Managua

A capital of such vast and empty expanses I have not seen before; indeed,
Managua has been destroyed by earthquakes in the past and it seems as though
the older central areas are now just designated as ´parks´, which is really
just a polite way of saying that they´re large garbage-strewn areas of dirt in
between broken pavement that pass as roads. In this area are some respectably
foul shantytowns exist, as well as a small smattering of cultural sites along
the lakefront, including a destroyed cathedral that has been propped up with
iron girders to keep it from falling. When your capital has this much to offer,
including a destroyed cathedral, no wonder people seem to arrive and depart at
breakneck speed.

I hunted high and low for a latin-style ´centro´ in this apparent ´city´, but
ultimately found little evidence of such. Altamira is a designated new central
area, but in fact to someone familiar with north American sprawl it will appear
as just that - albeit dirtier, hotter, and smellier. Indeed plenty of American
businesses have set up shop here, and the only shreds of intensity that the
city has to offer are found in the very westernized shopping malls. (Oh yes,
the McDonald´s-o-metre brings Nicaragua at USD$2.50, the lowest price I´ve seen
for a Big Mac meal in my travels.) You can, however, rent a car here in Managua
from all of the usual suspects to help out in your exploration of the little
that the city has to offer, and in fact I would have to recommend it.
The other centre is merely a shopping centre found across the street from the
fanciest hotel in town, and is reminiscent of a mall from a small Canadian
town. (Ah, how I missed Penticton... but here I am!). I have also managed to
secure possibly the foulest accomodation yet for myself, which is saying quite
a bit(a mouse! I´ve never rented a room with a mouse scurrying about in it
before. Combined with the ants and the cracks in the walls leading to outside,
this one might even beat the mosquito-ridden experience I had in Durres,
Albania). When I compare this city to the other capitals of central America I
have visited, which are few - Panama City, and if you want to stretch it a
little bit, Merida in Mexico - Managua is waay behind, unfortunately. It
doesn´t even feel like a city.

It is as if a few million people arrived in a place, built their houses and
their roads, but the businesses and infrastructure that make a city what it is
have never arrived. Or, quite possibly, disappeared. The saving grace to the
place is its view of the blue-brown lake Manauga, which
brings in big winds that cool the place down and make it not nearly as
oppressively hot as other places in Central America. And at least, as I
mentioned, McDonald´s has found fit to invest here, as well as TGI Friday´s and
the rental car companies. Someone wants to be here, but it´s not the someone
that will pull this city out from tectonic ruins and perpetual rebuilding and
into a new era where there is in fact a skyline to see. It was a curious
experience, somewhat similar to Mongu in Zambia where I knew I was in the town
but there was no town to be seen - except in the case of Mongu I found that
town´s centre eventually; here, there is no treasure after all of the hunti
ng - Managua is a massively decentralized sprawl of buildings and shopping
malls that feels like it should be tacked onto a larger more urbanized area
somewhere - but that somewhere does not seem to exist.

The whole Sandinista thing is over, and the elections held here went well
several months ago; although, the monument near the lake celebrating the
contributions of the Iranians to the Nicaraguans seems to be a curious item in
a poor country that is desperate for whatever development good ol´ Uncle Sam
will throw their way - and hey, I guess they´re over that whole Contra thing
and the fact that the Hague found the USA guilty of mining Nicaragua´s harbours
- they´re hungry for investment, and will look the other way that their big
northern neighbour decided to play a little anti-communist power game ever so
long ago(which wasn´t that long ago, you know, back in the 80´s or so).

Given the short range of the trip I will keep things simple here. Tomorrow, a
visit to Granada, and on friday a visit to Leon; the two cities, on either side
of Managua, have defined the political struggles that have befallen Nicaragua
in the past, and in many ways its present as well.








































Granada



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