The Nicest People of the Year

If we were handing out awards for the most amiable people we encountered this year, these would be our top picks:

1. Lady at the school supply store in Matagalpa - We needed to send home a few items in the middle of the year to lighten our load for more travel. This lady was so accommodating to us. Not only did she provide a box, paper, scissors, and tape for us, she also gave us great advice on sending packages from Nicaragua. And all we had done was inquire in her store if she sold boxes. Yeah for the school supply lady!

2. Lake Bled hostel lady- Most hostels maybe greet with you a few pleasantries, and then direct you to your room. This hostel lady was the best of all. She was so welcoming, gave us a detailed map and activities lesson on the Lake Bled area, and asked us throughout our stay if we were doing okay. She was an unexpected happy island in a sea of crabby hostel ladies.

3. Enrique and daughter Anna - Students of ours at Academia Europea in Matagalpa. Both were in the same class, despite Anna being the teenage daughter of Enrique. These two shared their warmth and caring personalities with us each night of class, and even invited us to their home for dinner. During this dinner, Enrique gave us an in-depth tour of his coffee-farm plantation and lovely home, located just outside of Matagalpa. His wife prepared a fabulous feast and we were treated to aperitifs and appetizers too. It was a memorable visit with the locals.

4. Ricardo at Pueblo Ingles - This guy might win the prize. Throughout our first week of Pueblo Ingles, Ricardo was always a pleasure to chat with. His true colors shined however during the end of our week. It was at this time that Trisha and I were invited to attend another week of Pueblo Ingles in Barcelona, 300 miles away. Having already made previous arrangements, we were hesitant to change our plans, but did so in the end to embrace this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Struggling to make the travel changes online and without a cell phone, Ricardo stepped in, made repeated calls to his travel agent, and helped arrange everything for us. Not only that, on the final day he went out of his way to give us a ride to Salamanca and even arranged to have us store our bags in the office of the travel agent he uses. Hooray for Ricardo!

5. Eccis from Euro Café in Granada, Nicaragua – Eccis was a warm and friendly barrista at Euro café in Granada, who went out of her way to befriend us. Upon each visit to the little café she would come over and chat with us for as long as she could be away from her work. Toward the end of the month she even invited us to have Christmas Eve dinner at her home with her family. We had to decline due to obligations with our host family, but we continued to stay in contact with her after our time in Nicaragua ended.

6. Rob and Robin – Our second and definitely most hospitable Help X hosts of the year definitely make our list of nice. These two were both encouraging and thankful of all the work we completed for them during our week visit to their farm near Norwich, England. They also took us out for beers at the local pub and invited us to watch BBC movies with them that they thought we would enjoy. Their interesting lives, Rob’s great sense of humor, and Robin’s delicious meals made our week very memorable. Cheerio to Rob and Robin!

7. Mario - Mario was the informative and gracious tour leader from Matagala Tours who gave us our first taste of Matagalpa hiking. We discovered on our first outing with Mario that he was interested in improving his English, as we were in our Spanish. Thus began an intercambio (language exchange) that would last for three months of our time in Nicaragua. We met with Mario and his friend Karlek (also nice) twice a week and spoke in Spanish for half the time and English the other. Even better was that Mario became our free tour guide of the area and we would often plan outings that would have been difficult to do had we been by ourselves. Especially memorable was our last visit with Mario and Karlek, when the two surprised us with a traditional Nicaraguan feast they prepared. It was a tasty meal for our last language exchange together.