See what you want to see

In http://www.nicaliving.com/node/13070 lots of people (including me) are offering a "what to do with a 1-week visit to Nicaragua" question. Suggestions have gone from take a tour to "go to the usual Gringo places" to my "alternative approach". All are valid. The question is, what do you want to see?

The poster calls herself a "world traveler". That inspired my alternative viewing suggestion. But, none of us know what world traveler really means.

My first visit to anywhere outside of North America was eight days in Costa Rica. It was mostly "stay at a yuppie resort" trip. It was great, I learned a lot and was inspired to return for a totally different experience less than six months later. But, driving through a bit of Canada and walking for four hours in Tijuana hardly qualified me as a world traveler.

Assuming you aren't scared to "look around", you really can try anything from a week at a resort where they speak English to you all the way up to just hanging out where people don't know English at all. It is just a question of "which Nicaragua" (and there are many) you want to see. Personally, my Costa Rica "resort week" inspired me to want to see what was really in Costa Rica. My second trip went like this. Note that it is safe to assume my Spanish totally sucked.

• Flew into Alajuela. Arrived at night so I took a taxi to a low-budget hospedaje. The night shift desk clerk knew about as much English as I knew Spanish and each of us wanted to learn more. So, we talked in Spanglish.
• The next day I flew a puddle-jumper to Liberia and rented a car. With no real plan, I first drove north almost to the Nicaraguan border. On the way back toward Liberia a cop stopped me and asked me if I could give two ladies (school teachers) a ride. I did. Same level of Spanglish conversation.
• I headed south toward Jacó, a party town. Well, I hadn't realized it but it was the beginning of Semana Santa so the town was full. I found a little hotel maybe 10km north of town. Off the road, dumpy, relative cheap and, except for me, totally filled with Ticos.
• After two days (I think) there I headed further south. I got as far as Dominical where you can at least find drunk and/or stoned surfers that speak English. I did, however, stay in Quepos, the little town near Manuel Antonio. The hotel I stayed in, Mar & Luna, didn't know what English was but as it was low-budget there were backpackers from lots of places. Some even spoke English.

I don't remember how long I was there but I think it was 10 days or less. I did my best to talk to people and to go anywhere you wouldn't find any Gringos. That is, to see the Costa Rica that was behind the pretty "tourism face" you were supposed to see. That trip inspired me to visit a few more times and finally move to Costa Rica. I didn't move there because it was cheap, I moved there because it was interesting and, well, fun.

While I lived in Costa Rica I went to a lot of the "tourist places". But, I introduced myself to Costa Rica first by looking for "regular folks" and "regular places".

In case you are wondering what "Spanish that totally sucked" meant, anything beyond asking for food or saying the name of a place and making an "I'm lost" face was about it. For example, I remember the first time I pulled into a gas station. I pulled up to the pump for gas. A guy came over and said "¿Lleno?" I had no idea what that meant but I said si and all was well.