http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/SarahandRick/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from SarahandRick en-us Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:42:10 BST Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:42:10 BST Big life update for Sarah and RickSarah has chosen to attend Emory Law School next year. Although her initial intention was to defer law school for a year and stay in Nicaragua Emory has offered an enticing scholarship that would be jeopardized by such a plan. We've decided that it'd be too good to pass up and will be heading north to settle in the Southat least for three years.Rick has deci http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-275655.html Sorry for not posting for so long. We've been very busy with work activist causes people visiting and Sarah visiting law schools.I wanted to share with you a blog I wrote for work about the new US ambassador in Nicaragua. In USA's typically head strong way the government appointed a man partly responsible for funding and administering the Contra War in the 80's. A war that was especially cru http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-272984.html I wanted to post some pictures of some friends that had stopped by for a day or two in Granada. We tried to make the best of our short time together by doing some hiking and a ropes course with Jen and a Kayak tour with Cheka. We are grateful for them to make the effort to see us. It was wonderful to reconnect discuss some old times and create some new memories. We look forward to more visits http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Granada/blog-252079.html I wanted to give you all a little background about our neighborhood before I write about a common occurrence that I've had during my time down here in ManaguaWe live next to and within a neighborhood where a large portion of the houses are made of rusty patched together Zinc plates and the main economic activity involves an illegal market of trucks selling gravel and dirt that is stripped from th http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-240555.html Rick and Sarah's XmasMore than a month after our holiday experience I thought I'd tell you all a little about our abnormal Christmas.In Nicaragua the whole country practically shuts down for the second half of December. For Sarah and I this meant some exciting travels. We had visions of seeing many parts of El Salvador and Honduras seeing beaches fortresses forests and the like. However g http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Honduras/Bay-Islands/Utila/blog-237775.html I begin this entry with the requisite apology for not having posted in over a month. Rick and I have managed to keep ourselves quite busy spending time in various Nicaraguanand even Honduranlocations. We've finally made our way back to Managua and plan to stick around at least for the workweek.Seeing as how I haven't written since Thanksgiving the pool of stories and happenings I have to http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/blog-234383.html Welcome to Sarah and Rick's new blog siteSorry to switch the address so quickly but we feel that this sight will provide everyone with a better interface through which to vicariously experience Nicaragua. You may notice that some of the old entries are now illustrated in Technicolor they have pictures As an added bonus you can subscribe to this blog and automatically receive an email each http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-223073.html We recently went to a Nicaraguan Professional League Baseball game here in Managua. We went with some of our neighbors and sat along the first base side in a section affectionately known as the jail. It's closed off to the rest of the crowd and the field because it's the all you can drink section. Apparently the partyers have been known to make a run onto the field.The night was interesting http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220512.html Rick makes his first entry about a trip to a campo village a few weeks backAs our cab pulls up to the open air market we are getting propositioned to go to seemingly every city in the country. Multiple men crowd around us while we are still inside the cab scrambling to find money to pay the driver. They forcefully ask us a Matagalpa Jinotepe Masaya hoping that we'd get on one of the unp http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220042.html I am finding it difficult to write entries lately. Not for lack of topics to write about but because I feel so inadequate explaining the complexity of my life down hereeven things that may seem simple like my daily routine or my trip to Granada this weekend. I feel a burden of explanation and honesty. But the honesty I would like to portray is difficult to access from my limited perspective a http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220041.html Rick and I went to Xiloa roughly pronounced heelowAH this past Sunday for a day trip. Xiloa is a little Laguna just northwest of Managua. We read in our guide book not expect crowds or tourism since many of the restaurants and ventas were still closed and in disrepair from Hurricane Mitch circa 1998.The guidebook read There are frequent buses from Managua that will take you right to the http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220037.html I take the bus to and from Spanish class every day. The trip takes about 30 mins in each direction. That's a full hour of intense presonal Nicaraguense a kind of daily informal orientation to Managuan life. And so I bring you the Managuan bus system as I know and love itThe bus lines are run by private entities usually cooperatives that own and maintain the buses. The fares are regulated by http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220034.html This morning Rick and I went to Casa Ben Linder to hear a presentation by the director of Accion Medica Cristiana or Christian Medical Action. He discussed the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua focusing mainly on the effects of Hurricane Felix which some of you may know struck Central America on September 4th of this year.After painting a general socioeconomic picture of the region before the Hurrica http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220032.html As my plane descended into Managua I could see them beaming into the night sky pulsating out from an otherwise sparselylit metropolitan area McDonald's golden arches. Gringos had branded the flight path into Nicaragua with that emblematic nod to massproduced coronary failure. I began to wonder if McDonald's had actually paid the airport to align the runway so that incoming passengers would pa http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Nicaragua/Managua/blog-220027.html