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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Twelve Years Between Visits To Nicaragua.... The Changes


I was talking with Julian about differences I saw while Eric and I visited Nicaragua.  Compared to twelve years ago I saw fewer children begging.  As we left the airport in 2000, my family was approached by three little girls who were begging.  While stopped in traffic, children approached our rental truck to beg.  Emma told us in 2000 that giving children food was preferred by her family because there are children begging for coins who give the money to a parent who buys alcohol with their children's earnings.  

People, often adults, offered food and trinkets while we were stopped in traffic.  

Adults offered to carry our shopping bags to our car in return for a few Cordoba.  There was serious haggling over prices in the markets. (not at the grocery stores).  

We paid to have our car watched everywhere, except Masaya Volcano National Park and Montelimar Resort.  

I noticed that the horses were thin, with ribs protruding.  The quickly built homes were made of scrap lumber and had roofs of rusty corrugated steel.  

Twelve years have passed.  Other than disabled adults begging in the street, only one child approached me, begging.  This boy was clean, well dressed and well fed.  I answered, "No, gracias." He wouldn't leave our car until Eric told him to leave.  We did buy prepackaged cookies, but they weren't in the car when the boy approached us.

There were people selling food and many different types of small items while we waited in traffic.  











We paid a two man juggling team 
at a stop light.  The man on top of 
his friend's shoulders was juggling fire sticks.  












Our windshield was washed as 
we waited in traffic at a red light.  











I was aiming the camera at a 
traffic light (one of the few we saw 
during our visit) and got photos 
of the experience.  



A few days later, a man offered to wash our windshield and Eric caught him before the water was doused on the windshield.  The man wanted something for his time and we gave him prepackaged two packs of cookies that I had at the ready.  One for him and one for the man he was working with.

Many of the tourist items in the markets are marked with price tags.  Many vendors had calculators and calculated the price for us in American dollars.  The only haggling that occurred in the market was over the price of Guayabera shirts.  Thirty dollars per shirt was outrageous!

Paying to have our car watched in Managua, at the Old Market in Masaya, Leon and outside the fence at a restaurant seemed prudent.  We parked without payment in Rivas, Granada and San Jorge.  

By in large the horses were well fed.  I saw one tired looking horse with protruding ribs walking along the side of the road in Rivas.  Many of the horse drawn carriages were decorated.  I saw Nicaraguans enjoying carriage rides. 

The shacks I saw as we drove from place to place twelve years ago in Nicaragua are now more substantial with concrete walls.  Many have flowers in front of the houses.  

Emma and Julian grew up in Nicaragua.  Julian assured me that Nicaragua remains a poor country, compared to the United States.  I saw improvements and have some facts to back this up.

The Nicaraguan economy has been on the upswing.  According to the Nicaragua Dispatch article published in 2011, Nicaragua was second only to Costa Rica in attracting foreign investments in 2011. Nicaragua’s gathering economic strengths can’t be compared to the US economy, but there are improvements and I was happy to see them.

Americans are retiring to Nicaragua.  Julian asked me to find articles on this for him last week.  According to several sources, Granada,Nicaragua is a hot spot for American expats. 

Tourists and expats do well in Nicaragua.  The money they pump into the economy helps fuel this economic engine in Central America that is improving, yet fragile.  I’m a cheerleader and I am hoping that things continue to improve in Nicaragua and other developing countries.  

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