The Wandering Enginerds

Confirmed – A/C has been quite wonderful the past four (4) nights. Costa Rica is far more advanced than Nicaragua was. On our way to our hotel from the Nicaragua border we saw Burger Kings, Subways, and HardRock Cafes.  And their houses are a bit more advanced than metal huts. Lastly, the local foods – ceviche and casado – has been better than the local Nicaraguan food. One of several mansions found tucked in the hills of Playa Ocotal Wednesday started our scuba dive certification training at Rocket Frog Divers in Playa Ocotal. Nothing quite like starting out by watching videos and going through a 200+ page, five (5) chapter book complete with quizzes to remind you of your college years. As if that wasn’t enough there was a written final exam as well. There is way more information and technique involved with scuba diving than we had imagined. Anyways, our hotel and the scuba center are about three (3) miles from the “downtown” Playa del Coco area where the majority of r...

So far we've climbed a couple of volcanoes, relaxed at a lake, made it to an island, and saw 4 cities. But throughout all that, we've learned some very important things along the way: 1. The most common and readily available activity in Nicaragua is sweating. It's indescribable how hot it is here. Way worse than Houston. And no AC at any capacity. Despite being above the equator and having the highest temperatures of the year right now, they call this time of year winter because it is their rainy season. And by rainy season they mean it rains for less than an hour in the evening most days. Chicago/Michigan if you could adopt this version of winter, that'd be fabulous.  2. Nicaraguans don't have much. Very common housing we have seen is tin shacks put together with whatever metal (such as a beer sign) they can find. It is not uncommon for packs of cows, bulls, horses, pigs, or dogs to create a traffic jam. We saw some farmers actually using a plow being...

We’re safe and sound! Despite a 30-minute delay taking off from ATL we made it into Nicaragua around 7:45pm. Little did we know they don’t observe daylight savings time here, so arriving at what we thought was 8:45pm local in pitch black seemed about right. Sunrises happen around 5:15am and sunsets around 6:00pm. It’s technically their winter season, but temperatures seem to stay above 75 no matter what time of day, while climbing into the 90s regularly. I’m pretty sure we haven’t stopped sweating since we landed. The first night took us to Poco a Poco Hostel in Leon, which was an hour and 45-minute shuttle ride from Managua’s airport. We had prearranged this which helped avoid the chaos upon arrival as is typical in most tourist-heavy areas. The main road through Managua was lit up with a variety of 40-foot neon trees every mile or so which was unique. Other than that the drive was uneventful. We arrived at the hostel in Leon and took a quick tour around after letting family and ...

Hello Friends, Family, and Coworkers! Once we settle into unemployment (that word is far scarier now that it's actually here), we'll make a proper first post.  For now, we'll get the basics out of the way... Who: Doug and Jenna What: Traveling around the world How: After surviving Civil Engineering (hence "enginerds") together at the wonderful University of Illinois, we've landed jobs in construction, saved a few pennies, and then left said jobs to go on a world adventure while we're young, wild, and free! Where/When: We have a very general route we are following but we're only booking the major items in advance.  The rest of the time, making it up as we go. June 1, 2017 - Flight to Nicaragua June/July - Central and South America August/September - Europe Round 1: wherever our Eurail passes take us ...Brief pause to return to America for some weddings... Mid-October through Mid-November  - Europe Round 2: Scandinavia and Iceland ....