Lesson 42 - don´t ignore the coin of destiny

Trip Start Nov 08, 2008
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Trip End Jun 30, 2009


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Flag of Nicaragua  ,
Friday, May 1, 2009

Mm, where to go next. We could go south to Matagalpa or we could go óff guide´ and head for the hills of the Bosawas Reserve known as a stronghold in the Contra War and also for it´s pretty scenery. Since noone in the alledged tourist office wanted to give us any information we tossed a coin. It landed on Matagalpa. We thought, that´s a bit boring, so got on a bus to El Cua. Four hours on a chicken bus into the hills. We crossed 3 rivers. The man next to me had a kitten in a box. And a machete. The two things obviously go together. We are getting so used to seeing people with machete´s. We go up to them and ask them directions, they´re as prevalent as people with clipboards on the street in England. The rivers thing was interesting too. I asked the driver´s mate what they did in the wet season and he said that the water just comes in the bus, it´s not important. These buses are incredible, they´re like trucks, they get up anything.

Anyway. We arrived in El Cua at about 4 pm hoping to get a connecting bus to a small lodge we´d heard about, about 18km away. But no luck. The last bus had gone. We eventually eked out this information from the local police as it was impossible to get it from anywhere else. El policia also, as an aside, added that they wouldn´t recommend us going there at the end of the day and made gun signs with their hands. So that made us feel safe.
There seems to be a lack of gringos up this way. In a bar, full of guys, we got treated with surly hospitality and didn´t understand a word anyone said. All the guys were having after work drinks and kept coming over to speak to Paul and look down my top. There was lots of ´ah si´ and laughter. Not really any conversation.

The police kindly recommended a place to stay which was as basic as it comes. A concrete shell with a bed in it. Being not for westerners the bathroom was also a concrete tub with water full to the brim in it. We weren´t really sure how you were supposed to go about using it but assumed you threw water over yourself.
There was absolutely nothing to do here so we wandered aimlessly up and down the one and only street as dusk fell and watched the locals drag rocking chairs to the fronts of their houses to watch everyone else and chat to their mates, or lie about in hammocks. No sitting inside and watching Eastenders here. Nicuraguans are obsessed with rocking chairs. They have them in the hostels as well and you see all the tourists sittting around rocking like an old people´s home. We all love it really.
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