STOP; OR I VISIT HOUSTON FOR THE FIRST TIME (SORT OF)

A nicer than average house in Granada, Nicaragua. No light coming in from the front. Windows traditionally face an interior courtyard.

We have not had a good flying experience on this trip. As I mentioned, both our STL - DFW and DFW - LIR segments were four hours late. Not too much inconvenience, as we had planned to overnight at DFW anyway. On Saturday, our inbound plane to Liberia was on time. However, The Liberia CR airport is so far over capacity in high season that the plane had to wait a long time for a gate to open, so much so that the pilots timed out and can't fly all the way to Dallas. So we are landing in Houston to get another crew. Customs and immigration there, then on to Dallas, where we will miss the last flight to STL of the night. 

Never been to Houston. We've visited Kathmandu, El Calafate, Alice Springs and X'ían, but never America's fourth largest city. I could do without.                       

HAVE A BLESSED RIDE

 

An autorickshaw or tuk-tuk, if you will, in the old colonial town of Granada, Nicaragua. I think that's Our Lady of Guadalupe on the back, along with a sticker of a hostile, science fiction-y face. Yaya con Dios.

HAULAGE

 

I've done some reading about Nicaragua since our visit Tuesday. Its GDP per capita in 2024 was US$ 2,600 per year, second poorest in the western hemisphere after Haiti. There are trucks and vans, but horse drawn carts are common. 

It is striking, though, that Nicaragua's main roads are clearly better than Costa Rica's. Chinese foreign aid, according to our guide. I'll find an illustration.                   

STREET SCENE

 

We spent a lot of time on the road yesterday driving north from the Costa Rican border into Nicaragua. This is the southern town of Rivas. Some general impressions: Nicaragua is notably poorer than CR. The houses are mostly smaller and in rough shape. The cars are older and more beat up, and there are fewer of them. Lots of horse-drawn carts. In more populous areas, there are many autorickshaws, like you see in parts of Asia. Busses and some truck are as festively painted and religiously decorated as in India. Few if any of modern strip centers that are now common in CR. Many fewer supermarkets; our guide said they are too expensive and people prefer to buy from local roadside vendors. Flags are everywhere, with more of Daniel Ortega's Sandinista National Liberation Front than the national flag.

The day was exhausting and we took yesterday off. More of this to come.             

IT'S NOT EVERY DAY . . .

 

. . . that we watch spider monkeys on a volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua, eating fruit provided by tourists during a boat ride. As I mentioned, this is a big lake (19th largest in the world), with volcanoes in and around it. Some big blow sent huge chunks of black rock through the air, creating a group of islands in the northwest corner. This pair of monkeys were settled here, we were told, for rehab purposes.

Late post today. The tour company picked us up at 4 AM and got us back at 9 PM. Now a slow day.