Managua Take 2

My second take on Managua Nicaragua.

After finally settling into our house after a good 10 days of shifting hostel to hostel, we are finally able to begin exploring what is around us, and can gather a greater sense of our new barrio. First topic at hand, security. Depending on who you talk to, Managua is either an extremely dangerous city, where you need to keep guard at all times and all places (which is the truth), yet others will tell you that it has improved greatly lately and compared to the rest of Central America it is one of the safest and you are better off here than many other neighboring countries. I personally feel slightly on edge, but not a whole lot more than other developing nations.

City Behind Bars
Getting into our house is quite the process, as first, there is a gate with a padlock, then another two locked doors to pass. So you need to fumble around with three keys to come AND go. So if you want to let a friend out you need to go and get your keys to open all the doors... A little time consuming, but once you are inside our house you can see why we chose this locale; a beautiful garden area separates the front section with the back, a nice open air area (in reality almost all of the house is quite open air, which is necessary to keep airflow and a fresh breeze without the need for AC).

 The most secure feeling when you are enclosed with spun, jagged metal-topped fences. This, along with our three locks needed to enter can either make you feel very secure, or it can make you feel there is a real reason for all of this, and possibly a little less secure once you think about it....

A close up of our cage-sweet home. It doesn't look fancy from the outside (and really its not too fancy inside), but its cozy yet spacey, familiar yet exotic, and comfortable yet rustic. Its just what Kathy and I needed to balance out our lives here in Managua

This is the view down our street, arriving by taxi the first few times was quite difficult as it all looks the same and it very hard to locate. The houses for the most part are all just single storied buildings hidden behind a long wall of bars. You need to get familiar with the shade of paint on your bars, or the shape of the trees around your house - there are quite a few trees trimmed to perfection actually, in quite stark contrast from some of the barred dives, leading to the horticultural masterpieces.

Above to the left is the entrance area to our house, lined with pillows on the floor and a comfy sitting area; one of our housemates can often be found here, relaxing on the netbook or napping after a night of little sleep :)

 And here is the beautiful sala with the open air concept, behind you can see the winding stairs that lead up to my room. I like this room the most out of the house, and with the fan and the evening breeze it is a lovely locale to watch a movie or read a book.

This is our mid-garden area. There is a little cooking/bbq area, along with a tiny table and some chairs. It is sort of a courtyard, and you can look down at it from upstairs as well.

 Around our neighborhood there are evident contrasts, as I see some fairly wealthy houses and families, right next to explicit poverty. When you walk across the main street near our place you find yourself staring into the face of poverty immediately, with a sort of duct/storm drain almost acting as a separating factor. There are makeshift bridges to peoples establishments and businesses to bridge the gap.

 These two pictures of a gas station along one of the main streets just illustrates the development that screams American auto culture, as you would be a little confused as to where you were if you were planted here all of a sudden. I wouldn't be able to tell you if I were in Canada or Nicaragua, if it weren't for the PUMA sign on the station, I thought it was a brand of shoes...

This is just a glimpse of what the bus terminals look like in Managua. This particular section isn't too busy, or maybe we hit it at a low time of day, but these are some of the buses carrying the population from city to city, along with some of the nicer buses as well, not seen at the moment in the photos. I foresee myself returning here soon to catch a bus to the next destination, as its always fun to get yourself out of the city on weekends.

Although the blog is a little hodgepodge in this entry, maybe I'll work at working out some themes in consecutive posts :) I hope at least it has lent a little more of an idea of our lives so far in Managua.

Until next time. Adrien