So I have arrived in Nicaragua. I was flying down some dirt road in my rental car. My rental car that looks like a clown car from the circus.
Anyways I’m flying down some dirt road in the middle of what seems like a lush jungle in the northern mountainous regions of Nicaragua near the border of Honduras when a hen comes darting out into the road up in front of my path. I hit the brakes hard and began slowing just in time to see a trail of chicks frantically scrambling behind their mom trying desperately to clear my path. I thought for sure I had hit the last little straggler and I looked into my rear view mirror in anticipation of seeing the splattered remains of a little chick. However, I was happily greeted to the sight of that little chick jumping into the bushes and disappearing into the lush foliage in quick pursuit of of its mother.
Then a cop pulled me over for trying to drive around a couple semi's. I mean everybody does it! After 15 minutes of arguing... I said hey just take $3 and let me be on my way... I normally don't like participating in the whole bribery deal...but I was tired and the cop looked funny and I just said the hell with hit... I mean it's $3 freakin dollars!
Last night the rain came down hard and long. The rain came down so hard onto my tin roof that the Spanish television program I was watching was inaudible… completely drowned out… no pun intended. Not that I minded much. The rain would continue to come down hard for 6 straight hours and the little trickle of water down the hill from my house turned into a raging river. San Diego would be an island if that much rain came down in that period! The electricity went off and on sporadically throughout the night.
Nobody panics when your suddenly sitting in the pitch black of night. In fact this is usually the cause of great laughter as people scatter and fumble around looking for a candles and matches. Perhaps these situations can attest to the progress in Nicaragua... because although the electricity may go out haphazardly; everybody seems to have a cell phone which they pull out in times like these and they are put to good use as temporary flashlights. Ahh progress!
Now the day after the big rain everything is wet. However it does not appear as though a major rain just happened. Everything is wet and lush but not flooded. The streets are dry for the most part. Everything is moist and somewhat sticky. In a few days I will head to the beach. The trip will be a true adventure… a long, windy and twisted road. The Beatles must have visited the northern Pacific coast of Nicaragua when they wrote “The Long and Windy Road”!
I decided to stop by the town “Rancho”. Rancho is a bar/restaurant. It is open air with a huge palm thath roof and a bar. Tables are scattered around under the giant palm roof. There are other smaller ranchos spread around too. People sit around the different tables drinking beer and rum. They serve great food here all cooked over a wood burning stove.
Kids are free to run around or watch T.V. and the music is always vibrating loudly throughout from speakers hanging sporadically around the branches which serve as the skeleton of the "Rancho". Good times are had here for all! The regulars only give the Gringo a passing glance. After coming to Pueblo Nuevo yearly and owning a house here for more that 13 years… I am no longer a novelty in this small town of 2,000 where the main mode of transportation is bicycle followed by horse or mule, motorcycles and the rare vehicle.
Pueblo Nuevo is a small town high in the mountains. Pueblo Nuevo is surrounded by farms growing crops of beans, onions, peppers, corn, tobacco. Pueblo Nuevo is also surrounded by higher mountains which when you ascend you will find some of the best coffee in the world growing on mountain slopes and valleys in a natural forest like setting.
We own about 20 acres of coffee here. When we originally purchased the land I remember walking around and I found the land to be thick, lush and confusing. I became so lost that I did not know which direction I was walking or even how to return. Looking up was no help because I was surrounded by large trees and rows and rows and rows of coffee bushes. I was hot sweaty and tired after walking only a short distance within the land. I can only imagine the difficult task of picking each coffee bean by hand when the crop comes in. Some of the coffee grows on slopes so steep that I couldn’t imagine going down without a rope. Yet these people have been picking these same beans for over a hundred years and they are skilled enough to not need ropes or any equipment.
Some day we will figure out how to export the coffee to the U.S. and make some good money but for now we are content to sell the crops to coffee wholesalers at a pittance of its true value. The little money we do make allows us to slowly grow our operation and buy more coffee land every few years. It also helps pay for our trips down to Nicaragua and it puts some money in the pockets of her family who runs the farm.
The Rancho sells ribs cooked over open flames, barbequed chicken fried plantains, rice, etc… The funny part is that there are no menus. Most small restaurants in small towns throughout Nicaragua are the same. You basically ask what they have. “Que Hay”? When you do find a restaurant with menus they normally will only hand out one per table not to each individual. Then after considerable time spent studying the menu, your conversation will go like this, “I’ll have the chicken.” “No hay” oh man…. “o.k. I’ll have the fish.” “No hay” and on and on. Until finally in exacerbation you go back to the classic line, “Que hay”?
I’ve learned after so many years not to get upset and just start the conversation with, “Que Hay”? Much simpler and less stressful. Furthermore, when the beers are cold, the weather is wet and sticky, the tunes are cranking, why become upset over trivialities? Well? Huh? I mean this is the exact reason I travel outside of the U.S. to decompress! I mean living in the U.S. has great advantages but sometimes you feel as though you are living inside a pressure cooker!
I mean you are constantly worried about making money, spending money saving money losing money, jobs, getting a job, maintaining a job, losing a job, getting a better job, rising within your job, getting an education, getting more education, your kids’ education, are they getting a good education. Having kids, raising kids, getting kids to school, getting kids into sports and activities, making sure they are successful in their activities. Making sure our kids do their homework, doing it properly, not enough homework, too much homework, good teachers, good schools, friends, not enough friends, too many friends, the right friends, the right neighborhood. Personal time, relationships, family time, personal fitness, healthy foods, correct diet, friendships waking up on time… getting enough sleep, etc….
AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!
In the end the pressure cooker pounds on us so hard we need to find some sort of escape.
Coming to Nicaragua allows me to decompress. I sleep pretty much the first 2-3 days upon my arrival. Wake up, eat, nap time, wake up, dinner time, read a little and then time for bed. After 2-3 days of this I start to get some energy again. The pace is so slow here people spend hours talking to friends, relaxing, enjoying life. Yes they work too and have kids and raise families but they just don’t seem so frantic about every aspect of their lives.
So.... here it is a couple days later and I've arrived at the beach w my host Mike and Stacey who own a hotel on the beach which is actually small cabins located directly on the beach in the Northern Pacific region of Nicaragua.
On my travels to the beach...I managed to end up in the middle of a Sandinista caravan of hundreds of buses and trucks on their way to Nicaragua's capital to celebrate their independence day! These guys are so hard core they even ride on top of the buses!
So I am now at Redwood Beach... in Mechapa, Nicaragua. The surf is big and formidable.... I am staying in a cabin steps from the beach.... check them out at redwoodbeachresort.com
This is one of the most remote parts of Nicaragua. I was literally driving through lakes and riverbeds to get here.... but oh man.... is it one of the most beautiful unspoiled beaches in the world! Now we are going to play pool "American Style" with the beach as our background! Mike is going to get spanked! After spanking Mike in pool... I will definitely be hungry and I will politely ask, "QUE HAY"???????
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