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

27/10/12

26th October Irene rang me in the car last night and said she is coming to meet me at 9 a.m., before I set off for Leon. I did a bit of channel surfing last night and found tens of channels of telenovelas - soaps to us - so I tried to decode some hystrionics in Spanish I woke in the night as someone was going to the toilet in my room - but apparently they were next door. I did wake now and again as the plumbing system was snoring - but the regular exhalation was in pipes were too long and wet for it to be human, but of course it couldn't turn over.
AIr conditioning started getting switched on in various rooms at 4.30, then at 5.30 what sounds like a mynah started calling - lunchtime in Bristol. I thought someone had switched lights on outside, but no - we had rolled into the sunrise once again. Breakfast was banana and pineapple, yoghurt, white sweet bread and butter and instant coffee to drink. 1 night here costed 46 dollars.
Irene kindly took me to the bus for Leon. They only go when full, so as we waited for the full complement of 13, various hawkers, young and old assailed us with snacks, oranges and DVDs. Not the most comfortable of buses for my aging hips, but an interesting ride through the streets of Managua and then the countyrside before I got my first glimpse of Lake Niaragua - which looked beautiful.  The bus station at Leon is a chaotic street market, and I was hustled into a taxi by a man who put my case in the boot and didn't seem to mind if the lid didn't close. It flapped a lot as the taxi hit the bumps of Leon, then I notices dalight through the floor - the last tiem I saw that was when Brian gaive me a lift back to College in the 70s in a Mini Traveller he had. I wasn't that bothered now as I was drifting into unconsciousness because of the fumes.
La Tortuga Booluda (The Lazy Turtle) is a laid-back hostel with free cafe and Internet and make your own pancake - a very relaxed atmosphere that I can recommend. I tracked down Gioconda in Nicatiends - a shop in the next street that sells handmade items. Gioconda works for 3 organizations that link Leon with Oxford and Utrecht, and Bristol with Puerto Morazan.
I was lucky enough to get there for a Carnaval de Marionetas that was celebrating the 5th anniversary of the setting up of a Minibiblioteca that goes around lending books to schools- they have nearly 1300. In the back of Nicatienda is a homework club where children come after school - since 2007 they have had over 4,500 visitors. THey have run over 28 workshops and updated the skills of over 550 teachers. They have a bicycle that goes around to schools providing mobile workshops - since 2010 they have done 192 visits to schools. The procession was noisy, energetic, full of colour and a good way to get to know the streets of Leon. Joining in with the procession were various street hawkers with calls such as ÁGWA AGWA AGWA AGWA AGWAAA'. Back in the 80s this was the first Spanish word Alice learned as she watched Sesame Street. As the procession got back to Nicatienda, I met up with Rosa, who had come out to Nicaragua from Bristol about 4 weeks ago. Her mum was involved in setting up the link with PM in 1986-7.     

25/10/12

Well the 25th of October was a long day. When you arrive at Bristol Temple Meads at  4.25, you find out that the station is closed. A man comes along at 4.30 to open it. The 4.47 to Paddington ws not busy - about 6 people in the carriage. It wasn't until Reading that some people had to actually sit next to each other. The Heathrow Express was very comfortable, but that all stopped when I got to the Delta check-in at 7. A lot of Americans, Britons and various others were there queueing, and is wasn't until 8.30 that I went off to buy a very expensive coffee.
The flight to Atlanta was full and we were asked not to congregate in the galleys, so people indulged in the inflight entertainment available in the screen in the headrest of the person sitting in front of you. There was a fair amount of choice, but the touchscreens weren't sensitive, so choosing other options meant the person in front did an impression of a woodpecker. But 2 decent vegetarian meals were provided, I watched Untouchanle again and liked it again before I thought I'd acclimatise myself with Spielberg's TinTin in Spanish. The soundtrack got in the way a bit.
Lots of queueing at Atlanta - passport, get your case, check your case into the connecting flight, Customs, security but eventualy I sat down for a latte that was too latte by a pianist playing Greensleeves. But it was interesting to be in Atlanta, which of course I knew intimately from watching Gone with the Wind umpteen times with Alice.
The Delta flight to Managua was also full, but no inflight films, and the vegetarian meals only streched to peanuts and water. On approaching Managua we had to fill in 3 forms including the address and phone number of residence in Nicaragua, but this didn't seem to bother the passport man - he probably only wanted my 10 dollars. So out onto the concourse to look for Irene, Joel's sister.
Joel is a Nicaraguan living in Bristol, and has been very helpful in improving my Spanish, highlighting that 'tomar' is the verb they use for 'take' and on no account was I to use 'coger', suggesting places that must be seen, and also arranging for his sister Irene to meet me athe airport - except she wasn't there.
So I waited amongst the crowds, had a look outside but then came back in as it was like the Palm House at Kew outside. 20 minutes later a young lady arrived carrying a sign with my name, so after the obligatory greetings and 2 kisses, she said (in English) 'oh you speak Spanish'. 'Yes' I said, 'but Joel told me that you didn't speak English'. To which she replied 'I'm not Irene, my name is Rachel - she couldn't come so her husband asked my boyfriend who works for him if he could pick you up'.
Yes her English was very good and they took me through the dark but lively streets of Managua to the hotel - Casa San Juan, where I booked in at 8 p.m., Nicaraguan time. 7 hours behind the U.K. I calculated it was 23 hours since I got out of bed in Bristol.   

Step 1: set up blog

Here I am at Jon's house getting my technical consultant to set up my blog. Seems like there is a ghost in the background.
Few things to do before I go