Journeying further South...

We made it to Nicaragua!  Honduras had a much hotter temperature than Guatemala, and it is even hotter than Honduras here.  We’ve been in Nicaragua just over a week now and it’s averaged in the nineties.  Our time in Honduras was fun! We enjoyed staying with Josue and his family in La Ceiba/ Santa Ana; they were very welcoming.  What stood out to me about Honduras was its agriculture. With year round dependable sunlight and an endless supply of rainwater they are able to grow just about anything; even their fences are grown.  Fences are made from the branches of a special tree whose branches grow into trees themselves.  So it’s common there to pick a lot of your fruits and veggies right from your own front yard.  And in relation to that, you see more stray families of chickens, hens, goats, and cows as opposed to dogs and cats.  The trip from Honduras to Nicaragua was a long string of taxis and buss changeovers that spanned for many hours. However, in that period of time our paths were aligned with Janelle (an Alaskan studying in Costa Rica).  She spent her school break learning to scuba dive in Honduras and was headed back down.  It was entertaining how annoyed she was in now being associated with Sarah Palin.  We enjoyed sharing stories and the time flew by.

Looking back on this trip so far here are a few more cultural differences that are noteworthy; please excuse the randomness.  *The salsa scene starts to run dry south of the Guatemalan boarder.  *The number one leading security system in every country has been a guard armed with a big gun; that goes for everything from corporate banks to small ice-cream shops and bakeries.  *Lizards are a common pest problem; they are loud and sound like chirping birds in the nighttime.  I can image how someone would freak out In Indiana if they turned on the light in their room and lizards scattered everywhere.  I’m also very amused when I think about instead of saying, “we have ants or roaches” saying “we’ve got lizards”.  *Tropical rainfall leaves a lot of standing water sitting around, and standing water is where mosquitoes love to nest.  There is quite an infestation of bloodsuckers.  Even having used repellent, I’ve been bitten more in the last three weeks than in the last five years.  *Addresses for locations are very different as well.  Things like numbers, street names, and zip codes just aren’t used; instead they reference points and descriptions.  For example, an official home address would be, “three and a third blocks northwest of the Merced Church, the green house with white trim and purple flowers”…seriously!  *As an alternative to restaurants there are tons of comedors (eateries).  Anyone with a kitchen, some cardboard signs, and plastic lawn furniture can have a comedor.  They throw the chairs and tables on the sidewalk/street in front of their houses and go into business.  *And lastly, the existence of the auto-motels.  Strict religious practices, extreme conservatism, and lifelong griping parental totalitarianism control over children have created this new industry in Latin America.  Sex is forbidden before marriage, and most children live with their parents until they marry.  However, people are still messing around.  The theme of these places is inconspicuousness.  I’ve been told that what happens is… couples pull into a garage of a building with no windows, the door shuts behind them, they swipe a credit card, a door open up ahead, a stair case appears that leading them to a fancy romantic room up above, rooms are rented by the hour, and parents, spouses, and/or neighbors never know.  It is quite sad; yet business seems to be booming.

  I’m really fitting in here; there is a thriving black community in the Garifuna.  Blacks that have been here since the Spanish brought them over as slave ages ago.  I’ve almost gotten discounts as a resident until they hear me speak, and Angie gets mad that I didn’t shut up.  Despite the heat, I like Nicaragua.  The people are nice here.  We spent a week in the capital, Managua.  It doesn’t seem to be as big as the other cities that we’ve passed through; we were able to get around pretty well by foot.  There are comedors on almost about every block.  Our lonely planet book suggested on called “Comidas Sara”. You’d never guess that such amazing food could be found in such a random spot and be so inexpensive.  We tried to volunteer in Managua, but our help was turned down because they need longer time commitments.  I say help is help.  There is a real pollution problem in Nicaragua.  We also found out that large populations of people live in the dump and are surviving off the garbage.  So many people live there that they have their own school right in the middle of the dump to educate the masses of children; relief efforts continue.  We noticed that traffic here is a lot more calm, but later realized that we’re in the poorest country in Central America and less people can afford cars.  The horse and buggies aren’t just for the tourists in this country.  Someone once said that the poverty here is almost tangible.  Not much better off than the beggars are the working poor.  Many people work at places they can’t afford to shop and are getting paid very little to do so; you can see the resentment in their faces when you buy something.  In all, we didn’t develop a strong connection to Managua.

Now we are in Granada, Nicaragua. It really reminds us of Antigua, Guatemala with lots of beautiful colonial architecture; there are volcanoes that overshadow the city here also.  Everything is vibrant with color and the town has a real old-world feel to it.  When we began this journey one of the goals was to narrow down to one location where we’d want to start an organization.  Angie and I are getting some great vibes with the scene here in Granada!  I’m enjoying watching her fall in love with everything here. 

The salsa scene isn’t so great in Honduras or Nicaragua.  Most clubs focus more on Reggaeton , Ranchero, Bolero, and Bachata.  There is a shortage of salsa music, and an even bigger deficit of good dancers. Every where we've been the music you hear most in the streets is Bachata; it kind of become the theme music of our trip. It's come a long way from the shores of the Dominican Republic.

We are couch surfing with Jonathan L. Arland, a very successful gay artist/actor/realtor that has settled here.  He is very smart, funny, generous, and overall pretty entertaining to be around.  His house is beautiful, with a pool at its core.  It is very open, airy, colorful, designer, and carefully decorated with his many works of art.  The lighting here is pretty incredible, at night the house lights up like a (vip) nightclub.   He has some great friends and four little lapdogs, Nine, Ten, Eleven, and Twelve.  Angie has never been a dog lover, however, somehow she has become obsessed with Nine (a Chihuahua).  We went to watch

the sunset from a church bell tower today; it was soooo pretty.  We could see Lake Nicaragua, Volcanoes, and the entire city from there.  Tomorrow we move on, but Granada has been a lot of fun.  We are headed to “Isla de Ometepe”, an island formed from two volcanoes in the center of Lake Nicaragua.  Nos Vemos (we’ll see you)!!