Slowly learning Spanish!!!!

well not like my spelling is bad enough as it is, this darn keyboard has keys rubbed off and not labeled and as usual, punctuation is mislabelled

Huge apologies to my freind Dave Hauri that raced to Granada to meet me ,and I never checked my email, then today i bused 4 hours to 2 cities away. Dave i am sooo sorry and feel horrible, please forgive me and we could meet up on beach near here?

hmmm not sure when i last wrote. I sure ate a lot of street food in Granada......I loved it...great that people would cook food in their own homes then put in a box or cooler then pick a busy street corner and just sit there and sell whatever they made

I had the sweetest pineapple cookies from this wrinkled old woman, I forgot to take her photo, a bag of mixed fruit...pineapple, papaya, bananna, watermelon sandwich bag full is .30. I had loads and 1 time I only had 5 cordoba, .25 so made deal with lady to take back the plastic fork inclded and offered her a big chunk of pineapple back, she laughed, took back the rork and agreed to the deal.

Also met really big, like 250 to 300 lb guy selling tacos and enchiladas each .25 and served on an actual bananna leaf. How sweet is that? I thought funny though how the same hand that handled the dirty money was the hand grabbing the taco, oh well didn´t bother me
My 2nd night there i asked him where was place to buy the cheap 1.35 - 1 litre beers he told me of night before, well instantly he folded up his chair, took down his cardboard sign, closed the cooler and escorted me to the bar........his shopped was now closed and he was thirsty.......can u guess who picked up the entire tab?????? Oh well he was nice and after the 3rd grande cervesza i did get a free enchilada out of him!!! Then, how sweet that was, we were in a bar/resaurant and here me mainly, but him as well were trying to sell his tacos/enchilladas to other customers or people walking by on the street to raise cigarette money........I told him I´d buy the beers, he buys the cigarettes......in the end he only sold 1 taco for .25 and could only buy 5 single ciggarettes with it, but it was comical and after every grande beer, big beer 1 litre, it got even more humorous.......... I think me n the big guy polished off 7 or 8 litres of beer between the both of us......he was nice guy and suggested I marry his sister and move to Nicaragau...

Note from Laura--------- Chris, why haven't you written that you turned down that idea.....????

Funny also,was the fact that how typical............as we say drinking, the bar was full of locals, and me only tourist....thus cheap 1.35 grande beers. Anyways, I saw the hugest cockroach walk across the room and only I seemed to notice or care.............just seemed like a typical nicaraguan moment in a grimey smokey local bar ,me and this local, drinkin right out of the huge bottle drinking away him signing to me in spanish, and a big fat cockroach walking acorss the bar floor

I´ll never forget it..............better yet was the bathroom..............wish i had my camera there were 2 doors side by side marked men/women in spanish, but when you went in the dividing wall was gone and it was 1 big room with 2 doors and 2 toilets directly across from each other. If both people were sitting down they would directly face each other, how totally crazy eh?

There weren´t many woman in the bar, and that bathroom was naaaaaaaaaaaassssty!

Sorry off track there, but what a night, what a nice local kid. He was only 24Yesterday i walked round for about 4 hours, eating every food vendors food i could see basically, oh my and for lunch found a bakery that had hamburguesa, and fries for 1.00, and it was actually good!!! What a score!
After walking all morning and having lunch I decided to head to the country.............how sweet that for .60, I could hop a bus for 1/2 hr ride, turned out to be 1 1/4 hrs, oh well, to the pretty town of Catarina. Everywhere was ceramic/pottery shops with totally beautiful pots, vases, wall ornaments and tonnes of nurseries with colourful tropical flowers for sale.

I went to a view point of a totally beautiful volcano crater that was filled with aqua blue green water. Laguna de Apollo. It was a nice tourist area, .05 to enter and i said gladly I´d pay the the lady and gave her .10, she looked at me as if i was crazy!

As I was there, lucky for me, this richer family was there and they paid this group of 3 musicians to play about 10 songs, and I was sitting close by listening as well, then after they left, another local family paid for more music. In total I sat for almost 3 hours, reading my book, soaking up sun and listening to cool music with wierd but pleasant sounding instruments basically the whole time there.

I felt guilty so before I left I gave the band .50 and was surprised to see all three smile like crazy and shake my hand and nod their head, obviosly they appreciated my money and i felt good.

Bus ride back was crazy, the bus totally overpacked, and all you could smell was armpit.....stale hot sweaty armpits...haha, yeah what a ride!!
I got back to town, walked around a bit, ate some more street food then met up with that thirsy taco seller of a guy. Oh also ran into 2 old woman I´d met about 8 days ago and chatted with them and had a nice visit
I was impressed to see them in a hostal of all places as they are both 60´s but good for them.
OH, how i ran into them...I had big dilemmna..................i was across town from my hotel and i had to go number 2, so either i could buy somthing at an expensive tourity restaurant in that area, or i opened my travel book up, looked for the nearest travel hostel and simply went to it, walked in casually like i was staying there, saw a sign saying banos, and went the bathroom. I did notice a sign in the stall saying how guests got free internet and thought, hey i am using the bathroom as a guest, i am guest of the country right? Why not check my email quickly Well Karma wasn´t so good for me as computers were all full, otherwise darn rights i woulda e-mailed everyone from there as well....................with no guilt, as most tourist places cheat and overcharge tourists so good if for once a tourist gets somthing free from them...

Then I ran into the two older ladies there and they said 'oh you are staying here as well' I turned red as just coming from the bathroom and quietly said were i was staying. Was quite comical!

hmmmmmmmm ,today i got up, rode a bus to Managua, to capital city. Well, walked fron one bus about 30 steps to another bus and after 20 minutes the bus filled up and off was from the capital city to Leon, and here i be!

I hear it is colder than a bugger at home, so i expect no sympathy, but it was hot before and today even hotter. I am now in the hottest region of Nicaragau.................had to have been 35 or more i think today. I was totally melting but walked with backpack and day bag about 20 blocks to find place to stay with 2 German guys I met on bus, as we walked I told them 'y´know for .50 we prob all coulda taken a cab to this hotel together' we all kinda laughed, kinda thought we were retarded to keep walking in the heat...
oh well.............i am trying to lose weight so i walk as much as i can

When we got to bus station i asked the driver in spanish, how many minutes walking to park central, how much time walking central park, he knew what i was saying though, then 1 german guy said..........'u speak spanish! can u ask him where the bathroom and hostal bigfoot are?'

I laughed and said no I hardly spoke spanish, yet i asked both directions for him and he got to both places

I am definately learing more spanish, I speak broken spanish but can actually have conversations with locals .....me gusta = i like
Usually i say key phrases like, how old are you, what is your name, do you have a wife or children, where do you live????? My name is chris, I am mechanic, i like beer, i have girlfreind, i have no children , i am 33...........

At bus stations i can say, how much time bus leave Granada? meaning how long until bus leaves for Granada, or how much time Leon? how long is bus ride to Leon?

Amazing, but I´ve totally been able to communicate with locals and find out which ever info i need, like point to a bus and say bus to catarina? or what time bus finished to granada? what time is last bus back to Granada?

My final night on the island when i stayed up late with the Canadian guy that climbed volcano, and that hippie mexican couple, (by the way Laura, he gave me his email adress and said we are welcome to stay at their house outside mexico city whenever we like? Anyways , that Canadian guy didn´t speak spanish and the mexican couple, no english.......so here i was as the interpreter for the entire table........now that was difficult and much talking with hands, but we talked and sorta comunicated for over 2 hours

Another funny time was when I took a cab to highway junction coming back from island, i asked taxi how much, i took same ride for 10 cordoba or .50, 4 days earlier, he said to me 1.50, NO DIEZE CORDOBAS! I sternly said back to him.................i could hear the other locals in the cab burst out laughing, and in a low voice he said back to me, Si dieze cordoba! He knew he ws trying to screw me and i caught him in it!

I felt good...not over the 1.00, but being smart enough not to get ripped off and be see as a stupid tourist!

I am in an okay place now they have 3 dogs, and tonight i knocked over a chair unhooking a little poodles leash that took off out the open gate and down the street hey hey perro perro, hey hey dog dog, I shouted to owner and he came and had to run and catch the dog...I felt bad as the owner must be late 60´s worse teeth i ever saw, but he wasn´t mad at me for letting dog loose and i am still alloewed to play with them...1 poodle and 2 dalmations, plus they have 2 bright green parrots.

Their house is huge and fancy, but the rental rooms are sorta poor and in the banos,bathroom, there is a sign in spanish saying to put used toilet paper in the garbage can not the toilet, or it plugs the pipes, and it has a big ´PIZZA HUT´ emblem on the bottom. So obviosly the owner stole this from Pizza Hut to use at his hotel and not have to pay to make a sign up.
Crafty guy

Today went into store to buy water and saw a se wente, for sale sign up, I asked lady in espanol....25 000.00 US for big house with a store in front.................man sure had the old wheels turning, that is cheap, business and house! Wanna retire early Laura and get outta the cold_?

Well, hot in this internet cafe, I am going to stroll around Leon as it is crazy how ever single place seems to toally shut down at 9:00 pm, completely closed except for odd bar!

This town is so hot i found out most places close from 1:00 - 3:00 and have siesta time, I haven´t been to any other places in nicaragau like this.

Tomorrow I think I´ll hit the beach as its only 20 min bus ride to the ocean from here
Thanks to Laura´s parents for my digital camera for Christmas I am using it mucho!

Probablt head to El Salvadore soon...Everyone I talked to that went said they enjoyed it more than Nicaragau and totally felt safe there!
Read below a quote a world travelling friend sent me..........think about it, it is so true....if i die tomorrow I am dying happy, having lived a full adventurous life rich in freinds and good times, take good care of my honda civic HOT laura as you can have it if something happens!

"Everyone dies, but not everyone fully lives. Too many people are having a Near-Life experience."


Thanks for all the replies from everyone, although I´m busy and slow to reply I appreciate them very much...

Talk to you all soon....