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One day I was driving down the road and I saw the most smashed up taxi I've ever seen in my life. To my disbelief the guy actually had a passenger in the back. I'm not even sure how someone would go about getting into that cab but the things I see in Managua stopped surprising me long ago.
On another note, I snapped some photos at my wifes aunts new house in the Las Praderas neighborhood of Managua. This is a middle class neighborhood filled with tiny houses. The house we visited is a rarity as it's a two-story house. You don't see many two-story homes in Nicaragua.
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Still Picking Up Fares |
La Praderas |
Interesting Cloud |
New Couch |
Bright Walls |
Two Story House |
New Headwear |
Looks Better On Her |
Need A Bath |
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On Saturday we got up early to head to Acoyapa for the big rodeo. Unfortunately, the streets of Managua had other plans for us. I was backing the car up in front of our house and I hit a metal grate that punched a hole right through the tire. I called the rental car company and they were less than helpful to say the least. If you plan to rent a car in Nicaragua you should read this carefully. First, when I called the help number no one spoke English. Second, they basically told me it was my problem and I needed to deal with it. Third, they said if I brought the car back with an unrepaired flat they were going to charge me $400 to fix it. I guess they were going to use a solid gold wheel or something...
With that in mind we called my wifes aunt (who has a car) and asked if she knew where we could get a tire fixed. She recommended a little shop in Managua that like just about every other business in Nicaragua is run out of someone's garage. When we arrived at the place I figured it would be a short visit because I thought there was no way they were going to be able to fix the tire. I had pretty much resigned myself to buying a new tire but alas I forgot I was in Nicaragua. The kid at the shop said to give him 100 Cordobas ($5) and he would be back shortly. He pedaled away on his bike and returned about 15 minutes later with a new inner tube for the tire. He then proceeded to hack off a hunk of an old tire and used it to cover the hole on my tire from the inside. 10 minutes later I had the tire fixed good as new (well, almost) and it cost less than $5. Fixing the tire...
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I Had A Little Problem |
Heading Out For Parts |
Fixing The Flat |
Is Hard Work |
Checking For Leaks |
The Girls Wait Patiently |
And Mug For The Camera |
Almost Done |
Juniett Is Happy |
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On the way to Acoyapa we had one of those little unnerving incidents that remind you where you are. I took a picture of the party supplies below because we had all of that stuff loaded in the car on the way to Acoyapa. As we were passing through a small town (forget which one) we ran into a police checkpoint with 3 AK-47 weilding police officers. These are fairly routine in Nicaragua but at this one I was ordered to get out of the car. It always makes me nervous when someone with a loaded machine gun tells me to get out of the car. They then made me unload everything from the trunk onto the side of the road. I was getting very nervous at this point since it's not uncommon for these guys to go on shopping sprees with your stuff. Fortunately they were just looking for drugs and weren't interested in anything we had. It's just a reminder of the kinds of things we don't have to deal with on a daily basis that so many other people in the world do.
On the ride I also filmed some crazy stuff. In the video below I filmed a guy climbing on a bus going 60 MPH and just missed getting a bunch of army guys beating the crap out of another army guy in the back of a truck. One of them saw the camera and they stopped just before I hit the record button...
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Supervising The Work |
Party Supplies |
The Bus Stop In Acoyapa |
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Getting A Shoe Shine |
He Does Nice Work |
Problem With The Wall |
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