Last year at the start of the pandemic John and I decided we would walk everywhere we needed to go. We don’t own a car here and mostly walk everywhere anyway, but as a way to keep ourselves safe from Covid-19 we decided to decline the occasional rides in vehicles with other people, including taxis.
Weeks of solely walking everywhere turned into months of our doing so, and then it became a personal challenge…could we possibly go a year?
We went a year and a week to be exact.
Then it became time to go to the States to get vaccinated and to attend our son’s wedding, at which time our dependence on vehicles and our fuel consumption changed 100%.
To get from Nicaragua to our son’s home in Colorado, we rode taxis, planes and trains and a rental car to get there.
And once there, we lived for three months in a vehicle- in our Stateside truck with pop-top camper. We still walked daily but for recreation and exercise only. Vehicles took us where we needed and wanted to go: the store, the campground, the trailhead, our son’s.
Once back in Nicaragua, in mid-June of this year, we’ve been inside a vehicle as a couple once, which was to resupply in Managua using a rental car upon our return. I also took a taxi once, and rode in a friend’s car to go to Coco Beach, and another friend’s car to go shopping in Rivas.
John and I, together, rode home in the bed of a friend’s truck after a dinner in town turned dark and rainy.
But it’s been three months now since either of us have ridden in a vehicle. And we weren’t even keeping track until I just now looked it up. August 13, my trip to Rivas with my friend Tella Sametz.
How wonderful to live somewhere where I can walk everywhere I need to go.
Yes, that means life has slowed down. Yes, that means our attention is focused locally within a range of maybe five to ten miles. But what a glorious and splendid five to ten miles they are.