1. The buses. I take the public bus to and from school every day and therefore get to experience its brand of madness daily. FIrst you get on the bus while its still moving, because it never actually slows to a stop, at the overly-busy bus station in the middle of the already packed and hectic food and everything else market. Inside is well over 100 degrees, and while you sit next to a local nica, a fellow volunteer or stand and get jostled around, people will come on and off the bus selling everything you could imagine, from plastic-bagged fruit juice to cutting edge cure-all pills that mysteriously cost only 5 cents. There are at least three people working each bus, a driver, a money collector and a guy that hangs off the back and throws over sized luggage or bicycles on top of the bus while, you guessed it, it keeps moving steadily. You can also create your own bus stop wherever you please which is one very nice feature. Also, the police here take the bus. Not entirely encouraging about their rescue and response capabilities but what can you do? Also, on long bus rides, us gringos routinely get charged more, only about 20-30 percent more than advertised and what the locals pay, but still more. Lastly, there are stickers everywhere on the bus. From Jesus, to winnie the pooh, to playboy bunnies to the last supper to more Jesus, the stickers cover all the sides and most curiously, a large chunk of the driver´s rear view mirror.

2. Stardust: The volunteers have sort of adopted a street dog named Stardust. He sleeps in various volunteer houses from time to time and follows us around whenever we go out at night. I don´t know where he eats, where his name came from or what type of mix he is. He is an enigma, an adorable enigma.

3. Glue: Lots of things to say about glue. In school, for some reason nodoby tapes anything to the walls. If you want to hang some art up, glue it. Want to post a chart of the food pyramid, glue stick´s over there, stick it on the wall. Also, and this is far more sad, the street children of Granada who walk around and beg all night, especially in the touristy area, are all constantly sniffing glue. They hide it in one hand that is stuck up their shirt and then pull their collar over their nose and inhale all the time.

4. Walking: Many of you reading this post have probably had the opportunity to walk next to me on some adventure or another and you may have noted that I walk pretty slow. I like to take my time, waddle my breaststroke feet around and arrive at places when I arrive at places. Well, let me tell you, I could be the speed walking champion of Nicaragua. Everybody walks at a snails pace here. So chill, so Central American.

5. Change: Nodoby likes making change for you here. A lot of times, us volunteers will have the bigger bills, like 200 cordobas or roughly ten bucks, that we get out of the atm instead of convenient smaller bills. So when we go to pay for lunch and whip out a 200, its customary that the person collecting your money will look at you like you just kicked a puppy. Occasionally tears are shed and then eventually you get your change.

6. Adios: People say adios here to say hello. That is all.

More to come for sure about the cultural idiosyncracies of Nicaragua.

written by  mls12 on May 12, 2010 from Granada, Nicaragua
from the travel blog: Volunteering with La Esperanza Granada in Granada, Nicaragua
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Haha this brightened my day and really made me laugh. ily matt!

written by  junine on May 15, 2010

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haha this is like an anthropologic study of the nicaraguan bus system...i love it

written by  Emily on May 15, 2010

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