The Adventure Begins in Nicaragua

Our flight to Managua, Nicaragua was an easy one.  There wasn't any turbulence to speak of and being in the middle seat was tolerable. Eric and I were surprised when we were handed forms to fill out... homework.   Eric filled out the form stating we would be in Nicaragua for 28 days, staying at various addresses.  I filled out the form giving my name, nationality, birth date, number of countries we traveled through to get to Nicaragua.... none.  These completed forms will reduce the time we spend at checkpoints at the airport after we land.

We arrived at Managua International Airport around 8:30 pm Central Time.  It has been enlarged and updated since our visit in 2000.  We breezed through luggage pick up and with papers in hand, answered a few questions, paid $10.00 for each of us to enter the country, got our passports stamped and received the 90 day Tourist Card to be kept with our passports.  Our luggage was xrayed and our luggage tags were checked against our tickets to ensure we had the correct bags.

Our friend, Julian, was waiting for us and after loading luggage into the trunk of his car, we were off for his house southwest of Managua.

Casa Bendana Flores

The rooster and a hen

from his harem

Limes

 We picked up our rental car at the

 Hotel InterContinental.

Julian translated for Eric.

  The Hertz employee spoke

Spanish only.  The forms were in

Spanish.  Did Eric just give my first

grandchild away, and to whom?

Notes to self: Picking up the rental car at the big Central Location ensures a large number of cars for the rental agency to pull from to get you into your car.  Picking up the rental car a hotel meant that we had to wait to the appointed hour to get the car because they don't have a large number of cars on site at any given time.  AND sign up for insurance when you make the reservation.... Money may be saved.  The cost of insurance was about the same as the car rental.  Sigh.............

There is no GPS for the car.  The rental agent told Julian that people were having trouble using them, resulting in a loss of rental fees, so they got rid of the GPSes.  How about a map?  The Hertz agent hands us an AVIS map.  There is no scale for the Managua map and Julian notices that several roundabouts are not on the map.  The map of Nicaragua does have scale.  Mileage between major cities is listed.  Only the most major roads are shown on the map.  Julian says these maps are just about worthless.  We should pick up a map at a gas station, a bookstore or large grocery store.  

Eric started driving our rental car toward Parque Luis Alfonso Velazquez.  We make a wrong turn in about two minutes.  I am "reading" the map that has no scale and there are about a dozen street names listed in this large city.  There is an absence of street signs.  There's an absence of detail.  Most of the roads are presented as straight.  We are driving on curvy roads.  We stopped at an Uno Gas Station to get a map, no mappos.  The very kind lady at the cash register answered Eric's question as he pointed at our AVIS map, "Donde estoy?"

We did make our way to Parque Luis Alfonso Velazquez.  Unable to make a quick guesstimate on where to park the car, Eric drove around the area and spoke to the police at a parking lot.  None spoke English.  Our Spanish is muy mal.....  We drove past the park and headed towards home.

Julian showed us this La Union

Supermarket on our way into

Managua this morning.

We shopped and struggled to find the

eggs.  They are not refrigerated in 

Nicaragua.  Oh!  There they are at 

the end of this aisle.

A nice young man brought our groceries

to the car and loaded them into the 

trunk for us.  We over tipped him.

Lessons learned:

Being a traveler is not the same as being a guest.  Emma, Julian and their children kept us within sight the entire week we visited in 2000.  We were constantly looking around, ogling our environment, being shepherded from place to place.  There was no need to figure out where we were.  We were following one of the Bendanas or daughter Emma E. was directing us from place to place.  We used our brains today, Eric more so than I as he was driving and guesstimating at many turns.  

Being a traveler is stressful.  Not everything is obvious.  Very few people give very good, precise directions and you can only hope that the person directing you is among that very rare breed.  Maps can be less than helpful due to lack of scale and detail.  The driver can't drive and read a map at the same time.  There's a time delay between questions to the map reader and answers from the map reader resulting in missed turns, wrong turns.... ARGGGH!  Just stopping in our lane is not an option.

Traveling without a human translator is stressful, as very little is obvious when you don't know the language.  Eric and I asked questions, said gracias a lot.  The people we spoke with were kind and worked with us to get to an answer.  I said perdon many more times than Eric, as my reactions are slower than his and I had several near collisions at the grocery store.  (Ogling shelves and walking didn't work well for me.)

Traveling eventually makes you proud of yourself(ves).  We were hungry, thirsty and very frustrated this afternoon.  We did navigate our way home after Eric cleared up a miscommunication we were having about the lower left hand corner of the Managua map.   Having found the gate at Casa Bendana Flores, we congratulated ourselves for a job well done. 

Eric recommends street signs for Managua and told Julian he would donate to a fund to get them made and put up, everywhere.