We tried to buy our way to happiness but then we ran out of money.

Renting a car for a week-long surf trip seemed like a great idea, and it would have been, had we not decided to keep the car for an entire month. Upon returning our surf-board-carrying-off-roader, affectionately named 'Terry'* we discovered that thanks to a myriad of hidden charges, the “actual” cost of the car was about 2x as much as we thought it would be. We argued with Oscar, and his tough-guy posse, at the U-Save rental return for close to an hour, ultimately losing every argument, and begrudgingly paying the full (undisclosed) amount.

Defeated and forlorn, we boarded the U-Save mini shuttle and silently made our way to the Managua Airport, where we discovered, in addition to being broke, we had missed our flight to Peru.

Although tempted to spend the next 24 hours filled with U-Save rage, we instead decided to relax, enjoy the Managuan suburbs and work on something more productive: the anti-Terry t-shirt. (just click on the shirts to see 'em up close.)

VIVA!

-Las Aguas

*Terry: the logical name for a Daihatsu Terios

La guerra en la ducha. Translation: The war in the shower.

Below is a short personality assessment we put together after an “incident” last Sunday morning outside our hotel in San Juan del Sur. After taking the following quiz, your score will determine whether you are more like Alpina (and visiting boyfriend, Senor Mucha Fiesta) or Cristal (and visiting amigo, El Cabrito aka the little goat).

THE QUIZ:

1. You hear loud, ongoing, gunfire noises outside of the hotel, in the wee hours of the morning. Do you:

A. Feel bummed that something woke you up and go back to sleep, immediately.

B. After a brief discussion with roommate, hunker down in the shower of your hotel room, assuming guerrillas have stormed the town and are probably armed and ready to break past the guard to the hotel, the iron gate, through the locked door to the room and locked bathroom door only to look behind the curtain to (hooray) find a couple of hostages.

2: It’s 5 am in Nicaragua and distant, festive music is heard outside the hotel window. You:

A. Fumble around for some earplugs while cursing the ‘idiots' who are making so much noise.

B. Hold your breath and don’t let those music-playing revolutionaries know you are inside.

3: The first time you exit your hotel room on Sunday morning, you:

A. Head straight for the coffee and wonder what’s for breakfast.

B. Send your roommate out in his boxers to make a fool of himself as he mimes gunfire to the confused cook. (You stay behind the shower curtain, safe from the rebels.)

THE RESULTS:

If you answered mostly A’s, like Alpina, revolutions are something to worry about, but only after a full 8 hours of sleep.

If you answered mostly B’s, like Cristal, you have an over active imagination that becomes more evident when you learn that the sounds of violence were not a “guerra” but actually a “fiesta,” at the church up the street. Turns out, Nicaraguan Catholics celebrate the day of the Virgin Mary with 4 am gunshots (blanks) and a parade (revolutionary music). Who knew? Unlike our Catholics, these guys sure know how to party.

VIVA!

-Las Aguas

Happiness, Visualized

Earlier today, Las Aguas was discussing how we had somehow reached total travel perfection and were trying to figure out why. Is it having AC in our room? Or being able to have (rudimentary) conversations in Spanish? Or being 10 minutes away from an amazing surf beach? Since we’ve spent our entire careers translating ideas into visuals, we thought we’d try to explain why we are so happy in a couple of different ways.





Click on the chart to see it at full-size. Booyah!!!! - Las Aguas