Nicaragua Day 2: Tour of Managua

Hey Loopy Loop (and anyone else who might be reading)

So, Day 2.

Well, first, a brief intro to my fellow-travelers. They want to read this so I can't be snarky or anything. I'll save that for later. ;-) There's Marc, a professor who was here in the 80s with Witness for Peace (he has a trip blog too, here); there's Mary Ann, a retired mental health professional & non-retired traveler & feminist organizer; and there's Michael, a special-ed teacher who lives and works in northern WI on an Indian reservation. They all seem very pleasant (so diplomatic!). I'll fill in more details if any seem necessary.

We ended up getting to bed kind of late last night, so this morning I was sleepy, which was bad because the morning activity consisted of two lectures: lecture 1, history of Nicaragua; lecture 2, the upcoming election. It was very interesting but between the heat and the sleepiness I missed quite a bit.

The short version of lecture 1 is that the English colonized the east coast, the Spanish colonized the west coast, and they fought periodically. The Spanish wiped out the indigenous population but the English were more focused on obliterating Jamaica, so there are a lot more indigenous people along the Atlantic coast, along with descendants of the Africans enslaved by the Brits.

The short version of lecture 2 is that the Sandinistas have mostly degenerated into the sort of pandering populism that infects much of the rest of Latin America, and everyone's afraid to return to anything genuinely revolutionary (i.e. anything that would threaten the interests of the U.S. and the wealthy families) because of what happened last time (the contra war etc).

I also learned that Somoza was an old-school fascist, i.e. pro-worker in a weird corporatist way (more on that later).

Sooooo.... after lunch and an all-too-brief nap we were introduced to our other traveling companion for the week: a very spacious but not very airconditioned mini-bus with " ¡Viva Cristo Rey!" emblazoned across the front. (We're working on a name for the bus; I'll keep you posted).

Our first stop was the new cathedral ("What is that in Spanish?" Marc asked; "El Cathedral Nuevo," was the response). It's an incredibly creepy prison-like concrete building funded by that Domino's pizza guy, Thomas (?) Monaghan, who also funded operation rescue and that Catholic town in Florida--and, it turns out, the Contras! Bastard.

Then we drove up what seems to be the highest hill in Managua, which is quite high actually, almost something of a mountain... on top is a park, "Loma de Tiscapa," and towering high above is a gigantic outline form of Sandino. Apparently that's where he disappeared from when he was assassinated. I like the symbolism... you can kill the man but it only increases his stature.

Also in the park is a large bronze horse's ass in a little white fence. The story here is that, apparently, Mussolini sent Somoza an equestrian statue of himself (that is, of Mussolini) (see above under "old-school fascist"). So, Somoza cut off the head (eerie, since that's what ultimately happened to Mussolini) and replaced it with a likeness of his own head, then mounted it in an important plaza somewhere. At the time of the revolution they tore down the statue and smashed it, but they saved one part (perhaps the one they felt most resembled Somoza) and put it in the little white fence in the park. I found this very amusing.

This hill-mountain also contains a crater lake, which looks very nice but apparently is Managua's toilet bowl. ("One of the mis-steps of the revolution," our translator commented). On the other side of the hill, you can look out over Lake Managua, which is pretty big but not as big as Lake Nicaragua (that's where I was on yesterday). Look at a map, seriously. Here's one.

So anyway... I should try to speed this up, I'm boring myself.

We went on to the Peace Park, where a bunch of rifles and a tank from the revolution/counter-revolution are piled up and globbed over with concrete (what a waste of decent artillery!), and then we went on to the "Plaza de la Revolucion" (it's been renamed but we'll just ignore that), which has the ruined "old cathedral" on one side (lots of things between the mountain and the lake are ruined, because there was a big earthquake in 1972 and a lot of buildings just abandoned. Most of the city is now on the other side of the mountain, though the government buildings were rebuilt and remain on the "old" side).

Anyway, the plaza. There's the picturesque ruined cathedral on one side, the presidential palace (actually his office building, not his house) on one side, the "Palacio National" on a third side (art museum etc), and on the fourth side, the tomb of Carlos Fonseca, the founder of the FSLN (read more about him here, he's really very interesting).

(I took lots of photos but have no way to upload them, so this will be illustrated later, at which point it will I'm sure be much more interesting.)(Remember my old tag line... "feel free to skim"... except for you, Loopy, there will be a quiz later ;-) )

After that we went down to the shore of Lake Managua, which was crowded with restaurants and an amusement park catering primarily to the working class, according to our translator. Despite the fact that apparently this lake, too, is a toilet bowl and industrial toxic waste dump, it was very beautiful, with billowing clouds, a shining sky, and semi-conical volcanic mountains across the way, blue & purple in the mists. (or smog, whatever)

Our final stop was a lovely neighborhood of tree-lined streets and cute little houses built by the Sandinistas for the people, although apparently the people didn't want to move there so it ended up housing government officials and their families.

In the neighborhood was cultural center created by a Spanish priest and American nun in 1983. They have classes in sewing, painting, music, dance, and all sorts of vocational and cultural subjects. It's meant as a type of liberation project and clearly it enriches lives, both materially (job training) and socially, but, well, part of me was still grumbling that it was mere charity. But don't listen to that part of me if you don't want to.

There were absolutely gorgeous murals all over the place. One showed revolutionary icons (with a Catholic focus, e.g. Romero) clustered around a baby Jesus (which our guide said "isn't necessarily Jesus--it can also be the Nicaraguan children of the future." Uh huh. That's why he's glowing and floating and people are giving him mangoes).

Che was in that mural, too; he had his arms around the shoulders of two others, and looked askance at the maybe-baby-Jesus like he was saying, "C'mon guys, this isn't my scene--let's go get a beer." Which of course seemed perfect to me.

Other murals showed different parts of Nicaragua, plants and birds and scenery, and history of Nicaragua and other saints and icons...

Our guide there was a very smart, articulate 20-something Nicaraguan woman whose father had been in the Sandinista government. She explained everything to us and then patiently answered questions like, "Who do you think you'll vote for in the next election?" (she hasn't decided; they all make promises and none seem sincere); "What do you think of the Sandinistas now?" (she admires them but thinks it was a very sad and difficult time), and "What kind of women's activism and empowerment is needed in Nicaragua?" (here she spoke eloquently, emotionally and at length about rural women who don't know their rights, who are mistreated emotionally and physically and don't have the information to resist, etc.)

That conversation was probably the best part of the afternoon for me (although I also got a kick out of the giant Sandino and the horse's ass). I'm happy thinking ahead--much of the week will be more such interactions. Tomorrow I think we're meeting a famous Sandinista leader (also a woman). I can't wait...

Dinner was fantastic affair at a restaurant (mostly we've been eating at the hotel, where the food is very good but quite simple). I *really* wished you were there at dinner... you would have really enjoyed it. A whole new cuisine.

I tried a local drink, "tiste," made of cornmeal and chocolate. It tasted exactly like not-very-sweet chocolate milk with cornmeal in it. Weird, but good. Gets stuck in your teeth.

For my main course I had a traditional indigenous food, a sort of stew of cornmeal and beef with spices and onions and tomatoes, served with fried plantains and cabbage salad. It was really wonderful. Mary Ann had something the menu called "enchiladas," but they were more like empanadas, except more fried and greasy. I'm afraid I didn't notice what everyone else had, I'm sorry Lovey!

For dessert we tried a couple different things, but the most interesting was the "icocos," a Nicaraguan fruit about the size of a small apricot with a big pit. It was marinated in a sweet cinnamon syrup & I can't really tell what it would have tasted like without the syrup, but it was absolutely delicious--sweet and flavorful and spicy just like something you would imagine eating in some exotic foreign locale.

I'm trying to think of what it tasted like, but it didn't taste like anything familiar.... sort of like what rice pudding would taste like, if it were a fruit, maybe soaked in rum and rose water. No, not like that at all. I don't know!

OK, so, time for bed. I miss you Loopy!!! I take lots of pix for you of things I think you would enjoy, but I'm afraid I might have to delete some before the trip is over, since I'm taking too many... (I know, hard to imagine, right??) I wish I'd brought the flash card reader... next time I'll remember.

I love you baby, have fun at your meetings, enjoy your huggy addicts!

Love,
me