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Published: December 2nd 2006
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Casa Oro
The Gold House/La demeure en or ENGLISH
Phew!! We made it to Nicaragua and the sun is out. Our little room/cabin at the House of Gold in San Juan del Sur was cool but the shutters did nothing to stop a layer of dust covering everything in 30 minutes or so. After a night in the Caso Oro we'd learnt that dog barking, trucks rumbling, banging, shouting and baby crying were the standard dawn chorus in this part of town and there was a guy in the dorm room next door coughing as though in the last throes of TB! Shut the f up everybody. Forgetting that, we spent our first evening in hammocks watching the sun go down and sticking our heads in doorways and around corners.
Our first full day was spent on the beach of Majagual and Maderas, which were pretty much deserted, bar the shotgun toting security guy. At least we could leave our stuff on the beach while we swam. Majagual is known for it's surf though only a couple of surfers were carving up the waves which meant the beautifully warm water, waves, hot sand and sunshine were all ours. We floated, pacified, in the Pacific ocean! Now that's what's
up!
We strolled, sang, skipped and laughed. How we laughed, until we realised that the lack of people also meant a lack of anything else. Food, water etc. We found some surf bums on a campsite who'd obviously come prepared but other than that nada. We then found some likely looking shacks. Shacks with no food. Water, but no food. So from 11 til 6 when the truck picked us up, we lunched on the sensation of sand between our toes and snacked on the sea breeze. Hmmm!
It was a beautiful spot. A wicked beach, a random guy with a Nicaraguan tree cat on a lead and an expansive view to soak up. We loved it and the sea drowned out our rumbling bellies.
Back in town in the evening we were curious when we found a crowd of hundreds gathered in the street. Understanding it to have been a protest, then the aftermath of a theft we were horrified when a shop guy told us a girl had been gagged, assaulted and strangled and by unknowns in her shop in the middle of the day. This was not that kind of town so the whole
of the town was on the streets in shock. Then to raise the level of alarm even more the girl's brothers had rounded up a mob, in lieu of the cops, that was going round asking questions as they wailed and shouted. We retreated to the back of Daves until the shouting calmed and meditated on the shattering of our feebly constructed window on San Juan del Sur.
The following day we signed up for Spanish lessons. Nat's teacher used a whiteboard and some word association trickery to get Nat going. My professor took me for a walk around town and in Spanglish explained some of the ins and outs of Nicaraguan politics and trade.
I learned that in politics, the election of Daniel Ortega, formerly of the left wing Sandinista rebels, which came about partly due to a pact with the right wing ex-president currently under house arrest for corruption was not the new dawn my professor thought was due but another nail in the coffin of democracy and power of the people. Then he told me about the plans drawn up and developed over decades to inaugurate a transport link (be it train or canal) linking
A Margay...
..a Nicarguan tree cat the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and that could launch a new economic era for the country had been bungled. All this in Spanglish and during which time we were hassled more than once by a muscle bound, dried blood encrusted drunken dude begging a few cordobas for some hooch.
At the hostel one night both Nat and I were accosted by a loud mouthed Canadian, whom we'd assumed was American, who recognised us from Costa Rica. We were embarrassed to have to listen to her complain vociferously about the state of Nicaragua. She bitched about having to "go to the fruit stall for fruit, another shop for milk, the fish stall for fish another shop for pasta". What was up with having a supermarket she wondered and added loudly "I guess we are in a third world country" all in the company of our Nicaraguan hosts. Somehow it took Nathalie's presence of mind to escape this harpy.
FRANCAIS
Ah! Le soleil!
Après une nuit à Casa Oro (la demeure en or), on a vite compris que les aboiements des chiens/le bruit des camions/les cris et les pleurs des enfants allaient nous servir de réveil-matin pour les jours à
venir... Sinon, notre chambre était mignonne.
Les plages de Majagual et de Maderas étaient belles et désertes aussi, mis à part le guarde cote armé d'un fusil. Au moins, on pouvait aller se baigner sans craindre de nous faire piquer nos fringues.
Magnifique l'eau, magnifique la température de l'eau, magnifique le soleil... Ah! Le plaisir! Nous flottions dans l'océan Pacifique... et dans le bonheur!
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corine
non-member comment
hi
Bonjour, on a regarde votre blog avec Marie Therese. Et on a essaye d'ajouter un message, ca n'a pas marche, donc j'essaie de nouveau. On est tres jalous de vous, qui baigner dans la soleil! Ici c'est pas mal non plus, mais pas comme chez vous quand meme. On vous souhaite bon change a nicuargua et a bientot! l'equipe de botve