Nicaragua Message 5

Hi

Jennifer, my yoga instructor in San Diego, suggested that I write a blog instead of an email. That way, you can just click on this if you want to read about my latest adventures. I can also add photos easily here...so let's try this.



Let's see, last night was interesting. I was washing lettuce for a salad and suddenly a huge black hairy tarantula came up out of the drain and scared the wits out of me. Yes, that's right - in my own house! Every morning the first thing that I do is get the broom and sweep up all the new creatures that have arrived during the night. Since my house was fumigated before I arrived, the toxic poison must still be working because the insects (and a baby land crab yesterday) come in, but they never leave. Kind of like Hotel California.



I have managed to open a Nica bank account and now have a VISA Nica debit card! This is wonderful news as Mastercard is hardly accepted here and more often than not my US card was rejected, leaving me scrambling for the cash that I don't really carry around. Sometimes I had to leave the place I was at, go to the ATM and then pay. Good thing everyone seems to trust me.



(This next story is not for everyone. I'm just relating something not very nice that happened to me so don't read on if you are very conservative.) Had a very strange experience the other night in a place called Iguanas that is like my "Cheers." I'm glad that I know the owners and bartenders in this restaurant, because they will always help me if something unusual happens. There were two pretty young Nicaraguan ladies sitting next to me and they kept staring at me. It was so uncomfortable that I said hello (in Spanish of course) and asked them where they were from. They told me the next town. The one sitting next to me put her hand on my leg. The other one asked me where I lived (I was purposefully vague) and if I had a car. I don't lie to people, however, something in the situation told me I should in this case. Not to belabor this issue, or get into the very bold and shocking things they said to me, I quickly ascertained that these two young ladies were prostitutes willing to go with either males or females. I had already ordered dinner, but I told the bartender I was leaving and explained the situation later. I have never had that happen to me in my life! And I didn't like it at all! I suppose there is an undercurrent of that here because there are tourists from all over the world who come here and I suppose some who are even looking for that. I guess everything can't be perfect in Paradise!



The last two weekends I ventured outside my town and did a little exploring. Last weekend I went to Ometepe island, which I've been to three times before. It's an island in a huge lake (5th largest in the world) that is the home to two volcanoes - one active (Concepcion) and one inactive (Madera). Last November Talia and I climbed Concepcion; I think I wrote about this before. This time I went to new places, and specifically in search of a family of potters who made primitive pots and were descended from the original natives of the island. It wasn't easy, I took a lot of buses and did a lot of walking, but I finally found the family. Too bad that when I arrived they told me that they had taken most of their work to the town of Altagracia - to the museum. And the museum was closed that day. But they had three small items that purchased to decorate my home. All three cost $3.00.



And speaking of costs....next time you think $3.50 a gallon of gasoline is a bad price, think of Nicaragua. One gallon of gas here (sold by Texaco and Esso, American companies) costs over $5.00 a gallon!!!!! It costs me about $85.00 to fill my tank when it is on a quarter of a tank and my car is only 4 cylinders! Compare that price and know that the average salary here is about $100 a month. Yes, a month, for six days of working 10 to 12 hours a day. So you can understand that only the very rich Nicas, usually with American ties, can even afford to have transportation that uses gasoline here! Most take the local buses (which I do because they are interesting) or ride their bicycles.


This past weekend I went to a place called Jinotepe, population 27,000. There was only one hotel and one backpacker hospedaje that I could find. And all the restaurants were pizza places!!! They used tiny after-dinner drink glasses for wine glasses and all the pizzas were of the thin variety. But one of the places was run by Fausto, a bonified man from Italy, and the pizza was excellent! He has lived in this little town for 26 years, but for some reason did not seem to happy with it. It was Saturday night and we (I was with a friend) were the only patrons. He complained about that, but said that other nights he is totally full. He said that living in Nicaragua is not like living anywhere else and I can agree with that. A very nice man, Fausto insisted on driving us to the local nightclub, where we danced the night away to great music. It was a "local" nightclub and no tourists were there, but it was great fun all the same.

On Saturday we went to La Boquita, a tiny beach village on the Pacific. My Moon handbook was not too impressed with this beach, but I certainly was. Miles and miles of pristine beach as far as the eye could see. Huge waves making that wonderful rhythmic beach noise. A collection of ramshackle palapa restaurants with possibly the best seafood I've ever had! We both enjoyed a huge bowl of Seven Sea Soup - fish and all the shellfish they could find including lobster, crab and prawns. Add to that a little Flor de Cana rum and cokes (called Nicalibres here, not Cubalibres) and a fun day of swimming in 85 degree sunny weather. What more could you want? This place was quite a find. I also purchased a medium-sized shell box from a little girl of 8 years. Everywhere I go I look for local art to decorate my house.

Right now I'm in the American restaurant using my laptop. Later I'll go home and start cleaning my house for Stacy, who is arriving on Wednesday and Ruth, Andrew and Scott, my friends from England who will be arriving during Christmas week. Our other British friends who we met here, Pete and Deby, will also be spending the time of Christmas and New Years with us as well. It will be a great holiday season. I wish all of you the best during this time!!!!

Bonnie