Wednesday, February 23, 2005
La Playa
The sweltering hole of Rivas was not terrifically impressive. Especially after a multi-hour drive wedged between various nicaraguans, in the 95° heat in a 35 year old schoolbus with no shocks and I really had to take a piss. Fucking guidebooks will make armpit town sound charming.
It was a little dusty, and the power was out in the whole southern part of the country. I wandered around a bit lost, and ultimately had to resort to the humiliating (for both of us I suppose) prospect of taking a cyclo to my hospedaje. I checked in, then after wandering a bit more, decided to move on to San Juan del Sur, near the Costa Rican border. Lovely little beach town on the pacific, and haven{t seen the pacific in ages. Nice dinner, slept well, day on the beach today morning on the beach tomorrow, and back to managua.
Still no holy one GI distress. I continue to live in a constant state of fear.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Pies de Sangre
RIP Uncle Duke...
Another good day, though I've destroyed my feet. It really sucks to be travelling and have your feet be bloodied and blistered, but thats what happens I suppose when you walk miles and miles in just flip flops, my own damn fault for assuming that distances were accurate in guide books. Sigh.
Longass time at the bank, all the multiple levels of beurocracy and different lines to wait in just to change traveler's checks. I think the employment of the country would halve if they cut all unneccessary staff from the government and other institutions. The other people in the bank also all seemed to have lunch bags full of cash, that took forever to count. THousands in both cordobas and US Dollars. Stumbled out into the blinding sun and non-air conditioned world in a daze, only to crash into a soldier/police who was casually tossing his AK-47 from hand to hand. !!!Ay perdon senor!!!
Did make it out to the isletas though, which were quite interesting, lots of wildlife and all, saw the fort that the spanish built to unsuccessfully repel the British pirates. Granada was sacked and burned three times or something ridiculous like that. Only to be surprise attacked again come summer at the merciless hands of the PDP.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Si, con el pastel....
I was bitten by a feral dog today. I also ate ceviche, which was also probably unwise and may lead to trouble.
I tihnk tomorrow I might go get a straightedge shave from the old men in the barbershop. In fact, I might do that even more often than just tomorrow if it really costs 26 cents.
Perhaps too I will get one of those bizarre taxidermied and shellacked crocodiles or giant frogs they seem to sell as one of the only souveniers.
I like this hospedaje very much, its clean, good food, non electric showers (cf guatemala entries), swimming pool, cheap as hell. The people seem to mostly be the trustafarian hippie types up from Costa Rica which is only an hour or two south, but not as offensive as the ones there. Theyve got a tv though, and I just don´t understand why anyone would fly thousands of miles away to a foreign country to lounge about on hammocks and watch american movies on dvd. I suppose thatss because I´m an incorrigible elitist snob.
Thursday, February 17th
Leopoldo Winsor Gutierrez
Last night's cab driver. The ride from my school didn't find me so i ended up getting a ride with the above named gentlemen. We started driving deeper anddeeper into some neighborhood in poptipil, a suburb of managua, and just when I was starting to get nervous he pulls up to what is his house and shows me his dog, wife, Olga, and grandmother. Wife gets in the car and off to Granada we go.
When I tell him I'm from Boston, he's very excited to hear that I'm from the cty of the "campiones mundiales" red sox, and we spend much of the drive discussing baseball, which is more popular than soccer here in nicaragua. He asked me how much my hat cost, which was like $15, which made me then feel horribly guilty about how much I can casually spend for a baseball hat. Also, today I was wearing my hat around and got many congratulations from guys on the street. Amusing. Got to hotel (Oasis- Really very nice and dirt cheap) and they had fucked up my room, so I got a dorm with a bunch of hippies, who were actually not so objectionable, just made me feel really old. Explored the market a little, wasn't terribly exciting, or as exotically bizarre as those in Guatemala, though I did see a guy who had two right hands.
Driving here will be more difficult than I would have anticipated given looking at a map and having seen the relatively decent roads in Guatemala and Costa Rica. They totally suck and we seemed to be going vey slowly, but I also realized at some point that I was unable to determine our speed as the spedometer in the cab was bouncing brokenly between 5 and 20, and we were surely going faster than that at many points.
The music of nicaragua: In the taxi ride I heard:
1. Informer by Canadian Superstar Snow
2. Ice Ice Baby by American Uberstar Vanilla Ice
3. Me So Horny by Controversial First Amendment defenders 2 Live Crew
Was also bitten by a feral dog today. Not as good as a freshwater shark or a live crocodile, but a start...
