natural hot springs where locals usually wash clothes.
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See, they're washing their clothes |
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natural hot springs |
We opted out of sitting in the natural pools of hot water since we were already sweating from the heat in the atmosphere. The pools are naturally heated due to the nearby volcanoes supplying the heat. After a long day, we decided to check out the view and cool ourselves off by visiting the nearby beach, Playa Santana. It was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel and the view was breath taking, don't you think?
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of course we had to leave our mark |
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