bike rentals for the suicidal!!!

At breakfast this morning I was joined by a couple from the USA. He was just visiting. She was on a break from a 10-month NGO posting in Managua and she filled me in on life in the city. In a nutshell-TRUST NO-ONE!!! Tourists beaten up and robbed by taxi drivers, tourists attacked in broad daylight etc. (Sounds just like Winnipeg!!)
  After that I picked up my rental bike and went for a ride along the lakefront. After covering about 8km and realizing I was totally alone I started to get a tad nervous. When 4 guys with slingshots came out onto the road from a side trail, I decided to put it into high gear and get back to town.
  After a quick shower at the hotel I set off again, confining my travels to the town limits.
  Feeling a little hungry and deciding to become a little adventurous I ate at a street vendor who had a small stall just outside of the cemetery!! The place had enough clientele that I decided to take a chance on some grilled chicken with a side of rice, mashed potatoes and fried bananas. A heaping dose of pico de gallo (not too spicy) ramped up the flavour a bit. [Somehow I don’t think I am going to be short of carbs. any time soon]
 There was enough chicken for me plus provide a few leftovers to feed the sad eyed dog that was staring up at me during the entire meal. The bill came to 75 Cordoba ($3.50) and probably 40% of that was probably for my bottle of Coca Cola.
  A ride back through town helped enhance my Survivor Nicaragua skills- people drive here like they not only own the road but 50% of the sidewalk too!
 After my 3rd shower of the day, I fired up my computador por una hora de Escuela Espanol .
 Down at El Convento, two blocks away, the entire street has been blocked off by a road crew assembling a pretty big stage. It looks like some Latin American Grammy Award winning band will be cranking up the volume on Saturday night. Who and what is a mystery at this point.
9pm
 Mystery solved- the band is called Perrozompopo and seem to be pretty popular in Central America. I downloaded a few tracks and was reasonably impressed. No idea what the songs are about but the music is good.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Salerno sin touristas!

Although originally planned as a quick overnight before Rome, Salerno turned into a two night stay that has turned out to be quite a nice break from the mad crush of tourists jamming the Amalfi coast. While the time we spent in Ravello was nice, even being a 30 minute drive above Amalfi did not spare us the cruiseship flocks who seemed to come by the busload.  Our B & B was, some 900 years earlier a Palace owned by a wealthy family. The B & B was built into the original structure and offered a reasonable degree of comfort if one didn't mind the hike up ancient stone stairways. The town itself is a small maze of streets wandering in all kinds of random directions over the sides of the mountain and offers some amazing views of the coast below. From the town there are several walking trails that lead to neighbouring villages on the mountains, or if one keeps going- all the way back to Amalfi and also Minori. Requiring some 45 minutes to an hour the trails wander off in differe...
Read more

Bye Bye Istanbul

Sunday night is being spent in Amsterdam,  or to be exact Hoofddorp, a suburb adjacent to the airport.   A dreary night awaited us when we arrived from Istanbul, and from weather reports, that is also what we can expect for the next few days.  We wrapped up the last couple of days in Istanbul with a Saturday morning visit to Topkapi Palace where I finally managed to see the section dedicated to the Holy Relics of the Prophet Muhammad. Under renovations on my last visit and blocked by massive queues of Muslims due to Ramadan in 2006, this was a case of 3rd time lucky. Worth the wait? I think so- where else are you going to see the Staff of Moses and the Sword of King David and bits of Muhammad's beard ( OK, Other than Ripley's Museum at Niagara Falls!)   True to form, the kitchens were closed on this visit.I dont think the palace is ever FULLY open to the public. At least the Harem was open but sadly there weren't any taste tests being offered!  An afternoon visi...
Read more

How Many??

Depending on what you read or who you listen to, there are either 300 or 400 beers available in Bruges. The place we ate a late lunch/early dinner! boasted of 300 with several local beers on tap with alcohol contents ranging from 4 to 12 percent.  With only 2 days in town I have so far sampled only 4 , all of which have been superior to the suds that the mega breweries in Canada pass off to unsuspecting consumers. Only 296 to go- its going to be tough!   The trip to Bruges from Amsterdam was rather eventful and a good introduction to the intricacies of european rail travel.A delayed conection out of Rotterdam caused a missed connection in Roosendaal which ultimately added two further connections to the trip, as a detour through Ghent cut a half hour off the trip. Regardless, we arrived 2 hours later than scheduled to a dreary damp city.  Hungry and tired, a quick meal of soup and pizza supplied some much needed energy as we tried to figure out the local transportation opt...
Read more