It's been a whirlwind since I arrived in Nicaragua on Saturday night. It is a certainly an interesting place. There are no street names or street signs, nor are there official languages. I left my foreseen address blank on the airport customs forms because my address of "from the evangelical university, four blocks to the north, one block to the east, house number 97, etc" was too long to write on the form. I think that is part of the charm of Managua however, is that it is a truly unique place. As the quadrilingual couple who owns the house I am staying in explained to me, Managua is more of a big town with a lot of traffic than a true metropolis. There are no tall buildings, all the houses are one story to protect against earthquakes, after the catastrophic quake of '72. There is also no real downtown. There are a few areas with some shops, aka shopping malls which greatly resemble shopping malls in the US, which also have some restaurants. However, there is no concentrated commercial area.
Below is a picture from the internet of what the Managua public busses look like. They are old school busses imported from the US, decorated and re-modeled to be used as city busses.
I am still figuring out my way around the city a little bit. Taxis here are very cheap (it's a buck fifty from my house to the office of Puntos de Encuentro), so I've been taking them everywhere, but I hope to take the bus tomorrow. The buses, as are pictured above, are apparently a different experience, so I'm excited to hopefully not get lost because unlike other cities, trying to use street names will not suffice. Instead, I will be forced to ask someone how to get to "from the plaza españa, four blocks down, 1 block towards the lake". If you come to Managua, make sure you take your sense of direction with you.
Stay tuned for more Nicaraguan adventures, I'll hopefully have some pictures for those crazy people who like visual references.
-Alex
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