A trip to Managua

This weekend I made a trip to Managua to take the Graduate Record Exams (GRE´s). Jess and Astro stayed in Somoto and I went down with another volunteer who lives near by, Ian. We´ve been studying for a while now (it´s a good way to pass the time) and we felt pretty well prepared to take on the test. We thought we´d spend Friday in Managua, just relaxing and making a final peruse of our vocabulary lists before the big day on Satuday. We had no idea how much of an adventure Friday would be.

We left Somoto around 7:30 on an express bus to Managua. The express buses leave every few hours and take about 3.5 hours to make it all the way to Managua. The first hour is spent weaving through the mountains. The views are great: big cliffs overlooking corn and tobacco fields and very green mountainsides. After an hour you come to the city of Esteli, known for its leather shops and cigar rolling. I know those two industries aren’t exactly the most ideal, but hey, it´s a living for these people. In fact, a few of the cigars rolled in Esteli are ranked in the top 10 cigars in the world, so they must be doing something right. After you pass through Esteli, the third biggest city in Nicaragua, you start the long decent out of the mountain range and into Nicaragua´s Pacific plains. It takes about an hour to get out of the mountains and you have to wonder how good the brakes on your bus are every time they make a hairpin turn, passing a slower vehicle with little regard for what might be just around the corner, coming the other way. Let´s just say these drivers keep it interesting. The final hour and a half of the trip are spent on level ground, cruising through the agricultural heartland of Nicaragua. You can see for miles in any direction, and a clear day always offers great views of the Pacific volcano chains. Once you hit the suburbs of Managua (the first is Tipitapa, hee hee!), the picturesque scenery is replaced by dirty streets, boarded up homes and buisiness, and a whole lot of humidity. By the time you pull into Managua´s Mayoreo Bus Station, every commuter is ready to get off the bus. Normally, at least, that´s the way it works. Our trip on Friday, however was different.

We made it about a half hour into our trip before traffic came to a standstill on the windy mountain road. The road snaked around the base of all the mountains, and while we couldn’t see directly past the turn ahead, the road was clearly visible wrapping around the next mountain peak, on the other side of a valley. Over there we could see driver after driver out of their cars – never a could sign. Our driver killed the engine and sent the cobrador jogging up the road to check out the situation. We waited for about a half hour before we saw him sprinting back towards the bus. Excitedly, he told the driver he found a spot way up the road, where we´d be cutting a 70 of the vehicles who´d been waiting longer than us. Of course, we made our move. Cutting is a big thing in Nicaragua. The locals will step in front of you every chance they get and only go to the back of the line when someone speaks up. Jess and I speak up a lot. Anyway, our school bus made its move. We zoomed by all of the shouting waiting drivers, plowing down the lane normally reserved for oncoming traffic. Finally, after passing a good 2 or 3 miles of traffic, we sneakily slid into an open space between 2 tractor trailers. Amazingly, we even passed the express bus from Somoto to Managua that left a full hour and half before us. Clearly, people had been waiting a while. From our new spot in line, we could clearly see why.

About 10 o´clock the night before, a boulder about the size of a minivan came tumbling down the mountain side, effectively planting itself directly in the middle of the two-lane highway. The boulder alone didn´t cause much of a problem and traffic passed without incident through most of the night. It wasn´t until 5 am when a tired tractor trailer driver smashed right into the boulder, destroying his cab and only slightly shifting the boulder into the left hand lane. So, from 5 in the morning until we arrived at 9, the tractor trailer blocked one lane, and the boulder blocked the other and nobody got through. The great thing about Nicaragua is Ian and I were able to get out of our bus, walk up and touch the boulder, examine the smashed truck, talk to the driver, joke around with the fireman, and even buy an ice cream cone in the shade of the stationary trailer. Perhaps you are asking, ¨shouldn´t their be flares, and police officers keeping people away, or dangerous equipment attempting to move the rock?¨ The answer is no, no, and no. They don’t have flares here, the police were wolfing down ice cream before as it melted on their uniforms, and the only things going after the boulder were a couple of guys with picks and sledgehammers. After about an hour of just hanging out and watching the incredibly slow progress, Ian and I finally some initiative being taken by the highway officials. The found a truck a few cars back that was willing to hook up chains to the truck, wrap them around the rock, and try and pull it out of the way. The first attempt was a failure, and the massive truck only skidded out any time the driver gave it some gas. Attempts 2, 3, 4, and 5 ended similarly, despite the growing number of people sitting in the truck bed, attempting to add the necessary weight to keep the truck from losing traction. Finally, somewhere between attempts 9 and 10, with around 50 people hanging on to the truck wherever they could, the rock budged, and started moving along the highway, digging up a 1 foot wide divot in the pavement. The crowd was full of cheers and shouted, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the scene in Gulliver´s Travels where the army of townsfolk succeeds in tying town the giant.

The truck dragged the rock a few hundred feet down the road, and the highway workers rolled it into the drainage ditch on the side of the road. Finally, traffic was able to move again. We rolled out of their about 20 minutes later, but it didn´t look like anyone had even begun to tackle the issue of the tractor trailer dead in the middle of the lane. All we know is when we drove back through Sunday, it wasn’t there – and that´s pretty quick for Nicaraguans.

The rest of the trip went off without a hitch. The GRE´s went well and Managua was uneventful. I ate a BK Whopper Junior with bacon and cheese. It was incredibly delicious.

Sorry there aren´t any pictures of the boulder or the Whopper Junior. I didn´t bring the camera, but don’t worry, next time we go on an adventure, we´ll be sure to bring it along.

Hi to Mrs. Lyttle´s class! Responses to your questions are coming in the next blog post!