After months and months of a very slow life and uncertainty even to the next hour, life has really picked up steam. This week has been spent running around in preparation for the next week and a half, which will include a departure tomorrow for a weekend of fun, music, and being a free spirit at Coachella through Monday. On Tuesday, I will leave to Nicaragua, come back on Saturday and start a real grown-up job again on Monday!
Once I was hired, I immediately set to looking up a flight... anywhere, really. I've had all this free time, but not the money. But knowing I'll slowly be making money again, I really want to take advantage of this last bit of free time. I feel like I've been stir-crazy... I haven't been out of the country since Montreal in November of 2011, and even that was just a couple hours trek north of the border. Before that, I had a few months in Europe in 2008. I am long, long overdue!
With Coachella on a weekend sandwiched right in the middle, it prevented me from taking any sort of substantial trip anywhere too far. So I knew it couldn't be too crazy. My minimum requirements were to be somewhere new, and somewhere with a beach. My preferred requirements were to be south of the border, and somewhere more exploratory than springbreaky. And then the major considerations and constraints included the time available relative to the place I would be going to, and the cost of airfare. If last minute deals really do exist, I never found them. It was getting dicey. ($800+ flights to Costa Rica with 22 - 30 hour layovers?! I'm serious. I was pulling my hair out). But while Cabo San Lucas and Cancun were both pretty doable as far as airfare, I really wanted to have the feeling of traveling again, and hostels and adventure... not beachside resorts with college kids doing body shots next to me. And there were some tempting "deals" with some Caribbean islands, but again, I wanted to explore more, not so much lounge, especially since I'm going alone.
I would have loved to go to South America, honestly (and was thisclose to buying a ticket to Peru) but they were more expensive, and further, longer flights, and less time to see much with the few days that I have free. Three or four days really wouldn't be sufficient for taking in Lima and then flying to Cuzco to hike Macchu Picchu... and why go all that way if you can't do that?
But I always had my eye on Central America. I spent a week and a half in Guatemala in June 2003 and loved it. Loved it. L-O-V-E. I loved the heat and the humidity, I loved the afternoon rains, I loved the smells and I loved the architecture. I loved the beaches and the jungles and the volcanoes in the skylines. I loved the lush, wet trees and huge colorful plants and all the tropical animals. I loved the people and the food and the way you could practically see from one ocean to the other, making you feel like a dot you could pinpoint on the the face of the planet, and you could perfectly picture the tiny strip of connecting land that you were on, like you knew where you were in the world and didn't have to guess or feel lost. So I wanted to go back, but I still wanted to try somewhere new.
Basically, I just kept refreshing flight searches to Belize (a friend of mine did a yoga retreat there), Costa Rica (due to its growing popularity, becoming pretty pricey), Panama (I hear they have a canal?) and Nicaragua, where my friend from New York (you might remember Pooja) had gone last summer and raved about. And finally, out of nowhere, a pretty good deal to Nicaragua showed up and not only because I'm really pushing it on the timeframe but also because I felt a little biased to it after Pooja had gone, I knew this would be it... so I booked it. And I already have my lodging lined up (in what looks like amazing and beautiful hostels, everything I've ever wanted from them!) and can hardly hold still in expectation for the playas, lagos, lagunas, ciudads y volcans!
But first... COACHELLA!!
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