5 countries in 36 hours

In the 60s there was a film which poked fun at Americans touring Europe, titled ' If this Tuesday, it must be Belgium '.
Well as I needed to get back to see the doctor, I brought forward my return, and did my own Central America version.
So on Friday teatime I said goodbye to Alice in Cuba, by suppertime was in El Salvador, Nicaragua for bed on Friday and breakfast on Saturday, (I stayed in the hotel opposite the airport, walked over to check in my baggage and went back for breakfast - I paid the same for a double room with amazing shower, and a copious breakfast that I did in Habana for a room in which the bathrom had a toilet that took 5 minutes to finish its percussive flushing, and a window onto the kitchen from which wafted the smell of gas (and not  forgetting the powdered instant tea!) - BUT it was very central and we were supporting the ongoing Revolution).
As Nicaragua is a few hundred miles near to the equator, the sun rises with a vengeance straight up at 6 a.m., and it's tropically warm by 6.15. - different to the sometimes cloud-muted slower incline in Habana, so  breakfast by the pool had geckos running back and fro and to.
The USA for Saturday lunchtime and eventually England for Sunday breakfast. On the plane over amongst the cliche-ridden films, featuring stars instead of actors, fastcut to generate interest in the totally predictable storyline there was Breakfast in Tiffany's - how had I got to my age 'baht seeing it? So I did and enjoyed all the little touches which Almodóvar lovingly referred to in his ' Women on the edge of a nervous breakdown '. 

Things to look forward to -
different clothes to those I've been wearing for the last 2 months;
putting toilet paper in the toilet;
newspapers in English;
going to the library;
Indian restaurants;
sleeping in my own bed;
good soap;
wifi;
marmalade;
a wide variety  of cheese;
playing gamelan;
Seeing a doctor who speaks something other than Spanish.

Things not to look forward to -
the weather;
the Coalition government;
Jet lag;
English reserve;
The knife

VInales 21-23 December

We got the afternoon boat from Cayo Levisa so as to maximize beach time, but the wind got up in the early morning and blew all day (it was the day the world was supposed to end), so we sheltered with others in the bar waiting for the salsa class to start. The crossing back to the mainland was quite rough so we kept getting Caribbean spray in our faces.
As we arrived back at 5.30, our taxi ride to Vinales was mostly in the dark, through a very rural area of Pinar del Rio - people on their way back from tending fields by horse, cart, etc.. The weather was cold so we had to put socks on!
The accommodation seemed to be in a back street of Vinales, but turned out to be full of casas particulares. After a quick meal we wandered into town and found a bar with an acoustic band who were very good.
Next day was market day so we wandered around looking for things to take back for people. VInales had a very similar feel to Estelí in Nicaragua - a rural, tobacco-based cowboy town, only with American cars instead of pickups.
There is a lot to see in the Vinales valley - there is even a tour bus! We hired an American car - a 1957 Studebaker President and went up into the hills for a view of the the valley which is full of red earth overlooked by limestone cliffs, followed by a fascinating visit to a tobacco farm where we learned about the processes of growing, drying and then rolling the 5 different leaves from different heights of the plant into cigars, with honey as the glue!
Then a walk through a cave inhabited by runaway slaves followed by a simple meal 'neath limestone cliffs. Quite a contrast to Cayo Levisa and Habana.
CHristmas Eve we got a taxi back to Habana Vieja for our last week. The motorway from Pianr del Rio to Habana was VERY quiet - so quiet that the taxi driver drove over the central reservation to get to the services on the other side! 
Market Day
Outside a casa particular
Yes it's a cow with a saddle

Cayo Levisa Monday 17th - Friday 21st December

We got up at 5 for an early breakfast before going round to Hotel Tejadillo to board a minibus for the 3 hour journey west from Habana to Cayo Levisa, which is an island that can be reached by a boat that makes the 30 minute journey twice a day.
About 50 cabins face a Caribbean beach with white sand and clear transparent water - other than the Spanish voices you could forget you are in Cuba. The shallow waters mean that the sea isn't cold, and there are trips out to snorkel and scuba dive nearby reefs, as well as salsa classes, massage and a sunset boat trip around the island - it's Tranquillity Central and the busy streets of Old Habana are a world away. Drinking coconut juice from the nut with a straw - champion!
Built in 1992, it's very well designed, and brings in a lot of European and Canadian tourists, especially French.
Alice is reading the Lonely Planet guide to Cuba which she has downloaded on her KIndle - she found us a great restaurant the other day with it. She keeps giving us pertinent facts such as the ban on mobile phones was only lifted in 2008, 51%of all hotels are government owned, and that shops were all government owned prior to last year Apparently there are a lot of new laws that will become active in January which will mean further changes and more freedom. The Lonely Planet says that the food at Cayo Levisa is dull - well they've done summat about that ... also the chef regularly comes out in uniform to sing and dance with the band that play every night ...  he's irrepressible
The snorkeling trip
Sara in the sea before breakfast
The view from Alice's balcony
The sunset boat trip

Habana Vieja 14th December

We breakfasted early and then went to the Musuem of Bellas Artes (Cuban section) which was very interesting, but unfortunately we finished it off with lunch in the cafe.
Then we wandered slowly to the Malecon to watch to feel the seaspray and enjoy the variety of vehicles passing by. After a call at a pharmacy with not much on its shelves and a siesta, we headed into the evening to a nearby bar where there was live music.  Though Ben had brought his saxaphone he couldn't play because a restaurant nearby had managed to get a local law passed whereby brass instruments weren't allowed because of the noise! But we made friends with some of the musicians and the day after he ended up playing in the bar of the Hotel Tejadillo with some, and later on with some others in the Hotel Inglaterra.
We had wandered the streets of Haban Vieja which are quite full of tourists - especially French speaking. The Spanish baroque colonial style is enhanced by a Caribbean flavour which produces a rich cocktail. In old Habana the crumbling colonial buildings are often painted in florescent pastel pinks, yellows and greens. The suburbs tend towards pink and green - but in more subtle shades.
If you are a museum goer you could spend months here before you have seen them all - ceramics, chocolate, guns, Simon Boliivar, Benito Juarez, money - they all have their own as well as the stuffed animals in the Natural History and the tanks and rockets in the Museum of the Revolution.
Some differences between Nicaragua and Cuba:
there are street names and numbers in Cuba;
streets are cleaner in Cuba;
Cuban television has fewer channels, very few adverts - breaks between programmes are filled with cartoons, exhortations to feel good about the cultural, educational and health standards in Cuba (there are also dubbed American films and programmes (even Disney!) which presumably come via Mexico;
Cuba has a lot of tourists, for whom prices are similar to Europe, whereas Nicaragua is cheap;
in Cuba Che is everywhere - a big picture even in the hospital;
there is great music in lots of bars in Cuba, often played acoustically by motley collections of people of different ages and different sartorial standards and who may turn up in another band playing a different instrument;
Nica has billboards that try to  sell you things you don't need - Cuba has less billbaords and the messages are things like - 'These changes will bring more Socialism' Í love this island' ' Socialism or Death;
At the side of the streets in Nica there are stalls overflowing with fruits and vegetables - and they sell a very salty cheese, whereas Cuba has less stalls, less fruit & vegetables and what cheese there is  tastes processed;
In Nica it's quite easy to be a vegetarian as they eat very lttle meat due to iits cost - Cuba has inherited the Spanish mentality of ' if it moves, eat it ';
Nicaragua has cyber cafes and hostals with wi-.fi - Cuba is not really online at all, with 1 or 2 hotels having slow connections if they have one at all.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

The Day of Waiting

La Dia de Esperanza started back  at the clinic waiting to see a urologist, but as he was operating in a hospital I settled down to read Giovanni Belli's account of life in Managua.
A richly evocative tale of growing up in middle class circles, marrying early, working in advertising, getting drawn into the underground Sandiniista movement, fleeing to Costa Rica, helping organize the revolution, meeting Fidel Castro, the eventual overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship and ending up in California. The Country under my Skin is a captivating book.  
After another examination and more soothing words from the urologist, I went to Indira's parents for a lunch of vegetable soup from Camaguey and then headed off for the airport.
The airport was bedlam - full of people, long queues - the lights even went out at one point. But after an hour or four, Sara, Alice, Ben and Sabrina arrived, tired after a long long flight. They were hungry and thirsty but luckily we managed to get  sandwiches and water at the casa particular before surrendering to sleep.  

Habana Vieja

Old Habana is a warren of  narrow streets that is easy to navigate, but dark at night,  and usually the bici-taxis have no  lights. In the daytime it iis full of people. I walked up to the Malecon  and looked out  at the Caribbean. I got talking to two women, a Cuban teacher of dance and her friend, a French Canadian. We enthused about the music of Kate & Anna McGarrigle and talked about the sad passing of Kate, mother to Rufus and Martha Wainwright. I looked around the Catedral, various plazas before going to Chinatown for a meal with Indira and Paco.  
During the meal I mentioned a certain problem I was having and we eventually ended up at Cira Garcia clinic in west Habana to get my tube changed. After calming words from the doctor we got a big American car to taxi us into town and went to a bar festooned with Spanish and Andalucian flags.

Managua and Cuba

Amelie's boyfriend, Marco, travelled up with me tp Managua and we jumped in a taxi to get to my hostal. The taxi driver dropped us off by a school as he didn't know where the hostal was - there are no street names and no house numbers which makes finding places very difficult. Eventually we had to ring to get directions as policemen a few streets away hadn't a clue.
TUesday  11th December 4.20 a.m. I am sitting in the garden watching little white pieces of flowers that illuminate the dark, move down a tree and across the garden, courteousy of leaf cutter ants.
I breakfast in San Salvador where you have to pay in dollars as there is no local currency.
Tea time and it's Cuba, which is slow to enter due to the leisurely pace of immigration and baggage retrieval. The first thing I notice is 2 storey houses, which you don't get many of in Nicaragua - probably due to the existence of regulars tremors and earthquakes. Then it's the cars. The famous American cars of the 40s, 50s and 60s (I had model cars of a Chevrolet Impala and a Ford Thunderbird) are interspersed with lots of Ladas as well as modern cars. When we get into Habana there are lots of motorcycle and sidecars, bicycle rickshaws called bici-taxis, and threewheelers called huevitos because they look like eggs - they are even painted yellow. Taxis are are either red, white or yellow - I even saw a yellow stretch Lada!
I found my Casa Particular in Habana Vieja and then rang Indira and Paco. Indira is a Cuban singer who lives in Bristol with her Spanish boyfriend Paco, who works as a waiter at  La Ruca, but who amongst  other things was once in charge of the Belgian sailing team and has captained yachts across to and around the Caribbean. We met up at the Hotel Nacional, a very large hotel on the seafront that once was owned by Lucky Luciano. The 45th Latin Americal Festival was being held in Hanaba so the terrace bar with directors, actors and the like.

Staying with Joel's sister Isabel in Diriamba was delightful. She has a 4 bedroomed bungalow on the outskirts of Diriamba and I think you would call them middle class - 3 of the bedrooms had windows. It was a pleasure to be in a house that didn't feature telenovelas all the time and her children and frinds were easy going, sociable people.
Her daughter Amelie's boyfriend, Marco travelled with me to Managua and then we tried to find the hostal I'd booked, which took some doing. People never seem to know where things are in Nicaragua - a policeman sitting at the end of the street from here sent us in completely the wrong direction.
But eventually we found the hostal that caters for 'mochileros' and then went to the shopping centre for something to eat. The only difference between Las Américas and Cribbs Causeway was that evereybody had black hair, I looked to be the only foreigner, and in December everyone was in T-shirts. Diriamba was warm with breezes - Managua is hot and sticky.
Tomorrow morning I have to be at the airport for 4.30 to catch a plane to El Salvador and then change for Cuba. I think, however, that I will be entering  a country where it could be hard to be a vegetarian and where WiFi is still in its infancy. Vamos a ver

Adios á La Mariposa y bienvenidos á Diriamba

One of the delights of La Mariposa was the animals - including this toucan. The staff were really great, very helpful - and this is Gonzalo, who drove me to various clinics during the week - qué hombre!
Last week was difficult for others besides me - 1 of Paulette's dogs died & 1 disappeared - they think it was taken by a large boa that slithers around the next-door land. Others were ill, including Martin, a Swiss student from Oxford University studying tarantulas! I saw a large male on the wall so he captured it - when he leaves he'll take his bag of tarantulas up to Léon University, where they will be catalogued before they get flown to Oxford!
Joel, the Nicaraguan that I know in Bristol is one of a family of 10 - 8 brothers & 2 sisters! Nowadays 1 is in Germany & 2 are in the USA, including the 1 who has been in Los Angeles for 25 years and doesn't speak English! I'm staying with Isabel, who lives in Diriamba, which luckily was only half an hour away from La Mariposa, for a couple of nights before I go up to Managua for the flight to Cuba.
This is the most southerly point I have ever been in life - Trondheim the furthest north, San Francisco the furthest west and Delhi the furthest east.
Thus my Spanish conversation classes carry on, in the notable absence of a television. The story that Joel told me about his sister, in her youth a Sandinista gueriila in the jungle, later a human rights lawyer sent by the government to Cuba & Europe, is expanded upon. She was in Costa Rica for a conference on the development of clean water when she gets a phone call. Ortega's wife is ringing to ask her why she went to the conference without asking her permission. Having no need to prove herself, she gives Ortega's wife a mouthful, and on return gives in the governmental car and her well-paid job and goes private. I remember Joel's comment 'we are Sandinistas, but not Danielistas'.

Some photos from la Mariposa

I hve been staying with a family just up the road from La Mariposa. There are 3 houses in a row and are all one big family - I can't for the life of me work out which child is whose as they are in & out of each other's house all the time.
Here is a photo of Rosseling with her mum Brenda, and one of Tatiana, Rosseling & Camille.
La Mariposa is home to Guillermina, who used to live in Sheffield, and so has a right good accent 

La Mariposa

is a delightful place, a language school designed and built by Paulette herself, surrounded by trees - especially bananas, and vegetable gardens. There are dogs, chickens, and large cages containing animals that have been donated by people that can no longer look after them: - monkeys, ducks, budgies, parrots, toucans and birds whose names I can't remember. The number of species of birds landing on bananas and in the birdbath far outnumber those I have seen so far - I remember 3 from Francisco's garden. Paulette puts it down to the lack of pesticides.
She sold a 2-bedroomed house in Sheffield to fund this and made it home for herself and Guillermina 6 years ago. People stay here or with familities nearby, and gIven the proximity, it's not surprising that most of her clientele are from the USA.
On Monday a Frenchman arrived who speaks nothing but French! Some of us with a smattering tried to talk to him but Spanish kept getting into oour sentences.
Paulette has generated a number of projects, and is now thinking of going into semi-retirement. Guillermina is learning Spanish at the local secondary school.  
Besides having Spanish classes in the morning, my time has been taken up with tubes, blood tests, ultrasound and consultations with a doctor who doesn't speak English! The ultrasound lady was interesting - before she started she said a prayer and afterwards she gave me a book called the Way to Christ.
The results of all this were that the doctor thought I should get back to the UK asap to have prostate surgery. However someone who can't sit down and has to go the toilet every 15 minutes to pass a few drops isn't someone who can get on a plane. He agreed and so fitted me with a temporary catheter, so Cuba (fingers crossed) is still on for next Tuesday - have tube, will travel!

A banana tree complete with flower for Rosa & SIena, Jane's daughter in Estelí

Adios a Esteli y una aventura empieza en La Mariposa

May be that joke about Wiwilí was a mistake .... but I'll come to that later.
I feel after a bus ride in Nica that I should get a certificate of achievement, as they get mighty crowded and very uncomfortable - especially the microbuseswhich should carry about 10, but manage to squeeze in about 20 - my rucksack tied to the roof with plastic string..
I arrived at La Mariposa - a Spanish language school set up by Paulette, a friend of a friend, six years ago. Before that she had adopted a Nicaraguan girl and lived in Sheffield.
The night I arrived I had a very restless night - I thought I'd eaten something that was giving me stomach ache, but I couldn't urinate.
The next morning by 8.15 I was at a local doctor's having a tube inserted so that the liquid that was making me unable to sit down could be drained. Tomorrow I'm off to Diriamba for a blood and ultrasound test as the doctor think's it's an inflamed prostate.
I'll never make a joke about willies again  

Somoto canyon

Various projects are supported by Cafe Lina (see www.cafeluzyluna ) which is run by Jane who used to live in Bristol. Tourists help to add to the money that people have.
I joined a trip to Somoto Canyon, which was only discovered within the last decade by a Czech geologist. Now groups trek up there, and then scramble down, wade, swim and jump into the River Coco (and at the end you get rowed), which rises in the nearby Honduran hills and then as the longest river in Central America makes its way to the Atlantic. I was the only taker that day - my guide and I had it to ourselves.
I felt sorry for him as the day was overcast and he thought the water was frio - but it was warmer than any English river I'd been in. There are lots of YouTube clips of Somoto, but none of me, so I'll just say I went for the 10 foot jump. I slept well that night.

It's summer now in Nicaragua, and children's summer holidays are the whole of December and January. Summer lasts from November to April, but is cooler than winter, which lasts from May to October. Winter is wet, summer is dry  simple really

Murals, reading, revolution and Spanish

Estelií has lots of murals - most of them on a social theme, exhorting people to take care of each other & the wrold they live in - it seems to be Nicaraguan tradition

In Salman Rushdie's book about Nica in the 1980s, 'The Jaguar Smile', he refers to the fact that a lot of the leading Sandinista were poets - because they hadn't time to write novels.
In 1980, one year after the Revolution, the Sandinistas mounted a literacy crusade - you could even get a Literacy Guerilla badge or a Cruzada certificate. Literacy levels went up  from 50% to 88%. But I have been here for a month now and only seen 1 Nicaraguan reading a book - and that was in the libaray in Estelí. I have seen about a dozen reading a newspaper.
So what happened?   The Sandinistas lost power for one thing, and a lot of their programmes were stopped as the god of privitization was worshipped.. 
And then as people got electricity they got televisons - and the telenovelas. These are the Central and South American version of soaps - and in Nicaragua they are watched all day and night long. There are some differences to soaps in the UK. For a start all the women are thin, have long hair and are somewhat beautiful - they may be under-employed models.  Then there are the sets - they all seem to live in modern large apartments or large haciendas where they have numerous horses and cattle - a bit different to Coronation Street. Most of the actors are in the 25 - 35 age range and spend a lot of time looking anxiously at their latest amour.   For most peolpe here life is exactly the opposite. So television and the clichéd tyranny of the music video has taken over. More crusaders please to switch televisons off so folk can do summat more interesting.

It could also be due to the nature of Spanish as an oral culture. It's a loud language, but an  easy one in that its pronunciation is very regular (unlike English with our umpteen pronunciations of -ough). The stress is nearly always on the penultimate vowel, as in aZUcar - unless there is a stress mark as in Málaga.
BEsides the names that seem Mexican, like Ocatal, I think some pre-Spanish influence may be at work in the place names here that stress the last vowel, such as Tonalá, Estelí, Potosí and Yalí.
In the bus station the conductors shout out the names repeatedly - TonalatonalatonalatonalatonaLA or EsteliesteliesteliesteliesteliestelliesteLI. Sadly as yet I haven't been there when the bus for Wiwilí has been in.

Some folk have got taste!

Y bienvenidos a Estelí.

MaggieJo in Bristol had spent a lot of time up in the north of Nicaragua and had said I should visit Estelí, describing it as a ' cowboy town '. The Lonely Planet guide says it has a 'multi-faceted soul'.
There are yoga centres with vegetarain cafes. It has a one-way system that most people abide by. It has a central park in front of the cathedral. It has clean gutters. There are horses tied to lamp posts and the men who ride them have cowboy hats on. There are a lot of pick up trucks and an air of relative prosperity. It lacks the scruffiness of León. It has a bus station with named bays and streets that are numbered. The sky has been overcast since I got here so it is like an English summer's day. It has 2 museums but only 1 is open. There is a library.  Being in the north, it saw a lot of action in the Contra War, and a lot of land hereabouts was given to people in recognition of their efforts, so there are umpteen cooperatives. It is on the Pan-American highway so there are big trucks passing by. The only tourists seem to be backpackers enjoying Café Luna's WiFi.  

The motor taxi

A pulperia and the cyber cafe in Tonalá

Some buildins in Tonalá

Some buildings in León

Adios a Tonalá

On the Saturday morning Rosa and I joined a bus full of people who were going to visit a spa at Jinotepe. Alexis came along too  as he was on his way for his Saturday English course at the University.
 We left Tonalá at about 5.20 and drove through the dark. The sun started to rise as we got to El Viejo. Just out of there we hit a big traffic jam. People got out and when I asked what was happening, I was told it was 'The Virgin'!
It turned out to be a religious procession, walking with an icon to the church in El Viejo.
After half an hour we got going again, and at 7 they dropped us off on the edge of León. We got a taxi in, and I got out at the bus station at 7.15, leaving Alexis to guide Rosa to her hostel for her 3 weeks in León. 
I got talking to a lady going to Estelí who told me the bus came at 9, so I had a bit of a wait. At 8.45 a man came up and started handing out playing  cards. I was 3rd in line so I got the 2 of clubs - aces were low.
The bus turned up at 10.20 and after it had filled up, set off at 10.40. It stopped after a few blocks to fit in 4 more people who had been at the end of the queue. The man in charge had some fold up seats that covered the aisle. I almost expected him to put folk on the roof.
Well off we went again and eventually got into the hills - reminded me of Spain a lot. Then when we joined the Pan American that joins North & South America highway the trucks and cars increased and the towns started to look more prosperous.

The last week in Tonalá

was a busy one. On Sunday Rosa had organized a meeting with a group of women who wanted to set up a cooperative to produce chicken feed from the head of prawns that could be provided by the shrimp cooperative at Puerto Morazán.
Kristin from the Peace Corps joined us, and afterwards we went to see the town representative of PLAN Nicaragua, Dolores, to see if PLAN might be able to provide the chairs, tables and latrines for 4 new pre-schools if BLINC provided the buildings. She said yes!
On Wednesday I woke to the sound of people in the back garden. In the night a coconut tree had shed its crop, and people had come around to buy them. One didn't get sold as it provided my breakfast sitting in the garden - a cup of coconut water then the coconut itself. Another one was for Rosa.
At 9 we were at the alcaldia for a meeting with the new Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Gioconda, BLINC's representative in Nicaragua to find out the scope of their 4 year plan, outline BLINC's plan for 4 new pre-school buildings, as well as raise the issue of  proper pay for the pre-school teachers.
Afterwards I went off in a motor taxi to visit one of those pre-schools, presently under a mango tree,
In the afternoon Rosa and Kristin ran a staff development session at El Arbolito, Mercedes' pre-school.
Thursday evening we went to Kristin's house for a vegetarian Thanksgiving.
On our last day we said goodbye to the school director in the morning and then finished the day wi th an informal meal - montones de fruta with the afternoon teachers who presented us with school T-shirts - so Rosa is now a Maestro!

Humming birds

In the week of the foot I moved from chair to bed to hammock trying to keep out of the sun, which can only really be tolerated before 7.30 and after 4.
Time went very slowly, but it gave me a chance to observe the wildlife in the backyard - the blue-tailed lizards, iridescent blue magpies and hummingbirds. It was fantastic to see the latter in the feather, as it were. Sadly they came and went so quickly that I didn't get a photo.
There was one particular tree that they fed from. I once saw one, after hovering for nectar at various flowers, stop for dessert at a spider's web and take a beakful of flies.
Rosa's backyard was different - chickens, a big ferocious looking turkey, 2 cages of parrots, pigs and piglets all added their noises together as well as made sure the earth was well fertilized - a much more sensory environment.

Rural tranquillity

I have already mentioned that the vice-alcalde would wake me just after 5 every morning with  muy buenas dias. But before then at 4 would start the deep hooting of the buses in the bottom of Tonala calling people to get out of bed, get on the bus and go cut sugar cane. At 3 would start the crowing of the innumerable cocks. And then was the bounteous barking of the dogs - every house had at least one.  

Teaching in Tonalá

The schools have 2 sessions - a morning session that runs from 7.30 -12, and an afternoon one from 12.30-5. The morning catered for children from the nearby communities, some of whom had cycled for 7 kms. to get there, and the afternoon was for children from Tonalá itself. There was a morning shift of teachers and an afternoon one.
It was suggested that I work with Alexis, the afternoon teacher of English for the 2nd half of my 4 weeks - and it was fun. He also did some dance classes with the children which were great fun, but my foot stopped me from joining in!
The school is in serious need of some money spending on it, especially as Nicaragua has a very young population - Tonalá families tend to be big.  There weren't enough cairs for the students, so some leaned on windowsills. In one class there was a hole in the back wall which provided a seat. The side walls also had holes in them, and at one point a dog wandered in from the playground, through the class and out the door! Later a  pig wandered past outside in the playground, but at least he had the courteosynot to come in.

OJo de Agua

The sun rises at 5, and even on a Saturday breakfast is finished by 7. As I was eating, I was told we going for a paseo at 8.30. At 9.30 a truck full of children arrived, and we climbed aboard - we even took the parrot.We were on our way (and the way was very rough) to an ojo de aqua, which turned out to be a spring-fed swimming pool near the sea. The water was clear and warm and contained little fish that seemed to find me tasty. The children loved it.The pool drained into a creek, and as the water in the creek rose two dugout canoes appeared laden with wood to be cut up for firewood.
That was at Tempisque, and two weeks later just the family went to the bigger swimming hole at Campuzano. Rosa came, as did Kristin - a Peace Corps volunteer who is halfway through her 2 year stay!. This time we didn't take the parrot.
Campuzano has 3 pools - the first deep enough to dive in with very few fish, the second larger and warmer with lots of fish, and the third a smaller shallower padding pool. It was really quite an idyllic spot and in the warm water you could easily forget that the sun was very strong.
As you can see from the photo of Framvi, there were lots of fish in the big pool. For some reason they found my flesh very tasty - especially my shoulder blades. It's quite a nip when they bite, but strangely they didn't seem to find anyone else quite to their taste.
Rosa had no problem with the fish, but she has with mosquitoes.Now you would think my B rh.negative blood, being somewhat rare, would be like champagne to mosquitoes, but  thankfully they seem to like common fare.

Rosa - mi companera here as representatives of BLINC - the Bristol link with Nicaragua, is fresh from university, but went to Cotham in the 6th form. Alice went to Cotham, as did Sara's sons Ben and Arran. And every Monday night I can be found there banging away at the Javanese gamelan that they have (for non-aficiandos have a look at us on YouTube - type in Subokastawa Bristol Cardiff gamelan).

Alex, a teacher from Cothan came 3 times to Francisco's house. OTher teachers and one time they brought 30 students. THey slept on makeshift beds in on of the school classrooms!

Cotham did some fundraising and in 2009 that enabled Gary, the teacher of English in the mornings in Tonalá, to come to Bristol. Due to the foot, I only helped Gary in his classes for 1 week, but we had some fun

La Semana del Pie

... the week of the foot in other words.  My second week was a disaster. My new trekking sandals has rubbed skin off my toe. I went to the beach for the weekend to a place called Jiquilillo (pronounced hee-kee-lee-yo). It was great to swim in the warm Pacific with baby turtles, watch the sun going down, the stars coming up and an electrical storm over the sea. BUT
My toe got infected so by the Tuesday I was in a doctor's in nearby Chinandega getting an armful of penicillin, 2 loads of anti-biotics and instructions not to walk for 3 days! I had a string of volcanoes down the length of my toe. Luckily Virginia's sister was a nure and she came round morning and evening to get rid of the lava. VIrginia also provided some local plants to decrease the swelling.
So my 4 weeks of tteaching turned into 3, and I stayed at the local school in Tonalá instead of going to  Puerto Morazán where I would have to do more walking  

1st November

I am staying at the house of Francisco and Virginia. She works in the school in the afternoons teaching Spanish. Francisco teaches history on Sundays to adults, but the rest of the week he works on his farm. His bananas and plantain are processed in Honduras, 50 miles to the north.  
They have 3 children - Layris aged 22, Francis 17 (whi is bigger as she has inherited Francisco's tallness) and Framvi 7. Layris is about to leave University and look for a job, and Francis is about to go to study accounting.  
They have played host to over 15 people from Bristol. They have included Andy who came back 3 times, George who told them about the beauties of Scotland, Mike who just lived a few doors away from me in Montpelier and who stayed with his sister Roz who ran the Montesorri school in Clifton, Olly who was muy lindo, Alistair who was grandisimo, Amy, Isobel and others..  
You enter the house via a porch that contains Francisco's motorbike, the sink for washing up, the washing machine and the well - and Tomi the dog. He looks fierce but isn't. In the porch also is the green parrot called Yi-Yo.
They have a tiled living room, and off that is the kitchen and various bedrooms.   Bedrooms don't tend to have windows. At the back is the shower, with a curtain for privacy, and the separate latrine, which you have to remember not to put paper down.  
Across from the house there is a church. There are quite a few in Tonalá which is surprising given that it is a pueble of about 10 roads by 5 (apparently if places have electricity they are thought of as urban) .   The church isn't finished, but they have already started holding services there. Lots of singing, clapping and there must be a particular place where they train the lead singers, as they are usually flat. The preacher gets very loud at times with lots of alleluias.     
The children are teaching me about the range of fruits - today I received 2 coconuts, 4 sweet lemons (which aren't), some oranges and 2 bananas de rosa. I struggled home with a heavy bag.

30th October

To get from León to Tonalá took 2 buses. Rosa said that Leán was different as it was a city - with drains, cars, cafes, backpackers, a university, a theatre .... Tonalá is rural, very rural. Some of the roads are covered with tesselated concrete slabs, but the recent rains mean that the crossroads are often little muddy lakes. People travel by bike or motorbike or by a sort of bicycle rickshaw called a triciclo. Some have motorbikes and there are a few trucks, but I haven't seen a car yet.
I don't need an alarm as the vice-alcalde (deputy Mayor) wakes me every morning just after 5. Not personally, but her voice comes over the Tannoy a few streets away. She tells me what's going on and where I can buy men's trousers and the like. She's a nurse and still gets paid as one, whilst receiving a salary as vice-alcalde and payment for telling me where to buy things - she has the entrepreunerial spirit. But maybe not for long - there are municipal elections here on Sunday.
There are 5 parties going against the Sandanistas, but I haven't fathomed out the differences yet. Yesterday in school we had to stop teaching a couple of times as trucks went by laden with loudspeakers playing LOUD reggae - there isn't a Noise Party, but some of the songs apparently have political messages. In the afternoon (I'm in the school 7-12)
Rosa dropped by and we went for a walk through the banana plantations, across the river - nice views across to the largest volcano in Nicaragua - San Cristobal. In September it erupted but seems quiet now. She has been here 4 weeks already so has experienced and learned a lot and is a mine of information. It would have been difficult without her here as it is refreshing to be able to reflect upon things in your own language.
On Tuesday afternoon we went to a PLI (Partido Liberal Individual ) rally where a pastor was calling on God to help his party - God is big in Nicraguan politics. Then in the evening Rosa went fishing with people from the shrimp cooperative in Puerto Morazan.   Wednesday afternoon we achieved a bit of political balance by jumping on one of the 30 Sandanista buses going to Puerto Morazán for a rally there. Rosa decided that sitting in the bus was too hot so joined some jovenes on the roof. It was good to see Puerto Morazán - the river and wetlands were fresher and more open than Tonalá, but apparently the proximity to the estuary means that
well water is too salty to drink.   The Sandanistas certainly go in for politics with enthusiasm as well as noise. There was an odd performance from a duo who were introduced as revolutionary but as the miniskirted singer sang, the other squirmed in her hot pants - not my idea of revolution! I took an early bus back and was quizzed by some women as we waited for the bus to go. Their political anaysis was that the PLC and PLI want power so they can get big farms for themselves, and that the Sandanistas are concerned with the poor.    -

28/10/12

Apologies for the poor sub-editing - no spellchecker can be found!
Before Friday's Carnaval I had tracked down the vegetarian restuarnat 'Cocinante'. Plantain and mozarella followed by aubergines in a cheese sauce with mushrooms. The latter was too hot for me to finish before getting to the Carnaval, so I got it as a takeaway. &#160; <br>
So at 6.10 a.m. Saturday morning I am eating it cold. By 6.30 the free coffee is on tap and it tastes great - at least this didn't get exported. &#160; After breakfast I try to find the Theatre for 9. As I &#160;traverse the grid system, I bump into someone from the hostel - Adam Dreyfuss, an American here doing research for a book he hopes to get published on William Walker, an American who tried to run Nicaragua as a slave state in the 19th century - they shot him for his efforts. <b

The cultural celebration of 5 years of the Minibiblioteca at the Theatre on Saturday was great - a local singer, lots of dance performances and tableaux and certifictae giving. In between rehearsal and performance Nick from Utrecht took Ros and I to a cafe run by a Dutch woman - Pan y Paz. Sandwiches on fantastic bread - he recommended a very refreshing fruit juice called Pitaya which though a distinct purple had no additives. <br>
I noticed that I have lost weight - my trousers weren't resting on my middle ... So having no belt I had to improvise, using a luggage strap. The thing is that this strap used to belong to my dad, and I kept it as a memento, and as he was called Kenneth, we had the same initials. So around my middle there is a red and blue strap with MR K RIPLEY in white - stylish or what?

Today is Sunday and I am going north to Puerto Morazan by car with teachers who came down for the weekend's events. Meeting them at 8.30 in the bus station. So I am leaving behind the city of Leon and its hostels with WiFi for a much more rural setting and 4 weeks of teaching English in a school. It may be a while before I can upload anymore.

Well the Skype call to Sara worked a treat - even the end of British summer time didn't get in the way. Great to hear the sycamore's down and that hospitality to homeless friends is still available. RIght - off to the north to pass on some northern vowels to unsuspecting Nicas