I wake up before the sun, and wonder what night life is like in Leon. Using all of my early-morning limited agility, I manage to untangle my useless mosquito net, balance on the other beds to jump down from my bunk, and not crash into the large fan we keep on all night as I search for the door. Greeted by a remarkably refreshing blast of “cold” air, I decide to spend more time away from the sauna of my room. It is raining outside and I am sporting shorts and a tank. It smells warm and crisp. I walk outside and relax in a metal rocking chair on the balcony; I have a perfect view of the palm trees miles and miles away but as for the surrounding city, I only see rooftops. The darkness is encompassing but alive, and I hear more birds chatter away than could ever be kept in a zoo. After a while, the pleasant pitter-patter of raindrops disappears and I notice the sky has brightened to a navy blue. In the distance, a pink streak streams behind the palm trees and illuminates the horizon. The light slowly sneaks through the trees and finally breaks free above the balcony. I now see an orange haze hanging off the top of the nearby chapel, and wonder if the streets are busy yet. The sky soon blends to blue and reveals a canopy of clouds covering the city. Car honks and motors and shouts overpower the wildlife because for them, the day has already started. With my world now as awake as I have been, I assume it must be time to wake up my fellow Glimpsers. I stand up and walk to the nearest room, reach my arm out to pound on the door, when I look at the time on my wrist. It is barely past five. Glad to not have woken up a group of tired teenagers at the wrong time, I head back to my room, scramble up to my cot, rearrange my mosquito net for the sake of my lower bunk-mate’s sanity, and fall back on my pillow, excited for another adventure in Nicaragua.

On top of a tower, great view of the shrimp farm

Wake up call, 6:30. Wake up call again, 6:40. Wake up call AGAIN, 6:45. Day 6 is the first early morning in quite some time, and no one else seems eager to accept that. Our breakfast of champions includes rice, beans, bananas (go figure) and…watermelon! The academic seminar of the day, Global Business, covered free trade, globalization, and multinational companies. We analyzed an article about Starbuck’s connection with Nicaragua’s economy; Nicaragua’s main commodity and the world’s second largest commodity is coffee, but the coffee industry does not regulate baseline prices and coffee farmer’s incomes are not stable.

After about a half-hour on our bus, we arrived at Farallon, a Panamanian-owned shrimp farm in Nicaragua. The heat and seafood smell was difficult to handle at some points, but we learned about shrimp at every stage of their lives. In the first few days, 500 million shrimp are stored in (approximately) a 4x4x10 tub. Our guide dipped a bowl into the brown water, and to our surprise, brought up a bowl of clear water with countless tiny brown moving dots. Another section of the farm included very large ditches filled with water. We count not see anything moving, but our guide threw in a net, and on his second attempt, pulled out three very large, very angry shrimp. All of the sudden, one shrimp thrusted forward, made a large cracking sound, and flew into the the air. I learned the hard way that is why you do not put your face within two inches of a live shrimp. Because of heat, smell, and dehydration, some Glimpsers unfortunately felt sick, but I think we were all happy that the end of our tour (which arrived us at the farm’s office) had air conditioning. We went to lunch a little late, and were served (guess what!) more rice and beans, with some chicken.

Can I shrimp yet?

Catching shrimp in the outdoor “ditch”

It was very hot inside as we stared at the brown water

Just kidding, it’s not brown water. It’s baby shrimpies!

10/10 classy fashion

English tutoring prep proved successful, and we were blessed with free time afterward. I went with a group to a laundry place a couple of blocks from our hostel, and then to an internet cafe down the street, while others went to the supermarket. Dinner was a lovely combination of…. rice and beans and chicken! We had not been expecting that. At our English tutoring classes, there was a surprisingly low turnout; my class of 29 on Wednesday had dwindled into a class of 11 by Thursday. (Maybe it had something to do with the first game of the World Cup, Brasil vs. Croatia?) We returned to our hostel, sharing stories and laughing about funny moments in class, hoping we were taking all the right turns as we ventured through the dark streets (adults let us lead; I am writing this in past tense, so don’t worry, we got home safe and sound). Our long day ended with bedtime at ten, and lights-out at ten-thirty, so at eleven-thirty I said goodnight to my roommates. I couldn’t wait for rice and beans the next morning!

Sorry for the late post, the internet wasn’t working last night.

Yours shrimply,

~ Marcella D ~