The funny danger

After spending the night in Managua we left for León, a colonial city north from Managua. Our hotel was a majestic colonial building with huge white walls; our room walls were actually 4 meters high. On the first day we visited the “hervideros of San Jacinto”, hervideros can be translated to “the boiling spots”. Once I read on the web that this place was like (I quote) “…Yellowstone without the security fences”, well, I have never been in Yellowstone, but I think it is like the hervideros without the amusing risk of melting your feet!

The hervideros is small area (smaller that a soccer field) near a volcano, and it is full of holes in the ground, in these earth-cracks there is bubbling clay and loads of steam comes out of them. I made no photos in San Jacinto, but I shoot some videos with my mobile; only in video one can see the “funny danger” I mean. It was funny how our young guides (local children) took the warning sings away, in order for us to pass and take a look to the risky areas of the place.

Back in our hotel, we went swimming and had something to drink, Tita was not in the mood for a drink, but Tomás and I were; he had a Gin and Tonic and I went for a Macuá, Nicaragua’s national drink, it is made with fresh Guava and Lime juice and white rum. I didn’t know Macuá until Kamil a.k.a Bert (one of the two registered followers of this blog) told me about it while chatting back in November.

The day after, Benito Rivas and his lovely wife took us to the beach, Benito is the national director of SOS Children’s Villages Nicaragua and he is from León. After a quick walk along the beach (the heat was unbearable), Benito took us to a very nice beach-restaurant. Benito asked for a grilled fish (he chose it at the kitchen), his wife ate breaded prawns - they had a wonderful appearance, Tita ordered shrimp ceviche (prawns marinated in lime juice, tomatoes, onions and coriander), Tomás had breaded fish loins, and since I was hungry as hell, had fish ceviche and lobster (5 small tails for 8 dollars, that’s less than 6 Euros!).

After this feast on the beach, we drove back to Managua; Tita started packaging her stuff, then we talked until late at night. It was sad to know this was Tita’s last night in Managua.

The next day, The Children’s Village driver, Don Isidro, drove use, the three Germes, to the airport. Tita checked her luggage, bought cigarillos from Estelí as a souvenir and we embraced her good bye. I am happy to know that I am seeing her in only three months. She is marrying Víctor, her fiancé, on April 17th in Chihuahua.

Sometime during this week I will write about the following days in Managua with Tomás, and after that, this blog will get its peculiar irony hint back. If any of this blog’s readers miss the masochism in my entries, I promise you good stuff in the coming days, well, as long as until then nothing changes in my non-existing social, love and creative life.

Time to stop writing and change the radio station: They are playing Venga Boys…

P.S. I will upload the videos (Youtube) of San Jacinto when I am back in Austria

The Germes’ road trip in Nicaragua

Tita, Tomás and I initially visited the bay town of San Juan del Sur, a small town in the pacific coast. We had dinner at a nice beach restaurant, the place was so chic that it had mini-pool located aside our table, its water seemed so tempting with the pool’s blue mosaics that Tomás and I nearly walked back to our hotel room to get our swimming trunks. We shared Wahoo Carpaccio, my sister had grilled calamari kebabs served on salad, Tomás ordered fish and chips (for the best outside Camden!) and I tried the yellow-fin tuna (very rare cooked) covered with black sesame and wasabi.


After supporting our digestive systems by walking along San Juan’s bay, we went to our hotel and tried to sleep, that wasn’t easy at all since our hotel was located in the middle of the night-life district; the clubs played their music very loud, but we were lucky: there was a general electric blackout short after midnight, so finito, the music beats were gone.


We spend the following two days in Ometepe, an island formed by two volcanoes in the middle of the Nicaragua Lake (one of the largest in the world). We stayed at an eco-lodge on the slopes of the Madera’s volcano, during breakfast we enjoyed the restaurant’s magnificent view: Concepción, the island’s highest volcano. At night we could even hear howling monkeys from our cabin.


On December 31st we moved on to Granada, we stayed at a charming boutique hotel, there Tita and I had a cold beer with lime and salt (Since there is no prosecco or good white wine available in Nicaragua, I am drinking beer until I fly back to Austria), after that, we headed to the pier and took a boat-ride at the Nicaragua Lake. We visited a few of the tiny islands formed by an eruption of the neighbouring Mombacho volcano.


New Year was nice, warm and full of fireworks. As far as I’ve seen, Nicaraguan men love loud crackers, those noisy fireworks start at the size of a beer can and some were as big as a 1,5 litre PET bottle (and loud as hell!), nearly all of them triggered car alarms when exploding. Nearly all “beautiful” fireworks (the ones exploding in several colours) were either lit by tourists or women.
I think I am conservative when it gets to fireworks, I prefer the spark and bright ones, rather than those blasting ones, nearly provoking tinnitus; these are treasured by Nicaraguan men.


On the first day of 2010 we hired a private car, a beautiful Russian Lada 1200, to drive us to the Masaya volcano, an active one. Being on top of the volcano made me a little dizzy, it was surely caused by the strong sunrays and the intense smell of sulphur coming out of the crater.


We arrived in Managua at night, the Sushi bar was closed, so we had only pizza and salad instead. My sister’s last weekend before flying back home had started…

Here are some pics of the road trip.

La Bamba

I’ve spent wonderful ten days in Chihuahua; I met my relatives and friends, did some shopping, visited the beautiful city centre and ate delicious food. I still recall the “gorditas de papa”, they are fried small tortillas made with corn and chili dough and filled with mashed potatoes and topped with shredded cabbage and tomato. For me, one of the best meals you can get in Chihuahua.

The Christmas dinner was sure the culinary highlight in December: For the turkey, Tomás and I prepared two sauces: Real mole and pineapple/ginger marmalade. My aunt Beticho was in charge of the ponche, a typical Mexican winter-drink made out of hibiscus infusion with chunks of guava, prunes, cinnamon and pecan nuts. We added Nicaraguan rum (aged 7 years) to make it taste funnier ;-)

Right after Christmas, we celebrated my grandfather’s 90th birthday with a huge party (over 60 guests!), there I performed a song with my brother, Tomás played the xylophone and I the ukulele.

For those who don’t know my musical side, I have huge difficulties in keeping the right tempo, actually this is major problem if you are a drummer. Well, just picture this situation: My brother and I were on a stage, it was his first performance (in fact he learned to play a song only the night before) and we had no monitors (the loudspeakers used by musicians to hear what they play), and the rule is “No monitors, no idea what you are playing”.
Summarizing it, our version of “La Bamba” was certainly the worst ever played; Tomás did an excellent job, but I failed to keep the rhythm since I was not able to hear neither the xylophone tones nor myself on the ukulele. It was a pity no one filmed it, otherwise my brother and I would be incredibly famous on youtube right now.

After the performance of the “Germes brothers”, we headed home to pack our things. Tita, Tomás and I flew the morning after to Nicaragua.

Trip to my hometown

See the new picture? I am sitting at the bar of AeroMexico’s VIP lounge at Mexico City’s airport. Nice building, typical contemporary Mexican architecture, which means lots of gray concrete and small little windows, it reminded me of the Managuan Cathedral.

The organisation I work for suggested me getting a Dinner Club credit card, it has as wide travel insurance coverage and it provides access to many airport lounges. I am drinking now my second gin tonic, have you noticed? Many times I write my blog when having a second glass!)

I just converted my ham and cheese croissant (strange ham and yellow cheese) into a vegetarian variation by replacing the strange content with tomato and normal cheese. I love this VIP lunge: I have free internet access, lots of magazines and now, a third gin and tonic; by the way, when I drink a glass of gin and tonic, it reminds me of Maurizio a.k.a. BRTKLLR.

…pause…

I stopped writing this text for 26 hours, I am now in Chihuahua.

The plane arrived safely yesterday evening (I am afraid of flying). Chihuahua has an aggressive, dessert weather, not to be compared with the constant 30°C from tropical Managua. Here the sun goes down at 5 p.m. and temperature drastically sinks from 18°C to 5°C, meaning we have really chilly nights. In NIcaragua I really miss a cold winter…

I am driving my sister Tita to a Christmas party to Kenneth’s place (many of you know this legendary Chihuahuan guy who conquered many Europan girls who love Latinos). Afterwards I am going back to the airport to pick my brother Tomás, he’s arriving from Los Cabos, remember Jackie Brown?

Want to see some pics? Click here to see Mexico City´s Airport and here to see  Managua´s Cathedral

I think I’m back OR I assure you this entry is better than the last two

Today is the first time I have a title for a blog entry before writing it. Meaning I know how to start this text and how to conclude it; in my present situation this is an achievement, believe me, I am everything but happy with my two last blog entries (but I love the new pic). I am sorry guys.

What I personally enjoy in my blogs is the comfortable melancholy and the funny tone of loneliness, I know this may sound kitsch, but we all know I usually write about things that I cannot change, about things that I have to get use to. I think it’s funny to write about the pleasure of eating of rice & beans every day, about the inexplicable love for cream-cheese sandwiches with banana chips and jalapeno peppers…and my weirdest feeling at present: missing sorrow.

Yesterday I felt lonely for the first time in 2 weeks, and it was great. I had a wonderful guest for the last fourteen days and I truly enjoyed every single minute of her visit. In fact, Kathrin was the first woman (not biologically-related) with whom I have spent more that 7 days in a row under the same roof and it was nice! Oh shit, it is sad to realise that I am 31 and I have never had the chance to go on vacations with a girlfriend for longer than 5 days…that may be another story…

Chatting and discussing with Kathrin for the last two weeks was great, and if it wasn’t for her, I would have never visited a single club in Managua. I think that Kathrin’s depart sharpened my feelings: I am currently having the time of my life writing my blog while having my second glass of Chardonnay (2007, Undurraga Estate, Valle Central - Chile) and I am like Han, solo.

That was it...I think I am back, oh yeah!

The weekend is only starting

My best Nicaraguan friends visited me today, Katy (who is ten) and her five-year old brother Martin, they came to Managua along with their mother, the SOS village director from Estelí (if you are a regular reader of my blog you will remember Estelí as the city where I mainly subsisted, for a week or so, on cheese sandwiches).

We had a wonderful time: We went to a viewpoint to see the city and the huge Managua lake, then we went to play at the arcades, at noon - it was hot as hell - we visited Managua’s Metropolitan Cathedral (clarification: not because of religious issues, but because of its post-modern, minimalistic and child-friendly architecture), if you got curious, I have a photo album of the cathedral on facebook called “Nicaragua”.

At 1 p.m. we had lunch: Burger King for the children and Chinese food for the adults (big mistake, I only realised the Chinese food was bad until I had the plate in front of me). Those who know me well, know that I love cooking above everything. They also know I only prepare vegan/vegetarian food (although I do eat meat) and that I use less oil, salt and sugar when preparing it. Well, today I sent my “do-yourself-a-favour-eating-good-food philosophy” to hell. I wanted Katy and Martin to have a good time, and for them; having a good time means eating junk-food. As a matter of fact, Katy told me today, I quote: “today is a junk-food day and I love junk-food”. I have no guilty conscience for buying then non-healthy food since I know that they are regular fruit and vegetable eaters.

After describing the eating preferences of Katy and Martin, I have to list some personal culinary data: I did not chopped my first onion for self-consumption until I was 15, Innsbruck was the city where I first tried fresh tomatoes (it was weeks before turning 18) and only I tried papaya this summer.

As I wrote on my first blog entry, I came to Nicaragua to study how children and young people describe the life they value. One of the hypotheses I have, is that we adults no longer know what is important for a child. Many people (including myself) see childhood as a stage in human life in which people increase their body mass and height at unbelievable speed and acquire important knowledge for their future life; however Katy and Martin reminded me today that being a child is also living as such. Children love and hate things that may sound strange to adults, like hating garlic-bread and loving over-sweetened drinks (does the adjective “over-sweetened” exists at all?).

Well, today is Saturday and Kathrin is going back to Cuba in a couple of hours (with a valid tourist visa this time), Katy and Martin are asleep right now and I am writing something new for my blog. Usually, I try to write using a fixed narrative structure, but in my last entry, the one about the iPod and the Antennas, I violated this self-stated-canon and have now the feeling to go back to my rule and write down a conclusion…let’s try to summarise this blog-entry:

- Managua’s cathedral is a nice and friendly building (go to my facebook album)
- Junk-food is bad, but it makes children happy
- Junk-food is bad and it makes many adults unhappy
- Grown-ups cannot understand children because they are no longer children, they are adults
- Kathrin is leaving and I will miss the cool conversations with her and also talking in German

See you, have a nice day,
Oscar

A fish soup, a Latin-music gig and the trip planned for tomorrow

I have the feeling that if you have an iPod you are automatically a poser…at least in Austria; down there, many people try to go against the iPod,-mainstream and use explicitly “non-apple” mobiles and mp3 players to hear their music, and music plays a significant role on today’s blog.

I am now hearing “Antennas” wearing headphones in order not to wake Kathrin up. I discovered this band thanks to my brother,Tomás; he sent me once an e-mail telling me about “a cool Swedish band playing in our favorite venue” (that's the P.M.K. in Innsbruck). I went there and enjoyed the concert; and met the band, nice guys by the way!
That night I borrowed money from Helmut, the concert-promoter, and bought two band cd’s at bargain price, one of the CD’s was for my brother, the other one was for me. Right now I am hearing the psychedelic song “sinners repent”.

I came back home about an hour ago; tonight I went out to see my first concert in Nicaragua. The gig was typically Latin: There were huge amounts of testosterone on the stage and only one female singer (7 percussionists, a bass player, two guitarists, a keyboarder and a sexy-heavy-weight-black-beauty as a singer). The best thing of the concert was the repeatedly use of the word “candela”, it really reminded me of my last gig with BRTKLLR - one keyboard, one mic and two drummers, that was a nice concert!

Before going to the concert tonight, we had dinner at a fish-restaurant, I tried one of the best soups ever: it was a huge plate with a whole a lobster in it, also a crab, fish pieces and plenty of garlic and clams, all this on a milky broth.

Tomorrow we leave for playa Madera near San Juan del Sur; I heard there are many surfers there, I hope I see none, I actually don’t like hippies - just as Hannes and Tomás ;-) By the way, I am writing this blog wearing my sunglasses and it is dark outside.

P.S. The album "feeling feline tonight" from Antennas is nice, cool and it helps you write down your ideas late at night - even if you are not sober ;-)