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