No money, no hope, no one to call. Alone in the middle of Central America
The never-ending inner dialog, if the thing you are doing is right or wrong. What if, and what did I miss. I was standing on a sidewalk on a hot and humid day in Managua the capital of Nicaragua. The birds were singing in the same volume as the cars were roaring by. Horns honking everywhere. A busy mother having two children on one hand and all the grocery in the other. The clothes looked dirty and sweaty. The Lady was wearing a red shirt with white flowers and dark spots under her armpits and some jeans which were either too big or too large or just didn't fit the form of her body. The girl and the boy dressed simply in shirts and shorts. The boy was giving all his attention to a stick he picked up from the floor instead of listening to his mother. The girl was glad to have her mum. She seemed shy.
I didn’t really know where I was, I had a rough idea, but maybe that’s just was what I told myself to make me feel better. I was watching the taxi driving off. Away went the only thing familiar in this foreign country. I had tears in my eyes, I couldn't hold them back. I was so scared and sad, and it made me angry. I was in bad shape, without a plan, not even for the next ten minutes.
I was sitting down looking for the lady I saw before. No sing of her. Some boys were passing too fast in an old blue car. I need to orient myself, I thought. I am at a bus station. Many busy people with luggage, family and friends were behind me. When I turned around all the way, I could see the signs for the destination. Slowly I was walking towards the entry hall. Lots of Spanish shouting. Some seemingly very busy guys tried to find all the passengers for one of the buses which was about to leave. It was a very colorful bus, with red, yellow and blue stripes on a green background. The bus was packed to the top with luggage. I was having a feeling, some of them bags being strapped to the top of the bus might come loose during the ride. Two guys were balancing over the thin metal bars on the roof of the vehicle and tying all the bags as good as humanly possible. Still didn't feel quite right, I would make sure my bag stays with me. Ultimately it is a fairly small bag and I can balance it on my lap. (Total lie, my bag was huge unnecessarily huge, with lots of useless stuff crammed into it but I didn't know better)
As I was walking I was reading the signs. There was a bus taking you to Rivas where you could catch a ferry to one of the Islands of Lake Nicaragua, the biggest freshwater lake in Central America. The most famous Island Ometepe, consisting of two volcanoes with a land bridge which connects them. The smaller volcano Madera has a crater lake and the whole ridge is overgrown with trees and filled with monkeys, lots of crawling ants and other insects. The bigger Mountain of them two is Conception. It is a hard, rocky climb with loose rocks and lots of wind.
The next destination was Rama there was a ferry to Bluefield and from there you could take another boat to the Corn Islands. Very beautiful place but not what I needed or felt like. I couldn’t go to an island, I was craving for freedom, for far away and further to go. I could not go onto an island, I could not handle restrictions at this moment also not land restricted by water.
So, I kept reading the signs. The next up was Granada and I heard of it but didn't know anything more about the city, other than it is south and I think I have to go north. My options narrowed. There were buses to Costa Rica, El Salvador and even to Guatemala, but I had no idea where I want to go. I was leaving the station and was walking around the big parking lot where all the buses were waiting for departure. I went to buy some food. Some women selling fried chicken, some plantain and Gallo Pinto which is a fancy name for rice and beans. I was really having enough chicken in the last days, so I went for same tamales and looked for a place to enjoy my food. There was a narrow road to the right-hand side of the bus terminal. It looked kind of interesting. I walked through it and ended up on a big square with lots more and probably better food than I just acquired, but no reason to be sad over spilled milk. On an edge, there was a stand with lots of birds and one very special one. It was totally green with some red feathers on the back of his wings. He was bigger than the other birds and trained to speak. I was observing him during I ate my food and finally went over to give him a piece of my Tamales. Before I came to close, the vendor was holding me back and symbolizing that this bird likes to bite. Something told me it was OK, so I went towards it and reached out my hand to feed it. I got a very skeptic look from the creature. I quickly named him in my mind and started talking to him. Slowly he came closer and with a very quick movement he took the pace of tamales from my fingers. I liked him. For no good reason, but I really liked that bird. I got more secure and wanted to touch him when he started to get annoyed and showed me that he will bite me if I don’t fuck off. But for me, really wanting to touch that bird, his warnings didn't matter and so I walked away with a slightly bleeding finger and a whole bunch of laughing Nicaraguans.
I felt tired, annoyed and pain in my finger. My bag got so heavy and hot on my back that I was in danger of just falling. I needed sleep, I wasn't sleeping for some time out of more than one reason and one more hideous than the other. I looked for a place to stay at. My Budget was very limited, normally I would camp but in the city, I rather look for a really bad hotel. I walked up to a taxi driver and asked him with extremely bad Spanish where I can find a cheap hotel. When I say bad Spanish, I mean I through words like “me” and “hotel” and “cheap” towards the taxi driver and expect the man to understand me. I had a little book. I showed him “cheap” and “hotel”. Being in Nicaragua cheap should not be a problem, or so I thought. He told me he knows a place for 200 Cordoba I should come with him. But since I had no money to waist I wanted to walk. He convinced me that it is too far and too hot to walk. I agreed, still feeling pain in my finger from that stupid, cute parrot and now I started to feel a bit sick too. We agreed on 50 Cordoba for the taxi and he will bring me to, and that are his words, “a very, very cheap place”. We drove off. I had trouble to hold my eyes open. We drove slow due traffic and the chaos of the city. “Aqui,” the driver said, I followed his finger pointing to a good-looking house. I asked, “It is cheap???” “Very cheap” he replied. I left the taxi to ask for a room. My bag still in the car. A very friendly lady opened the door and welcomed me. The house looked clean, too clean for my budget I thought, so, I came straight to the point. “How much is a single bad?” I asked, “25 Dollars or 800 Cordoba,” she said. “Ok thank you very much I cannot afford that” I left and returned to the taxi. He seems angry. “You don't like?” he asked in a very pushy way. “No” I replied “ It is way out of my price range” “Ok, ok, ok, otro” he said and drove off with me sitting in the back. Confused, dehydrated, tired, feeling sick and of course still hurting from the parrot bite. We pulled up at on other decent looking place indicating it won’t be 150 to 200 Cordoba either. The Taxi driver was a bit antsy, leaving the car walking up to the hotel and ringing the bell. On older looking, small man opened the door and they started talking in a fast-paced Spanish. In the meanwhile, I was unloading my back bag because there was no sense in staying with this guy he clearly does not want to help me and just brings me to the tourist hotels instead of the ones I asked for. With a quick step, my driver returned to me. He was wearing a big G-shock watch, probably a fake and a shirt which was leaving his belly hanging out. 700 Cordoba he showed me “good price very, very cheap” he kept repeating. I thanked him for his help, wanted to pay and leave. I seemed like it was a waste of time and now being further away from where I needed to be namely a bad neighborhood with bad hotels. I handed my driver 50 Cordoba. “no, no, no” he said. He gesticulated and got all red in his very round face. He was trying to tell me the journey was longer and I need to pay more. “150” He showed me with his fingers. At once I lost my patients. I felt so sick and tired and started to get a really bad headache. He still was shouting towards me that he wants more money, even using some English words but mostly Spanish gibberish. People started looking at us. I handed him two 50 Cordoba bills, but he made a move back with his hands in the air and lets the money fall on the ground. He lets me know he wants more and he won’t take that money before he gets all of it. “Call Police" he kept repeating. I refused to pay more, sat down on the sidewalk and shouted back “well go one then, call the police.
Sitting there, I became aware of my surroundings, I was in a back alley. There were walls on each side of the street, houses within the walls and a few palm trees cracking up the concrete of the alleyway. The windows of the hotel and also the other houses had bars in front of them and the walls had sharp ends on the top. There were lots of flowers growing from everywhere. A big tree's branche hanging out from the other side of a wall. It was filled with Yellow flowers and green leaves. Beneath me were small weeds trying to push through the concrete, some of them successfully. The taxi guy now found more people who listened to him and he still was in a wild talking and shouting rage about “Policia”. The money, by now, got picked up by someone and everybody seems to be very excited about the whole story. The situation started to bore me. I looked around and took my chance. I stood up, grabbed my pack and walked away. I quickly went around the next corner and started running. I ran as fast as I could and tried to find a place to hide.
That is the beginning of my storry, let me know if you guys like it and sorry for any grammer or spelling errors, its my second language :)
