Chapter 4: Granada, Nicaragua

19.07.2013

• Happy Liberation Day! Celebrated on the 19th of July, this marks the day that the National Liberation Army defeated the Somoza dictatorships in the Nicaraguan Revolution. It is the first day of celebration that I encounter on my Bonderman itinerary. While celebrations commence throughout the nation, it does come with some controversy. Among the cheers are also the voices of dissent with critivism levied at national leaders including President Ortega. 
• I spent part of the morning finishing my viewing of the online retrospecive of the work of Susan Meiselas through the Nicaraguan Revolution - a beautiful protrayal of the intersection of a national struggle and the invididuals who lived and died by the struggle. Thank you to Maggie Mamolen for the great reference! 
• Took my last lunch at G&G and then a cab ride to the Sally Peachy store for snacks. Walked in the rain up to Long Bay and took pictures of the tree with the creepy toys hanging from it. I do love the quirky spaces and moments that the world has to offer. 
• A quick cab ride back to the hotel to pick up luggage and off to the airport. It was a beautiful flight with a stop in Bluefields and sunset over Lake Managua back in the capital. 

• Grabbed another cab to Mercado Roberto Huembes to catch a bus to Granada. It was too late in the evening to catch any of the major festivities in Managua and I watched buses careen down the highways packed with people and overflow passengers hanging off the back or riding atop. These buses, it would turn out, were also the local buses doing special transport for the holiday and thus no buses were available to take me onward. So, a negotiated rate and a long cab ride all the way to Granada. More buses with cheering folk hanging out the windows and motorcyclists waving FLNS (Sandinista National Liberation Front) flags. 

• Arrive in Granada and to the Hostel Oasis Granada, checked in, and went for a walk around town. Started at the parque central just two blocks from my new home and then down Calle La Calzada, the main promenade that leads from the central part down to the malecon (jetty) along Lake Nicaragua. It was a festive evening still celebrating the national holiday. Traditional dance, masked children, music, fire dancers, lights, and people everywhere. 
• Bought frozen yogurt gelatto and made my way home to type and sleep. 

20.07.2013

• Breakfast of peanut butter and dragonfruit - a favourite fruit from my time in Asia by the name of pitaya in Latin America.  
• Made my way back to the Parque Central and stopped at Nectar for a lunch of avocado salad and sangria. Group in the back with a man playing the guitar and singing with the most amazing falsetto voice. 

• Walked over to the Cultural Center at the Convento de San Francisco which has a museum. The first hall houses a collection art by Nicaraguans depicting everything from daily life, agriculture, and hospitals to creation stories with the unique perspective of a local cultural lens. Another room with religious art and artifacts including two small statues of San Antonio de Padua, my patron saint whose Basilica I visited  almost exactly 10 years ago. An exterior wing showcased a collection of massive stone carvings of people with animal hats as well as anthropomorphic creatures, many of which were discovered in the surrounding areas in the 19th and 20th centuries. Another room had a model replica of two extreme recreational activities of the pre-Columbian peoples of Nicaragua involving elaborate swings. A final section included a scale model of the city color coded by era - I love color coding. Picturing Tracy Harachi's face when she reads that line.  
• Ended up at Ole, a large artisan store that sells items from women's co-operatives throughout Nicaragua. This was the first time it has been hard not to shop on this trip. In case you are a loved one and did not get the memo before I left, between limited funds and space, I will not be buying souvenirs or gifts on this trip. Met the sales person, Lauren, who also works at Sacuanjoche, an international school in Granada. They have a Waldorf-inspired model that focuses on learning through play. It makes me miss Mama Heidi and Alicia who run the Bellingham Cooperative School back home with similar priciples. 
• Walk home through open market which was alice and buzzing. Stopped at a grocery store to get a few more snacks and then back to the hostel. Tried on clothes at some local shops and bought desserts made from pitaya and coconut from a woman selling her wares on the corner near the hostel.
• Out for dinner at El Tercer Ojo (The Third Eye) with a mix of Asian and Latin cuisine though not a fusion restaurant. There was a sushi special and I couldn't resist. To keep with a local feel I ordered the Nica roll which was made with fresh plantain and shrimp. A glass of sangria with fresh grated ginger to wash it down. Stopped for dessert on the way home: a tasty Grosella sorbet. 
• Caught a performance by members of Street Dance de Granada. It reminded me of Tiny Toons, a program that uses dance to empower and educate youth in Cambodia. 
• Home to type. Kevin out dancing tonight with Anita, a friend who is back in Seattle from Ohio. We went to her wedding a couple of weeks before I left. I am sad to be missing the night out with them. Sad not to be on his arm. Sad not to be going home with him. Happy to have him. Happy to know I'll go home to him someday and for many somedays thereafter. Happy to wake up tomorrow in Granada, Nicaragua and see what the day brings. 

21.07.2013

• Another morning of rain. A good excuse to stay in and rest for a while. 
• Met Tasneem and Katherine, two naturopathic medicine students from the Boucher school in British Columbia, Canada - so close to home! They were here working for Natruopathic Doctors International at a clinic in Ometepe, the large island in Lake Nicaragua. The program seemed to have a good social framework as well. For example, students were asked to spend time working on a local farm so they could develop a better understanding of the local context for medical care in light of their economic realities.  
• The three of us wandered downtown for lunch at Comidas Tipicas y Mas, a restaurant that serves an assortment of delicious, typical national dishes. I had the Indio Viejo, a porridge-like dish made with masa (corn) meal and pork, and served with tostones, rice, and queso, the standard Nicaraguan cheese which is salty and looks like tofu. It was an amazing meal. Enjoyed it with a fresh fruit drink and wonderful conversation with my two new friends.. 
• After lunch we shopped for jewelry from a local artist who had a story for every piece he made which often reflected a philosophy of new possibilities in each day. We walked back to the hostel to collect their friend, Sheldon, and made our way out again to La Polvora Fort which was sadly closed. Along the way we stopped at a couple of churches: Xalteva and Merced. The later of these has a large tower that one can climb for a terrific view of the city, the hills in the north, and the lakefront behind the main church on parque central to the east. If you have a chance to visit, consider bringing ear plugs as they might take the opportunity to ring the bells for the tourists.  

• Along our walk we encountered a funeral procession with the casket carried in front by a horse drawn carriage and followed on foot by the bereaved. Shortly after we saw a caravan of tourists in white carriages traveling down the same street. Such a contrast. 
• We popped into Galeria Nicart which is crammed from wall to wall and floor to ceiling with works by Nicaraguan artists. It had everything from pop art to traditional pottery and religious figures. It was an easy place to get lost for a while. Art is such a wonderful way to connect with places and people.  
• On the way home I grabbed some popcorn from a street vendor and a few avocados from the market. I also stopped to take a picture of building near the hostel from the same angle as the photo from 1910 which is displayed in the museum at the Convent of San Francisco. 

• Met up with Taz and Katherine to get an agua de tamarindo with chia seeds, a drink made from the sticky, sour, earthy fruit of the tamarind pod.. I have actually been trying to order a tamarind drink for weeks but everyone has been out of it. We enjoyed our drinks on a long walk around town and down to the waterfront taking in graffiti art and a wonderful sunset. I had some time alone on the way back and realized how much I am beginning to really relish these moments of solitude.  
• Back at the hostel I ate dinner while a large group of residents watched Minority Report. Katherine and I stayed up talking about the dynamics of families and those we missed back home. I was able to talk with Kevin for a while. I stayed up typing late enough for all the lights to get turned off. Me, alone again, listening to folks in the other room talk and sing songs from their countries. When they went to bed I turned my ears to Ludovico Einaudi.

22.07.2013

• Had a chance to say goodbye to Tasneem, Katherine, and Sheldon. Read the day's news which ranges from updates on Egypt's deposed President to the soon-to-be prince or princess of England. 
• Also read an article from Nicaraguan news about women developing small businesses to get out of industrial work in the free zones. A Free (or Special) Economic Zones is a geographical region that is "exempt from federal laws regarding taxes, quotas, FDI-bans, labour laws and other restrictive laws in order to make the goods manufactured in the SEZ at a globally competitive price." These zones are a byproduct of structural adjustment programs wherein "developing economies" create favorable conditions for foreign entities in exchange for loans or debt forgiveness from institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. While this creates a boon for international corporations and cheap goods for people in wealthier countries like the United States, it has detrimental effects for local economies and creates harmful working conditions mainly for women living in poverty (Klak, Distributional Impacts of the ‘Free Zone’Component of Structural Adjustment: The Jamaican Experience, 2006). To understand more about the impacts of structural adjustment programs and special economic zones, I recommend the film Life and Debt which profiles the experience of globalization in Jamaica:

• Walked a couple of blocks toward the bus stop and was just in time to hop a ride to Masaya, considred a cultural hub of the country. I had also read an article this morning about the retreat of the Sandinistas to Masaya to regroup one month before their successful overthrow of the govenmern which is now celebrated each year at the end of June. 
• It was a quick 40 minute ride picking up people along the way. At one point a man boarded the bus, stood at the front, and delivered a pitch for two types of vitamins. Sales jobs can be so grassroots in a country where people may not be home watching television, browsing the internet, or tuned to the radio. You can also see cars and trucks slowly roaming the streets blaring advertisements via giant speakers strapped to the vehicle and often wrapped in plastic for rain protection. 
• I arrived in the main food market where I bought tamarindo, the actual fruit that is used to make the drink I had yesterday. It was a favourite snack for Christaina Alessandra and I when we lived together in Bellingham - fond memories. Also saw the largest papayas I have ever seen. 
• Walked down to the artisan market and shopped around for a while. Bought a pupusa from a street vendor on the way. I found a small shoulder bag that I could tuck under my shirt, an item I have been searching for. Had lunch at a restaurant in the market - mushroom grilled chicken. The staff sat and joked with one another; one of the men wore a pink wig  and strutted around as the other laughed. Their kids watched children's shows on the TV in the main dining area. 
• After the market I grabbed a cab to Laguna de Apoyo. He played great music and I asked him to turn it up as we drove through the countryside. We drove past his home and got to wave to his family and then stopped for a view above the lake before driving down to the shore. We arrived as a rain storm came sweeping in and so my time at the lake involved ordering a pina colada and swinging in a hammock while watching the lightning strike across the sky. The only other patrons left; then the server left. I was alone in the restaurant in the rain. Blissful. 

• Driver came back to get me and took me all the way back into Granada. The negotiated rate included the promise of more loud music. Back home I took a swim in the pool and drank hot tea spiked with cognac as the rain continued to fall. I found a spiral staircase to a rooftop patio with a view of Iglecia de Merced with its tower rising high above the city. 
• Met a few women who had just been on Corn Island and were going back the next day. One of them was originally from Seattle and will soon be going on a road trip ending on Orcas Island. Her friend owns a restaurant there called The Barnacle where Kevin and I ate at with my mentor Tracy Harachi back in May on the second day they were open. It is a small world, I suppose. 
• Back out to dinner at Comidas Tipicas y Mas - had two tacos and a mug of tiste, a drink made with corn and cocoa and sweet peppers: 

2 Lbs. corn tortilla; 1/2 lb. Cocoa; 138 Peppers; sugar; water

Soak tortillas in water; roast and shell cocoa; mix softened tortillas with cocoa and sweet peppers; grind the mixture. The resulting dough is used to form cylinders one and a half inch thick by four inches long. This mass is diluted in water to the desired thickness, it is sweetened to taste and served with crushed ice.

• Back home with terrible internet service. Popped a bag of popcorn and sat down to write a bit while Cast Away played in the background. In the movie, Tom Hanks plays a man who must learn to survive on a small, uninhabited island after the FedEx plane he was aboard crashes into the ocean. Packages from the plane wash up on shore, including a Wilson brand volleyball which becomes his anthropomorphic friend and is aptly named, Wilson. For Christmas my parent's purchased me a new Acer computer to take on my travels. During the set-up process I was asked to name the device. This little hunk of plastic with a silicon brain would be my only consistent companion for the next year and my link to a life back home. I named it Wilson. 
• Listening to one of my favourite artists covering one of my favourite songs: 

23.07.2013

• Taking a slow morning to rest and write is becoming such a norm that I think we should just assume that is how my day will begin and stop mentioning it in my blog. Did make a new friend, Georgia, from Australia who tried (bless her heart) to upgrade the RAM in my computer. Fail. She has been traveling for 8 months and is planning to get through all of the Americas. Where did she start, you ask? Seattle!! Lovely talk of home. 
• Went out to see the city, run some errands, get more tamarindo con chia drink. Bought bus tickets to San Jose, Costa Rica for tomorrow. 
• Stopped at cigar factory on the way home. :earned that most cigar tabacco in Latin America is produced in Nicaragua - even that which is used to make Cuban cigars! Most Nicaraguans do not smoke cigars due to the expense and most are exported to the United States. Each employee helps roll 300 cigars per day after a long process of fermenting the tobacco. Ok, I am all about public health but I do love the smell of dried tobacco and it is interesting to learn about another sector of commerce in the country. 
• Stopped at the store on the way home for more fresh avocado. Relaxed for a while and emailed with Mama Skiena. Back to my favourite restaurant, Comidas Tipicas, to cram in as many of their Nicaraguan dishes as possible before I leave tomorrow. Mariachi bands played and children sold items from baskets - complex decisions about buying. 
• Home for a dip in the pool. Met two other guests, one from Seattle and the other from Vancouver, BC. The West Coast traveler theory seems to hold. Skype with my dad, sister, and nephew. Call with Kevin who is amazing at putting up with me. 
• Cards with Georgia, and new friends, Sarah and Dave, who are traveling from Ireland. We played a game called Presidents and A**holes in which the losers from the previous round give their best cards to the winner and the winners hand down their worst cards. It was such a wonderful game to exemplify the problems inherent with systems of social privilege, class competition, market economies, and political power. Bedtime.