Today was one of the more interesting days I have had on this Earth, which is actually saying something. I got to the bus station at 5am. Here is my bus to Estelí, where I would transfer to Somoto.
The station is complete chaos. There are guys walking around yelling the destination for their bus. They are like salesmen. It really does not matter to them if you need to go to their city. They think people wake up at 5am and walk to the station and just wander around saying, "I wonder where I will go this morning, well that guy is yelling Grenada, Grenada, Grenada! In my ear, let’s go there." But maybe they do. Then you get on a bus and people are yelling about buying their fried pig's feet and such and then they get off 2 miles down the road to take the next bus back home.
Eventually I get to Somoto and now I have to find the place Hannah told me about. I look at her notes and they say something about finding a guy named Henry in a Green House. This should be interesting. I got into a cab, keep in mind that no one speaks English in north Nicaragua, and I told the kid and his 12 year old Sancho Panza that we were looking for Casa Verde. We drove around for about 30 minutes and finally found someone who had heard of Henry. When getting to his house it was determined that Henry was out, but one of his brothers would take me on the 6 mile trek through the canyon. They lived in a house the size of a motor home, with 11 people (10 of which over the age of 20). They had an outhouse, various animals, and walked 2 miles everyday for water. Using the outhouse before we left I was attacked by a Turkey. One brother picked up a rock and threw it at the Turkey. I probably would not have thrown a rock, but those animals are much more deadly then I ever knew.
We rode bikes up to the canyon and then started our descent. It was kind of like the Narrows at Zion National Park. You were in this tight canyon and part of the time on land and other times you had to swim. In some parts, the water was 40 feet deep and my guide had to carry my stuff on his head as he swam. Our conversations were very interesting for the next 4 hours. He would say something for like 5 minutes and I would say, "Si". Occasionally I would mix it up to sound like I knew what was going on by saying, "No Comprendo" and he would say it a different way, to which I would respond, "Si."
We got back to the house at 5pm and somehow I had agreed to eat dinner with the family of 12, sleep in their barn and have breakfast the next day before departing for Managua. So they cooked dinner and sat around and watched me eat. The daughter was 20-something and kind of cute. She kept looking at me like I was this form of entertainment. I could not figure whether she liked me or was scared of me. Then I remembered that I shaved half my face and knew the answer.
After dinner they showed me to my barn and I unrolled my sleeping pad. They came in and all sat around me. I was not sure what was going on here
I started showing them everything in my pack and they were real excited like I was from the future. They loved my hand-held fan, flashlight, and medicine. I could not communicate I was a nurse, so they ended up saying doctor, which I said was fine. Then they began exposing themselves to me, showing me rashes and random disfigurements. It was quite comical. Eventually after giving away half my stuff I went to sleep.
Thoughts for the Day:
As I struggled with the language the whole trip, especially today, I thought of an old Eugene Burdick book, "The Ugly American" and how I pretty much portrayed that with my actions and speech. It reminded me of a trip I took to Mexico with some friends and when we got to a restaurant I asked the waiter, "Quantos Anos Usted", and someone leaned over and told me I just asked him how old he was instead of the price of the Lobster. I also realized that the wild dogs are a huge problem here. No one neuters the animals and they multiply like rabbits. What was interesting was that there were very few cats. I talked to people that said that countries like Panama are overrun with cats instead of dogs. What causes this distinction?
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