"Out of the midst of the beautiful Lake Nicaragua spring two magnificent pyramids, clad in the softest and richest green, all flecked with shadow and sunshine, whose summits pierce the billowy clouds. They look so isolated from the world and its turmoil - so tranquil, so dreamy, so steeped in slumber and eternal repose. What a home one might make among their shady forests, their sunny slopes, their breezy dells, after he had grown weary of the toil, anxiety and unrest of the bustling, driving world."
Not least, because while I have had a longing to return to Nica ever since a fleeting trip in 2002, I am aware that Nicaragua has one real flaw.
It is, it seems, the only country in Central America where baseball is king - not football/soccer.
The film is, from what I can make out, an old game against El Salvador. Meanwhile the Nica Boys have just picked up a win against Belize.
The sports news link above explains:
"Emilio Palacios scored three goals and gave Nicaragua a 4-2 victory
over Belize Monday night, earning it a berth in Thursday's fifth-place
game at the Central American Cup and an opportunity to become the final
team in the Gold Cup."
It doesn't really expand on that so I am still unaware as to exactly how both the Gold Cup and the Central American Cup work. But I am chuffed above the result.
Oh and a hell of a lot of digging has unearthed a football team in Granada which appear to play in the second division.
Nica Guru Joshua Berman on his Go To Nicaragua forum was able to offer the following advice in terms of unearthing a live football experience.
"The soccer capital of Nicaragua, Carazo, is not that far from Granada,
so you may be in luck. If not, then take a bus to Diriamba or Jinotepe
and track down a pickup game."
Hmmm. Certainly sounds like a plan. Unless anyone can give me more information about soccer (I hate calling it that) in Granada.
More beer info here. They're not impressed with Tona:
"... I don't believe I've ever seen a more colorless liquid with alcohol levels in the range of normal beer. It's unappetizing to look at with a sickly, anemic appearance that reminds me of starved mongrels, with mangy fur clinging to their bones."
Language teacher and blogger Simon of Amstelladagain who writes of "life, linguistics and laphroaig" in Hungary has been giving me some tips on getting to grips with Spanish.
The following was originally in my comments section here but deserved a post of its own.
The pic is of me in Antiqua, Guatemala, four years ago when I spent a week doing Spanish lessons at the outset of a Central American tour. I have to admit, I was hopeless.
Over the past 16 years Nicaragua has been undergoing a silent
revolution, led by one of the most impoverished sections of society,
the peasant farmers, or campesinos. It is a revolution that
fundamentally challenges the traditional free market and its
neo-liberal economics, which favours paying farmers the lowest price
possible, leaving them powerless to do anything but sell direct to the
multinationals at prices they dictate.
It is a revolution that has
allowed a group of people to produce, market and sell their produce on
their own terms and in so doing challenge the multinationals that still
dominate the trade.