Nicaragua
NICARAGUA | Friday, 31 July 2009 | Views [120] | Comments [2]
To all who care:
Let me start by saying that Nicaragua is truly one of the greatest countries i have had the pleasure of travelling through. Nicaragua has opened up its doors and welcomed us with open arms and a hot plate of Gallo Pinto. Apart from the incredible diversity of nature and wildlife, it has been more than anything the people who have made Nicaragua the shiz nizzle of Central America so far. I've never been to a country where politics means more to the people. They are so incredibly involved at all levels of society and it´s only when you read about their incredible past and the achievements and sacrifices these people have made that you begin to understand the national psyche. I have been toying in my mind whether to include a short history on the Somoza era and the social revolution that followed, but I figured that I wont be able to do it justice enough here and so will dedicate another blog soon to a short run down.
For those who are interested in this awesome history. a couple of cracking reads are.
Life is Hard by Richard Lancaster- an american anthropologist in managua in the 1980s
The Jaguar's Smile by Salman Rushdie- A three week intense report on the ups and downs of the Sandinista party in the middle of their struggle with the US supported contras in the mid 80s and written with pure class by the language magician Rushdie.
And so it begins with our take on Nicaragua and what has happened in the last month. I can't promise that this will be short Mr. Townshend and so if you're going to complain you should stop now while you can.
Armed with sandwhich bags full of rice, chopped carrots and whatever else we had cooked up in Tanya's kitchen we boarded the bus in San Jose at a very responsible 4.45 am. Whatever hopes we had of getting some sleep on this lovely comfortable bus were quickly dashed when old mate up the front put a movie on at full blast. It was so incredibly annoying that it was funny. the choice of movie (bearing in mind that there were no children on board); the Spanish cartoon version of Charlotte's web. Hmm another story for the book i'm now writing appropriatly titled 'tales from buses around the world'.
Nicaragua will certainly be able to fill a chapter on the wonderful idiosyncrasies that accompany bus travel in thier country including;
- The sprawling market that passes chaotically up the aile selling everything from fried chicken, platain chips with salad, juice, coke, corn on the cob (a beth reeves special, in fact i've never eaten so much corn on the cob in my life. Atleast two corns a day and on a long trip maybe more. A word of advice, never forget to bring a steady supply of floss because there in nothing more infuriating than a piece of fried corn stuck in your teeth for 5 hours.) to pens with a torch, creams that cure heart burn, insomnia AND impotence and religious figurines.
- The music choice of the drivers. At the moment currently sitting on top of the bus drivers chart must be a cd titled '80´s and 90´s power love ballads'. We have been bombarded with classic hits from the Bee Gees, Kenny Logins and my favourite (and one to surely impress Barbara Paroissien) Nikki French singing that one hit wonder ´Turn Around.´ We have heard that song so many times now that Beth and I had a long discussion over what the song actually meant, its certainly filled with mixed messages. Any ideas?
Anyway, we arrived safely into Managua and conveniently found a cheap place to stay right across the road from bus terminal. Managua is a strange place and not the kind of first impression that is necessarily good upon entering a new country. The geography is confusing, thanks to a couple of sizable earthquakes Managua no longer has a city center. In addition we found that from the top of Sandinos hill, Managua has so many trees it looks more like a jungle than a capital.
The major problem we had with Managua however was the fact that we couldn't walk around. Minutes after arriving, Beth and I were on the streets enthusiatic to explore but were met increasingly with people running out of their houses telling us we coudn´t walk down there because we would get mugged. Ammusingly, we were baffled as to what to do next becuase on the budget we have, we dedicate most of our life to just ´walking around.´
After managing to ´walk´in the safe areas for the rest of the day we retired to our room to come up with a new game plan. Beside the danger factor, Managua still has some great historical sites that we figured were worth seeing and so at Beth's insistance I opened up to the idea of taxis. Ah, the irony! the next day we forked out for three taxis only to find all the museams we went to were closed!
What did save the Managuan experience was Mama's cooking, a little fire next to our hotel that served up Gallo Pinto ( translated as spotted cock and consisting of you guessed it, rice and beans) served with incredible squeeky hot cheese and sugar fried Plantains.
Leon.
Although I have never been to Canberra in Australia and therefore should reserve judgement, I can imagine that as a tourist coming into Melbourne after arriving in Canberra would have the same affects that arriving in leon after Mangua did. Basically a huge sigh of relief. Within seconds of getting off the bus we realized that Leon was going to be off the hizzle. It was the immediate for want of a better word 'vibe' of the place that struck us, although it helped also that there weren't lines of people yelling at us to get off the streets.
Another comparison to Australia that can be made is the history between the cities Managua, Leon and Granada. Way back before any of us were born, including you oldies that are reading, the old colonial cities of Leon and Granada were in an epic struggle to claim the title of capital of Nicaragua. Now this wasn't some name calling affiar that the Aussie one was, there was some intense fighting between the two cities and many people died. After years and years of civil fighting, the two parties finally agreed on a small city in between the two called Managua to be the capital, just like Canberra.
highlights include.
The first tasting of thier local brews, Tona and Victoria.
Teaching Beth the slogan that 'a hard earned thirst needs a big cold beer and the best cold beer is VIC'
Hotel Avenida- $5 a room
Walking around safely
Reaching the ruins of Viejo Leon, the original spot for Leon before it was destroyed by a Volcano. Not exactly the glamor you would associate with Pompeii but still interesting.
The Colonial buildings were cool, really cool.
Chinandega
A happening town 2 hrs north of Leon. Highlights include.
-$5 accomadation with a ensuite toilet and shower. The owner was great, little fat man that challenged me one day to a wieght lifting competition. He lifted 5 and I managed what I thought was a respectabull 10, until old mate in room 10 strolls out, built like a brick xxxx house and lifted 25- thanks for coming!
-The scary deserted carnival that conjuered harrowing memories of the scene in Pinocchio.
-Mamas cooking again was sensational.
Volcano San Cristobal
We stumbled across a man who owned a farm at the base of this Volcano who rented us his house for 20$ for the night. Dont be fooled by the term 'house' this place was rustic to the max. Most rooms were already occpied by bats and so we chose the outisde hammocks as our room for the night.
-we were up at 5.00 am and effectivly at the beginning of the volcano by 7.00. It was a demoralizing climb to say the least. We raced up the first two thirds so quickly that I though we might break some sort of Sir Edmund Hillary record, ohhhh how wrong I was. The further climbed, the steeper it got and the more difficult it became. Sounds obvious, however the terrain was based on millions of tiny little rocks that had a similar consistency to sand and so it went two steps up, one step back for about 3 hundred metres. We reached the summit of about 1800 metres ( not a record breaker but still tough) at roughly 9.30 and then relished the 'slide' back down in half the time.
What was harder was the 6km walk back to the road with the bus and then the trudge thru town back to our 5$ room and our friend the small fat man. The volcano climb was a massive highlight, being on a Nicaraguan farm accompanied by the local farmers was special, and my god that beer when we got home went down singing hyms.
Jiquilillo
A small town that was ravaged by a Tsunami back in 92´( anyone seeing the pattern?) about an hour north from Chinandega on the Pacific coast. Highlights include
-warm water surfing ( still cant do it)
-Steve the American history proffesor who gave us a two hour history lesson on how the USA invaded and stole a big chunk of land from Mexico. Who knew that???
-A terrible game of Volleyball
-An enroumous game of Bananagrams
-an incredibly cool English guy called richard who helped plan a good two weeks of our trip in the Nicaraguan highlands.
Estelli and into the highlands.
- Waiting for the 30th anniversary Independence Day celebration that never happened.
- Throwing all the toys out of the pram because we missed a festival.
- Feeling like a real idiot because we realized I got the days wrong!
- Heading to Matagalpa to try an celebrate again the Independence Day and finding no such luck again.
- Meeting to wicked aussies Aaron and Bridie who introduced us to Flora de Cana the local and delicious rum. At the local watering hole you can oder a bottle of rum with unlimited ice, coke and limes for $5. No more can be said on that subject without the risk of starting another informal discussion between Barbara Paroissien and Steve Reeves.
- A german retreat and a peaceful walk interruped by loud cries from the howler monkeys.
Wiwilli (put on thick posh British accent... my god, we've gone right off the map!)
As small cowboy town in the north west of Nicaragua. As highlighted by Richard in Jiquilillo, it's a wonderful little river town in the middle of nowhere. Way off the beaten path, it opens a window into really rural and poor life in Nicaragua. Most of the people you see on the 7 hour bus ride thru the mountains are living a bare hand to mouth excistence. This is not to say the people arent welcoming and amazingly generous with smiles and laughter.
My highlght was how far my Spanish had come, sitting in mamas front room for dinner one night and explaning with help from Beth what Australia was like as a country. And to their suprise trying to explain that we farmed and ate kangaroos!
Ocatal
Compartive to Wiwilli, a bustling metropolis 7 hours by bus from the little river town.
Highlights include
-suprising the folks with a monday morning 7.00 am wake up call. apologies.
- Using the future tense in Spanish for the first time!
-Realizing that we were super close to Honduran President Zelaya on the borders between the two countries.
-Securing the volunteering job in Honduras and celebrating with a bottle of rum!
Estelli and the Miraflor.
Back to Estelli to organize the Miraflor adventure which consited of being placed in a campinsino home for the day.
-Miraflor views were outstanding
-Being persuaded to go for a three hour horse ride to the local swimming hole. Associated words are ´fear, uncomfortable, laughter, city slickers and the man from snowy river!´
- Coffee plantations, Corn fields, medicinal gardens and an hilarious guide called Alex who tricked me into eating an eceptionally hot chilli.
ohhhhhhhhhhhh and thats just about it.
Things learnt
- It´s not about the distance its about the roads.
-Very few people outside of Central America know anything about Central America
-I pods have games
- I have the same genitic make up as my mum and am proned to electronic card game addiction.
- If you've got no teeth, we can't understand you. sorry.
Books
Life is Hard- Richard Lancaster
A jaguars Smile, Salmon Rushdie
Breaking the Maya code- some super smart but annoying Harvard genuis. interesting read however.
Music
A new found love for Nathaniel Merriwheather´s Lovage.
travel games score
Cribage
Andrew 6 Beth 1
Bananas Andrew 0, Beth 58,
Other card games
Andrew 10, Beth 10
Good times and great classic Hits
Andrew
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