My husband has always been a traveler, ever since he was 18 he’s been to as many different places as possible, so it sits pretty thick in him. He seems to always come up with these random and off the hook ideas, so it was no surprise to me when he said he wanted to go to Nicaragua for a little. How fun I thought, why not we have a house there on the beach! Well hold up let me back up slightly and explain this house.
About seven years ago we partnered up with about six people, some are good friends, some we know but have no relations with.We thought what a great investment! And put out-of-pocket without seeing this place, only a picture or two, but the key selling point was clearly the words beach front for this surfing bunch of central Oregonians, clearly not the condition of the house! Maybe it was purchased with intent to fix up the fixer upper, whatever our intentions were, we now are part owners of this run down abandon house in poneloya, Nicaragua. If I can find some photos of this beauty I will post them so you can get a better understanding of what I agreed to and “why? you will ask”, owning it isn’t the dumb part oh no that’s the cool bragging part, until any one actually gets to see this house we brag about. Geographic location gives us the bragging rights nothing else. A diamond in the rough I am constantly reminded, so I come back with the ” you can’t polish a turd….baby”.
So…. We decide it is our duty to go see the house for ourselves and attempt to polish this turd. Now the decision of how, of course for most people this decision is easy… You fly duh! But for the Yee’s who often like to stretch the limits of “normal” we decide driving is the route to go, a lovely family vacation all thru Central America, oh did I mentioned we will be taking a 1985 ford E 350 van diesel pimped out, and two dogs!! yup that’s right go big or go home!!
March 13th is the date of departure leaving us 2.5 weeks to rent the house, pack the shit that we will need and believe me we need a lot of shit, and give my two-week notice at work, guess I should be doing that like now. Our list of stuff to pack is ridiculous large for traveling light but since we have this ginormous van we feel we should load him up. Now Chocolate Charlie has quit the task ahead of him, that’s the name the travel monster was dub. He must not only make the journey twice but do it with no major let downs, we’re counting on you Chocolate Charlie your our only hope!!!!
The List of shit:
figured I would put the list down just incase anyone decides to drive themselves one day.
Solar panels, tents,hammocks (a must),shovel,hammer, sawzall, screen house, solar shower, water purifying system, coolers, stove, cooking gadgets, my blender and rice cooker is making the journey, with all the fresh fruit I will be making some smoothies! surf boards, snorkel gear, bikes, throwing knives(you never know), gas tanks, pulley’s, come along, toe straps, car flares and triangles, fix a flat, spare tires, jumper cables, and all the proper documentation. Sure that’s not everything and a lot of the stuff not everyone would need but you never know. oh and lots and lots of sunblock!!
So once we get the house rented, which we think we do, so that’s good, the next step would be start gathering all the gear and packing it into Charlie and getting him ready for his maiden voyage. It is crunch time and our stress levels are starting to increase, and go figure Lila and Myself decide to come down with the flu that I swear is trying to kill us, so we have been layed up on the couch for like all week, not able to motivate any part of myself to do anything, watching the house disappear in complete chaos and clutter, which isn’t helping with my healing process but totally helping the stress levels reach maximum. T-minus 2 weeks and counting can we pull it off? we will find out.
From Oregon to Nicaragua, one family's journey. 