Nicaragua Seeks Energy Diversification in National Dish

Managua, Nicaragua
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy and Mines in Nicaragua announced plans to use methane gas, a major by-product of it´s national dish Gallo Pinto, as a new source of energy. The ubiquitous dish, made of rice and beans, could yield more methane by slightly undercooking the beans, the spokeperson said. In an independence day speech addressing the issue, president Daniel Ortega said "By harnessing the methane output of the entire population, Nicaragua can attain energy independence. We can free ourselves from reliance on foreign nations."
Nicaragua is already on the cutting edge of renewable energy, particularly in the field of geothermal power, thanks to plentiful active volcanoes. Renewable sources account for 25% of the nation´s energy.

Into the Nicaraguan Wilds

Today I pack my life in Granada up and move on to Esteli, a cooler mountain destination near coffee plantations and famous for it's fine cigars. Goodbye, fair Granada, with all your hot dog stands and colorful houses. Goodbye, Goodbye, fair Lake Nicaragua, and Mombacho Volcano. All the best.

Glue Sniffers Offering Joints to Girls in Wet T-Shirts

I'm guessing that title will rack up the greatest number of hits in the travelogue's history.
I took a weekend trip to Volcan Masaya, an active volcano. It's pretty cool as you can walk right up to a massive, smoking crater which native people once chucked human sacrifices into to appease the spirit residing inside. There was a small eruption in 2002, sending smoldering boulders 500m into the air and crashing down in the parking lot, damaging cars and narrowly missing people. Neat!


Instead of heading straight back to Granada, I decided to spend the weekend enjoying the fresh-ish waters of Laguna da Apoyo, a wonderful swimming spot nearby. There, I dived, swam, and floated my way to total relaxation. Saturday evening was spent learning Swedish drinking games supplemented by hearts and rum.


Oh yeah, and apparently there were some bad local guys hanging out on the diving platform sniffing glue and offering joints, which I didn't see, but upset some of the other guests. The glue sniffing part, not the joints. Though who really wants to smoke joints with dudes who are sniffing glue? Obviously there would have been some girls around in wet t-shirts too, since it's right on the lake's edge.

Nicaragua, the First Week

¡Hola Amigos!

I'm currently in the former Spanish colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua, studying in a Spanish language school while re-adapting to the mosquitoes and humidity of the tropics. Granada's quite touristy, and I may have to move somewhere with fewer gringos to get a true feel for the country. It's not a bad place to adjust to Latin America though, a kind of halfway house, before entering the untamed wilds of the real Nicaragua.

Classes are going fine, and in a week we've pretty much covered, and gone beyond, all that I learned in two years in high school. Thanks, Mrs. Wagner (if that is your real name)!

I'm staying with a family to get the true immersion experience, though my conversations with them have been pretty limited. Mostly I talk to the Dad, Julio, who hates Daniel Ortega. I can't work out how he, or any other family member, makes a living, but they're friendly enough. They seem to be a typical Nicaraguan family of modest means.

Weird things I've noticed so far:
1. On the television news, they always play these strange beeping noises in the background. I guess it's meant to give the news a sense of urgency. The whole TV news thing is pretty low budget... During the weather report they just zoomed a camera onto a computer screen to show the day's satellite weather movements.

2. Las Bombas. Starting at 4 AM, one can hear loud bangs going off. At first I thought they were gunshots, then I figured it must be backfiring cars, but finally I asked and found out they are celebratory firecrackers. I still can't figure out exactly what they're meant to celebrate (saints, holidays, ???) but they go off pretty regularly throughout the day, every day. They're quite loud but the Nicaraguans don't even seem to hear them.

I'm taking a weekend trip to Masaya Volcano and Laguna de Apoyo.

Hasta Luego.

Out of Asia

Well folks, after reflecting on my many travels throughout Asia over the past 5 years I though it might do me well to expand my horizons and see what another corner of the world is like. This line of thought brought me to Nicaragua, where I've been for 24 hours. You'll have to excuse the lack of photographs in this post as I'm slowly but surely working up the courage to whip $1000 worth of equipment out into the open.

The first story I heard upon arrival in my Managua hostel (Managua Backpackers Inn, highly recommended, run by the delightful and helpful David) last night was one from a pair of American girls who had been held up at knife point in a car whom they were talked into sharing with some friendly ladies expounding on the benefits of shared taxi over buses. What these kindly ladies didn't mention was that they were in cahoots with the drivers, and after a few clever moves to put the gringas at ease, such as filling up on petrol and driving in the direction they were ostensibly traveling, knives were pulled and the girls were informed, in a pretty civilized way it seems, that this was in fact a robbery and they'd be taking the girls' cash and ATM cards, as well as their PIN numbers. The thieves proceeded to the ATM machine to withdraw the cash, with the girls still in custody, and only after the cash had been withdrawn did they let the girls go, assuring them that if they walked straight "we'll throw your backpacks out of the car as we drive away" which, as you might have guessed by now, they didn't.

The girls seemed admirably unfazed by the experience, considering they had lost everything but the clothes on their backs. Oh, also the perpetrators allowed them to keep their passports and enough local cash to get them to a hotel. How thoughtful.

As a result of this rather chilling tale I've started my time here in full alert mode, highly suspicious of those just-a-little-too-friendly strangers, which is probably a good thing and I'm doing my best not to allow that to interfere with experiencing to the fullest this beautiful country and it's people, the vast majority of whom are the loveliest of folks.

Tomorrow I start Spanish language school here in Granada, which I'm pretty chuffed about.