Unfortunately it has been too long since my last post. For this post I want to talk a bit about my trip to Nicaragua and also about the different Cultures that we have here in Central america.
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| Ticabus |
The trip to Nicaragua was mostly good. Three of us left on the 7th of October with Ticabus (Bus here in Costa Rica and also kind of national pride - comparable to Air Canada or American Airlines) to Managua, Nicaragua. The bus might be the pride of Costa Rica but to be honest it was my worst trip ever (see picture). The space between the seats were less then 20cm and after a 9h drive my knees were red and in pain. Lesson learned, never again go with Ticabus. Then on our drive back we returned with Transnica from Nicaragua and the trip was like this (see picture). Ok enough for the buses, but if you are ever traveling through Central america I suggest you to avoid Ticabus.
In Nicaragua I had two main things to do. One was to talk at one of our events and the second was to visit two Pastors to talk about the possibility of them hosting one of our missions trips. I had three days to visit both Pastors but one of them lives at the Pacific coast and the other at the Caribbean coast. The plan was
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| Transnica |
that I would do that by bus but that was almost impossible due to the little time I had. So I rented a car and in those three days I drove just over 1000km. The trip across Nicaragua was really beautiful and a highlight of this trip and I can look pleased back to this part of the trip. It looks like that the meetings were successful and that we are going to have two more missions trip to Nicaragua. But exactly on this trip I also got robed and this not by any "normal" criminals no it was directly by the police. To explain what happened I have to give you some background information. On this whole trip I encountered once in awhile a police barricade which was set up with some cones. This meant for me to slow down and drive around the cones. So as I was returning from El Rama (see map) I can to an intersection just outside of Managua. I stopped and noticed that the police has set up some cones in the middle of the street. Well as experience has shown I thought that I had to go around them. What I didn't noticed was that the cones were set up to indicate a lane and that all the traffic that was coming from where I was coming was suppose to drive between the cones into that lane. Well as indicated I thought that I had to go around once more, which I did and which I wasn't suppose to do. The police then
informed me about this and told me that I had to pay USD110 :( Because I did't have any time to fight that and I didn't want to loos the documents of the rental car I had no other option then to pay the ticket. As I left the "crime scene" I noticed that the officer never gave me a receipt for the money I gave him, oh well, those two officers are now almost a minimums wage richer (minimum wage is about USD 130). Yes, this are USD110 that I will never see again
Now a few words to the culture. I had the chance so far to visit El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica and I heard a lot from Panama. Of all this countries Costa Rica is unfortunately the country that has the least night life and infrastructure. Well what do I mean with that? El Salvador as well as Nicaragua have a night life, you can go downtown or go to the promenade and have fun. Well in Costa Rica most of the city closes down by 10pm and nothing happens after that. And if we look at the capital cities San Salvador and Panama City have way the better infrastructure then Costa Rica. I'm still trying to figure out why Costa Rica is so expensive and why they think they are the greatest in central america. Don't get me wrong, Costa Rica is a very beautiful country and it has a lot to offer. I event think it is the best place to come to as a tourist but sadly I can't find and see to much of an own culture. I talked before of the food here, El Salvador has the Pulpusas and the Nicas have according to them invented the Pinto (rice and beans for breakfast). Yeah the verity of their food culture isn't the greatest. Really typical here is to have rice and beans three times a day. You can image how I might feel. Every chance I get to eat something different I'm looking really forward too.
A few words to the people. According to my experience* I find the Ticos (Costaricans) way friendlier and helpful then the Nicas but I would put them equal with the Salvadorians. As already said, I haven't been yet to Panama and can't take a stand to that yet. All three countries have one thing in common though, they are very influenced by the United States. For example does El Salvador use the US Dollar and the other countries have a lot of things that can be found in the US as well and remind the people of the US.
I think this is it for now. Thanks again for your interest. If you have any questions or just want to send me an email, then just get in touch with me. My contact information you'll find under Contacts.
God's richest blessing over you
*This few lines are my personal experience. Other people might have experienced this countries different and might learned different things. I don't want to confuse or hurt anyone here. This are just the things I learned so far about this countries.
