Our Man in Granada

Buyer Beware

US based  website Overseas Property Mall seem a little confused about Nicaragua.

In a headline regarding this country's ripeness for investment it trumpets:

"Nicaragua No Longer Land of Sandinistas and Somozas but a Real Estate Opportunity"

I guess they haven't bothered to research who the current government are.

How the Axis of Evil made my lights work

"Managua, Jun 22 (Prensa Latina) Nicaragua´s energy service will stabilized by the first trimester of next year, President Daniel Ortega affirmed, and reiterated the country will resort to thermal plants to face the current power deficit.

According to the president, along with the generators to be supplied by Cuba, Venezuela, and Taiwan, the country is likely to receive others by Iran, where he traveled last week.

Cuba and Venezuela already provided 32 generators with capacity to produce 60 megabytes per hour, and promised to supply a similar amount early next year.

Power generation deficit in Nicaragua worsened in the last few days, after interruptions in several generating units, resulting in up to ten-hour blackouts.

Ortega denounced the energy crisis is due to lack of management in the last 16 years of neoliberal governments which privatized the sector and cut off investments."

From here.

You have to be careful who you grumble too

I found this in Vietnam, there's a fine line between voicing realism and being a whining expat. 

But going round thinking "everything is wonderful" can be somewhat naive and it's only fair you should get to let out your frustrations occasionally. 

The only question is, who to?

From Picasso Dreams:

"The retirees are definitely more Nica – laid back and easy going quick to stop on the street and chat for long periods. They tend to bristle when the working crowd vents their frustrations about the inefficiencies of the government and the culture and how hard it is to make a profit.

"Retirees and travelers passing through do not want to hear anything negative about their destination of choice. They have the time to enjoy the peculiarities of the culture."

The full, rather good, post is here

The blogger is Kelly, owner of El Gato Negro bookstore in beach town San Juan Del Sur.  Coincidentally ourwoman and I are planning to head that way this weekend.  I'll have to drop by and share a grumble.

My current Granada-based whinge is this:  why the hell has there been virtually no water during weekday daylight hours for weeks and weeks?  There seems to be various theories but everyone seems to agree that it's more to do with efficiency than availability.

Granada by the Myspace Generation

Sounds about right.

"Granada, Nicaragua - it's weird! In some parts it's this lovely quiet, tranquil, colonial, painted-houses town - and in other parts it's manic busy market selling broken radios and crappy knock-off watches on every stall! It's full of skinny horses and skinny kids that ask for money... (the kids.. not the horses....) and it's so full of contrasts! It's all quiet and loud and smelly and busy and calm and charming all at once.  Nicaragua is also incredibly cheap! Cheaper than Costa Rica or Panama! We got three nights accommodation, nine meals and a four hour boat tour round islands for under £50!  And an interrogation by drugs officers at the border.... but you can't have it all!"

A Nica blogs round up from a very hot, smelly gringo

Lots of Nica blogs and links below.

First off I got linked here.   My limited Spanish isn't really up to it but with the help of Babel Fish it seems friendly and it appears to be from a site cataloging Nica Blogs.

I've added it to my Nica Blogs list, in the right hand column,  where it sits alongside my own collection of other people's work. 

My first guest blog post for Budget Travel Online

As a result of some wonderful support, ie the number of comments on my competition entry, here.  I won the $500 prize and the chance to be guest blogger for a week..

First of several offerings is here and is called "From Vietnam's KOTO to Nicaragua's CafeChavalos."

Check back tomorrow for more.  Thanks again for helping me win.

Got to feel sorry for these round-the-world travellers

For some people the world is not enough and Nicaragua is waaay too much:

"....I'm also experiencing some very exhausting trips on shitty buses on somewhat terrible roads throughout Central America. Often sickening food (it sometimes takes me days to recover); imagine feeling like that on a 4-6 hour bus ride with no stops.

"When it does in fact stop, nobody tells you when it leaves or check if you are on a bus. One time, i had to run for it through a very crowd market (the terminals, for some reasons are always in the markets), because i was getting some food when the bus left with my backpack.

"So yea, it gets very difficult; the sleepless nights followed by dirty towns and not very dangerous but very annoying harassment from some of the locals. The search for a hostel or a hotel sometimes becomes a journey in itself, usually a very tiring and unpleasant journey."

Can't deny any of it.  But believe it or not some of us think it is fun.  Maannn...it's all good tales and adventures.  Full blog post here.   

Managua, Nicaragua - where the streets have no name

Old, but very readable, article regarding finding your way around this nation's capital, here.

Headline nicked from here.

Also, born in Managua, and later married to a Rolling Stone, now Chair for the World Future Council, Bianca Jagger writes for today's Observer.

Add your comments for $500 (for me)

Okay, I don't get paid doing volunteer work so every penny helps.

So...I've been shortlisted in a travel writing competition by Budget Travel Online, where I can win $500.  All I need you to do is go to the link below and leave a comment.

The piece I entered is from my old Vietnam blogging days and I originally wrote it with my parents' upcoming visit in mind. It received the biggest response of anything I had ever written - which is why I entered it here.

It's called. Visiting Vietnam - Read This.  And you can find it here.  Please go, leave comments and if you are truly wonderful then link it too and tell others to do the same.

Thank you.

Nicaraguan Communications - wagging finger, pointing lips and more

I caught my first Nica wagging finger yesterday.

I'd read about it before coming out here and it essentially just means no.  - In this case (pictured above), it meant no photos and it didn't work.

Before we got here my girlfriend and I had become fascinated by the range of Nica hand gestures that we read about. So much so that I actually got used to being teasingly told off by the wagging finger. The other  gesture that captured our imagination was the giving of directions by the directional puckering of the lips rather than finger pointing.

I'd beg: "Go on, ask me the way to the bathroom"

Then I'd twist my lips into what I thought was the Nica style.

I'm still waiting to see it in the flesh so I'm glad that Daveande is out there.  It seems like he has seem them all - he's also fast becoming my favourite English language blogger here.

Here's a couple from his Communicate like a Nica post.·

When you want to refer to your diarrhea: Make a fist and lock your elbow into the side of your body. Move the lower part of your arm up and down

When you want to say someone is stingy or cheap: Flex your bicep and tap the bottom of your elbow with your opposite hand.while grimacing.

I've got to learn how to ask directions soon.  I'm desperate to see the pointed lip pucker.