First day we arrived in Granada
Me and Arisbeth kayaking to the spider monkey island
Group photo before ziplining
The girls before getting in the kayaks
Last night in Nicaragua, San Juan del Sur
This week was pretty rad. To be honest, student direct Travel was perfect timing. I started to feel overwhelmed with the group; not because I don’t like them but because I realized on this trip that I am an introvert. I don’t normally hang out or travel in large groups so it’s new for me to be living with so many different personalities. I love everyone in my group as an individual and prefer to get to know them one on one.
I plan on traveling more in the future and I think that when I do it will be solo. I know that this week gave me some opportunities to see what it would be like to travel alone and to have to fend for yourself. Having these extra responsibilities will definitely benefit me in the future and help me become that independent traveler I want to be in the future annnd also help me budget my money. Having more independence helped my Spanish a lot as well.
The first thing we did to set up for student direct travel was gave out roles. My role for the week was to book hostels or hotels and budget how much it would be for the group. I was also I in charge of making sure nobody left anything behind after leaving a place. I was very successful at my job (even though I somehow managed to lose a lot of my things this week? )
ANYWAYS
We started out in Granada and stayed at a hostel called panda. It was very spacious And had a kitchen. We were the only group in this hostel and I made spaghetti for dinner one night!!!! The way we found out about this hostel was not actually from my mad research skills (unfortunately) we actually found out about this place from our leaders who had a book of where carpe groups stayed in the past. I did my best at trying to get us a place in Granada but the guy I spoke to on the phone got angry at me for not being able to speak Spanish and said he didn’t have time to speak to me. He then proceeded to his busy day after he hung up on me (what an asshole). Nobody cared anyway, we had a good time at panda, it was great and even had all of these decorations of pandas all over even kung foo panda ;) we also got to watch television quite often……Be JEALOUS!
The night that we got to Granada, the students planned a very successful group meeting. We covered everything we wanted to do talked about our budget and even made a shopping list so that we could go grocery shopping the next day and cook to save money. For our activities we decided that we would like to go kayaking and zip lining.
The next morning at breakfast a very unusual man named victor approached us, it was mostly my fault for recommending this restaurant to the group for breakfast. Victor was a man with hazel eyes and sharp pointy teeth. He was a salesman from Miami who wanted to offer our group the “best deals” for the activities we wanted to do and transportation. Victor did those things well the only problem was the way he approached our group. He was really creepy and checked up on us when we least expected it. Overall I am very grateful for victor creeping up on us with some slamming deals (shouts out to ya) we were able to get our kayaking done and see spider monkeys on the island and go zip lining. Me and my kayaking partner might have been the fastest kayakers in the history of carpe groups by the way. zip lining was amazing and the guides gave me the nickname super Rebekah (they really know how to boost a girls confidence).
That night was my fist night ever clubbing it was great dancing by myself I could totally tell everyone was jealous of my killer dance skills and im surprised no one put a spotlight on my leader Topher because his moves were pretty sweet as well. Granada was great in the end. I saw lots of rasta guys from the Caribbean and got a taste of each culture.
Next it was off to san Juan del sur. san juan was a really touristy area with lots of partying but, don’t worry mom and dad, we didn’t get invited to any sweet mansion parties. it was nice spending time relaxing on the balcony of mama Sarah’s house (the hostel we stayed in) it was a very nice place and mama Sarah made us snacks and brought us lemonade which was super sweet. in san Juan we got to start hearing more about other people’s lives in the group by doing our life map activities. This was nice for me especially being the introvert I am and not being very vulnerable all of the time. It was really nice to hear what brought everyone to where they are now and I know now that Fortaleza was the perfect name for our cohort. We are all very strong individuals. San Juan was also super great because i got to go surfing for the first time ever and I know that it's something i would like to do again in the future. Surfing was harder than I expected but I got motivated when I saw Rachel my leader shredding and catching every single wave.
overall student direct was week was a blast and I could totally do it again. I'm excited to travel more in the future and to keep in touch with my cohort.
-pura vida
Rebekah Lathan
Gnarly waves brah