So this is me in the car ride from Managua Airport to our rented house in San Juan del Sur before I knew what I would experience the following week. While we were driving, my thoughts were, wow these people are so poor, this is definitely one of the poorest countries I've been to, I hope the scenery gets better soon, I hope we don't get robbed on this trip, I hope the weather holds up, etc.
After this
this
this
this
and this
I left Nica with a sense of awe and surprise I wasn't expecting. Yes, I made assumptions about what my trip could be from what I saw in passing but that's human. Having been privileged enough to have lived in first world cities my whole life I've learned to count on travel educate me in the areas where I'm lacking. What I know is that I've seen some of the most beautiful sights in my life in Nicaragua and I'm not talking about buildings and architecture, I'm talking, get ready for this, nature. Beauty. Life.
Due to the course of the events in my life I believe I have learned to appreciate moments. Learn lessons. Be a decent human. Sometimes I even feel like I have the answers. Until I get a reminder.
There was so much beauty in Nica that I stopped taking pictures. There were so many pictures to take but I knew that they'd all end up looking the same after awhile, especially when it'd be time to review them at home. I stopped (for the most part). Sometimes when I take pictures I feel like I'm missing out on the actual moments just so I can capture them for a later date. So I stopped and observed the moments. The silence. My hair blowing in the wind. The sunsets. The clouds and their many shapes. The view from our house. The many many cows on the side of the road. The feeling of rain. Realizing that the ocean isn't so scary after all. The pain in my bum hand after football and surfing. The wheezing in my chest after mistreating my body. Not being able to drink water freely at times. Seeing a tranny on the street and thinking about how difficult it might be to be born that way, there. How I get to go back to my comfortable apartment in Park Slope but people still live in shacks without electricity. Though I'd like to think that they could be just as happy.
'People' say that if you change up your behaviors both physically and mentally, you exercise a different part of your brain. I think this trip did a bit of that for me. I was uncomfortable at times but maybe discomfort isn't all bad and...I'm appreciative of the bit of awareness it has brought me today.
- Wheezy
p.s. thanks to Birginia for some of these pics.
