Showtime: The Big Screen

One of the best escapes from the heat and the stresses of everyday life is a trip to the movie theater.  In Managua there are several movie theaters that are pretty darn similar to theaters in the US: air conditioning, popcorn, comfy seats, (relatively) overpriced sodas, the whole works.  Managua has two theaters that we've visited, Metrocentro (which is near the Peace Corps office) and Galerias (which is on the highway to Masaya).  Here's Galerias' movie theater:

And Galerias at night:

We saw our first theater movie in Nicaragua about a month and a half into training.  For those two hours during Pirates of the Caribbean 3, the four of us (Paul, me, Kelly, and Nicole) completely forgot we were in Nicaragua; I won't lie, we were all a little sad to walk out of the theater and realize we were still here.  Paul's host mom threatened to spank us for getting home so late (about 7:00), but it was completely worth it, though at that moment I wasn't quite sure we'd last the full two years.

Since then, we've gone to see a few movies that we legitimately wanted to see, but we often just need a break from reality and see the best thing that's playing and that's subtitled (some movies are subtitled and others are dubbed).  I think this is a complete list of the movies we saw in the theater while we were here:

• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Ocean's 13
• Gone Baby Gone
• Beowulf 
• Sex & The City Movie
• Gran Torino
• Changeling
• Fast and Furious

Tickets cost about $2.50 a person and refreshments actually aren't that expensive; we usually go for a popcorn and soda (though no free refills here), but recently have tried nachos and hot dogs to make the experience that much more authentic.  Finally, most trips end with a visit to the (also air-conditioned) La Colonia Hyper supermarket that's next door to the mall to buy other fachento goods like supplies for mini pizzas, cans of Dr. Pepper, cookie mixes, and pickles.

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Coyotes

Before we came here, I thought coyotes were just the predatory canines found throughout North America and the guys that smuggle people across the US-Mexico border. It turns out that coyotes are also guys that hang out in the park and change dollars for córdobas and vice versa.

We have to change money every month because we earn córdobas and pay rent in dollars; the first 10 or so times that Holly and I employed the services of a coyote we were convinced that they would rip us off. There's no regulatory agency or any avenue for complaint, but they are unfailingly honest, which is surprising for guys that pack heat and carry around a huge wad of cash. In the US someone that fits that description would definitely be a shady character.

You can't see it in this picture, but coyotes always wear fanny packs. The fanny pack contains a gun and their trusty mini calculator.

Here's Nicole changing some of her hard-earned córdobas for dolares. When we first got here the exchange rate was 18:1 but now it's a little over 20 córdobas to the dollar. Also, coyotes offer a slightly better value over banks and bonus drive-up service.

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Rutas

In addition to the buses and micros that go from city to city in Nicaragua, larger cities like Managua and Masaya also have rutas or urbanos that are neighborhood buses within the city. In Masaya, for instance, there are rutas that go from the market to the neighborhoods of Monimbó, San Carlos, Sacuanjoche, La Villa, and El Estadio. All the rutas in Masaya cost C$3 (15 cents) no matter where you get on or off. I never ended up getting a bike, so I took the urbano to school every day (Paul always tried to make me feel guilty by saying a bike would be cheaper than the cost of the urbanos every day, but after doing the math, I realize my daily commute over these two years cost less than the three bicycles he bought).

The urbanos that go to Paul's school just got upgraded so they're now really nice charter buses, but most of them are just obnoxiously decorated school buses like the one I used to take to school when we lived in Monimbó:

When we moved to the stadium, my daily commute improved significantly (though it really wasn't bad to begin with). In Monimbó, there were only two urbanos and they stopped running to eat lunch between 12:15 and 1:00, which was exactly when I needed to go to school. Now in San Juan (our neighborhood) there are three urbanos that run all day; I can count on one to pass every eight minutes like clockwork, and I only have to walk a few steps from our front door to catch it. Here's the route our ruta takes (P.S. I'm proud of this map, and think I'm probably the first person to put a Masaya ruta's route on the Internet):

Here are our neighborhood rutas. This one is my favorite because there is more leg room, the seat covers aren't ripped as badly as in the others, the the cobrador (the guy who takes the money, standing in the second picture) is nice. It's parked in front of the market, and I always get off there then walk the block to school.

This is my second favorite ruta. Its driver doesn't really like to come to a complete stop for me to get off, so I always have to jump out really quickly.

This is our arch enemy ruta, though I've never been willing to wait the extra 8 minutes for another one to pass in order to boycott it. We hate it because the cobrador is mean and won't let Dora on; he tells us that dogs are prohibited, but this is clearly a lie since Dora has ridden on dozens of other buses in this country.  Once I did spill a bag of dog food on this ruta and maybe that's why he's mad, but Dora had nothing to do with that. Besides, if he would have relaxed his no-dogs-on-the-bus rule, the spill would have been a non-issue, anyway.

I can only hope to find public transportation in Palo Alto that's both as convenient and cost-effective as the urbanos here.  I'll keep you posted.

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Economics of Dog Food

Note: Holly and I realize that the last week of posts have really centered around our cuisine, and that this is unfair to Dora, so I hope this corrects any unfairness.

Since she was a puppy, we've fed Dora Pedigree because it was the only brand we had heard of before (the second most promising brand is called Dogui). When we took Dora home last year, we found the exact same Pedigree puppy food that we buy here, but she loved it. It took us a while to figure out that the difference is probably that the food came in a sealed package and wasn't stale like the food that we buy her from huge bags in the market here. You can find full bags of dog food here, but due to some awful economic decision it is cheaper to buy individual pounds of dog food than it is to buy a whole bag; we would end up paying 50% more if we bought a 25 lb bag instead of 25 individual pounds.  I'd like to introduce you to Nicanomics.

Though prices for Pedigree are pretty much consistent throughout Masaya, it's a little risky to buy it from unknown vendors because the less scrupulous ones mix it with lower grade foods. Dora will be shocked when we get to the US and not only is there fresh Pedigree, but there's also a much wider selection of dog food, up to and including free-range organic vegetarian human-grade prime rib-flavored tofu dog food.  I hope she'll share with us when we fall on hard times.

Then again, Dora also likes horse poop, so maybe Pedigree is all she needs.

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Hammocks

When we moved to our new neighborhood last September, we were devastated that our new house (with its drop ceilings and lack of exposed wooden beams) has nowhere to hang a hammock except outside in our garage. To pour salt in the wound, our new neighborhood is the heart of the hammock industry in Nicaragua, and I would venture to guess in all of Central America (see picture below of the souvenir "Panama" hammock). There is quite a variety of hammock styles: hammocks with a wooden beam, hammocks without the wooden beam, hammock chairs (like the Panama hammock), baby hammocks (like the neon blue one in the picture below), lazy hammock chairs, and banana hammocks (seriously, hammocks to hold literal bananas). Add to that that hammocks can be ordered in any combination of colors and materials (most hammocks are made out of colored string, manila, but others are made from fabric or plastic) and you quickly realize that the possibilities for relaxation are endless.

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