Grenada Nicaragua

Here are a few typical street scenes from Grenada Nicaragua. This city is a great example of a Spanish colonial city. Full of old buildings, beautiful squares and intimate courtyards you can not help but enjoy walking around and taking in the sites and thinking about how much history this old town has seen.

I have picked out three unique pictures that I think highlight Grenada. The church is one of many examples of the Spanish colonial history visitors come to see. The horse and cart showcases that Nicaragua is a country in transition where old and new mingle. Finally I showcase one of two courtyard pool at the Hotel Colonial where we stayed. This classic hotel is just off the main square and is a great example of mixing comfort and style with the historical feeling you have journeyed to embrace.

If you get a chance to visit Grenada do so it is similar in feel to Antigua Guatemala but at a much different stage in its evolution.

Ortegas Nicaragua

During the road trip we all looked forward to our time in Nicaragua. Not only does the country have the reputation for beauty and history it also more recently has been once again on the world stage with the election of Daniel Ortega a socialist with a checkered past. His election sent some shock waves through Central America as investors and Expats alike are worried that he will do damage to the emerging economy and emulate Venezuela's Hugo Chavez with privatization of land and business. Will all of that happen only time will tell but right before our trip we heard that a local oil company was privatized.

When we entered Nicaragua the first thing we saw was a classic socilalist propaganda poster that to me echoed back to all of the communist images I grew up watching on TV as a child.

The message was clear. Arriba, Los Pobres Del Mundo or in english, Rise, The poor of the world. We saw this same image dozens of times all over the country. We also heard a consistent message from the hotel keepers and locals we interacted with that they are none to pleased with how things are going so far.

It will be interesting to see if this political relic can keep power and how far he will go backward with his socialist programs.

If your not familiar with Ortega this little snippet from WIkipedia gives you some of the back story:

José Daniel Ortega Saavedra (born 11 November 1945) is the current President of Nicaragua. For much of his life, he has been an important leader in the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional or FSLN).

After a popular rebellion resulted in the overthrow and exile of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, Ortega became a member of the ruling multipartisan junta and was later elected president, serving from 1985 to 1990. His first period in office was characterized by socialist policies, internal dissent, hostility from the United States, and armed rebellion by U.S.-backed Contras.

Ortega was defeated by Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in the 1990 presidential election, but he remained an important figure in Nicaraguan opposition politics. He was an unsuccessful candidate for president in 1996 and 2001 before winning the 2006 presidential election

[edit] 2006 Presidential Election
The 2006 Nicaraguan presidential election was held on November 5, 2006. FSLN presidential candidate Ortega was the victor in the November elections, having attained 37.99% of the votes cast. The Nicaraguan Liberal Alliance (ALN) gained 28.30%, the Liberal Constitutional Party (PLC) won 27.11%, the Movement for Sandinista renewal (MRS) 6.29% and the Alternative for Change (AC) 0.29%. The FSLN were the party out in force to celebrate a victory the night after the election took place on November 6. Following his election, Ortega was congratulated by Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, and Fidel Castro, the president of Cuba.[12].

Herty Lewites – who was also running for president prior to his death in July 2006 – suggested that Ortega's pact with Alemán had given Ortega de facto control of the bodies responsible for administering the election, and thus that Ortega would most likely have been the winner. Under the old law, Ortega would have gone to a second round against Eduardo Montealegre (he would have needed 45% instead of 35%.) International observers, including the Carter Center, judged the election to be free and fair. Ortega was congratulated by telephone by Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, who chanted "long live the Sandinista revolution!" The White House confirmed on January 8, 2007 that U.S. President Bush also had called Ortega to congratulate him on his election victory.


[edit] Ortega's second presidency
While supporting abortion rights during his presidency during the 1980s, Ortega has since embraced the Catholic church's position of strong opposition.[13] While non-emergency abortions have long been illegal in Nicaragua, recently even abortions "in the case where the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life" have been made illegal in the days before the election, with a 6 years prison term in such cases too -- a move supported by Ortega.[14]

In his first week as President of Nicaragua, Ortega met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The two heads of state toured shantytowns in Managua. Ortega told the press that the "revolutions of Iran and Nicaragua are almost twin revolutions...since both revolutions are about justice, liberty, self-determination, and the struggle against imperialism."[15]

As of June 2007, a CID-Gallup survey published in the Managua daily La Prensa found that Ortega's approval level had dropped significantly, 26% of Nicaraguans having a positive image of his handling of the job, 36% a negative impression, and the remaining a neutral impression. The poll also indicated that 54% were still optimistic about Ortega and the government, in particular the health and education policies. Additionally, 57% of Nicaraguans believed the country is on the "wrong track", and only 31% believed that the country is on the "right track". CID-Gallup surveyed 1,258 people throughout the country and had a margin of error of more or less 2.5%.

You meet interesting people in Bars

I know your parents tell you don't spend a lot of time in bars you will only get in trouble etc. Well that is partially true but not always. On my recent road trip we spent a little bit of time in bars (your surprised I am sure) and we met some interesting folks.

One of the neat folks we met was at the hotel bar in the Clarion in Tegucigalpa. The mans name was Checo and his neat bar trick was to make a profile of a person out of black construction paper(kinda a mug shot turn to the left thing).

Well this guy Checo who kind of resembles your stereotypical central American lounge lizard approaches me in the hotel bar while me and my buddy Sashi (DW for Double Whiskey) Mioshi and I were sampling a little bit of Johnny Walker.

He is holding a big pair of scissors so I am immediately paying attention. Then he says just look straight ahead for a second. Again I am concerned but start to figure out he is up to some bar trick. I hope the trick is not to stick me in the jugular and I continue to stare forward for about a minute while unbeknownst to me the man freehand cuts on construction paper my silhouette and pastes it onto a piece of copy paper. As you can see he was somehow able to capture my hmm... how should I put this "distinctive" profile.

Everyone was impressed and we tipped him a few dollars and he continued to do Zach and Sashis too. Pretty good time and now from the bar at the clarion to my fridge at home his art hangs in perpetuity.

Central American Road Trip Report

One of the great things about living is Roatan is the proxmity to all Central America has to offer. Recently I took great advantage of this with an old fashion road trip.

We shipped the RAV 4 cindy drives over to the mainland and 3 buddies (Zach Wagner, Sashi Mioshi, Mario Pollio) and myself set out on a road trip from La Ceiba in Honduras to Costa Rica.

The first day we went from La Ceiba to Valley of the Angels via Progresso and Lake Yajoa. It was a very pretty drive. We overnighted in Santa Lucia which is just out side of Valley of the Angels.

Day two we headed south to the Nicaraguan border at Los Manos where we made the crossing and got our first taste of the Daniel Ortega burracraucy that is Nicaragua. We continued moving down to Managua where we had lunch and then pushed onto San Juan Del Sur where we overnighted and took in this nice little beach town.

Day three we pushed further south and crossed into Costa Rica where we made our way to Tamarrindo. Tamarrindo is a famous surf and party town. We found a place to lay our heads across the street from the beach and settled in for 3 days of relaxing, eating, surfing and some night life.

Finally our time in Tamarrindo was up and we headed north back into Nicaragua where we stayed the night in Grenada. Grenada is a beautiful spanish colonial town with well preserved and old architecture. We stayed the Colonial hotel and really enjoyed our time in the city looking around, eating and taking it all in.

The next day was a nice drive north to Tegucigalpa and back into home sweet honduras. Tegus is the capital of Honduras and is located in the mountains which creates a lot of neat views. We stayed at the Clarion hotel and really enjoyed ourselves. The evening was a little bit of dinner and some touring around the city with some friends of Marios that live in Tegus.

From Tegus we headed out toward Copan via Santa Barbara. Unfortunatley the weather was against us and raining very hard so we decided to ditch the Copan journey and head into San Pedro Sula.

The last day was a quick drive from San Pedro to Tela where we toured that up and coming beach town. Then on down into the La Ceiba area where we checked out Pico Bonita lodge. Then a quick drive into La Ceiba where we caught the ferry back to Roatan.

All in all a great trip and something that i encourage anyone to do when they have the chance.