After a great month in Mexico, and via a volcanic accent in Guatemala I arrived at my final destination, Nicaragua. Since its independence, Nicaragua has encountered several periods of political unrest and for over a hundred years has been a significant economic appendage to the United States. This made it a precarious place to be during the rise of socialist movements in the 20th century. Politics aside, Nicaragua is an amazing place to visit and I got to see it from the unique perspective of a volunteer cameraman for Edmonton based N.G.O, Change for Children.

Half my time in Nicaragua was spent gathering visual media for Change for Children and their partners, the other half I traveled. I tagged along on a dental/doctor brigade (photo to the left, dentist) in the northwest Bosawás region, home to the Miskito people (Miskito child pictured below). I also got to work with the youth of Estelí with the arts organization Funarte. It was my first experience working with a development organizations and won't be my last.

For my last week in Nicaragua I traveled to the Isle de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua. As soon as you leave the ferry terminal in San Jorge you see the unique profile of the island on the horizon. Ometepe is comprised of two volcanoes side-by-side that are fused together with lava to form one island. One of the volcanoes is dormant and the other is not. From the air the island looks like a figure eight, and you'll see the figure eight symbol incorporated in a lot of the local art.  The island is filled with crystal clear springs, waterfalls, and plantations.

On the ferry ride over I met a few backpackers and we soon discovered that we were all going to the same guesthouse/organic farm, Finca de Magdelina. We decided to share a cab for the two-hour ride and had no trouble finding a local with a 4X4 jeep to take us there. We watched the sunset 30 minutes into the jeep ride and then soon realized that the jeep's headlights were not functional. Our anxiety grew as the daylight dissolved into dusk but the driver didn't seem to have any problems navigating the narrow jungle roads. He stopped at one point and produced a 12-inch crescent wrench from beneath the drivers seat and popped the hood. We all looked at each other slightly satisfied. For the next 2 minutes or so we heard the driver smash metal on metal under his hood over and over again. The smashing didn't work; we had no headlights and now it was pitch black. We asked him to use the horn but he said that didn’t work either. The driver sensed our strife and said, "No problem, I live here for forty years." So on we went through the jungle in the darkness. My confidence began to grow in our driver's night vision as the light from the rising half moon gave shape to the road. Just after the driver told us we had one mile left to drive we came up behind a large industrial truck that was blocking the road 50 yards ahead of us on a hill. It looked like a dump truck but there were some people loading furniture into it. As soon as our driver turned off the engine the other driver quickly jumped in the truck and we saw the taillights light up. As soon as he got in the truck he hit the clutch and started to roll back. I thought to myself; great, he's moving so we can get around. I was wrong. The truck picked up momentum very quickly because of the slope of the road and was clearly coming right for us. Our driver started to bounce the side of his fist on the steering wheel in a futile attempt to beep his horn. The American guy that was sitting shotgun began to yell, "Hey! No! Heeey!  No! Nooooooooo!!!!!! A lot of thoughts went through my head as four tonnes of steel came straight at us. Time really started to slow down and I thought I could reach across Helen open the door, push her out and we can dramatically roll into the ditch to safety. Then I thought, who knows what the trajectory of all of this twisted metal is going to be and we could get squished in a minor fender bender. I'm safest here, but shit! I'm not wearing a seatbelt! Then I looked over at the American and thought, he sounds really funny when he's panicked. He was still screaming Noooooooo! The driver kept up his rhythmic back fist to the horn. Through the windshield I saw a Pepsi bumper sticker get larger by the millisecond, we all made helmets out of our arms and braced for impact. The truck smashed into our front, the jeep flew back 15 yards in an instant, and then rolled to a stop. After the initial shock wore off and we all exchanged a bunch of "are you OKs?" Nobody seemed hurt and we got out to assess the damage to the jeep. The front end of the jeep was smashed beyond repair. It was easy to see this in explicit detail because the headlights were now working perfectly. *more blog posts*