Day 28/29/30

Basilica Cathedral de la Asuncion (1747)

Inside the Ortiz Gurdian Museum

(I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the artwork, only the halls and garden...)

Government propaganda for Daniel Ortega (current President)

La Recoleccion (1780)

What a fantastic weekend we had!

We finished Spanish class on Friday, which means we've studied 80 hours of Spanish! Crazy! I feel like I've come a loooong way, there is no doubt about that! However, I see a lot of room for improvement. There's definitely a lot I still don't know, but I look forward to learning it! After having studied French for so many years, I understand that language learning is a lifelong process. It's definitely not something that you can master in 4 weeks! I'm hoping to learn a lot in the next 6 weeks, where I'll be practicing Spanish in a work environment as opposed to a classroom.

We left for Leon on Friday afternoon. Leon is a city of about 250,000 people, and it’s known to be the hottest place in all of Central America (it definitely lived up to that reputation!). We took a bus to Managua, and from there, we took a bus to Leon. The trip took us about 4 hours total. Leon is a colonial city (like Granada), and thus it is quite touristy. Of course, when I say “touristy”, I mean touristy for Nicaragua – tourism here really doesn’t compare to places like Mexico, Jamaica, Belize, or Peru. We stayed in a hostel called BigFoot for $6 USD per night. Friday evening, we enjoyed a nice dinner and made many new local friends!

Saturday, we had an awesome breakfast at an organic, fair-trade café before heading out Las Penitas – a small community on the ocean. We enjoyed the sunshine and the ocean, and had some lunch. We headed back to Leon later that afternoon. We spent the evening socializing with the friends we had made the night before. It was a really fantastic opportunity to practise the Spanish we had learned!

On Sunday morning, I walked around Leon. I explored the parks, admired the (many…) churches, and visited the Ortiz Gurdian Museum. It was an absolutely beautiful museum, featuring artwork from artists all over Central and South America! I will admit that I wasn’t expecting much in going, so the numerous original Picasso paintings, beautiful gardens and decor, and immense diversity in artwork surprised me! I was the only person in the entire museum. The staff literally followed me from room to room, turning lights and fountains on before I got there, and turning them off as I left. I thought it was a good example of how Nicaragua is trying to increase tourism, and how tourists aren’t at the point where they consider Nicaragua in their travelling expeditions. I would recommend travelling here to anyone! Nicaragua really is a hidden gem…and due to their lack of natural resources (they have none, other than lumber), they desperately need to boost their economy through international tourism!

I tried to go to another museum, the Rubin Dario Museum, but it was closed! Rubin Dario is a famous Nicaraguan poet. It would have been neat to learn more about him!

We left early Sunday afternoon for home. We arrived in Jinotepe around 5:30pm. Two new volunteers, one from Montreal and the other from Ottawa, arrived Friday night after we had left for Leon. We met them when we arrived home. They are so wonderful, and it is really exciting to have some new faces in the house! We enjoyed a “welcome” dinner with them – so fun!

We got back to the house around 8:30 and I turned on my computer, as I was planning on writing my blog. I saw 4 new messages from my parents, with urgent subjects!

I’m skimming over these messages in shock…it’s all about credit card fraud! I’m not understanding any of it. I remember having my wallet removed from the safe Friday afternoon before we left for Leon, and giving it back to someone to put in the safe. I call my parents via skype, and I explain that I haven’t used my credit cards since I’ve arrived in Nicaragua! I also tell them that the credit cards were in my wallet when I left on Friday. My parents weren’t given any specific details, as they are my credit cards and the information could only be given to me, so all they could really tell me was to call the bank number.

I go and check my wallet, and sure enough, both of my credit cards are gone. Ooooooooh boy. All I can think of is how this could have happened!? I talked with the staff, and together, we figured out what must have happened. It’s a long and complicated story, but basically it was a really innocent mistake. Only one person here has control of the safe, and because the new volunteers were coming, it was an incredibly busy day at BaseCamp on Friday. My wallet wasn’t immediately returned to the safe, and there were some sketchy guests in the house that night (BaseCamp is a hostel, and although not often, there have been other guests in the house…). We figure that the cards were stolen from my wallet then, as all of the charges were made Saturday morning.

I talked to the people from the bank for about an hour. HSBC flagged the unusual charges (considering that the majority of the charges were at an Asian Casino, unusual seems like an understatement! haha) and they were able put a hold on both cards within a few hours. Unfortunately, the people with my cards were able to do considerable damage in those few hours - but I definitely realize how much worse it could have been! I am also very fortunate that they didn’t take my passport, or any of my cash. I don’t know what happens from here.

BaseCamp was incredibly professional and helpful about the entire situation. I am not upset in the least with any of this – if anything, this has made me very grateful to have such great customer service! Both BaseCamp and HSBC were really helpful through the entire process.

I also realized how grateful I am to live in Canada, where I can trust others to be truthful! I asked one of the staff members if we could report the incident to the police, and he told me the police would do nothing. In Nicaragua, it is a well known fact that you cannot trust police officers or government officials. We were actually warned that we should never be alone with the police, as they often will plant drugs on tourists, and then threaten to report you unless you pay them. We were also told that any victim of crime cannot count on the police to help them.

There’s no doubt that having had my credit cards stolen is inconvenient, and pretty scary, but at the same time, I’m very grateful that it was only my credit cards, as I feel it could have been a lot worse!