Leon is fantastic! So much more my speed and rhythm than Managua, which all here agree is pretty much the pits. I have to say it was really hard to be there alone and unsure of what to do with myself, but the future is bright these days...
I spent the day after my night with the Texans checking the city out and generally enjoying myself as much as possible; very relaxing overall, eating mangoes and drinking the occassional Toña. Met my friend Syd who works for the New Haven/Leon Sister City Project last night for some drinks and food in a bag. She is running things from this angle and connecting with the project in New Haven from here. Generally they work with high school and college delegations that want to come and experience Nicaragua, as well as making and maintaining contacts and projects in the area. She´s great, we did a little work against the war when we were seniors and it has been very cool to maintain loose contact as we both proceed in the world.
I´ve been told that eating from street vendors is not recommended, but there is no way I am going anywhere without tasting all that I can. Like I said the woman used no utensils when she served me, but apparently there is also no way to know when that meat was purchased, if it was ever refrigerated and how long it had been sitting out in the sun. If the Nicaraguans eat it, I am going to as well. So last night we grabbed some street vendor food. I think I had an enchillada with rice and chicken covered in some hot sauce and served in a sandwhich bag. It was alright. By the time I am through with this summer I think I´ll have a gut of steele, between the Nicaraguan street food, Thai whatever, and Argentine meats, not much is going to phase me after this one is over.
Last night Syd recommened that I take a bus to Barco de Oro and hire a fisherman to take me through a mangrove swamp. It was really really amazing. Cool passageways through the mangroves, beautifully colored crabs, iguanas, egrets and the coolest boat I have ever been in made for an excellent experience. Sorry that I can´t post picutures right now, but I´ll get them up in a few days. Joey I got a few surf pictures for you, it was low tide, but a few decent breaks were still coming in. Another thing I need to take pictures of are the buses here, they are full of religion and tassels and awesome.
Homeboy that was waiting tables tonight thought I said chicken wings when I asked for fajitas, but whatever, I never send back food and especially in another country, so wings it was. Oh well. One more day/night here and then back to Managua for a flight to Chicago on Thursday morning. I´ll head to Goyena tomorrow to check out an afterschool program and talk with someone who is working on the current phase of the Literacy Campaign. Goyena has a few issues that I hope to become more acquainted with after tomorrow, so I´ll include that in the next one.
I am just starting to get the pace here, and it is lovely. It took a little while, but today´s trip did the trick. I´ll be back for sure, hopefully to work in conjunction with the Cuban literacy campaign on which Nicaragua modeled its own. These are two places that I could very much get used to.
Once in a lifetime.
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