Sunday, June 22, 2008

¿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

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