wife=handcuffs and ketchup part 2

Nicaragua----was a really unique experience. its definitely a very dramatic place that i could see would be easy to fall in love with. there are so many volcanoes there, its hard not to be humbled by the presence of such majestic giants. then there are the sea like lakes and the undomesticated pacific coast.

the cities of Leon and Granada were neat in terms of the massive and artistic colonial architecture with these lakes and volcanoes looming in the distance. nice to see but they are like many places that i wish i could visit via someone who lives there because as a road weary traveler its sometimes hard to scratch the true surface of places like that. i could feel the energy of those places but i didnt know what rock to lift to find the beating heart. do you know what i mean? we kind of got stuck on the gringo trail there and were ready pretty quickly to escape the higher prices.

the towns were also a good place to learn more about the peasant revolutions that took place there. i could go on and on about how intense this trip has been for learning about each of these countries wars of the people versus murderous governments either indirectly or directly paid for by the united states. i think had an idea of it all. but really what a false honeyed idea. it makes me absolutely sick to know where americans tax money goes. and although i am a peace enthusiast to the grave i am more and more able to see the reason behind armed civilian resistance.

we also visited a nonprofit on the coast of Nica that was started by a great guy my age from... money he earned teaching English in Taiwan... ahhhh... i guess giving midterm exams to three yr. olds is making dreams come true everywhere! it was really wonderful what he has done though. he made like an eco hostel in a tiny fishing village that really sincerely blended tourism with community service. he has an afterschool club for kids to come and play sports or do art and also he sponsors kids to go to school as well as many other projects. it was great to see how the village had truly accepted him.

one of the things i really liked about Nicaragua was that they had such a unique contemporary culture, something that i had not sensed in my (brief to be sure)time in El Salvador and Honduras. Nicas are obsessed with poetry. that was a really cool and unexpected thing to find out! in all of the towns there are statues of poets and things named after them. i have still to get my hands on some but i am working on it. that obsession has trickled down into a hip hop and graffiti subculture as well. in so many of the chicken buses that we rode there was hip hop blasting in spanish and sometimes even rap videos on pulldown tvs.

i would definitely like to come back someday.

Now however we are in Costa rrrRica and super excited to check out the cloud forest this week and hopefully see some sloth action...er inaction. the direct translation of the spanish word for sloth (perezoso) is lazy. sweet. oh and to quell your curiousity.. the direct translation for handcuffs in spanish is wife. awesome.