ISEP: Free Trips and Tree Flips!

Just a few hours north of Managua is a jungle paradise with rolling hills and beautiful landscapes. The district of Matagalpa is in the central Nicaragua and is known for incredibly delicious coffee that is grown and harvested there. As a part of our ISEP program, we took our first trip to Laguna de San Martin, a hotel and water play-land in the middle of this region. Along with the ISEPer's, our advisers and a few adventurous Nicaraguan friends, we headed to spend the weekend relaxing, swimming and exploring the Nicaraguan hills. After a very long, winding car ride, we arrived at our jungle hotel complete with monkeys, parrots and a pet alligator...

Our first afternoon, we ate lunch and headed straight to the lake, which included water trampolines, slides and all sorts of fun toys to keep us entertained. We also set up a relay race around all of the inflatables and took enough tumbles and falls to keep us laughing. Back at the hotel, I had my first hot shower in Nicaragua, but the highlight of the evening was a delicious dinner followed by games, friends and quite a few toñas. The next morning, we slept in and found our way to a beautiful waterfall about a half hour hike from the hotel. It was great to be out and breathing the fresh air after a long week of exams and school work! We drank more coffee in two days than I had my entire month in Nicaragua. And it was SO good. Our company was wonderful, the activities were great and the landscapes were breath-taking. It was great to have a weekend with plans (and meals) provided!

Our second trip was also an incredible success. It may seem like we go to the beach every week (which may be true) but there is no doubt that Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach) earned its namesake with ease. We took of early on a Friday morning and head south to the district of Rivas. While I was Peru for Semana Santa, the rest of our crew spent a few days in San Juan Del Sur, a great beach town located in Rivas with plenty of restaurants and internationals, but this was my first trip to the area. Our first bonding experience of the trip was being sent through 14 sections of a fabulous Canopy Tour at crazy speeds and incredible heights. A few of us even took a turn upside down! Flying from platform to platform made me feel just like the monkeys we saw along the way and we had plenty of time between set-ups to get to know the awesome Nica students who bravely came with us.


Once our feet were back on the ground, we headed to the beach, not knowing we were in for such a treat! We jumped off our twenty-passenger truck in front of giant beach house, complete with surfers, cabanas, sand-volleyball and hammocks. The beach itself would have been spectacular, but the food, drinks and great places to just play and relax convinced us all it was going to be a great weekend. After lunch, a few of us opted-in for surf lessons and hit the waves. Our instructors were very helpful and encouraging and we all eventually made it up!

 

 

That evening we had a fogate (bonfire) on the beach and someone even remembered the marshmallows! About an hour past sunset (which was also astounding), one of our ISEPer’s named Levi, ran up and forced us all to accompany him down the beach. The water had receded significantly since the afternoon, but the wet beach reflected the stars and made the sky seem endless. As we walked toward the water, we suddenly realized that with every step, the sand beneath us was lighting up like some nineties video game combined with Avatar. Soon we were jumping around like idiots and waving our hands in the water to keep the magical sparks from disappearing. One of the locals later explained to us that bio-luminescent plankton like the colder waters of the southern beaches. Every once and a while a group get washed up on shore and proved hours of entertainment for giddy young folks like us. It was an unforgettable night, full of laughter, riled discussions of Nicaragua politics, new friends and thanking Jesus for putting us in such an awe-inspiring world.  

The next morning, I set out to hike the point down at the end of our beach and encountered about a millions hermit crabs along the way. After making it back with only a few missteps and broken shells, our final activity was a horseback ride across the beach. I literally felt like I was in a movie. We adventured back through some of the jungle, climb a hill or two, and rode out to a seemingly untouched, untainted beach. Sitting on a horse in Nicaragua, looking over the glistening ocean, I began to understand a bit of how beautiful God must think we are if He created scenes like that for us to enjoy.

- Maggie Frazier