Post date: Mar 11, 2013 12:42:28 PM
11 March 2013
I went to Granada again last weekend (9-10 March 2013) to look for possible house to rent next dry season. (Here is a map of some of the places I visited.)
On route to Granada all traffic was delayed at least half hour due to a horrible accident. When we finally got to the scene one vehicle was leaving on the back of a tow truck. The other was still blocking one lane. Neither of the smashed bundle of steel was recognizable as car, van, or truck. I have never seen two such mangled vehicles from one accident. One might have been white, the other rusty brown. Since the police are required to come before any vehicle can be moved, traffic is often blocked for even minor dents. But this was a doozie.
Sunday - the return trip.
Interesting twist: my iPod was set to Houston time zone, which should be the same as Central America. Except that this weekend Houston switched to daylight 'savings' time without letting me know. So I got up at what my iPod clock said was 6 am, took my shower, and went in search of breakfast. I walked through the central square, whose trees were filled with Great-tailed Grackles, and these grackles were making a fearsome noise (listen to 'Grackles in Granada' audio clip, below). My target cafe was not yet open. So I slowly wandered around and returned to the square to watch the vendors set up. I went to another breakfast spot about 7:30 (or so I thought) and they said to come back when they opened at 7. Humph. Nicaraguan time, I thought. Went to a hotel that we had visited previously (Casa San Francisco) and had a really nice breakfast. I was even greeted with a coffee pot there!
Along about noon I looked for lunch and at 12:15 (by my iPod) I went to lunch spot. They assured me that lunch would be available at noon. Really strange. So I went out and looked at my (borrowed) cell phone, which always has accurate local time. It said 11:17. Goodness. Time for me to see why my iPod was an hour off. The settings were 'Houston' time zone, so I changed it to 'Managua' and, lo and behold, I had half an hour to wait for lunch! At least the carne asada was worth the wait at the Grill House, across the Calzada from Hotel Dario.
The van drivers between Managua, Granada, and Masaya seem to be less aggressive (smoother) than those on the Leon route. This time the large van even had reasonably comfortable seats. The trip to Managua was uneventful, but got more interesting when I arrived in Managua. I am waiting and writing this because I am one stop from the end of my bus ride from Granada, and I had the choice of wasting two hours going out to the dorm in Ciudad Sandino and back in for church, or resting here. (You can see some of this on my map.)
So I am sitting in the "Food Court" at the central shopping mall "MetroCentro" in Managua. I am both resting and cooling down. It is a bit noisy (75 db) but not bad and the noise is happy kids :) Managua is hot today, and the food court is the only public area of the mall that is cooled. (Some of the stores are cooled, but not the mall area, and there are no seats in the mall area anyway. The La Colonia supermarket is cooled and has a deli area, but it is overcrowded at the moment.)
In the center of the mall today is a big sales pitch with all the usual - loud music, big-screen video, and pretty sales-girls - for (and it took me a long time to determine) cell phones. Not that the mall doesn't already have kiosks and specialty stores for cell phones, but we'll add a special attraction today. [On my last visit the attraction was folk dancing.]
As I was giving up on finding a cool sitting area I went out the door and, behold, the JHC bus is just then disgorging the latest Bucknell delegation for their tour of the MetroCentro! I had not seen the food court when wandering around, but the mention of it had me turning back. I will nurse a large Coke and watch the many families for as long as I can, then catch a city bus to Batahola cultural center, where the Dominican priest holds Mass at six pm on Sundays.
This food court has every kind of Nicaraguan and north American fast food imaginable, including Eskimo ice cream, which is ever-present here in the form of small insulated carts that sell ice cream bars on a stick with the same jiggling bell attractant all over Nicaragua. They have different weekly specials. This week it is chocolate-dipped vanilla for C$8. Last week was chocolate flavored Popsicle for C$7.
We also see that the food court has Valenti's pizza, carne a la parrilla (grill), Mr. Lee, Quiznos, RostiPollos, McDonalds, Pollo Estrella, Oriental King, Pizza Hut Express, TipTop (Nica fried chicken), Burger King, Yea Gelato, Subway, Marea Alta (a seafood bar), and a few around the corner. Kids play area in the middle. The only other shopping mall in Nicaragua in Galerías, similar but with high-end restaurants and located closer to upper-class and ex-patriot residences.
I have now managed to kill over an hour and still have ice in my cup! The crowds are beginning to thin out - maybe a third of the tables are empty and there are no long lines waiting for food - but the atmosphere is still very active. Ah! We just had an invasion of foreigners: two girls, each with two huge packs (front and back), a guy with a surfboard(!), and a pale red-headed gringa with a very small pack. Talk about outstanding!
Time to catch a bus to Batahola. Actually the bus stop is called El Seminario. Bye for now.