Managua, Matagalpa, Guadalupe
In the year 2000 Genie and I had the opportunity to visit Nicaragua with our good friends M and C, and their adopted children A and M. We'd be away for six weeks and I had no idea what to expect. We booked our flight from Amsterdam to Managua and back and tried to learn some Spanish in the meantime.
Many of the people we were to meet were Sandinists, and I will be using initials for names throughout this post, but the first thing I want to tell you about is the journey. Our flight included a change at Miama, USA. If you want to visit Nicaragua do not take a flight that will leave you waiting for your connecting flight in Miami. I can't begin to describe the horror of the "accommodation" there for folk destined for Nicaragua. It is inhumane and there can be no excuse. Enough said.
After a stay with friends in Managua, we were dropped off at a coffee plantation in the jungle near Guatamale. This was one of the real highlights of our journey. We stayed there for two weeks and got to know R, who managed the finca, and his family, who were really accommodating. They didn't have much, but what they did have they were happy to share. R and family lived in what I can only describe as a shed with a corrugated metal roof. We had the run of a large villa, which seemed rather incongruous. However, this didn't stop me from chilling in a hammock on the balcony and reading the first Harry Potter book (in Dutch). It did encourage me to make more contact with the folk that were actually keeping this place running in the absence of the owners, though, and we had great fun together.
Every morning at dawn the chickens, which had been sleeping in the trees, seemed to drop and crash-land onto the metal roof of R's family home, creating a tremendous racket. A great wake-up call for a farmer, maybe, but something to which we had to adjust.
R and I got on well. He'd just got a Winchester rifle, which was bought more for protecting his family than for shooting game, I learned later, and we shot at cans until we'd practically run out of ammunition. Genie suggested we should buy more bullets, which would involve a trip to Matagalpa.
The next day we head for Matagalpa. From the finca the bus stop is a 20-minute walk over the hill. It's a rocky ride on the bus. As we're approaching the terminal in Matagalpa there's the theme from "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" playing on the radio. At the terminal there are men in cowboy hats, youths tossing and catching machetes, donkeys, horses, and dust clouds blowing in the wind. One of those impossible moments when the sound on the radio provides the perfect soundtrack to real life. With a sense of humour.
I made these video slideshows in an effort to represent our stay in Nicaragua. The photos are all Genie's. Enjoy!
