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Published: December 23rd 2006
Even when traveling I can´t stop thinking about transportation modes. The highways to Managua are in surprisingly good condition, it´s as if they were just paved last year. Even though they are plenty of cars and trucks speeding through, they have a lot of competition for lane space. In addition to the cars there are chicken buses, pedestrians of all ages, taxis mostly without license plates, bicyclists (with your wife sharing the seat and child side-saddle over the top tube), people on horses, oxen or horses pulling carts, packs of stray dogs, and pick-up trucks filled with their beds crowded with people, and everyone carrying things so big that it would be a challenge to fit into a mini-van. Roads connecting smaller towns are just as crowded, but haven´t been repaved in decades. Pots holes take up a bigger percentage of street space then actual pavement and the shocks on most trucks have long been worn out. Yesterday there were dozen of kids with bucket and shovels standing by the side of the road pointing out sand-filled potholes to drivers. The idea is that do you a service by making the road smoother and drivers are supposed to acknowledge the favor by tossing your spare cordobas out the window. The car situation here is a lot like I imagine Cuba to be, frozen in a particular era. Most of the vehicles are from the 70s, before a war, trade embargo, earthquakes, and hurricane Mitch turned Nicaragua from being one of the more wealthy countries in Central America to one of poorest.
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At school, whenever we eat fruit the peels get thrown in a bucket, which I assumed was put into a compost pile. It´s actually a much quicker version of a compost pile. A few years ago the zoo in Managua decided to get rid of a couple of pigs and the school inherited them and they eat all the scraps.
There were 5 students at the school my first week, then they left and 4 new ones arrived. The majority are solo female travelers so I am in good company. Right now there are only 3 of us and another one is named Janine. Except she is Swiss and Spanish will be her 4th language.
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Amy
non-member comment
Merry Christmas!!!
Hi! Thank you for your jornals, I live in LA and me and 2 of my girlfriends are planning to travel to countries in Latin in next spring break and I'm sure that your school is the same one that we are thinking of!! It is nice to know about there as information before we go, so , thank you! and please don't stop writting! Also, I couldn't ignore about the pervert that you mentioned lol.. is that somthing that we should consider? Could you tell us the detail? Amy