First observations

We left the airport sometime around 2:00pm local time (Nicaragua is on CST and so is 1 hour behind us) and headed to a restaurant to have lunch. I peered out of the window, excited to see what this country was like. I noticed graffiti on walls, houses and other public buildings. Nearly all the graffiti contained one of the following: FSLN, Sandinista or Daniel Ortega. FSLN stands for Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional or in English Sandinista National Liberation Front and is the Socialist political party in Nicaragua. Ortega is the leader of the FSLN and served as president of Nicaragua from 1985 - 1990 and again from January 2007 - present. Members of FSLN are called Sandinistas. I mention these details because it became clear to me very quickly I needed to understand Nicaragua's history if I were to understand the people. I don't know about you but I never studied anything about Nicaragua in any class I took. To the right is a picture of some graffiti. I am guessing it says something like 'long live Daniel' but maybe one of you Spanish speaking folks can clarify.

Another thing I observed was that every house or building was surrounded by barbed wire. This was true in the city, in the country, everywhere we went. The odd thing was that the smallest shack was enclosed in barbed wire just the same as a nice house. Fields in the middle of the country were also protected by barbed wire. I have no idea why.

It also seemed like everyone had a little store front and was selling something. When I say store front it's not what we would call a store - it's more of a stand. I found this to be the case in Ticquantepe as well as in Managua. You could buy anything from a coke, to pewter candle sticks to cloths.

We arrived at Asados and had the first of a series of excellent meals. Rice and beans are staples of the Nicaraguan's diet and we were to eat some combination of these in nearly every meal for the next 8 days. At lunch we were also offered a choice of juices including lemonade, fruit punch. I was thirsty and so chose lemonade and what a wise choice it was. Truth be told, you couldn't go wrong with any choice. In fact over the next week I would sample all kinds amazing juices from orange to pineapple to papaya to guava to beet and combinations therein. They were all fresh and I just couldn't get enough of them.

After lunch we loaded back on the bus and headed up to the Tiscapa Lagoon for a history lesson and ride on the zip line. More on that in my next entry.