The Nicaraguan Soap Opera Continues

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It's difficult for me to continue this blog without having it sound like a soap opera. I want this to be a "travel blog" but it's also the story of how I ended up in these places. Sometimes I will need to include people and events to make it real and to help get you to the places I want to show you and hope you'll someday want to visit yourself. So, the soap opera continues...
My niece knew, from the beginning of our conversations, that she had no other choice but to leave Nicaragua. She and her boyfriend had been in Nicaragua for eight months and she had made many friends and grown used to the slow pace and the "simpler life". She loved San Juan del Sur and so did her son. He'd celebrated his first birthday there and many of his new words were in Spanish.
He may have looked like a "Chele", the Nicaraguan word for a light-skinned person, but he was becoming a "local". Her boyfriend was no longer interested in opening a hotel. He just wanted to surf and collect surfing accessories. He bought an old Ford pick-up truck on e-bay and flew to Colorado to get it, taking only 5 days, non-stop, to drive it back to Nicaragua. He collected "long boards" and had many when I first met him. My niece loved the guy, but he had collected just one too many "accessories." A young Nicaraguan girl that looked like a surfboard herself, except for the "fake" boobs, that I later heard, through the SJDS "gossip grapevine," (more to come on that subject in future blogs), were paid for by her previous "foreign" boyfriend, who still blew in to town to "see" her now and then. She was a surfing "groupie" and that's how she'd met him. She didn't surf herself but would sit, waiting in the car for hours, alone or with the other "young groupies" on the beach, in their barely visible bikinies, hoping to be noticed by one of the "rich" surfing "foreigners." This is a sad phenomenon, brought on by poverty. In the eyes of these young women, these guys are ALL rich. From backpackers to business men. Their age doesn't matter. If they can afford to travel, they must be rich and they might be a possible "life-line" to save them from their life of need. It doesn't matter if there is a wife or children involved. To these young women, it is about survival, and this is the way they've chosen to survive.
I hesitate to speak of this, as there are many that will travel to third world countries to exploit this aspect. In Nicaragua, I saw so many variations of this phenomenon. One of the most popular being the beautiful 18 year old girl, who marries the homely 70 year-old, ex-pat, post office retiree. I don't know if other people think this is alright, but I think it is something that should be brought to light and discussed.
My niece's boyfriend couldn't understand what all of the fuss was about. He told my niece it wasn't serious, it was "just a phase." To him, the young girl possessively clinging to his arm and sitting in the pick-up truck waiting for him at the beach, was just another "surfing accessory."
My niece rented a house in town, and that's where we found her. She made arrangements to move back to Miami with her son and about 3 weeks after we'd arrived, on May 1st., they left. But not before introducing us to all of her friends and paving the way for an easy transition to what would become our new life in San Juan del Sur.



The Journey / Travel With Me

A. Zudro a.k.a. Gloria

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Photos

Miami puppy adjusting to life in San Juan del Sur
In Memory of our MUCH LOVED and Faithful Companion and Friend