Two days to go and hopefully all is under control. I filed for an extension on my tax return today, so I will not have to worry taxes until I'm back. Packing is pretty well done and and loose ends are tied up. We purchased tickets for Susan to come from March 1-11, so she'll spend her birthday in Nicaragua this year.
Tomorrow, Susan takes me to Rockford where I'll stay in a motel and catch an early bus to ORD on Friday. We're keeping and eye on the weather (and fingers crossed), however...after a springlike start to January, winter storm advisories are now posted for the precise time that I begin the trip!
Before I leave, I thought I'd post some maps so you can get an idea of exactly where I am. (If you go to Google Maps and look at this location, you'll find that the satellite pic was taken when the area was covered by a cloud, so you can't see anything.)
The first map shows the entire country and the arrow points to my location. I'm only about 30 km from the Honduran border and the highway mileage (kilometerage?) is about 212 km from Managua. I'm located in the Department of Madriz, the town of Totogalpa, and the community of Sabana Grande. If fact, as you'll see below, Sabana Grande is further divided into neighborhoods.
The second map is a blow-up of the northeastern part of Nicaragua, again with an arrow pointing to my location. The darker, wider roads are the Pan American Highway. The highway splits at Yalaguina with the northern branch (passing through Sabana Grande) heading to Tegucigalpa and the western branch heading to San Salvador.
Finally, this is a map of the community of Sabana Grande. The Carretera Norte (yellow road going top to bottom on the left) is the Pan American Highway. It is a two-lane road, but nicely paved, and in fact, the only paved road in the area. The orange roads are roughly equivalent to rural gravel roads in the States, but are typically quite rutted and streams are forded rather than bridged. These roads are, for the most part, passable by two-wheel drive cars. The blue "roads" are more akin to gullies with a footpath on each side. Only four-wheel drive vehicles (or perhaps a motorbike if you're willing to get off occasionally and push) can typically navigate these roads. The "clouds" with the names represent the neighborhoods and I'll be staying at one of the houses with the number code. After arrival I'll post my exact location so they'll know where to send the drones. The green star is the headquarters for the group with which I'm working.
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