Saturday, January 15, 2011

bike rentals for the suicidal!!!

At breakfast this morning I was joined by a couple from the USA. He was just visiting. She was on a break from a 10-month NGO posting in Managua and she filled me in on life in the city. In a nutshell-TRUST NO-ONE!!! Tourists beaten up and robbed by taxi drivers, tourists attacked in broad daylight etc. (Sounds just like Winnipeg!!)
  After that I picked up my rental bike and went for a ride along the lakefront. After covering about 8km and realizing I was totally alone I started to get a tad nervous. When 4 guys with slingshots came out onto the road from a side trail, I decided to put it into high gear and get back to town.
  After a quick shower at the hotel I set off again, confining my travels to the town limits.
  Feeling a little hungry and deciding to become a little adventurous I ate at a street vendor who had a small stall just outside of the cemetery!! The place had enough clientele that I decided to take a chance on some grilled chicken with a side of rice, mashed potatoes and fried bananas. A heaping dose of pico de gallo (not too spicy) ramped up the flavour a bit. [Somehow I don’t think I am going to be short of carbs. any time soon]
 There was enough chicken for me plus provide a few leftovers to feed the sad eyed dog that was staring up at me during the entire meal. The bill came to 75 Cordoba ($3.50) and probably 40% of that was probably for my bottle of Coca Cola.
  A ride back through town helped enhance my Survivor Nicaragua skills- people drive here like they not only own the road but 50% of the sidewalk too!
 After my 3rd shower of the day, I fired up my computador por una hora de Escuela Espanol .
 Down at El Convento, two blocks away, the entire street has been blocked off by a road crew assembling a pretty big stage. It looks like some Latin American Grammy Award winning band will be cranking up the volume on Saturday night. Who and what is a mystery at this point.
9pm
 Mystery solved- the band is called Perrozompopo and seem to be pretty popular in Central America. I downloaded a few tracks and was reasonably impressed. No idea what the songs are about but the music is good.

No comments: