Today we spent the day at one of the beaches near San Juan. We rented a bogey board, played in the waves.
To get there we drove in the back of this open air trailer, that was fitted with two long couches, back to back so you´re facing out the side. The trip took about half an hour, passing through the rural areas of the coast on a dirt road, the first dirt road I´ve taken in Nicaragua.
This was the first time I really saw the countryside of Nicaragua. We´ve taken a lot of tico buses in Costa Rica, gone through a lot of towns, seen the houses and stores and workplaces of the people there. Nicaragua life is a completely different story.
Most homes and no more than shacks, made of scrap wood and tin. The shacks were small, no more than three rooms. There were gaps in all of the walls, dirt floors on the inside. There was typically a outhouse behind the house, made of tin, with holes in the side. There was garbage all across the road, littering the ditches. The yards were packed with small bits of junk and wood, anything that might be useful at some point, I suppose.
We complained in Costa Rica that it was too touristy, everything was so highly priced and gringo-fied in the hot spots. People are saying that Nicaragua is what Costa Rica was 20 years ago, so I guess it follows then that Nicaragua will hopefully be what Costa Rica is like in 20 years. The living standards in Costa Rica are clearly behind our own, but it´s nothing worse than what I´ve seen in some parts of Canada. So even if we tourists complain that it won´t stay this forever, I gotta say that that´s not really a bad thing.
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2 comments:
Awwwww, Matt cares for the Nicaraguans. *tear*
Happy to hear you're still kickin' and having a good time!
I protest a little: the poverty situation in Nicaragua is much more complex than you indicate.
Obviously tourism is a factor explaining Costa Rica´s higher standard of living; but a more important factor is that they haven´t fought any civil wars for 50 years, haven´t had any dictators who´ve completely raped the country, and haven´t had any natural disasters like Nicaragua, El Salvador or Honduras have recently endured. Costa Rica is rich first and foremost because it has lucked into political and economic stability stability; Nicaragua has not been so blessed.
India, Thailand, Brazil, Peru etc... all these countries get more tourists than Costa Rica but in all these countries people continue to live in squalour at levels close to or more dire than what we´ve seen in Nicaragua; tourism has not helped street kids in India, or favela kids in Brazil, or Indians in the mountains of Peru one iota.
Sorry to get on my high horse... but even if Nicaragua becomes the next Costa Rica in tourism parlance, the poverty here will endure for a long, long time after.
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