La Vida Nica

[Toyotero]

La Purisima y La Griteria

I made it over to Leon to be present for one of the biggest celebrations in Central America - La Griteria and La Purisima. National law states that yesterday after 1pm and all day today are holidays, so I bounced out early and caught the last bus out of town and trucked over to Leon (3 hr trip; 30 Cordoba/ ~$1.30) which is famous for being the most active participant in the celebration.

Some people describe it as being similar to American Halloween due to the fact that people go from door to door asking for candy/gifts. The difference is that they ask "?Quien causa tanta alegria? (Who causes so much happiness?) the the house people reply "!La concepcion de la virgin Maria!" That's the reason for the celebration, and it is tradition that people make an altar to the Virgin Mary in their house.

All the churches also set up altars, as well as many businesses and government offices. Not only is candy given out... My wife and I went out "gritando" and we were given 1/4 lb bags of salt by one business, plastic cups and the cathedral and at the police station we were given small tubes of make-up remover... that last one seemed kind of odd to me too.

A church and their altar:

The altar my wife set up at her family's house.

We bought a lot of candy to give away from a local traditional-style candy maker.

- Huevo Chimbo (pink round)
- Cajeta negra, cajeta rosada, cajeta blanca (in middle)
- Nisperitos (brown balls)

Coyolitos... my personal favorite. They are made from bananas, brown sugar, etc. Delicious!

The candy went pretty fast...



After we gave all the candy away (600 baggies in less than 15 minutes!) we took to the street to see the sights and sounds. It's really amazing to see a city come alive with people everywhere out for the event.

A fritanga (street grilled food venders) in Leon Nicaragua

Fireworks


Leon's Parque Central and Cathedral


Cheers,

 

[Toyotero]

Fireworks in Leon's central park for the Purisima on Wed night.


More videos to come... the tubes aren't so fast down here.



BTW, a few things I learned in a conversation with a good Nica friend about driving in Nicaragua :

1. Reflector tape is required by law in all vehicles... if you are traveling through the country, you might put some on front and rear just so the cops have one less thing to hook you when pushing for a bribe (along with 2 triangles and extinguisher)
   
2. Accidents are prosecuted as a criminal offense. Accidents with a fatality are prosecuted as a murder. Watch out for those drunks stumbling down the road (no joke, I've seen a LOT of public intoxication here... many men literally stumbling down the highway at night in the dark or sleeping in the gutter in town... another reason not to drive at night!)

Also, liability insurance is required by law for all drivers, similar as in the USA, but here it is issued by banks. Of course, insurance premiums everywhere are set based on the statistics of claims made by the customer's profile. I'm guessing that because of the way accidents are treated by law here, not too many people make claims... people prefer to settle it on the spot verses deal with Juan Law, the court, and their insurance company. This is reflected by the fact that liability insurance costs $60 per year at BAC. ($5 per month!)... and the fact that so many cars are beat up and not fixed.


Today is my birthday, so I'm going to try to go out and celebrate it in Nicraraguan style... as soon as I find out what that means :-d It'll probably involve a Cerveza Toña, some Flor de Caña with coke and lime, a "Nica Libre!" and a Joya de Nicaragua cigar if I can find one.

 

[x32792]

¡Happy Birthday!

 

[Toyotero]

It's the busy season, so I've been slammed with work the last few weeks, no time to write up much here...

I got a new company car yesterday... a Land Cruiser.
I dug the Nissan Patrol, but this is more my style.

 

[bobDog]

It's the busy season, so I've been slammed with work the last few weeks, no time to write up much here...

I got a new company car yesterday... a Land Cruiser.
I dug the Nissan Patrol, but this is more my style.

Hey are those bushes in the background Rhody's if so they have a different blossom then I've seen.
O Yeah...nice truck....I'd work there just to get the truck:smiley_drive:

 

[greentruck]

That LC pickup is one sweet ride, right down to the hood ornament.:smiley_drive:

 

[harrygail87]

hello ,
i am harrygail new user . really i like all this picture . your collection is so fantastic . i hoap you will add more new picture.

 

[Toyotero]

That LC pickup is one sweet ride, right down to the hood ornament.:smiley_drive:

Yeah, they come with those hood ornaments here, I'm not sure about the rest of the world...


Here are a few interesting photos... this is of a tree in my yard and it's roots... it reminds me of a Joshua Tree from the park in CA, sort of...

The other photo is of a cream that I found in a veterinary shop... it is for cows, you put it them to keep away the vampire bats!

 

[tanglefoot]

Great pics--what an experience!

I bet that truck is a Chinese copy of an Isuzu truck. The auto designers in China are pros at copying existing cars. More examples here:

http://gemssty.com/2006/10/29/top-10-copycat-cars/

Do any of these BYD's look familiar? I see a previous-generation corolla and a Benz E-class.

http://www.byd.com/

Whoa...the JMC lineup looks very Isuzu'esque... http://www.chinacarforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3456

....Sorry, back to the report....

 

[Toyotero]

The auto designers in China are pros at copying existing cars. More examples here:

http://gemssty.com/2006/10/29/top-10-copycat-cars/.

Thanks for the link.

There are a Great Wall truck and an SUV in town that look EXACTLY like a 1990s Toyota truck and 4Runner. I've been trying to catch them parked to get some photos... I thought they were re-badged Toyotas (or badge engineered models ) for a while, or perhaps Toyota had sold off the old sheetmetal stamping and manufacturing equipment to a Chinese company after they changed models, but now I think that they are reverse engineered (copied) cars...

 

[Toyotero]

One thing that is always present in this country is the poverty. This is a typical very simple house and their garbage recycling system. Pigs are used worldwide because they are the best animal for converting garbage to food. Just be careful of the trichinosis which is a problem here.

Spanish speakers... can you spot the humorous mistake in this image?

I've been to my share of "dive bars," but I don't think I'm ready for this place yet.

They're here...

I came upon this accident in the highway on the edge of town... it looks like it was caused by poor maintenance/mechanics so I had to get some photos. They should have double checked those nuts before hitting the road (the axle seperated from the springs and the rolled out from under the bus while it was in motion).

You'll notice they are using their required road triangle

I recently found a huge nest of huge ants... I didn't get a shot of the nest (about 8ftX8ft of cleared space and piled sand/gravel) because I was fascinated by the ant's huge head and size; he was about 3/4 inch long.

Did I mention that there are a lot of 40 series LCs here? A nice BJ-45 I saw in town.

My casual interest in insects grows with every more interesting one that I encounter.

Another image with my leatherman for size (link)
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_VS3rWQkNXS0/TPca7gYt2kI/AAAAAAAAuCU/zuimAHbiQRM/s800/PB300774.JPG


And my less than casual interest in what I find in grocery stores grows

From the meat section... bulls balls of both the ocular and testicular type :-/

Rubber Tree.

One interesting thing about where I work is that it used to be a rubber plantation. Of course, rubber now is made from petroleum but in the olden days rubber came from a tree who's sap is, well, rubbery. There are a few existing trees still around and you can see more or less how it was harvested and why.

[video=youtube;itmBU06GbnU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmBU06GbnU [/video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmBU06GbnU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUq6WRWImNs


Some show the scars of when they were actively harvested.

I recently went on a trip to Managua to pick up a new truck and I saw this building on Tipitapa. I'm not sure what it was to become, but I think that construction is on hold.

I was also fortunate to find some nice restrooms at a gas station... no pics of the room, but the men's/women's markers were interesting.

Obviously the men's room. That newspaper is probably not for reading...

The women's room... she's making a phone call to ask for some paper!

One thing I've always wanted was to live in the mountains... I always expected that I'd end up in Colorado, but for now, this scenery makes me feel content :-D

 

[RockyMtnFamily]

On Pulperia Virgo, if Cagar means to take a sh@t, does Regargar mean to sh@t oneself? Needless to say, I don't think I would want to sample either of those dishes.

Also, what kind of foods are Guirila and Cuajada?

I appreciate you sharing this new chapter of your life and hope to take my family down there in a couple of years. We are teaching the children Spanish currently and our 4 year old eagerly asks questions regarding new vocabulary words wherever we go.

Kevin

 

[Toyotero]

On Pulperia Virgo, if Cagar means to take a sh@t, does Regargar mean to sh@t oneself? Needless to say, I don't think I would want to sample either of those dishes.

Also, what kind of foods are Guirila and Cuajada?

I appreciate you sharing this new chapter of your life and hope to take my family down there in a couple of years. We are teaching the children Spanish currently and our 4 year old eagerly asks questions regarding new vocabulary words wherever we go.

Kevin

Recargar is like to recharge;
'La recarga' is 'the recharge' which in this instance means to purchase credit for cell phones.
Cagar does indeed mean 'to take a ********" (vulgar word chosen to express the level of vulgarity of cagar.)
Recaga isn't a real word, but one might interpret it to mean "re-******tted".. ha ha!

One thing about life here that I haven't mentioned is the phone system. Like most 3rd world countries, cell phones are pretty much THE phone system... this is better than most in that there is a conventional wired system but it's probably less than 10% of the numbers. The two service providers are Claro and Movistar... until recently there was also Enitel, but Claro bought them. The nice thing about the phone system is the ease and low price of purchasing a phone and service. Phones are available for as low as $20 USD and they come with a phone number... there is no paperwork to fill out, just drop 400 cordoba (~22/$1) and you've got service with no monthly payment. As long as you have a charged battery, you can receive calls.
Of course, you can't make a call yet, you've got to buy credit to do that. Phone credit can be purchased in 10 cordoba increments and some venders charge 10% on top of the credit price. It is sold in nearly every pulperia by people with a special kind of phone account; their cell phone is a point of sale. You just tell them how much you want to buy and what your number is and they issue you credit.

Two things about the system are annoying. One is that the credit expires typically about 10 days after you buy it and second is that phone calls are expensive, approximately $0.25 per minute, same price for domestic or international calls. On top of that, once you have a cell phone with credit, the phone companies send you a ton of spam text messages. Most are opportunities to spend you credit to enter a raffle for furniture, motorcycles and Toyotas. Others are offers to send you your horoscope daily, news, weather, etc, etc, etc. I get about 5-8 text messages each day with offers... I almost think that the phone companies make more money through them than they do through phone service!

The companies started something recently is that on certain days (they notify you via a text message in the morning) they multiply credit X2, X3 or X4. X4 brings the price down to a better rate, but "bonus credit" goes into your bonus account and cannot be used for text messages (or entering a Toyota raffle), it can only be used for voice communication to cell numbers serviced by the same company. This has severely hurt some of the small businesses that offer low price (1 cord per minute ~ $0.05/min) international calls, typically over IPvoice connections (similar to skype, google voice chat, etc).

Personally, I miss the large amount of competition in the US that has created a wide variety of service contract offerings and low prices...




Guirila is a sweet corn tortilla... Nica tortillas are much thicker than MX ones. It is commonly eaten with Cuajada which is a soft white cheese with a mild flavor. Nicas also have cuajada humada which is smoked to create a very pungent flavor.

.

 

[RockyMtnFamily]

Ah, Recargar. I knew that but thanks for getting my mind out of the gutter:sombrero:!

 

[latinoguy]

thanks for sharing. I am enjoying the read.