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Published: January 30th 2007
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Riddle: How does an American woman with long blonde hair blend in when surrounded by Nicaraguans?
Answer: She doesn´t.
Even with the hair pulled up under a sombrero (which incidentally makes matters worse... Nicaraguans don´t wear sombreros). I might have been better off with a ponytail. I´ll skip the details for Aunt Marilyn´s sake, but suffice to say I´m glad to be out of Corinto.
For those considering a visit to Corinto, the only hospedaje I could find was Hospedaje Vargas. For $7 (usd) per night I had a private room with an attached bathroom, a fan, a comfortable double bed and clean sheets, though I suspect the pillows were nothing more than folded rugs. Also included was toilet paper, soap and a towel! Inclusions I was very excited to see. Many of you might not understand this, but for a backpacker to get a private bathroom is a bonus... add a new bar of soap and toiletpaper and it´s bordering on the lap of luxury.
The downside? I was still a pretty, blonde American woman and so, skipping the details again, I was glad when morning finally arrived and I was able to hop onto a
Corinto
One of the many rocky beaches in Corinto. waiting shuttle (for the price of $ .50) back to Chinandega.
....which is where I am now. I had left my favorite ring (purchased during my first trip to Nicaragua in December) at Enoe´s house and did not want to leave Chinandega without it. So, once I arrived in Chinandega, I used Enoe´s written directions to find her house. Boy was that fun. What should have taken 5 minutes walking, ended up being an hour. EVERYONE interpreted the directions differently. ¨You go 2 blocks north and then go east 1 block.¨ So I did. ¨No, no, no, you have to go back 3 blocks and then around the corner for half a block.¨ So I did, which looked frustratingly similar to where I had started. I tried again. ¨You go 2 blocks north and then go past the church and around the corner and then go east for half a block.¨ Dejavu´ By now I was muy calor (very hot) and dying of thirst and a headache was rapidly approaching because I did not stay in Corinto long enough to find coffee. An owner of a photocopy shop tried calling the house but Enoe was at the market and
so I tried again and finally found someone who knew the Bustamente Family and where they lived. Lucky for me. I was bordering on dehydration.
I had wanted to leave right away for Granada but Manuela´s mother, Enoe, insisted I stay another night. It´s hard to say no to her. She is very sweet and kind and does not want to see me go. She lives alone and I think she enjoys the company though we don´t say much to each other. She loves cooking for me, but it´s so hot here I can´t bear to eat anything except fruit and vegetables. Their meals typically consist of rice and beans, chicken, tortillas and cheese. Though delicious, it´s difficult to eat in this heat. It´s over 90 degrees here.
Enoe has miraculously eradicated the ¨pit¨stains from my favorite white t-shirt. She insisted on doing my laundry and so I picked out two shirts from my dirties... I don´t know how she did it. I love that shirt and have had it awhile so the stains have been there for quite some time Some combination of the soap she uses, bleach and the Nicaraguan sun. The shirt looks brand new!
The Bustamente Family
Back: Javier, Noemi, Enoe, Javier and Maria. Front: Jafet, Javier Antonio, Javiera, Ana Jael, Jese and Juan Pablo. Laundry here is done in the kitchen. One side of the 3-tubbed stone sink has a built in stone wash board. The clothes are more clean to me than I get them in a washing machine in the United States!
A few interesting details....
When Javier (airport Javier) speaks to me he shouts, as if shouting makes him better understood by the Gringo standing before him. I guess it was only funny the first 50 times. I do not know how to delicately tell him that I can hear perfectly fine! I do not wish to hurt his feelings and so will endure until I leave in the morning.
Nicaraguan Television has a version of Saturday Night Live and we watched it a few nights ago. The boys were laughing so hard I started to watch with them to see what was so funny. It was a lot of fun watching that show with them and when something about America was made into a joke, they laughed even harder! I was surprised some of the stupid things our celebrities are doing make news in Nicaragua!
Buses have a ¨lots of room in the inn¨mission statement and
just when I think a bus or shuttle cannot possibly hold another human being, we will stop for more people and somehow they are added to the load. Most of the time the buses and vans have people holding on to the outside and sometimes even clutched to the luggage on the roof. I don´t know how they hold the weight...every seat is taken, every inch of isle space is taken with people holding onto a bar hanging from the ceiling and the doors are open with people occupying the steps. We will stop and sometimes a bicycle rider will hand a package to the driver that we will deliver to someplace in the middle of nowhere on the side of the road. Speed does not seem to be regulated and drivers use the entire road, swerving only when impact with another vehicle seems imminent.
Tomorrow I travel South....
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