Nicaragua Part 1

We arrived in Estel Li and I got a room sharing with the Israelis. We were told 40 Cordobas per person but were actually made to pay 50 each. This ended with an argument between me and landlady where we both ended up calling the other one liars. It wasn't pretty and when I needed my room on my own the next night I figured she would have prevented me from getting it. I wanted to move places on principle, but my need for cheap accomodation overode my righteous indignation. Anyway the five of us headed out for dinner after I had to wrangle with some American hippy who was telling me how to master negotiation. Fuck him. I know its not much money, but I have a real real problem with being lied to. It sticks in my craw and can get me very angry. It pisses me off more than anything else. I can take any truth more than I can take one tiny lie anytime. Do what you want to me and I may forgive you, but never for a lie. Anyway I am wandering off topic again. We had dinner and then the others went for a drink while I confirmed that Spurs had indeed been knocked out of the UEFA Cup. Fuck it. Now we had to win sunday. I joined them for what I thought would be a few drinks. Many many litres later we staggered back to the hotel. I had talked about the Israeli-Lebanon war that one of the guys had fought in for his military service, we had talked all sorts, I now knew that the English girl dealt Ketamin (apologies for spelling. Horse tranq to the uninitiated) for her trip, but her boyfriend did not know. She had a dark side. Israeli girls were cool. Don't actually remember going home that much. The bar was called Bar Titanic and had a wicked jukebox. The owner had lived 7 years in Russia in the 80s (must be Sandinista, after all this is their home territory). The English guys had been stung by a tingray, stung in the arse by a scorpion, seen a dead body in San Salvador and had the owner of their hotel gunned down dead in Antigua. Far be it from me to suggest they are a modern day Bonnie and Clyde but the evidence is there for all. Anyway their luck is as much bad as mine is good. We limped in late around 2am (late for this side of the pond anyway) and at 6am our neighbours hammered out really loud music. One of the Israeli guys complained (brave man) and they turned it down a bit.

In the morning I grabbed breakfast with the Israelis and then they headed off to Leon. I met up with Ariana one of the local couchsurfers and we headed out to a waterfall near where she lives. There was a lot of flirting all day long between us, but she kept me guessing with her odd four facial expressions for one emotion. Later she said she'd been toying, but it was hard to fathom none the less. I was almost certain she liked me but not 100%. In the evening I took a punt and just went for it anyway and we spent the rest of the night and the next day enjoying each others company and laughing about the back and forth fencing the day before. We had started the day with her being unable to swim, so we'd done some sub par water support, but she panicked and almost drowned me while I held her up in the waterfall. Then we had walked around some more, played odd games, had drama with a tree and she sprained her ankle. It was a funny and odd day of countryside flirting. In the evening we grabbed dinner, then headed for drinks where I made an awful lunge on my "sod it lets see how it goes" stint. I made up for that later on lol. We had joined one of her friends (a cool ex party drug taker from the coast but had lived in LA). Another friend of theirs came in with two cross dressers (never witnessed that before in Central America) and a third friend showed us a video of him having sex with a woman who was bleeding over his penis. Interesting choice of entertainment. Ariana failed to rescue her friend from the corss dressers (with his heels one of them was actually the first person taller than me in Central America that I had met). Me and Ariana skipped for some fun and I got to sleep at gone 2am after waking the hotel staff again. I had to get up at 6am to meet her again, but some fuckwits woke me up at 4am. I felt like I had only just closed my eyes. I was going to need to regain this sleep somewhere. Oh yeah one of the stupid bars kept running out of beer. Stupid fucks. What kind of bar has no beer.

The lack of sleep took its toll as I limped over to Ariana's house. We went up to the lookout points and got some breakfast before sitting and chatting in the hills surrounding Estel Li. The one thing I have learnt in Central America from friends of mine is that a lot of Central American guys are complete wankers and the lack of respect for women is almost mindboggling. For us anyway. A woman has no self defence rights from an abusive husband, has no recourse for sexual harassment and sexual abuse is commonplace especially against children. Fuck that. Makes me furious when people abuse the power of their situation. I always say you should treat everyone equally as a person. There is no hierarchy at all in the world. Peoples actions and the contents of their character dictate what happens. Everyone starts equal. And it should stay equal. Some people will give up their power to others because they are weaker, but the person who is given the power over someone should not abuse it. Some people will try to take power from those that are weaker than them and assume a dominant position. Both those people are dangerous because they take and abuse because they can. And they can. And they will. Fuck them. Its the imperative duty of all those who have strength but choose not to abuse it to absolutely use everything they have to stop and crush those who would abuse it. Its like the Von Klausewitz line "If you do not stoop to the level of your enemy you are destined to lose". Now lefties will oppose this as being as bad as your opponent. But that wrong. They go there out of choice, you go there out of necessity and for a sense of protection of those who cant or wont defend themselves. As Jose Marti says "It is a sin not to do what one is capable of doing". And we are all capable of great things. We need to summon the moral courage that Bobby Kennedy speaks of and end this shit. Sorry another rant, but it frustrates me when good people get shit on by people solely because they can. Its another reason why I say you dont get the respect you deserve (as so many good people can say) but that which you demand (but then in a society where the law protects the strong rather than the weak it is easier said than done). Hence why its very well for people to protest in out countries where you will be ignored and quite another to do so in Myanmar or places like that, when you know standing up for your fellow citizens is surefire death. Thats why the west needs to protect those peoples right to protest. Not only because it is right, but because we can. We can and we must. Anyway we had spent 27 hours together and it felt like a lifetime because I knew her well. As I grow into my own personality more so than ever before (though I have comfortably known who I am for 2 years now), I feel when I get back from this trip I fancy doing politics of some kind, but very different to whats been seen before. The dad from Idaho also reckons I should throw myself into it, though I once had a Brazilian guy in Guanabara disagree with me while I was waiting for a date. He said I had a beautiful sole and would destroy it in politics. Hmm well if noone good ever goes into politics why is everyone surprised when most politicians are wankers. If you want to change something you have to actually get up off your arse and not just wish it so. Thats something Obama knows and hopefully can kick into the American people.

Anyway after yet another shitty goodbye (I am getting a little sick of these. You hope you get indifferent but no not really. Especially after the goodbye with Ana, which sucked more than any of the others). Right now I am in the mood for doing something stupid or weird just to fuck about with my mood. I got a message from Ana. It was a good one and I still get electrified before I read her mails. Kind of like a weird fear of what I may find combined with some sort of apprehension. Still want to know exactly what she's thinking if she knows it herself. I am lucky in being able to clearly articulate whatever nonsense is in my head. I also just got a message from Steph in Athens while writing this. She said she missed me and I should go back to Georgia. Thats weird and pleasantly surprising as I had been certain she had not liked me (Ollie had reinforced this belief in me). Geli thinks this piece has improved since I met Ana. Maybe she works as my muse, but I have taken to leaving my thoughts unedited upon the page. Its quite liberating. Anyway back to the bus. I handed my bag to some guy and halfway through the journey realised I did not know where it was and it has all my important documents. Bugger. Fuck where was it. Had to zen myself down with the old adage there was nothing I could do about it. But there was. I could stop the bus and force them to find it. But then thats a bit mental so I resolved to wait. Then a watermelon fell on some womans head. Funny, but I should not laugh really. There was a polystyrene coffee cup spinning on the door. Why was this road so bumpy. Why when I turn to my right is the woman sleeping holding a flannel over her face. There are a lot of good looking people on this bus, but they are never in the towns. Must have hideaways in the hills. Hmm a blood orange sun. Impressive. Makes the whole sky pink. Leon is meant to be pretty. They turfed me off in the middle of the market, I ignored the usual buzzing flies of the taxi drivers and then some moron sent me 3 blocks the wrong way. I found internet to check on the Israelis but nada. Ana had left me a reference. If you read our references to each other we seem deranged, but I think there is not a bad bone in the bodies of either of us and if anything ever did happen we'd probably make everyone else feel really sick with actions lol. I love total honesty. I now feel completely naked both inside and out through my writing, but I also feel that I can really cut loose. Its a good feeling now the shackles are off. Maybe in Buenos Aires I will write a politics and philosophy piece on the world in general and what my take is on it. Will be interesting to see what I still hold as truth when I finish my long exodus.

Well Leon is apparently well signposted. Yes and Gordon Brown is a good prime minister. Could not find anything and had to navigate from locals alone. This city really did not feel that safe. All the cool hostels were full and all my recent travel companions seemed to be scattered amongst them. There was an all night beach rave that night with free beer. Damn I was too knackered (I heard later it was ok at best so that was good news) and so I chatted with some Canadians, bought some cheap street food and settled in for the night. In the morning I had to find an internet cafe for the Lague Cup final. It was good to see that Spurs took it to extra time and penalties to cost me the maximum amount of money, before losing anyway and costing us Europe next year (barring a miracle league run). I walked around the town centre and the huge decrpid cathedral (prettyish and small. Seen so many colonial cities now and nothing comes even close to Guanajuato. I think I could walk and write in that place for a year and still love it). It was hot and muggy. Managua is the same. Both places it feels like the air is sucking the life out of you, like some weather system vampire sucking out your liquid. Only New Orleans has been this bad for me before. So naturally I decide to do a 2.5km hike to a fort south of the city. Lonely Planets map was traditionally shit (because the lazy fucks walk nowhere).

Ok this El Fortin place is 2.5km south west. So I just walk south and right a bit surely. I descended through some cool derelict ruined suburbs (legacies of the war) and into cobbled streets. So far, so pretty in a gritty way. I am starting to appreciate Leon a bit more and then I round some graveyards. Bugger my GPS says there is a hill a little way from here. I can see it through the graves so I work my way that way into some rather shabby dirt tracks. Now the locals really must think I am out of the gringo zone. There are people making makeshift shanty towns and one guy is using cardboard boxes to construct the walls of his house. I dont think I should be here and I take the wrong fork and end up in someones garden. The guy starts yelling threateningly at me (I can understand that it looks very bad for a ´wealthy´tourist to trek into his neighbourhood like on some safari). Luckily the guy behind me asks where I was going and gives me the directions to get out of there. If I spoke no Spanish I could have been in very very serious trouble there. I sped along the river track past a heavily polluted river where people were bathing in tepid water. Man the situation is bad out here. I reach the track to the fort that is covered in litter and am assaulted all the way up by flies. At the top the fort is decrepid and behind it are huge fields filled with burning rubbish. A huge smoking pile of garbage on fire. Like some napalmed slum. Shifty characters move at the top. A man with a scythe strikes up a conversation. I don't understand him so I nod and climb the fort walls. Its a beautiful view overlooking the city, but in the foreground is that eyesore of a slum and circling over my head are a huge flock of birds of prey, like some portent to a bad end. Descending back down I see a lone calender on the wall in the office. Approaching this only sign of life (including the people) I am assaulted by a pestilential swarm of flies, like those released from the death of something they feast on. A horse feeds in the rubbish. A dog flees his master on the off chance of food. I descend quickly catching a man with a log on his shoulders. We follow each other silently back past the bathing children in the fetid water until he strikes up a conversation in Spanish. Its awkward but he seems nice enough. He points me a safe way back and as I shake his hand I realise he has only a stump where one finger should be. In that one walk a lot of the horrors of the El Salvadorean war and its aftermath were revealed to me much clearer than in any museum. That left a mark and I saw a different, maybe more real side of Leon.

In the evening I got chatting with one of the Canadians and discovered she used to do crystal meth for 2 years. Its often remarkable what people will tell me. I think I talk so much I inadvertantly always tap everyones secrets and weak spots. Hmm no wonder some people are scared of me, although some others just get bored lol. Eventually I got sucked into a conversation with a Yankee hippy (ooh my favourites) who tried to convince me the forest has more good things than a city. Fuckwit stoner. Then I had a Yankee having a go at me because I thought Guatemalans lie. Apparently they are the most beautiful people on earth because of their native dress and their savvy. After about 30 minutes of arguing I crushed her points, changed her opinion of me and made her realise that it was a beautiful country and some bits still are, but that tourism has really done bad things for the people and the places. Hmm tough work. Once I broke the back of the hippies we all had a good time till about 2am and then I turfed in for the night as last man standing (and without even any alcohol). There were a lot of very cute Israeli girls in town, the city is ok but not that great and I was pissed I could not see the Mexican film. It said dubbed so I presume that meant it was in English, but it was in Spanish. Surely as its a Spanish film that makes it normal and not dubbed. Oh well.

In the morning I got up and grabbed a bus to Managua still a little knackered. Now I was apprehensive because even locals had told me this city was dangerous. I arrived in town and walked towards the place lonely planet says to stay. Got some indifferent answers but most people were friendly. Bit like London. Looked nice enough so far. Why do all these hippy twats hate places where people actually live as opposed to tourist towns. The map was shit again and I have so far concluded that the only bad area of town that does not feel safe is the area Lonely Planet says to stay. I am suspicious that the guy who wrote this section never left the Tica Bus station and has no idea where anything is as the whole map thing is very badly put together, like it was copied from an ordnance survey map. I dropped my stuff in a dodgy but nice hotel and headed to the 'dangerous' monumental district. Its not dangerous. In the day anyway. There is a cool giant statue of a soldier with a flag, a bombed out cathedral that looks serene, a monumental area with a burnt out flag and concrete encased guns. The president buried them all in concrete when both sides of the civil war handed their weaponry in. Kind of funky. Its like a skeletal concrete gun ribcage. A whole wall of concrete with twisted gun barrels rusting out of it like some awesome modern art exhibitin. Very peaceful and quite funky. The rest of the area is pleasant and almost deserted. It was the old centre of town before an earthquake knocked it out. I was enjoying Managua but not sure if I liked it. It sits right on a lake so you can see this huge lakefront when you go down there, but the wind was up and tossing dust in my eyes. I went and watched Tropic Thunder as I would chill here. Decent but nothing special. Then on my way back I was stalked by some man. If anyone approaches you at night on the streets its never for a good reason. I quickened, he quickened, I went top speed (I walk very fast, he would need to run now and then I would know and outrun him as well). He laughed and turned off. Hmm. First time I have been street stalked but made me confident they would have to want to shoot me for them to have any chance of mugging me because I am faster and bigger than them. I read some on Ecuador due to the new change of plan. Looks like lots of cool things to do. Will need at least 2 weeks. Lots of Colombian offers now.

In the morning I slept long and would spend the day finishing up the blog mainly. I also wanted to see the tall place with the great view, but it looks like Ortega has taken it over again as a guard whistled at me and told me I had no chance of climbing it. So I walked around the lake. How cool is this city. They have loads of volcanic crater lakes scattered all throughout it. I headed to Zona Rosa and through some vast expanses of space and grassland. To my left was a new cathedral that looked like an aircraft hanger with giant concrete boulders on it. What the hell was that. What the hell is this place. Zona Rosa is kind of cool, but again I could not find any sort of urban sense of a city. I walked back to the lake and the other side mounts the hill. I looked around and in every direction was no urban cluster. Just buildings seemingly sticking out of a jungle. What the hell sort of city was this. Then I realised. Managua is Tikal. A modern Tikal. No urban areas, almost no tall buildings. Just clumps of 2 or 3 tallish buildings spiking up out of the urban jungle of trees and forests. It is so like Tikal. Spread out and weird. Then looking the other way you see the lake and volcanoes on the edge of this jungle hideaway. It all makes sense. Well it makes sense because it makes no sense. Like Tikal. This place will baffle archaeologists in 1000 years time. Its a non entity like Belmopan, but a great non entity. Funky. I think I like it now I understand it. And because I understand Managua I think I understand the chaos that is Nicaragua. If you miss this place and that hill, I dont think you can understand the country. Every capital speaks for its people. On to Granada in the morning and maybe figure out what Stephanie is thinking.