Once again the intra-Nicaragua travels pushed me through Managua. This time it all seemed a bit less painful however. Maybe I´m just becoming accustomed to that rat´s nest by now.
However the best action of the trek between Granada and Ometepe occurred on the highway just outside of town. My friend Janie, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in San Juan del Sur and traveling with in parts of Ometepe is very fond of what she calls the ¨right hand man¨ here in Nicaragua. This fella is officially called the ¨paba¨ in Panama, and if I remember correctly, the cobrador here in Nicaragua. So on my bus from Managua to Matagalpa, I rolled into Mercado Mayoreo a bit lade and was the last person to board an already crowded bus leaving the station. As I jumped in the back door of the moving yellow dog, a fella took my bag and put it atop the bus, as is customary when all inside is full. He didn´t say much, because little to my knowledge, he was deaf.
So this guy is nice as can be, which can´t be said for all international transportation workers, and comes back down from atop the moving vehicle about three minutes later to assure me that all is tied down well. So while in Estelí I picked up a few painting type items for gifts and am currently toting around a big white folder (now well fortified with duct tape) containing these pieces (now fortified with newspaper). Well, I popped that baby up on a rack above some seats, and as I let go I watched as it slid through the horizontal cracks in those shelves just above the passengers. Thinking it was going to hit some guy on the head I went to reach for it, but was too late. Luckily it missed this strapping young Nica ruffian, but unfortunately slid right out the window instead!
So all of us in the back of the bus commenced to whistling and yelling ¨pare! pare!¨ (stop! stop! in Español) and the deaf cobrador took it upon himself to relay to the driver what that we needed to halt. As the bus crept to a rest in the middle of the highway, on the way out of Managua, I jumped out the back, ran down the three lanes, and retrieved my package amidst the flow of oncoming traffic. As I sprinted back to the bus, the ¨right hand man¨ got the word to the bus driver that all was well and we were back on our way. Needless to say, we all had quite the laugh at my ¨stupid gringo tricks¨ little act.
So as the debate has been going in my head, and as the game hasn´t officially begun, I´m going to have to make my first ¨Cheers¨ classification here. Raise on for the ¨right hand man¨ and pour a little out for the deaf cobradors of the world.
The rest of the weekend in Mataglapa failed to live up to the excitement of the trip there, but it was a much needed rest from the regime of study I had embarked upon in Granada. On Saturday we trekked out to a little eco-reserve called Selva Negra, which was exquisitely beautiful and very different from most everything else I´ve encountered in Nicaragua. Pictures are up on the Snapfish page. (http://www.snapfish.com/share/p=36261141700518162/l=85148091/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB)
Sunday I shoved over to Leon after another difficult encounter with the bus system. The 3:00 decided to shove off ten minutes early, and I missed it. Then as the 4:00 filled up, I was removed from my seat by someone with a pre-purchased ticket (yes, they actually have these things here...who knew?) and had to stand for the duration of the three hour bump fest. (Ah memories of Monte Verde to Puntarenas May 2000...)
The blood flow to my legs must have done wonders though, cause the CJB light bulb was lit up quite frequently. I´ll detail those ditties in another post though...
That´s it for now!