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Lifestyle Adjustment #6: Cold Showers
We haven’t had a warm shower since we left the States, but cold showers here usually don’t bother us because it’s always so warm and tropical outside. The only times they’re a bit painful are when it’s early in the morning before the sun is up and late at night after the sun has set. Without the sun, the temperature drops just enough to make the cold water shock our skin when we first get in.
Lifestyle Adjustment #5: Saturday Audio Announcements
Every Saturday morning the town of San Juan Del Sur has vehicles drive up and down the streets with loud speakers making announcements about either the events going on around town that week, deals & discounts available for cell phones, or the local drink special for the night at bars like the Black Whale. They’re really loud and can be quite annoying, but fortunately they constantly move up and down the various streets in town so the noise only lasts for a minute. One day we even saw a truck making announcements while a live band played music in the bed of the truck. We thought that was a creative and innovative marketing technique.
Lifestyle Adjustment #4: Water Outages
This occurs at some of the strangest times. There’s seems to be no rhyme or reason for a water outages here. Ironically, after a massive rain storm we won’t have water all day even though the streets are flooded with it. We’ve found that not having water prevents one from doing many things. So we’ve learned our lesson and now we keep a few bottles of tap water near by so that we can flush the toilet, do the dishes, wash our hands and brush our teeth no matter what.
Lifestyle Adjusment #3: Big Bugs
The are some big and dangerous bugs as many of you have seen in the short video we made: Critters of Nicaragua. We have both learned how to quickly adapt by making sure our home is consistently clean and always letting the bugs know who is boss (aka Man Time).
Lifestyle Adjustment #2: Not Carrying Around More Than $10 (C$233)
Honestly, we know that we could probably walk around with more money, but after all of the stories we’ve heard we feel it’s always better to be safe than sorry. We figure that a. we don’t ever need that much money and b. we might as well keep it safe if we don’t need it as tourist robberies do occur. We’d like to emphasize this rule of thumb for all of you travelers if you’re going out at night here to drink. Going out and having a few drinks is a lot of fun here and is very inexpensive—you usually won’t need more than $10 anyways. Robberies happen mostly at night after tourists have had a few drinks because they become easy targets. So maybe pre-party before going out and stick to the $10 rule when out and about.
Lifestyle Adjustment #1: Locking Up Our Valuables
Adios to the days of leaving our laptops out on the bed with the front door locked. We will never get comfortable here. We can’t. No matter what, we always lock up our valuables anytime we leave the apartment—even for just a half hour. We currently use 3 different locks, 1 locked closet, and a locked front door. It can be a hassle sometimes when leaving the apartment or when we need to get something out of the bag, but it is worth it.
“Remember that many people will try to put up reasons and obstacles as to why you should not do this and those reasons are their own fears accepting their own inability to pursue their own dreams. Please recognize that you and only you know what is right for you. Your accomplishments and your mistakes are wonderfully all yours.” -AE
