Hannes Schick
The
Nicaraguans today, more than the revolution, dream of tourists with green
notes.
All the money spent to visit
this country is returned with a generous hospitality, a sparkling humanity
and a paternalistic lesson of politics.
Managua, the capital that
extends between lakes and volcanoes, has never been rebuilt since Somoza's
dictatorship, and it hasn't changed since the earthquake that largely destroyed
it. The centre is a black hole surrounded by a series of shopping centres
and satellite districts.
Supermarkets have been filled
again since the United States lifted the devastating economic embargo and
the city has found its social life again.
Nicaragua has also been
the hideout of some Italians accused of terrorism, of receiving kickbacks
and other people who were in the public eye for committing illegal acts.
Times have changed and the
idealists who came here to support the Sandinistas have been replaced by
tourists who want to discover the charm of the third world.
This might mean to find
oneself in the body of a lorry, together with the local people, to reach
the wonderful beach of Marsella, near San Juan del Sur.
It is dotted with palms,
shells, billows and sunsets that are almost unbelievable: purple, orange
red and turquoise.
When the evening comes,
people relax on rocking chairs, the furniture symbol of this country, under
a roof of interwoven palm branches, in one of San Juan's restaurants.
The waiter, a biochemical
engineer, unemployed as many of his colleagues, will put a bottle of rum
on your table and will say that Coca-Cola is finished. Cola and rum, or
rather “nica libre” is the national drink.
From San Juan del Sur, Grenada
on Lake Nicaragua is about one hour away by car. Grenada is a picturesque
city with a missionary church in which Cristobal de Las Casas, the apostle
of the Indians, preached.
Lake Nicaragua, that is
180 km long and 60 km wide, is almost an inland sea, linked to the Pacific
Ocean through Rio San Juan.
A small boat carries people
to some of the 354 islets of the lake.
Actually these tiny islettas
are pieces of lava, spitted into the water by the nearby Mombacho volcano.
The water of the lake is so shallow that whole families dip half their
bodies in it and fish guapote, a very tasty fish that lives only in these
waters.
Ometepe, the largest island
of Lake Nicaragua, lies in the south-east part. The silhouettes of two
volcanoes, one extinct and the other active, overlook the island's line.
The extinct is called Maria
Concepción and its top can be reached after a five-hour easy climb.
It is worth visiting the
lush vegetation that covers it, whose nature varies from alpine to tropical,
and the striking crater that gives off heat despite not being active.
From Grenada it is possible
to reach San Carlos by steamer. San Carlos lies on the other side of the
lake and looks like a village of the Far West.
The main road is muddy,
the National Bank is a wood hut, and the harbour faces a square full of
crumbling restaurants and stalls that sell everything. Lorries and coaches
leave from San Carlos and head towards the autonomous regions of the Atlantic
coast. These regions are tropical, scantily populated.
Thanks to her tropical climate,
Nicaragua boasts lush flora and fauna.
Besides the great number
of aboriginal species, Nicaragua is the point in which North American and
South American species intermingle.
In the 2000 square kilometres
of Rio del Mais alone, there are more species of plants than in Canada,
that has an area of ten million square kilometres.
Furthermore, there are more
classes of butterflies and birds flying in the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua
than in Europe as a whole.
The road ends at Rama: from
there on people must travel by boat to reach the Atlantic coast, mostly
peopled by the descendants of the African slaves and the Misquito Indians.
The administrative centre
of the region is Bluefields, a city whose streets basically do not exist
and the houses are made almost exclusively by cardboard and aluminium sheets.
For those who want to go
on, there is a ship that goes to Corn Island, an out-of-the-way archipelago
in the Atlantic Ocean.
The ship leaves twice a
week, but no one knows exactly when.
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