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Published: December 20th 2007
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The trip to Nicaragua went by relatively uneventful. Cramped flights punctuated by long, boring layovers in airports in Portland, and Houston. On the longest flight, the one from Portland to Houston, my ticket indicated I had a window seat. Though, when I arrived at my row, a large black woman had stolen my seat. I glared at her, and upon sitting down in the middle seat she apologized and thanked me for understanding her situation. Which I took to meant
´being fat´. Though, since she did adknowledge the fact that she had usurped me from my rightful seat, I was less angry then I would have been. It´s funny how in my short time passing through the United States I was reminded multiple times of the so called obesity epidemic. In Texas, I ordered breakfast at a shitty little airport diner. I was allowed to pick 3 items from a list. I chose eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon. I got a scoopful of eggs, a small hashbrown, and lots of bacon. The girl behind the counter reached at the bacon with her tongs and pulled out about 6 slices, which compared to the meager amounts of food on the rest of my
plate was surprising. Then, she reached back for more. And one last anecdote before I wrap up this topic. On the flight between Houston and Managua everyone on the plane was being served refreshments. I had a window seat and was sitting next to a teenage boy. I was watching a movie and hadn´t spoken to the boy beside me at all throughout the flight. When the flight attendant asked me what I would like to drink I asked for water. After which the boy beside me tapped me on the shoulder, and looking exasperated, informed me that I could have whatever I wanted. Shocked that with all the choice I had chosen water.
I arrived in Managua at around 12:00 pm. I hadn´t filled out my customs or immigration forms on the airplane because I didn´t have a pen. I expected that there would be somewhere that I could fill the form out once I arrived. There wasn´t. An older looking couple was standing in front of me in the customs line and I borrowed a pen off of them. We chatted for a bit and it turned out they were originally from Nicaragua and were now living
in Louisiana. They gave me their pen, and also wrote down a phone number for their family´s place in Managua in case I ran into any trouble. I thought that was quite nice of them. That is essentially my entire experience in Managua. I had booked myself on a shuttle to Granada and was greeted with a sign spelling out my name. Upon which I exited the airport and stepped into a shuttle bus for the 45 km drive to the city of Granada.
I got dropped off at the Hostel Oasis, a popular backpackers hostel. Being as I´m travelling alone, and cheaply, I opted for a dorm bed. The hostel has a nice look to it, with a large central area surrounded a small courtyard lined with hammocks. Through the courtyard and down a hallway lies a row of computers, followed by a small pool and an even smaller cafe where they serve only breakfast. I settled in and read for ahwile before venturing out into the town. I walked through the narrow streets, lined with brightly painted buildings, heading towards the central park. The streets are filled with shops, markets, and restaurants. People bussling every which way
while cars navigate the one way roads. Every once and ahwile I bell rings loudly once, and then 40 to 50 more times before stopping. I´m not sure what this signifies. I don´t have a watch on me so I´m not sure if it is signifying time or not. When I got to the central park I found it to be a large courtyard filled with mango trees. On one side horse drawn carriages lined the street. At each corner of the courtyard lies thatch roofted cafes serving beverages. I walked around the courtyard and stopped at a small restaurant/bar that had a fair amount of white people in it. Though, when ordering I realized that my complete lack of spanish is going to be more problematic here then my lack of other languages elsewhere in the world. I wrapped the day up by lying in a hammock, then retiring to my room early to get some much needed sleep. I woke a few times in the evening to the loud obnoxious snoring of two other men in the dorm room.
This brings us to today. I slept in as long as I could, hours after the ringing bells
started and the roosters began to caw. I ate breakfast at the hostel and sometime later in the afternoon, while reading a book, we were all asked to leave while they sprayed for bugs. I went to the central park to read, and while sitting on a bench was approached by a boy, who looked much younger then the 19 years he told me he was. I had nothing else to do, so I agreed. We caught a cab east towards a large lake, littered with hundreds of small islands owned by rich nationals, and foreigners. We chartered a boat where we were brought through the small islands while my guide told me, in broken english, who owned the various islands. Some were owned by people who ran newspapers, or automobile companies. Others by Americans, or other foreigners. One was owned by a doctor who also took care of a group of monkeys on a small island. We brought our boat up to this small island to watch the monkeys leap through the trees, and hang off branches to dip their tongues into the water. Apparently an american woman was bitten by one of the monkeys, so the pilot of
the boat wouldn´t get close enough to let any of the monkeys wander on board. We stopped an island for lunch where we each pointed out objects and my guide would tell me what it was in spanish, I would tell him what it was in english. While eating a couple small children who had been playing soccer started looking at me. I waved and made faces at them, and when I went to take a picture of one boy, the other hurried to get in the shot. I showed them the picture on the back of my camera and they both laughed at each other. After my meal we boated back to the mainland and cabbed back to the city center. And that is pretty much what I´ve been up to thus far.
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Eva
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I'm envious
I really like your writing style - very descriptive and an interesting read. Looking forward to more.