Nameless streets and Cities of the Dead

Last night a $5 ticket got me pretty close to “front seat” viewing of an absolutely amazing show. Perrozompopo, a Nicaraguan band was in town for one night, putting on a show on the street in front of El Convento. After 3 ballads performed acoustically by the 3 principal guitarists, including lead singer Ramos Mejia, they brought on the rest of their band and started to “kick ass” With a voice somewhat like Peter Gabriel and a political attitude and stage presence like Zack de La Rocha (Rage Against the Machine) he led the band through a series of tunes that had most of the crowd pumped for the entire show. While I captured much of the performance on video my camera let me down by failing to record the audio! What a ….!!!

 Anyway, if you have a chance- google the name.

  In spite of not getting to bed till 1:45, the newly arrived and noisy Veterinary “Army” had me up and awake by 7:15  A quick breakfast of fruit and coffee gave me the fuel for a 2 and ½ hr bike ride around town.

  Volcan Mombacho was surrounded by a cotton wool halo of dense cloud and by 9am the humidity was starting to rise.

 Heading way off the main tourist drags I travelled down quite a few nameless streets where corrugated steel replaced Spanish tile roofs and most homes had shuttered holes rather than actual windows. Peering into a few, dirt floors were often the norm, furniture was minimal and natural light was barely able to penetrate. On the street, children played with sticks while dogs languished in the heat. Some of the more dilapidated dwellings had only partial walls made of the same corrugated steel while others had walls of poorly made adobe with large cracks and holes gaping in the dried mud.

 From these streets I made my way into the cemetery where an avenue of tall Royal Palms welcomed visitors to the homes of Granada’s dead. Covering an area the size of 6 or more football fields this gated community for the dead was equal in elegance to many of the cemeteries of New Orleans. Clearly, many of the dead in this city have accommodations that the living could only dream of. Marble mausoleums, some as big as a Canadian two car garage were a prominent feature, while for those less well off, communal crypts looked like 4 or 5 story apartment blocks.

 After leaving the City of the Dead I returned to town where I ran into Gary, the pharmacist that I occasionally work with in Stratford. Just visiting for a few days from Quepos/Manuel Antonio area of Costa Rica, it was absolutely uncanny that we would cross paths in Granada. We arranged a supper together for the evening and met up again this morning ( Monday)

   As the clock crawls round to 1pm I am just making this another lazy afternoon at the hotel studying Spanish. The ATM’s were all down this morning- no internet throughout town, but the connections seem to be up now. Hopefully the machines have been reloaded since the weekend and I can obtain a little bit of cash for the days ahead.