Nicaragua: My closing thoughts

On Saturday morning, Trisha and I will be departing for Guatemala for three weeks, concluding our stay in Nicaragua. Living three months in a foreign country such as Nicaragua I think gives one more insight than the casual tourist on a two week vacation. Consequently, I believe all my generalizations and conclusions about this place contained herein have much more validity to them than the normal tourist. In fact I must be downright expert on all things Nicaraguan now, right? So here is my concluding list of things:

Things I will miss

Good People: I have mentioned this before, but most of the people I’ve met here are very warm and hospitable. In particular, the people I was able to spend longer than 2 minutes with generally turned out to be extremely likeable and generous individuals. Trisha and I were blessed to have multiple classes of adults that we taught at Academia Europea the past two months to foster these enjoyable relationships. I will miss a country where about 95% of the people you bump into are just plain nice.

Cheap Things: Two beers and two large chicken plate dinners: 5$. New t-shirt: 1$ Three hour bus ride to anywhere in the country: 2$ Pirated DVD: 1$ Knowing that I have to begin using Euros again in a month…..depressing.

Volcanoes: We only had one true visit to a volcano while in Nicaragua, Volcán Mambacho, but were able to witness multiple others on our travels around the country. These towering fortresses jutting up out of nowhere are not easily missed nor forgotten. They say the landscape here is not be as beautiful as some other Central American countries, but the “land of volcanoes” nickname has definitely lived up to its expectations for me.

Small-town Feel: Seeing people in the streets you know or have some connection with has been a new and enlightening concept for me. In Los Angeles this happened once or twice….a year. But here, living in these small towns such as Matagalpa, have made this a daily occurrence. “Hey, there’s that guy in my class” or “There goes Mario or Kaleck, or Evretts, or Miguel or Jose” or “Where do we know her from.” I can definitely see the downside of this reality, especially if one lives here their entire life. But for our brief time it has provided us a feeling of acceptance and community.

Horse Parallel Parking: Walking down the street will not be the same after leaving Nicaragua. I know that everywhere else we go will have normal cars and trucks cruising down the street and parking in well established parking slots. What a pity. Seeing cute, skinny horses with smart leather saddles, tied up next to cars on the streets, waiting patiently for their owners is something I have grown to love seeing.

Political Fervor: Talking politics and speaking your mind about the country´s leaders is an alive and unhindered element to Nicaraguan conversations. Ask about the president Daniel Ortega, or the Sandinistas, or the current political situation, and you´re in for passionate dialogue that is both enjoyable and interesting. I've liked hearing different views on various issues (most Nicaraguans I talked with dislike their leader) and proposed solutions. These solutions to the country´s ills, which were voiced in nearly all political conversations, have underling similarities which make you believe they could someday become a reality. I do hope they do.

Monkeys: I only saw them a few times during our stay, but I really liked those little guys. Although the ones near the isletas in Granada mobbed us for bananas, their little faces, curly tails, and monkey talk were a treat. I also found it eerily enjoyable hearing the low-pitched echoes of the howler monkeys resound off the forests in the northern territories, even though I never saw them.

Nacatamale: Nicaraguan food isn´t Mexican food, and isn´t as good as Mexican food, but does have a few highlights that I will remember. One of my favorites is a dish called Nacatamale. It is a bit like a tamale, but has some differences. First, it is wrapped and cooked in banana leaves. The inside filling is typically chicken or pork, which as been cooked with some mild spices. The surrounding enclosure is a mixture of cornmeal and rice, also cooked with spices. It´s a simple dish at first glance, but I am told very difficult to prepare. Restaurants do not usually serve them, so you must purchase a Nacatamale at a home in town that sells them. I found my favorite home and usually chose Sunday as my buy day. The lady of the house only made and sold them three days a week.

The Clean and the Fresh: Sorry Europeans, but the people here always look, smell, and appear nice and fresh. Regardless of their individual economic situations, they are never disheveled and always appear as if they just hoped out of the shower. This makes tourists standout ever more because the typical tourists in Nicaragua are the backpacking, youthful crowd, and one wonders how often they freshen up.

Things I won’t miss:

Noise: Remember how I wrote in paragraph 5 that the small-town feeling was so cool here. Well, it may be smaller than L.A., bit it´s definitely not quieter. Sure there is no freeway noise and helicopters with spotlights that circle for hours. Instead there are pulsating church bells that carry through the whole town at 6:00 a.m., 7, 8, 9 and any other times they feel like ringing There are roosters and pet parrots that try and compete with bells on how early they can begin. There are the trucks with giant rock concert speakers that cruise up and down all the streets in town blaring their advertisements or the passing of a family member. A few other standouts are the horns on taxis and motorcycles which all owners seem to love to honk, even on empty streets. Finally, the screaming Latin music bellowing from homes across the city at any time of the day add to the ear madness. For the smallest population density in Central America, these people pack an audible punch.

Roosters: see above

Invisible Crosswalks: They´re not really invisible, they just don´t exist. For that matter, neither do stop signs. Or at least no one pays attention to those. I suppose the problem of crossing the road on high alert isn´t so bad. There are plenty of places that are worse than Nicaragua I´m sure (there were a few roads in Morocco I thought I would never get across). The problem with the invisible crosswalks is Trisha. She is not that good at crossing the road at home where there are crosswalks. Lets just say that fieldtrips across Monrovia with my 3rd grade class and walking in Pasadena with Trisha require the same amount of alertness. So imagine that here, where I don’t believe the word yield translates to Spanish. It is an ongoing battle of man verses machine and man with his verbal car warnings and quick grabs verses wife.

Not blending in: It is of course impossible to blend into a society of people that look different than you. For the most part this hasn´t been an annoyance because many of the towns in Nicaragua that we visited are used to tourists, especially Granada. The town we spent the most time in however, was not as used to different looking folks. The Matagalpans are very honest and decent people, but more often than not become transfixed as we walk by. There`s always a guaranteed stare or a ¨hello,” “goodbye,” or any other little comment in the English that they know. It was cute the first week, but by the end of our second month, it was a bit on the annoying side. I look forward to walking down a sidewalk someday soon, with good old fashion anonymity on my side.

In conclusion, I recommend a visit to this country. It can be a bit rough around the edges at times, but for the most part the rewards are grand (not copied from the Lonely Planet book).