Leon to Grenada, Nicaragua, 100 miles
Last night I went out “on the town” to try to rustle up some food. Nothing was open. No street lights. Lots of thugs… Good thing Amie’s in the room. Found a bar that was open, very seedy, lots of guys getting drunk on a Thursday night, talking politics. I was invited in to the conversation which was interesting and awkward. It was focused around the ongoing struggle of the sandinstas vs. the right wingers. Basically it’s the indigenous, uneducated mass with a socialist/communist perspective vs. the big business, European colonizer-republican types. There was war here in the 80s, and the US supported big business. Taking that one step further, we also sold guns to Iran illegally to fund this support via a CIA top secret op. This was exposed and was quite the scandal (Iran-Contra affair). Anyway, I got an earful in the bar from a bunch of working class folk about how the Sandinista struggle is on going and their presidential election is on Sunday. All of this while granny was in the back frying me a chicken.
The chicken was good, I enjoyed it with Amie back in the room, and we fell asleep with the AC whizzing away. And thank god for that AC. We struck out in the morning to see what Leon had to offer, but since we ran out of clothes yesterday, it was either a 3 day old t-shirt or my thermal long sleeve. I chose the long sleeve. Must be the warmest shirt ever invented by man kind.
Didn’t see a single tourist in Leon. A lot of locals gawked at us; I kept close watch on Amie and her camera and so did just about every other guy on the street. The heat and the vibe made our outing very uncomfortable so after about 20 minutes we headed back to the room to pack up.
It was about 10:30am and already over 90 when we left. It was really hard to leave the AC and get into our gear (pants, jackets, gloves, boots, etc). My helmet and gloves reeked of mildew after being soaked most of yesterday by rain and not drying overnight. I put my gloves on and then washed my hands with a bar of soap just as I normally do. I thought that was a cool trick for cleaning gloves.
Anyway, on the road to Granada via Managua. Nicaragua is very poor. In fact I read it’s the poorest county in the Americas, second only to Haiti. It is also sparsely populated which is nice for a change (consider El Salvador has a million more people than Nic and is 1/5 the size) because it seems everything manmade in the past 100 years in these countries is built like, and looks like, shit. The natural beauty on the other hand is just that, beauty.
Because the country is so poor, the road is terrible, in fact, the worst we’ve been on so far. It seems the country only maintains one road everywhere. If you look on a map, you will see 3 roads lead to Granada. One is in good shape, the other two are motorcross. We would be heading straight towards our destination and all of a sudden the road turning right would be in the same condition as the one we are on, but our road ahead was one giant mud/gravel pit. The mud/gravel pit was the direct route, turning right would lead somewhere else, but eventually take you to the better road to Granada. This is how we make our way across the country…
We stopped for gas and food in Managua, another big, dumpy city. There were 3 or 4 kids between probably 6-12 years old hanging out in front of the gas station restaurant begging for money. They would wipe down the bike with a nasty rag, or help us park (do we need there help to park?), anything to get some change. Sad really.
We’ve been pulled over 3 times so far in Nicaragua. It’s great because you know exactly what you are up against. There is no radar, most cops have no communication device, and are always just standing on the side of the road with a glorified stick with a reflector on the end of it. So being pulled over is incorrect, it’s more like being waived over. Anyway, they all have the intention of soliciting some sort of bribe. For example, in front of one, I swerved to avoid the peak of a speed bump and the guy tried to insinuate I was drinking. They are rather simpleminded and I have been able to leave with everyone smiling by distracting them with things like asking for directions, doing a cartwheel, yelling “Viva Nicaragua!” etc. Knock on wood, so far no bribes paid.
Our hotel tonight is the ol’ $10 job. No ac, no hot water. Safe moto parking in the lobby. They offered to do our laundry for us, and for $4 I let them. Amie cursed me when she found out as they are washing it all by hand and have to hang dry. No clean clothes till tomorrow! These rags we are wearing should be burned they stink so bad…
We went out for pizza at an Italian place and when I heard the owner, Patrizia, speaking in Italian, I had to talk to her as I’ve been very worried that as I learn Spanish, I am losing Italian. And I was right. I was slurring, mumbling, confusing verbs. After a 5 minute conversation I felt like I ran a marathon my brain was working so hard. Oh well… Time in Italy next spring will bring it back (I hope!).
After a cold shower and just before getting into bed there was a knock at the door, “Senor Miguel, your friend is here.” “What friend” “tu amigo, muy alto.” I knew who it was. Adam’s back! Luckily Amie updated the blog and sent him a note, and he found us. Just like that, Adam is back in the mix. We’re meeting tomorrow morning and will catch up then.
Nothing in Central America has been very impressive. For that reason (and the fact we took only one week of Spanish and not two) we are ahead of schedule. We will have to slow down, otherwise we’ll need to move our flight up, or kill time in Costa Rica and Panama. My concern with Costa Rica is its heavily touristy and expensive. But we do look forward to spending at least a week visiting the jungle and the beach…
The chicken was good, I enjoyed it with Amie back in the room, and we fell asleep with the AC whizzing away. And thank god for that AC. We struck out in the morning to see what Leon had to offer, but since we ran out of clothes yesterday, it was either a 3 day old t-shirt or my thermal long sleeve. I chose the long sleeve. Must be the warmest shirt ever invented by man kind.
Didn’t see a single tourist in Leon. A lot of locals gawked at us; I kept close watch on Amie and her camera and so did just about every other guy on the street. The heat and the vibe made our outing very uncomfortable so after about 20 minutes we headed back to the room to pack up.
It was about 10:30am and already over 90 when we left. It was really hard to leave the AC and get into our gear (pants, jackets, gloves, boots, etc). My helmet and gloves reeked of mildew after being soaked most of yesterday by rain and not drying overnight. I put my gloves on and then washed my hands with a bar of soap just as I normally do. I thought that was a cool trick for cleaning gloves.
Anyway, on the road to Granada via Managua. Nicaragua is very poor. In fact I read it’s the poorest county in the Americas, second only to Haiti. It is also sparsely populated which is nice for a change (consider El Salvador has a million more people than Nic and is 1/5 the size) because it seems everything manmade in the past 100 years in these countries is built like, and looks like, shit. The natural beauty on the other hand is just that, beauty.
Because the country is so poor, the road is terrible, in fact, the worst we’ve been on so far. It seems the country only maintains one road everywhere. If you look on a map, you will see 3 roads lead to Granada. One is in good shape, the other two are motorcross. We would be heading straight towards our destination and all of a sudden the road turning right would be in the same condition as the one we are on, but our road ahead was one giant mud/gravel pit. The mud/gravel pit was the direct route, turning right would lead somewhere else, but eventually take you to the better road to Granada. This is how we make our way across the country…
We stopped for gas and food in Managua, another big, dumpy city. There were 3 or 4 kids between probably 6-12 years old hanging out in front of the gas station restaurant begging for money. They would wipe down the bike with a nasty rag, or help us park (do we need there help to park?), anything to get some change. Sad really.
We’ve been pulled over 3 times so far in Nicaragua. It’s great because you know exactly what you are up against. There is no radar, most cops have no communication device, and are always just standing on the side of the road with a glorified stick with a reflector on the end of it. So being pulled over is incorrect, it’s more like being waived over. Anyway, they all have the intention of soliciting some sort of bribe. For example, in front of one, I swerved to avoid the peak of a speed bump and the guy tried to insinuate I was drinking. They are rather simpleminded and I have been able to leave with everyone smiling by distracting them with things like asking for directions, doing a cartwheel, yelling “Viva Nicaragua!” etc. Knock on wood, so far no bribes paid.
Our hotel tonight is the ol’ $10 job. No ac, no hot water. Safe moto parking in the lobby. They offered to do our laundry for us, and for $4 I let them. Amie cursed me when she found out as they are washing it all by hand and have to hang dry. No clean clothes till tomorrow! These rags we are wearing should be burned they stink so bad…
We went out for pizza at an Italian place and when I heard the owner, Patrizia, speaking in Italian, I had to talk to her as I’ve been very worried that as I learn Spanish, I am losing Italian. And I was right. I was slurring, mumbling, confusing verbs. After a 5 minute conversation I felt like I ran a marathon my brain was working so hard. Oh well… Time in Italy next spring will bring it back (I hope!).
After a cold shower and just before getting into bed there was a knock at the door, “Senor Miguel, your friend is here.” “What friend” “tu amigo, muy alto.” I knew who it was. Adam’s back! Luckily Amie updated the blog and sent him a note, and he found us. Just like that, Adam is back in the mix. We’re meeting tomorrow morning and will catch up then.
Nothing in Central America has been very impressive. For that reason (and the fact we took only one week of Spanish and not two) we are ahead of schedule. We will have to slow down, otherwise we’ll need to move our flight up, or kill time in Costa Rica and Panama. My concern with Costa Rica is its heavily touristy and expensive. But we do look forward to spending at least a week visiting the jungle and the beach…
Leon
Nicaragua brings back the meaning of horse-power
Leon
Biggest church in Central America
Common siting at the gas stations...poor kids
Thumbs down to Premuim (Nicaragua Beer)...Miller Draft???
This one is for Vince
What is that creature!
Susie!
Parkin' the bike
Granada
posted by Pedro and Maria at 8:04 AM
1 Comments:
yipee!! more entries :-)
so glad to see you guys are safe!
i'm crackin up at the cops who you can easily distract by doing a cartwheel... funny, i am also distracted by such antics...hahaha
take care,
jaz
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