Feelings about Nicaragua

I am in Managua Nicaragua now, the capital of the country. I will be here until July1 at which point I will head south to Rivas and from there catch a ferry to Ometeppe island. I hear it is small but absolutely beautiful with a volcano in the middle of it. It is in Lake Managua. So I plan to spend a few days there. I would also like to check out Corn Island and Little Corn Island which are in the Caribbean. I´ve never been to the Caribbean so I thought it would be a treat. I will then return to Rivas and continue south. However I think from Rivas I will take a bus to the Costa Rican border, it is only about 30 kilometers. The reason being I have heard that there are bandits in the area that are targeting bicycle tourists.

Nicaragua is a beautiful country lush, green and from bicycle tourist´s point of view delightfully flat. Actually It is only flat where the people live that is flat. There are a lot of mountains here but almost no one lives there. Also there is a verdant part of the country on the other side of the mountains but again, no one lives there. It appears as if 99% of the people live on the flat fertile part of the country.

One thing I like about Nicaragua is that bicycles are ubiquitous. They are used for everything and they seem to respect traffic laws (as much as anyone down here respects traffic laws) and be respected as a legitimate part of traffic. Golly imagine that. Down here there is a work tricycle it, has 2 wheels in the front and 1 in the back. The front part is about 1 meter wide and can be used to carry cargo, my friends in Mazatlan know what I´m talking about. Down here however what they have done is put a bench seat in and make a canvas roof on top and carry passengers. They are called tricycleros, or something to that effect. These guys are even licensed. They are all over the place in Leon and Chinandega but I really have not seem them so far in Managua however I haven´t gone very far from the hostel either.

The Nicaraguan people have been fabulous so far. They are very nice and very friendly. And, thank god, they have figured out that there is a difference between American tourists and their idiotic gov´t. In the time I have been here I have not encountered any outward resentment. Because if anyone has a right to harbor resentment it is the Nicataguans. They have also embraced American culture (Is that a good thing? You decide) All of the fast food chains are down and even out in the country you see a sign if front of a building, a rather crudely written that says "ropa americana" (American clothing).
That´s all for now
Hasta la vista baby

¿How the hell is the mail delivered in Chinandega?

I am here in Chinandega Nicaragua, the 3rd largest city in Nicaragua. It really isn`t a bad place. The rent is cheap and the people are friendly. But what I want to is how does the mail get delivered here? My friends who live in Mazatlan know how frustrating it can be sometimes to drive in downtown Mazatlan because many streets don`t have signs on them at all intersections. But if you know where to look and go a few blocks you will eventually find a sign. Chinandega is 1000% worse! As far as I can tell all businesses use directions and distances from known landmarks such as businesses and churches or whatever. Except for 3 or 4 main arteries NONE OF THE STREETS HAVE NAMES HERE! Yes I am serious. No buildings have numbers on them. It is absolutely incredible! I was given a tourist map and it shows the city laid out in fairly good grid pattern but none of streets are named. It shows attractions and hotels but in order to get there you have to know where you are. And how do you know where you are if you just got into town? Well never let it be said that it is boring finding your way around here. When I got into town I was lucky enough to find the tourist office fairly easily and quickly she gave directions to the place I ended up staying at and how I got there was "You see that blue church? Go there and make a right and go 2 blocks and then go left half a block and you`ll see the sign." I said "What`s the name of the street?" She said there isn`t any sign. As Artie Johnson used to say on Laugh in "VER-R-R-R-R-RY INTERESTING, BUT STUPID!" According to something I read in a tourist guide about Chinandega in 1926 there was a disagreement between liberals and conservatives and the entire city burned to the ground. Now that is a serious disagreement! Maybe when they rebuilt they forgot about street names and buildings because every knew where everyone else lives anyway. Just ruminating here. At any rate it looks like I am in Nicaragua until July 1 when I get my monthly money. I would move on to Costa Rica but at this point I am living on about $25.00 per day and a number of reliable sources tell me that Costa Rica is relatively expensive and that most of my money would be spent on rent. Here in Chinandega rent is $5.00 per day. Tomorrow I move onto Leon and then to Managua until the first.Places in Managua and Leon can be had for $7-8 per day. From Managua I will go to Granada and Rivas and Ometeppe island and then take a bus from Rivas to the Costa Rica border. Well that`s all for now.

Hasta la vista baby

Charlie

Muchas Cosas continued

Well sorry about the last time I started out with a lot to say and just could not keep my eyes open. Part of it was only having a few hours sleep the night before. The other part was being in a nice airconditioned cyber cafe after riding in really hot weather. I went from there and found a nice air conditioned hotel room. At any rate moving right along.

Cheap vodka
The national drink of El Salvador seems to be vodka. It`s a hell of a lot cheaper than beer. Everyone drinks it. There is one brand of vodka Sublime Vodka. At the local grocery store you get a package with one liter bottle and a half liter bottle for the huge price of $3.22 yes that is correct. El Salvador uses U.S. currency so that is the exact price.

Feelings about El Salvador
Overall I guess the people of El Salvador are as nice as anywhere else. But when I think of all the rude people I`ve encountered on this trip literally all of them were in El Salvador. People see you and think "There`s a gringo I`ll ask him for money" yes when you are in El Salvador people think you are el banco del gringo. Now I have to say that much of my negative experience is when I was in the town of La Union. For example one day I was walking through the outdoor market and a guy is pushing an empty cart and stops and says to me "Gringo darme dinero rico gringo" (translation gringo give me money rich gringo) I don`t give money to anyone screw them I`m not responsible for their poverty. Also I feel that it if I don`t it won`t encourage them to ask others.

I`m a star

As I was riding from San Miguel to La Union a small pick up truck stopped ahead of me and as I approached they motioned for me to stop. It turns out they are a film crew for a local tv station and they wanted to interview me-in spanish. I THINK I did alright. At least none of the crew burst out laughing at any of my answers. The interview was about 5 minutes and I had the presence of mind to ask them send a copy to my apartment in Mazatlan. So this is the third time I`ve been on tv so far. Once in Alaska for a German tv station once in Mazatlan for a national tv station and now here. At this rate I`m gonna have to get an agent.

Onto Honduras

I left La Union and not a minute too soon. It is a dirty funky town with nothing to offer anyone who is not Salvadoran. The streets are filthy the people are not friendly if you ever have a chance to go there don`t. At any rate I rode from there to the border and crossed into Honduras a distance of about 25 miles. Honduras is nice the scenery much the same as El Salvador. A lot of lush green scenery rolling hills and mountains. My first day I made it to the town of Nacaome. A nice enough peaceful little town. I immediately started looking for a place for the night. First I needed an atm which I found readily enough. I asked the guard at the bank for a cheap hotel and he sent me to a place just a couple of blocks away. The name of the place is Las Palmeras. I went there and looked at the room and it was nice and I asked the price and was told 220 Lempiras or about $14.00 I thought that was expensive since I had gotten places just like it in El Salvador and Guatemala for 7-8 for the night. For this price all you got was a fan not air conditioning. So I start unloading my stuff and turn on the fan, it doesn`t work. So I go and tell them and they get me another fan. After riding about 50 miles in the heat I am ready for shower. I go to turn on the shower and no water. Back to complain so a few minutes later I have water. Later that night I go to get some water to soak my dentures and again no water. Now all this time there is water for the toilet. Thank God! The next day I rode from there to Choluteca. That is where I started this post. Yesterday I rode from Choluteca to the border of Nicaragua.

Nicaragua

I crossed into Nicaragua and encountered the worst roads I have seen since the Dawson hwy. in Alaska. They are badly paved and then they turn into dirt for about 100 meters and then badly paved again. I am not carrying much cash with me going from one town to another that has an atm. So when I crossed the border I asked where the nearest town is with an atm. The nearest place is Chinandega which is where I am now. It is about 40 miles from the border and is a fairly big city. I was going to ride my bike but when I got to the first little town in Nicaragua I said "screw this" I can`t ride 40 miles like this. I have to say that after about 15 miles the road became decent but by that time I was on a bus on my way to Chinandega. I got here about 1:30 and found, with the help of the tourist office the Doña Maria hotel. I asked them for a cheap place and they came through $5.00 per night. Now it is much as you might expect for $5.00 per night you get a bed and a fan. The bathroom is downstairs. It is still better than camping. Today I am going to try and do the tourist thing. So that`s all for now. As that great American governor once said "hast la vista baby"

Muchas Cosas

I go to the doctor

It is Friday 13 and my shoulder feels better but still hurts. After I leave from Usulutan on my way to San Miguel I decide to just make San Miguel and call it a short day and find a doctor. The first thing I do is find a place to stay and I do it is a nice little bed and breakfast type of place. $20 for the night which is a little expensive considering I had been paying $8 but it is nice and it has a.c. and includes breakfast. I decide to treat myself. So off to find a doctor. I find one who can see me today he is an internist his name is Dr. Bustillo. Wow! talk about the difference in the level of care. We talked for about 45 minutes while he took my history and examined my shoulder. He said he wanted to run some tests and take some Xrays. So we did the old blood and urine tests and sent me with his receptionist to have some Xrays done. Actually she was fairly cute. I had 2 Xrays taken and we went back to the office. We return to the office and about 10 minutes after we return the doctor returns with the results from the blood and urine tests. The Xrays turn out negative, that is there is nothing broken or out of place, no bursitus nothing. Then we go over the other tests and I learned all sorts of good stuff about myself. So he prescribes some muscle relaxers and Im on my way. So how much did all this cost? Doctor: 30, Xrays 16 for two prescription$33. I don´t know what that would have cost in the U.S.but I´m sure it would have been in the hundreds. I can´t keep my eyes open I will continue later with muchas Cosas2.

Greetings from Usulutan

Well I´m in Usulutan El Salvador. A nice little city. I got here yesterday and decided to spend an extra day here today. Mostly to wash clothes, work on the bike and let things dry out. Yesterday was a number of firsts for me. It was the first time I´ve been rained on this trip. It lasted about an hour and then I was able to ride through to the other side where the sun was shining. It was also the first time I had to run off to the side of the road with toilet paper to take care of business. coincidentally right about the time the rain started. Ya know I do like the Salvadorans overall but I´ve had some individual experiences that have just set my teeth on edge. For instance yesterday as I was about to get started for the day I stopped at a store to buy some bottled water. I carry a small machete in a pack behind my seat. There was a couple across the street and the woman asks in english please mister just one dollar, I´m getting sort of sick of that, the fact that people see me as the gringo bank, and I ignored them, well when I came out they had stolen my machete. At least they didn´t get the camera. And then later on there is a guy on a motorcycle on the side of the road waiting for a clearing to cross the road playing chicken with me. Then another occasion a kid is approaching me in the shoulder lane and starts moving his front wheel back and forth like he is trying to take up the entire lane and run me off the road. I´ve never encountered this type of behavior anywhere else. Well so much for that, moving right along as I seldom do (d.damron) next stop is La Union El Salvador which is a port town. I understand it is possible to get a boat from there to Nicaragua for aobut $20.00 so I´m going to look into that because that would save me about 1 days riding. I´m a little nervous about Nicaragua as one person on my touring list was robbed there about a year ago. Apparently it is only a certain part of the country so before I leave that part I will check with the police and see if it is still a problem. Or perhaps just take a bus through it as it is only about 30 km from the Costa Rican border. Right now my feeling is that all the towns I´ve gone through are almost exactly like Mexican towns. And although the area is lush and green instead of desert they all look the same, for the most part the people look the same the buildings are built the same lately I´ve had the idea of just saying the hell with it and just flying to Ecuador and going to the equator and then going to Peru for Machu Pichu and then moving on. Of course that would throw me off seasonally because the next stop is supposed to be New Zealand. I know enough about New Zealand that right now as we are going into summer they are going into winter and I also know that they ski there but is that just on south island and is North Island close enough to the equator to be temperate this time of year or not? This will require some research. But at any rate that is how I feel right now tomorrow may be different. All for now.
hasta la vista baby

Let´s catch up

Well it has been a few days so lest anyone think I am dead let me say rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. Well I left Chiquilumilla and continued south. Let me say something about the busses around here, they are very colorful and they are all the same type of bus used in the U.S. for school busses. Now you all know that all school busses have an emergency door in the back. So picture this a bus passes me and it is probably doing 45-50 miles per hour and after it passes I see that the rear emergency door is not only open but someone is climbing out the back of it. Now these busses, unlike school busses, have huge luggage racks on top and the ladder to the rack is next to the emergency door. So to continue on the guy grabs on to the ladder and closes the door with his foot and proceeds to start climbing the ladder while the bus is going 50 mph. Who the hell knows what happens next the bus went around a turn. I wonder how many stunt men come from Guatemala. That same day i crossed the border into El Salvador and spent my first night Acajutla. The only thing this town has going for it is that it had the first ATM in the country. And it was about 45 miles inside the country. I was getting a little bit nervous since I had changed my money and had about $16 in my pocket. Actually there was a town before named Cara Sucia (dirty face?) it had an atm but it didn´t like either of my debit cards. So onto Acajutla. What a miserable place. Yes it did have an ATM but that was it. Actually it sort of scared me a little. I actually stayed outside of town in an overpriced motel. So the next morning I took off. The Salvadoran terrain has been long gradual uphills followed by equally as long or longer downhills. The problem is there is no break, as soon as you get to the bottom you have to start climbing again. Lots of up and down and then came the tunnels. All 3 of them. I knew there were 3 becasue the first sign warned me that tunnel no.3 was ahead. Not bad, maybe 50 meters long I just prayed no would come in behind me. Then tunnel no.2 tunnel 2 was relatively long maybe 20-250 meters long. I could barely see in front of me but no one behind me and until I got about half way through the tunnel, no one in front of me. Then a semi comes into the tunnel. He did not turn on his headlights, for what reason I don´t know. An of course instead of staying in his lane he drove in the middle of the tunnel. This got me a little nervous so I went a little further to my side where it was wet and sloped down at an extreme angle. The bike went out from under me and I skinned my elbow and apparently, really badly bruised my shoulder. Any pressure on it whatsoever was absolutely incredibly painful. So I got to La Libertad and rented my hotel room for $8 per day and I´ve been recuperating since then. The day it happened was saturday and the first night was torturous. If I moved at all the pain was excruciating. The pain was such that sleep was impossible. I was beginning to wonder if I had in fact dislocated my shoulder. Arnica was ineffective, aspirin did nothing to help. I did manage to sleep a little by sitting in a chair and putting my feet on my bed. An I noticed the next the pain had gone down. It has been getting better everyday and I think tomorrow I will be able to continue my trip.

Thoughts, comparisons, mental meanderings

In the short time i was there I can think of nothing bad to say about the Guatemalan people. They are all very nice very friendly people. The roads in Guatemala are very good. They have a wide lane in each direction and a large shoulder on the side. Maybe this is because a lot of people use a bicycle for transportation here and the gov´t. accomodates them instead of setting them up as target practice for cars and trucks. They roads are well paved and smooth. Unlike Mexico I never saw any trash along the highway in any part of the country. The poverty in Guatemala is as obvious as in Mexico but it is different somehow, there seems to be somewhat less desperation than in Mexico. I know I´m not doing a very good job of describing it but I really don´t know how else to describe it. The women in Guatemala are attractive in their own way but I still think overall the women in Mazatlan are much more attractive. Maybe nightclub means something different in Guatemala than the U.S. one night when I had finished diner in Guatemela City I thought I´d like to have a couple of beers and I saw a sign that said Paradise NightClub well I guess I should have known something when I got patted down for weapons by a guy in a suit at the door. They then said welcome and I walked into the bar and it turned out to be a whore house. OOPS! Well keeping my eye on my budget and other things I said
no gracias and left.

El Salvador is much the same as Guatemala, the scenery is the same the road is the same although not quite as good as Guatemala. Also there is sometimes garbage on the highway but nothing like Mexico. I guess the difference down in Salvador is that there is a feeling of real desperation everywhere. Whereas I like the people of El salvador I feel like someone is trying to hustle me on regular occasions.

Since I´ve left the mountains and been on the coast the weather has been pretty cooperative. It is often overcast during the day which is nice because it keeps the direct sun off of me. Of course it is also humid. But the pattern now is that it rains late at night and stops during the day. I´m happy I´m not camping in it.
That´s all for now hasta la vista baby

South from Guatemala, what a day

Before I tell you about I absolutely have to tell you about the place I stayed in in Guatemala City. The place itself was basic nothing fancy about it the price was 39.00 per night which I thought was a little bit steep for what I got although it does include breakfast. I mean I had gotten the same basic thing in Mexico for 200 pesos. But now let me tell you about the owner-Edgar. I told you I got there about 6 o´clock in the morning because the plane was so late. I paid him and tried to sleep. Well he never came around that night for the rent and I decided to stay one more day. The following day I see him and tell him I need to pay for last night and tonight. Well he didn´t charge me for it because I was so late. Talk about early check in! Then yesterday when I tell him I´m leaving I ask directions on the map and he says he´ll take me and my bike out of the city because the traffic is so heavy in the morning. Well he must have taken me about 30 kilometers! He dropped me off at the beginning of the toll road, and yes the do permit bikes and no you don´t have to pay. From then on the next 40+ kilometers were all down hill-YES! From the time I started it seemed like forever before I had to pedal. So is Edgar an awesome dude or what? Well I finally got to the point where I actually had to pedal and for the most part it was pretty good mostly rolling with some mellow long climbs which were paired the same thing going downhill. Then at about 1 o´clock my rear derailleur starts screwing up well I manage to get it half assed functional and end up in a town named Chiquilumilla. Great little place on the side of a mountain about 2 kilometers off the road I was on. I got a room at the hotel San Juan de la Tran, whoever he was. It is 60 Quetzales for the night. There are about 7.3 Quetzales to the dollar, so yes I´m happy. I managed to make the repair so no Chris I am not returning yet. At any rate it is time to do some more exploring and maybe have something to eat.
Hasta la vista Baby!

Hurry up, wait,get in late, get wet

Well hello everyone I am in now in Guatemala City Guatemala. The flight here? Ver-r-r-r-ry interesting. The flight from Mazatlan got off in a more or less timely manner and we even got to Mexico City about 10 minutes earlyIMAGINE! So I get off the plane and find the gate for my connecting flight. Well there is a bar more or less next door so I go to have something to eat and a beer. I notice that within about 10 minutes they are about to start boarding my flight (allegedly) so I go to my gate and of course the gate has been changed so I run 10 gates down and find the new gate. Great the flight is supposed to start boarding at 9pm and take off at 9:45 HAH! Needless to say 945 comes and goes and we have not even started loading yet. The reason given is weather in Guatemala is too bad. Note that the weather in Guatemala not just Guatemala City and of course I´m thinking "this sounds like great bicycling weather" well finally at 11:00 we take off we are in the air for an hour(in an hour and a half flight) when they announce that the weather is too bad to land in Guatemala about 45 minutes after we land but not in Guatemala City in fact they never do tell us where we landed. We are all getting our stuff out of our overhead bins and waiting there with great expectations and waiting and waiting until after about 30 minutes they make an announcement that due to the weather the flight has been cancelled and we are all returning to Mexico City after refueling is completed. We all sit down and then about 30 minutes after that they announce that we are going to Guatemala City after all. Back in the air the weather deteriorates as we head towards Guatemala again. After a while the plane starts diving through the clouds and it becomes obvious the the pilot is going below the clouds because he can´t find the airport of course in order to do this it becomes necessary to go rather low and so at least by appearances he would go low, see a tall building and then hit the gas and go back up again and this went on for a while until he finally found the airport, talk about an E ticket. Well the flight that was supposed to arrive at 10:40 at night got there at 5:45 in the morning. Obviously the guy who was supposed to meet me there at 10:40 was long gone. I got to bed at 6:30 and woke at 8:45. I talked to the owner and asked him about tourist information and ended hiring a taxi to take me around the city and out to a little colonial tourist trap town named Antigua. It was interesting but it rained constantly while we were walking around town. In fact it is still raining. I guess thay don´t call it the rainy season for nothin. Well that´s all for now.
Hasta la vista baby!