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I came to Nicaragua's capital for a few days with the sole intention of picking up my girlfriend Michelle from the airport. We had been apart from each other for several months now and finally we would be reuniting for the last leg of my trip. It has been a difficult couple of months being apart from each other and now we are ready to share the end of the Central American journey together.
I arrived to Managua after transferring buses at Chinandega and slamming two large glasses of zapote con leche for 10 cordoba each!! At the bus terminal in Managua no one knew where the area I wanted to stay was- barrio Martha Quezada- so after getting on the wrong bus and asking locals for over an hour (my map of Managua was absolutely terrible- throw away your Lonely Planet map if you are ever in Managua) until someone knew how to direct me to my destination. Finally I arrived to our reuniting spot and I immediately realized that my camera was missing- one of two things must have happened-
1. It was stolen on the crowded city bus by a smooth Nicaraguan pickpocket
2. I accidentally
left my camera with at Tomas' place in Potosi after being half awake/half asleep while packing up my stuff
At first I was furious because I was about 80% sure that the first option listed above was what ended up happening. As much as I wanted to believe that I unintentionally left my camera with Tomas after all of his hospitality and kindness I knew that I had been pick pocketed. It was my own fault though- I was getting cocky at this point in my trip thinking "nothing has happened so far- I'll wear my jeans today instead of my cargo pants for a change- I'll be just fine- I was in Mexico City and San Salvador- two places notorious for this kind of crime and after all Nicaragua is the safest country in Central America." Terribly irrational thinking on my part!! Unfortunately my jeans lacked the embroidered snap pockets that the cargo pants offer providing much more protection from this petty crime than stacking things up in the front pockets of my jeans. Lesson learned- dont get cocky even if you are in what many say is the safest place in Central America. Just as stereotypically "dangerous
places" are often not as bad as we make them out to be, "safe places" will not be safe if common sense and proper precautions are not exercised at all times. I started thinking back to my conversation with my Uncle Marcelo who live in Ecuador who had a similar situation happen to him. He just dealt with it by believing that whoever stole from him probably was in a desperate situation and had no other option- so they were better off due to his being a crime victim. Essentially, I had to put myself in the pickpocket's shoes and figured that he (or she) probably had no other option and probably needed the money my camera would provide much more than I did, as I am sure whoever now has the camera can feed their family for at least a month. This type of thinking helped me feel much better about the whole situation (and I was lucky enough to have backed up my pictures while in San Salvador- so it could have been much worse).
The next day I decided to explore Managua a bit before it was time to pick up Michelle from the airport. As
I walked around the barrio where I was staying I started talking to this Cuban guy named Miguel and he offered to accompany me to the Area Monumental. We walked a few blocks in the heat and arrived to the Palacio National and saw the famous cathedral that was destroyed by the earthquake of 1972. The cathedral also still had gunshots in it from the time of the civil war and has not been rehabilitated. The earthquake of 1972 demolished the city- taking out more than 250 city blocks while leaving over 500,000 people homeless and many of the city blocks have yet to be rebuilt. We checked out a nearby museum on Nicaraguan history for a few hours and by the time we got out the heat was blazing like crazy. A water salesman approached us selling water out of little plastic sandwich bags and I rehydrated myself (Miguel refused to let me buy him a bag of water even though he was visibly very parched- I had finally met someone more stubborn than myself!!) Anyway, the three of us were talking for a while and Miguel and the water guy were talking about how dangerous the city is- Miguel was explaining that he has had many friends steal from him and he was ready to move to Colombia because Nicaragua's economic situation is so poor. Miguel went on and on about all the "peligro" in Managua and then dug a pistol out of his pocket and said "that is why I carry this everywhere I go." Crazy!!
We walked up to Lago de Managua and relaxed in the shade, as it was now way too hot to think about walking back. We sat down for a bit and talked before finally deciding to get back. What a brutal walk that was through the Managua concrete jungle- we made it back and slammed about ten glasses of water.
That night I caught a cab to the airport where Michelle would arrive at 11:35P. I give her much credit for traveling alone to Nicaragua- not knowing any Spanish and arriving nonetheless at the notoriously dangerous capital of Managua during the midnight hour- this was a true act of bravery on her part! I saw her getting off the plane and it was a very emotional moment as we had not seen each other for over two months and we both missed each other intensely. I had been anticipating this moment for quite some time as we were both looking forward to experiencing the last leg of this Central American journey together. I was so happy to see her and was confident that the experience would bring us closer together.
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