Border-Line Officers
14/04/2006
The captain of our plane turned around and shouted: “Buckle up, we’re about to land!”.
Instinctively, we both gazed out of the window looking for the airport, but we were very surprised because we could see only countryside.
Granada’s international airport truly looks like a backyard where one may expect to find people growing some vegetables. Nevertheless, people there weren’t as simple and friendly as the aspect of the airport could have let us imagine: all of the passengers of the flight (4 guys including ourselves) risked seriously to be sent back to Costa Rica because, apparently, they didn’t look like the pictures in their passports!
Eventually, after many efforts in order to be as similar as possible to our photographs (!), we were allowed in the country and thus entered the city of Granada.
The accommodation we chose was the most beautiful we’ve met so far: a marvelous colonial building with two patios full of palms and fountains. Even the hammocks hanging there were particularly nice and, while resting in them, we started to think that they would perfectly fit at home in Italy.
(To be continued…)
Granada’s beauties
15/04/2006
Granada is home to many pieces of art and, believe it or not, the Gioconda is one of them.
We spent our first day in Granada walking around the town and discovering stunning colonial churches, fascinating houses and lazy squares where locals are used to having their daily “vigorón”. This is one of Granada’s typical dishes which we immediately tried: it consists of smashed yucca served with cabbage, meat and, on top of that, half a meter of fried pork skin. Once recovered from this light snack, we kept on wondering in town, till we finally bumped into Gioconda. Not Leonardo’s masterpiece, this colorful subject was a 29 year old girl who stopped every single human being that passed by proposing a tour of the city and its surroundings. She abruptly took a seat at our table and, even more unexpectedly, she started singing an aria from her favourite opera: “La Tunda Rot” (sic!).
Very naïve of us, we merrily confessed to Gioconda that we were Italians: she kept on singing for hours! While running away after five mojitos each, we could still hear her performing… at that point we started to think that we have some kind of talent in attracting weird people.
Points of view
17/04/2006
…after the millionth nap in the hammocks of the hostel, our minds were finally made up: we had to buy some and send them back home. We thus organized a trip to Masaya (a nearby town which is famous for its handcrafts market) in order to accomplish our mission. Just like two young Indiana Jones, we made our way through many stinking butcher’s shops which, amidst various puddles of blood and countless flies, exposed rotting pork heads, quarters of cows and agonizing lambs. This was the first part of the market which we were forced to go through in order to make it to our desired hammocks. According to the original plan, we were supposed to buy one each but, since the choice was extremely vaste, we eventually bought half of the kiosk, namely six hammocks and three hanging chairs!
Once finally satisfied, we began to wonder if it would be possible to send all of this stuff back home: maybe it would have been easier if Francesco hadn’t hidden in his hammocks a huge shell that he had found in Costa Rica. Taking shells out of these countries is illegal but, according to Francesco’s vision of the matter, the post officer who checked our packets was simply too narrow-minded to understand how that shell would fit perfectly on his desk!
He fought for one hour and a half and finally had his own way with the poor guy, but after two weeks he’s still wondering if his stuff will ever arrive home.
Central American Women
18/04/2006
Granada and León can be easily compared to two different women: let’s call them Grace and Leonor. Grace is gorgeous, wealthy, lazy and, maybe because of her lack in culture, a little bit boring. On the other hand, even if less beautiful, Leonor is vibrant, interesting and still shows the scars of her turbulent past.
By this rationale, Francesco fancies blond tarts, while Joska would rather date an ugly geek! Anyhow, we have always appreciated other’s men women and thus both of us enjoyed Granada’s beauty as well as León’s nightlife.
In fact, as soon as we arrived in Nicaragua’s former capital, we heard rumors about a concert that would take place that evening. Latin live music was awesome, but even more pictoresque were the guys we met while listening to it.
The place was extremely crowded and therefore the tables where people sat were very close one to another. At our left we had two girls: one of them came from Argentina and was so strong that, when we shook hands, we could hear our bones crackling. The other one, from the US, had a huge tattoo of Venus riding a bike, very hairy legs and dirty feet. We thus turned to our right and we were very glad to find five 16 year old Nicaraguan boys who had a sincere passion for techno music (what the hell were they doing there?!?).
At that point, we were about to think that we had definitely run out of luck, when suddenly five Swedish girls appeared from the crowd. We love Central America!
The freak show must go on
20/04/2006
After another concert in León, we finally left this town and made our way north towards the border with Honduras. This is how we met Leyla, a girl from Ocotal who studies economics in León’s University and who was going back home for the week end.
We spent many hours on the same bus (also because it broke and we had to push it for a while…) and we had a very pleasant chat during which she convinced us to spend one night in her town that, by the way, is just before the border.
Leyla was such a nice and intelligent girl that we started to wonder what was happening to our talent in attracting weird people, when the queen of them suddenly appeared. Saraí waved at us as if she had seen some good friends of hers and then walked towards us in her high heels and long black dress (by the way, it was only 2 o’clock p.m.). She then claimed to be an artist, a model and obviously a poet but, when she began to talk in rhymes, Joska managed to hide in a church while Francesco was forced to give her some Italian lessons. Once he finally got rid of her and reached Joska (who was by then attending to his second mass in a row), they both agreed that the guys they had met in Nicaragua could have set up easily a proper freak show.
14/04/2006
The captain of our plane turned around and shouted: “Buckle up, we’re about to land!”.
Instinctively, we both gazed out of the window looking for the airport, but we were very surprised because we could see only countryside.
Granada’s international airport truly looks like a backyard where one may expect to find people growing some vegetables. Nevertheless, people there weren’t as simple and friendly as the aspect of the airport could have let us imagine: all of the passengers of the flight (4 guys including ourselves) risked seriously to be sent back to Costa Rica because, apparently, they didn’t look like the pictures in their passports!
Eventually, after many efforts in order to be as similar as possible to our photographs (!), we were allowed in the country and thus entered the city of Granada.
The accommodation we chose was the most beautiful we’ve met so far: a marvelous colonial building with two patios full of palms and fountains. Even the hammocks hanging there were particularly nice and, while resting in them, we started to think that they would perfectly fit at home in Italy.
(To be continued…)
Granada’s beauties
15/04/2006
Granada is home to many pieces of art and, believe it or not, the Gioconda is one of them.
We spent our first day in Granada walking around the town and discovering stunning colonial churches, fascinating houses and lazy squares where locals are used to having their daily “vigorón”. This is one of Granada’s typical dishes which we immediately tried: it consists of smashed yucca served with cabbage, meat and, on top of that, half a meter of fried pork skin. Once recovered from this light snack, we kept on wondering in town, till we finally bumped into Gioconda. Not Leonardo’s masterpiece, this colorful subject was a 29 year old girl who stopped every single human being that passed by proposing a tour of the city and its surroundings. She abruptly took a seat at our table and, even more unexpectedly, she started singing an aria from her favourite opera: “La Tunda Rot” (sic!).
Very naïve of us, we merrily confessed to Gioconda that we were Italians: she kept on singing for hours! While running away after five mojitos each, we could still hear her performing… at that point we started to think that we have some kind of talent in attracting weird people.
Points of view
17/04/2006
…after the millionth nap in the hammocks of the hostel, our minds were finally made up: we had to buy some and send them back home. We thus organized a trip to Masaya (a nearby town which is famous for its handcrafts market) in order to accomplish our mission. Just like two young Indiana Jones, we made our way through many stinking butcher’s shops which, amidst various puddles of blood and countless flies, exposed rotting pork heads, quarters of cows and agonizing lambs. This was the first part of the market which we were forced to go through in order to make it to our desired hammocks. According to the original plan, we were supposed to buy one each but, since the choice was extremely vaste, we eventually bought half of the kiosk, namely six hammocks and three hanging chairs!
Once finally satisfied, we began to wonder if it would be possible to send all of this stuff back home: maybe it would have been easier if Francesco hadn’t hidden in his hammocks a huge shell that he had found in Costa Rica. Taking shells out of these countries is illegal but, according to Francesco’s vision of the matter, the post officer who checked our packets was simply too narrow-minded to understand how that shell would fit perfectly on his desk!
He fought for one hour and a half and finally had his own way with the poor guy, but after two weeks he’s still wondering if his stuff will ever arrive home.
Central American Women
18/04/2006
Granada and León can be easily compared to two different women: let’s call them Grace and Leonor. Grace is gorgeous, wealthy, lazy and, maybe because of her lack in culture, a little bit boring. On the other hand, even if less beautiful, Leonor is vibrant, interesting and still shows the scars of her turbulent past.
By this rationale, Francesco fancies blond tarts, while Joska would rather date an ugly geek! Anyhow, we have always appreciated other’s men women and thus both of us enjoyed Granada’s beauty as well as León’s nightlife.
In fact, as soon as we arrived in Nicaragua’s former capital, we heard rumors about a concert that would take place that evening. Latin live music was awesome, but even more pictoresque were the guys we met while listening to it.
The place was extremely crowded and therefore the tables where people sat were very close one to another. At our left we had two girls: one of them came from Argentina and was so strong that, when we shook hands, we could hear our bones crackling. The other one, from the US, had a huge tattoo of Venus riding a bike, very hairy legs and dirty feet. We thus turned to our right and we were very glad to find five 16 year old Nicaraguan boys who had a sincere passion for techno music (what the hell were they doing there?!?).
At that point, we were about to think that we had definitely run out of luck, when suddenly five Swedish girls appeared from the crowd. We love Central America!
The freak show must go on
20/04/2006
After another concert in León, we finally left this town and made our way north towards the border with Honduras. This is how we met Leyla, a girl from Ocotal who studies economics in León’s University and who was going back home for the week end.
We spent many hours on the same bus (also because it broke and we had to push it for a while…) and we had a very pleasant chat during which she convinced us to spend one night in her town that, by the way, is just before the border.
Leyla was such a nice and intelligent girl that we started to wonder what was happening to our talent in attracting weird people, when the queen of them suddenly appeared. Saraí waved at us as if she had seen some good friends of hers and then walked towards us in her high heels and long black dress (by the way, it was only 2 o’clock p.m.). She then claimed to be an artist, a model and obviously a poet but, when she began to talk in rhymes, Joska managed to hide in a church while Francesco was forced to give her some Italian lessons. Once he finally got rid of her and reached Joska (who was by then attending to his second mass in a row), they both agreed that the guys they had met in Nicaragua could have set up easily a proper freak show.
