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September 18, 2005
Crossing Into Nicaragua
Today, after eating at a great breakfast place the little guy on the right led us to, we jumped in a colectivo van that took us to the border. The driver and the collector almost got it as full as the bus last night but not quite. Em had a 7 year old on her lap most of the ride and in all there were 26 people in the mini-van. No kidding. Soon though we had our backpacks on and were walking into Nicaragua.
After going through immigration we jumped in a taxi to get to the nearest town Somoto, which was about 20 km away. The driver and I talked about sports, Cuba, Nicaragua and more during the ride. After he dropped us off we were again shortly on another school bus. Before we departed to Esteli we talked with a 12 year old and 15 year old who sold us some bottled water for the trip. When Em asked if they were brothers the older boy replied that they were friends but only at work, as the younger boy would ignore him when he saw him on the street at night. Apparently, he wasn’t popular enough to hang out with the other kids outside of work but Em and I thought he was a sweetheart. We talked to him until our bus left and he shook our hands and said he was happy we met before he jumped off the bus as it pulled out of the station.
Two hours later we arrived in Esteli and found out we needed to head to another terminal to get to Matagalpa. Everyone has been quick to help us out, often without us asking or asking for anything in return. At about 4:30 we pulled into Matagalpa. It turns out that we are here for the annual town agricultural fair which today featured a huge parade through town with horses and floats.
We found a hotel, watched the parade, grabbed some food, and then made our way to the fair where at 8:00 I got to see my first live rodeo. We talked with a family next to us who had 4 boys ranging from 6-11 and a little girl who was 4 years old. The rodeo was a bit disappointing as it mainly consisted of a young bull bucking someone within 5 seconds and then 5 minutes of the clowns torturing the poor animal that was clearly confused and outmatched. Still it was an interesting experience. I had to keep reminding myself where I was. Traveling through all of these countries in such a short time it is easy to lose track. Also, being at a rodeo is one of the last things I thought I would be doing on my first night in Nicaragua.
Posted by Peter Mork at September 18, 2005 12:20 AM
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