Saturday was another eventful Nica-day. I took most of Saturday off and how effective I was on Sunday can be discussed since we went out until 03.00 in the morning and when you go out here, you really go out. However, not in terms of drinking which is (correct me if I´m wrong) sometimes the case in Sweden. You go out to dance.

The day started with a visit to Masaya with my housemates. Masaya is a city about 30 minutes by car northwest from Granada, known for its markets. A significant difference between Granada and Masaya is the shopping. In Masaya the streets are lined with clothing stores whilst in Granada they are lined with pharmacies, Pulperias (kiosks) and various places to eat. The shopping was of course the reason we went to Masaya… to buy shoes. We went to two different markets. The first one was directly in the city centre, known as “Mercado de Artesanía” (Handicraft market). At this market you can find hammocks, jewellery, souvenirs, clothing, different types of artwork, meals, drinks, chocolate, coffee and the list goes on. The market was neat and clean (for Nica measures) and surrounded by a wall, it used to be where the old town was located. The second market, Mercado Municipal was a different story. It was at the outskirt of the city and it was huge! There were almost exclusively locals there. I was so glad we had my Nica housemate with us because it would have been impossible to find. It was an indoor market with stalls (the walkway was not even a meter broad) everywhere selling clothing, underwear, sweets, souvenirs, meat, cheese, dry foods, drinks, meals, fruits, vegetables and shoes. These were only the things we saw on the way to the shoes because it was simply not possible to see the whole market. Even if we would have had the time it would have been too tiring because it was so incredibly busy. All the people want to sell you stuff and grab your arms and hands to get your attention. I was happy that my Dutch housemate was there as well. Because she is blond and looks even more foreign than I do, she was the one that got the most attention because in this country oftentimes foreign equals rich. Good for me - a hassle for her, though she is more used to it so it doesn´t bother her as much as it does me.

After our hectic shopping tour I was happy to go back to Granada. And as all of us had bought at least one new pair of shoes it was a must to go out. Later that evening we met up with the siblings of my Nica housemate at a club called Chico Tripo, located at the lake. When going here it is recommended to go with a taxi in a group since the area at the lake can be quite dodgy in the evenings. When we entered the area with the taxi you could already hear the different music playing everywhere. There is a certian phenomenon that I only experienced with Latin music: it makes people move, indifferently if you are Latin American or not. The music that was playing was Merengue (a fast paced type of Latin music that has its similarities with salsa) and the dance floor was packed. We got a large table and ordered our drinks. I was feeling a bit nervous because even though I love Latin music and I sort of grew up with it I am not an experienced dancer. And it didn’t get better watching the people on the dance floor… 95% in the club were locals and people here really know how to dance. It is in their blood (should be in my blood as well) and in their culture. Even the people that were seated at the tables were moving to the music because it is just impossible to sit still. After a short while one of my Nica housemates’ brothers asked me if I wanted to learn Bachata. I figured I´d better face my fear and just get up on the dance floor. Something that keeps on amazing me is the fact that the majority of Latin guys are incredibly good dancers and most of them do not ask you to dance because they have any back thoughts but simply because they love to dance. The rest of the evening I did nothing but practicing dancing Bachata, Merengue, Cumbia, Salsa and Reaggeton. All the dancing and the fact that I was wearing 7cm heal all night was probably the reason why my feet were hurting the next day.

My hotel is, together with Nicaragua Mia Spanish School, organizing dance classes every Monday at the hotel. I think I will be joining on the class next time…

On Monday I went to look at the two schools Hotel con Corazón is supporting with one of the managers of the hotel and the coordinator of the tutoring program who is Nicaraguan. What the hotel does (in order not to take away the responsibility from the government to run the schools in this country) is employing and supporting 6 tutors that on Monday through Thursday go to the schools in the afternoon and give extra classes to 60 children, 30 from each school. On Fridays the tutors go the houses of these children to speak with the parents about the developments of their children, hygiene, among other things in order to involve the parents. The dream scenario would of course be to support ALL the children, but the hotel has chosen to focus on quality rather than quantity with the aspiration to provide quality education to more children in the future.

At 9.00 in the morning we took the minivan to an area close to Laguna de Apoyo which is a lagoon in a crater about 30 minutes drive from the city of Granada. I have not been there yet but it is supposed to be beautiful, like so many other places here. The road to the first school was bumpy like no other road I ever been on and a 4 wheel-drive vehicle would have been more appropriate. The driver did an amazing job; on the other hand he drives the tutors to and from the schools every day.

Again, just like when I was going to San Juan del Sur, I could not stop looking through the window of the car. This time I was observing the houses along the road. There were not many but there was a big variety in the quality of how they were built. Some of them were fairly well-built clay houses with brick roofs, others would not fall under the category of “house” in Sweden. It looked like the inhabitants had taken whatever they could find and patched together a shelter. They had used fabric, carton, large peices of metal and planks. I did not have too much time to reflect over this because not before long we arrived at the first school. Already when the minivan pulled up next to the fence of the school the children were gathering at the entrance. I happen to like children, I am not an extreme child-lover but I appreciate the abstract and innocent way of thinking that children have so I was immediately charmed. The first thing I noticed was a little girl at the entrance that had a backpack at least three sizes too big for her. I am not overdoing it when I say it was the same size as her. When we entered the school I got introduced to the teachers. Each teacher is responsible for one level (1-5 class) of approximately 50 children, which is a terribly large class. In both of the school we got a tour through the classrooms. They looked a lot like the classrooms we had in Sweden years ago only these schools can’t really afford a catheter or a proper whiteboard. They are pasting white paper to the wall and use it as whiteboard, putting up new paper when the first one does not have any more space to write on. In the second school they did not even have running water and electricity. At both of the schools the children were having their break while we were there. Most of the children were playing baseball, using a racket and a homemade baseball. From far it looked like the ball was a piece of paper shaped into a ball. The younger children were following us around, giggling every time I would take a photograph or say “Hola, que tal?” (Hey, how are you?). The little girl with the way-too-big backpack was constantly were the camera was. Most of the children were quite dirty and about half of them (the ones that could afford it) had a uniform on. I couldn’t help but to notice how curious, beautiful and energetic the children were. It might seem given but it really hit me that they could as well have been children from Sweden. What kept me nervous the entire time we were at the schools were the playgrounds. In Sweden (and I have also seen it in Holland) the playgrounds are built in the safest manner possible. The swings are made out of a soft type of plastic and the “ground” is made of something that looks like stone but feels like rubber when you walk (or fall) on it. At the schools the ground was dirt and grass and the equipment was metal with sharp edges. I was just waiting for one of the children to fall and get hurt. And they did, only when it happened they would just get up and continue playing tick or whatever they were doing at that moment.

When we got into the minivan to drive back to the hotel I was filled with impressions and the coordinator asked me what I thought. I just replied that I had no words (and I especially did not have the words in Spanish!). The whole way back to the hotel I reflected over what I had just seen and how blessed I have been to grow up in a country like Sweden, getting the basic education that I have. I was enthusiastic about working at Hotel con Corazón and making an effort to help out already when I arrived here, but now I am even more determined to make a difference and help the hotel make more profit.

Helping the children is, after all, the main reason why I chose to go here.

During my studies I have been taught how to become a manager with a focus on becoming a hotel manager. Not everyone that graduates from my school end up working in the hotel industry but when they do, it is mainly in high-end luxury hotels. As I mentioned earlier I chose Hotel con Corazón for the reasons that it is NOT a high-end hotel with luxury services and for their purpose of having 100% of the profits go to education of children here.

I have been here for just over 2 weeks now, and every time I meet a new person that is from Nicaragua (especially guys, but also girls) I get the question if I am married. Now, I have stopped reacting and I almost expect the question because here it is not uncommon that the girls are married and become mothers already at the age of 16-17 which makes me quite delayed…

The reason for the young parenthood, according to the Nicas I have spoken to and the materials I have read, is that people here drop out of school early and start working or simply start drifting on the streets (drifting mainly applies for the guys). There are numerous factors playing a part in this but two of the main ones are that there is no compulsory school attendance and that many families are big (between 5-9 people). The salaries here are very low (minimum pay in the hospitality industry in Nicaragua is approximately Cordoba 3300=Euro 120 per month)and the size of the families are big. This in combination with the fact that even though the municipal schools are for free, the clothing and materials are not the parents do not see the necessity for the children to finish school. To the parents it is more important that the children work and earn money for the family however, for this country to grow and develop it is necessary that they can support the countries´ economy and therefore educated people are needed. It is going in the right direction but they still have a long way to go.

Hotel con Corazón collaborates with two schools just outside of Granada, the hotel is funding “Empoverment International” and “La Esperanza” ((NGOs that helps families with all aspects of going to school), see links. The hotel also has a study room on the hotel premises for children from schools in the city of Granada to make use of. Helping with education is not the only thing the hotel is doing. At Hotel con Corazón all employees are locals except for the management which have so far been Dutch (now two Dutch persons and a Swede!), with the goal of having a local person managing the hotel in the future. In addition to this the management of the hotel encourages its employees to continue their studies in order to develop. The management also gives advice to locals that want to open up their own businesses. Many of the employees at the hotel are studying (aside from their 48 hour week) for various professions outside of the hotel industry.

This past week I have spent working in the various departments in the hotel (bar, restaurant, kitchen, housekeeping and reception) in order to get a picture of how things are done at the hotel and to analyze the business processes. It has been a great experience, not only to learn what they do but also to practice my Spanish! Moreover, I have learned what truly amazing people I am working with here…

This was it for this time. Enjoy today, care for tomorrow – Hotel con Corazón

This weekend I have really had a “Nica-weekend”. Firstly I should tell you that I live in a house with two other girls, one who is Nicaraguan and one who is Dutch. There are in total four bedrooms on the house.

I spent most of the weekend speaking Spanish (in which I have very basic knowledge) and getting to know the family of my Nica-housemate. On Friday we got ready to go out to see the carnival. Im guessing that this is of bigger interest to girls than guys but many Nicas really dress up when they go out to bars and clubs here. This is something I did not really expect which is why I left all of my heals at home.

In any case, we went out and met up with three of her siblings (two brothers and a sister, she has three brothers and two sisters in total), two of her friends, her cousin and her sister in law. We went into a little place not far from the street where most of the tourists eat (called “la calzada”) were they served chicken, beef or pork with banana (but the type of banana you use for cooking which is very common in Latin America) either fried crispy with a savory taste (verde) or fried greasy with a sweet taste (maduro). When the plates with the food arrived I started looking for cutlery and saw that the others started digging in with their hands. The lady that served us must have observed me because she came up to me with cutlery. The rest of the table looked at me and smiled. I decided that I should do this the Nica-way so I took the cutlery but started eating with my hands and got thumbs up from the others. It felt a bit strange, I was dressed up from head to toe (aside from the fact that I was wearing flipflops) and was having a messy but delicious meal. After dinner we went to a club were they played, among other type of music, salsa and bachata (a quite romantic and “intimate” type of dance if I am going to explain it somehow). Here we spent the evening talking, dancing and drinking the Nicaragua rum “Flor de Caña”.

The next day we went up, had a quick breakfast with the cousin of my housemate, and while we still were eating my Nica-housemates´ brother arrived with two friends and we were soon off to my Nica-housemates parents house. Here we were going to have some “Sopa de Mondongo” for lunch (a soup made with vegetables and slow cooked diced tripe) and some cake with the same people from the evening before plus the parents of my housemate, the aunt of my housemate and her two nieces. The soup was really tasty even though I was a bit skeptical before I tried it. Before everyone were finished one of my housemates´ brothers took out a guitar and started singing songs in Spanish. Some of them I actually recognized as songs by Gypsy Kings (a Spanish group). When everyone was finished eating we had some cake and sang birthday songs in Spanish (thanks to my grandmother I actually knew one of the songs since she sings it when someone in my family has their birthday). After this we hitched a ride to the center of town to see the Hipica which is like a parade with cowboys and their horses that are taking a specific route through the city to show themselves with loud music and people selling snacks everywhere. The city center was packed with people and as we were walking on the street we really had to watch out for the somewhat nervous horses that kept on passing by. We spent hours walking around looking at people and listening to the music. Eventually we sat down and had a couple of glasses of the local beer “Toña”. When we got to the restaurant my housemate went up to the headwaiter and told him how many we were. All of the sudden (in the already packed restaurant) he brought out a table and within 5 minutes he had arranged chairs to everyone. We spent a couple of hours here until me and my housemate decided to walk back to our house. Back at “home” (its still going to take a while before it feels natural to call it home) we watched a movie in Spanish and when I went to bed I think I was dreaming in Spanish after a full on weekend with speaking it more or less all the time.

This morning I had my first briefing at the hotel in what I will be doing here for the upcoming months. Tomorrow morning I will start by taking part in the breakfast service in order to observe and learn how its done here.

Now I have to go and do some groceries since I have to make a salad for the 20 people that will be attending the birthday dinner of my housemates’ mother tonight…

I always want to keep my blogs short and simple but sometimes it is just not possible… there is too much to tell.

On Monday 9 August I set out for one of the bus stations in Granada to go to San Juan del Sur (SJDS). First it was difficult to find the bus station since it was not the kind of bus station I expected (obviously, Nicole… you are not in Europe anymore). Once I got there it I had no difficulties finding the bus I had to take because there were a couple of guys standing in the street screaming “RIVASRIVASRIVAS!” (Rivas was the place I had to go to in order to change for a bus to SJDS) pointing at the bus in question. I quickly hopped onto the bus.

First we passed the cemetery where a number of guys were taking it easy in the morning sun, most of them lying on the family graves (graves that in this case are not just grave stones but large blocks of stone big enough to lie on). To both Rivas and SJDS there were horses, cows and chickens along the sides of the road. The horses and the cows that were not on a field were tied with lines next to the roads. Now, it may sound like the animals were in a bad spot, but it should be added that the road was not heavily trafficked at all and the animals has a lot of green areas to eat from and seemed quite content. Though maybe, it is still not the healthiest environment considering the toxic fumes from the cars…

The landscape along the road was incredibly beautiful; it was so green and untouched. No large buildings or fences, just lush green forests and fields for as long as the eye could see. Time went by in no time since I was busy watching this beautiful part of the country. The only thing ruining this was all the garbage that was lying along the road (bottles, plastic bags and alike). After a while I understood why it was there. Throughout the trip people who were selling foods and snacks from baskets would enter the bus at one stop, walk around for a bit yelling whatever they had for sale and then get off again. People who bought something would eat whatever they had bought and then simply toss the garbage through the window. When I saw it I felt a bit sad. I am sure that if the people here were more educated about the damage this does to the country they would not do it. I am pretty sure this has a lot to do with education.

Once I arrived in San Juan del Sur I could smell the ocean (After this trip I really realized that I HAVE to live next to the ocean once I settle down). The first thing I did when I got off the bus was to walk down to the waterfront to sit down and look at the  waves of the Pacific hitting the beach. Before long I had to take the shuttle to my hotel “Buena Vista Surf Club” (if you travel to SJDS and have a little bit of money: Go here!). It was somewhat 8 km away from SJDS, at Playa Maderas. When I arrived at the hotel (after walking a steep, muddy slope in the humid weather in my flipflops) I got shown through the property and completely lost my breath. It was so beautiful! Like nothing I have seen before. From the infinity deck you could see the ocean and the main building was surrounded by, what seemed to me, a jungle of vegetation in all shades of green. In the evening a home-cooked meal was served and eaten together with the whole hotel. I was lucky enough to be there at the same time as two honeymoon couples and one regular couple… awesome… but they were all very nice people, no doubt about it. I went to bed completely exhausted and feel asleep to the sound of the waves rolling onto the beach. During my time here I spent most of my time at the beach and I even took a surf lesson one day (my first time ever surfing). It was amazing, the feeling once you got up on the board was indescribable. I have been snowboarding before but the feeling of freedom that you get from catching a wave with a surfboard can´t compare with snowboarding (I know that there are people that disagree with me). I spent one night in SJDS where I mainly enjoyed the ocean and the beach. When I stepped on the bus back to Granada I was a little bit sad, but as soon as the bus entered the city of Granada it felt good, it almost felt as coming “home”.

There was a lot more to the trip but it would take too long to write about it all. But I believe I covered the most important stuff. Something I learned this trip is that I (unlike some people) do not enjoy travelling alone. It was alright for this trip but it is not my favorite thing in the world, and I think its alright, right? Until next time!

I arrived in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, after midnight on 6 August. After spending a week in civilized Miami, this was like stepping into a documentary about a dodgy place where one should not travel as a lonely, somewhat naiv, little girl (I´m only 155cm). I have to admit, I did ask myself what I was getting myself into as I waited in line at the customs.

In the arrival hall one of the founders of Hotel con Corazón, who is Dutch, was waiting for me. I was relieved and felt at ease. After an hour ride in the car we stopped outside the hotel. Lighting had struck a power station only weeks before I arrived and the city of Granada has been experiencing quite severe power cuts for the past weeks. This meant that when we arrived at the hotel (where I stayed the first two nights) it was pitch dark and we had to use our cell phones to find our way to the room which was neat and clean (at least what I could see of it in the light of my phone).  In the morning I had a proper look at the room and was surprised by all the details that seemed so thought-through, such as the key chains for the room keys, the pictures hanging on the walls, the red cups used in the common area for water, etc.

The day after I arrived I spent walking around in the city. From one block to another the beautiful colonial houses were replaced by worn out shacks where less than clean children were playing with old PET-bottles or having a nap on the sidewalk. I did not feel entirely comfortable walking around as quite obviously a foreign girl because of the attention I brought to myself. Despite this I went all over town. I was walking through the outskirts of the city where I was literally the only none Nica (that is what they call the locals here) as well as the main square which was crowded with both tourists and locals. I had my lunch close to the main square together with my book about Nicaragua. For everyone that does not know me I am not fond of wandering around alone, let alone in a place that is very different from what I am used to. But it is healthy, I guess.

In the evening I got the chance to sit in on a dinner/presentation that was held at Hotel con Corazón about being an entrepreneur in a third-world country. I was present mainly to see how well the restaurant is doing in terms of dinner service . It will be my task to observe, evaluate and improve the procedures at the hotel for the upcoming 7 months. That is why I am here.

All in all is has been a couple of exiting days and I´m looking forward to the “Race of the bulls” that takes place tomorrow afternoon and is similar to “San Fermin” that takes place in Pamplona, Spain every year in July.

Most of my doubts about what I was getting myself into are gone now. I have 8 days to explore the area before I officially start working. My plan is to travel to the surfing area around San Juan del Sur (at the southern Pacific coast of Nicaragua) on Monday and stay there for a couple of days.

However, this is a project for next week. Until then!

Eftersom majoriteten av min familj och mina vänner inte förstår Svenska kommer bloggen att vara skriven på Engelska, trots det hoppas jag att det ska locka att läsa vidare…

About 4 months ago I decided to accept the challenge to do a 7 month long internship as assistant manager at Hotel con Corazón in Granada, Nicaragua. Even though I am half Colombian I have never visited Latin America which makes the trip to both a professional lesson as well as an experience of where I am from.

Hotel con Corazón is an NGO (non-governmental organization) which contributes to the development of the country through investing in education as well as employment. As a Swedish student in my last year at Hotelschool the Hague in the Netherlands is this exactly what I have been looking for: A project with a heart.

In order to support the dream that everybody has at Hotel con Corazón together with the local population, I decided to write this blog (and of course for my family and friends who, hopefully, will read this)

When visiting Hotel con Corazón, you´re not only travelling to a destination with a heart, YOU are also travelling with a heart. Some of the most current trends within the hospitality industry are eco-friendliness, sustainable tourism and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Just by being in Nicaragua, you are contributing to the growth of this country. And along your stay there are a million other ways to contribute, if you feel like it.

Throughout my time in, not only Granada but in various places in Nicaragua, I want to show you why you should visit the destination with a heart. I have only been here half a day and Im already knocked off my feet by this country…