Nicaragua At a Glance

What an opportunity to see the abject poverty much of humanity deals with each day. We left the ship twice to visit Puerto Corinto. During the first trek, in a heavy downpour, 12-year-old Darwin attached himself to us. After giving up trying to lead us to some place for a drink, or offering to take us to find a nice chica, and figuring we had his number when he said the weather at the beach, 1 mile away, was sunny and warm, he followed as we browsed a pharmacy for breath mints. We found only 2 boxes of TicTac ($ .50/ea) which, later, turned out to be tiny orange jelly beans all melted and sticking together. Darwin stuck with us as we browsed familiar souvenir huts (we spent $2 there) and followed us as we headed back to the ship. When we reached the gate to the port yard, we gave him $5.00. All in all, that $2 souvenir cost us $8.

These people are poor beyond poor, but it's unclear whether the people know what that means. Whilst watching about, several conditions stood out:

• All the shops and restaurants probably close at sundown; there was no lighting, nor light fixtures in any places we saw.
  

• There were many dogs wandering the streets and sidewalks. Each of them emaciated. Except for one instance, no one seemed to pay any of them any attention. At one place, an old woman had a dog up on a chair, and she was grooming its belly for fleas, placing those she found into a baggy. (It will be a long time before I'll want another poppy-seed pastry.
  

• All those very hungry dogs, but no cats?
  

We had to change into dry clothing and enjoyed a great lunch onboard. Several friends told us of finding familiarly named cigarettes in town for $10 per carton. After lunch, we changed back into wet clothing and ventured off the ship and out of the port. We wandered many streets of murky shops, finding several shops with only one or two packs of something resembling cigarette packets, but we decided not to bite. We gave up, figuring the only full cartons of familiar names were already sold to our friends.

Back on board now. We'll try again some day in Guatemala. Oh, that's TOMORROW!