Following up to my Family Car History post, I definitely do have pictures of our second car. The problem is, I just can’t find them but I did find one I could share.
Back in October 2006 when I was writing music, I wrote a track called “Absolutely Red (Indigo Ink)” as a homage to to my first two cars.
Check it out by clicking on the image:
Does this mean I need to write a new track called “Black Nautical Blue”?
Scott and I live in a condo building built in the late 70s and completed around 1979/1980 in Etobicoke. As such, the building has gone through a number fixes since we’ve lived here in 5 years.
The biggest project to date is the repair to the parking garage under the ground. This involves completely scraping up all of the parking surfaces above ground, some of the park as well. The project is being completed in three phases with the first two phases complete.
During each phase, owners have had to vacate the garage and park on the road, or if lucky, in visitor spots.
I’m noticing a sense of entitlement building up as owners duke it out for parking space in the visitor lot so they don’t have to park their car on the road including
Scott and a friend of ours noticed an Audi in the parking lot with a $250 parking ticket.
Now, I admit, after tomorrow when we pick up the new car, I want to ensure the car is going to be safe, not going to be in an accident, scratched all to hell, etc… But I’m not going to sit in the parking lot waiting for spots to open and I’m sure as heck not going to park in a fire route.
I accept that the construction is happening, I know it will increase the value of the building, and it’s necessary. Having a sense of entitlement and an inflated ego because you’re feeling like you’re inconvenienced is not. All of us have had to deal with the construction at some point.
As far as I’m concerned – shut up and deal. It’s going to take about three months to finish the project.
I have ALWAYS been a car fanatic. I don’t know why but I’ve always been interested in those four rolling wheels, a multitude of designs and interiors. Options galore.
My parents, before we left Newfoundland had a Renault (no idea what model) and a Fiat 124.
My grandparents had an AMC Pacer Wagon with a burgundy interior and a 1974 Ford Capri with black vinyl seats.
My mother purchased a two-tone blue 1986 Ford Escort which she still keeps in the garage at the house. I can totally understand why she keeps the car, even though I doubt it runs today from sitting idle and other issues. It was her first car, she bought it herself and she has an attachment to it. Sadly, I don’t think it will ever drive again.
My aunt, uncle and cousins through the years had, at different times a Toyota Land Cruiser (Blue! It was cool!), a Datsan, a Mazda Wagon (GLC I think), a Green Volvo, a Grey Hyundai Stellar, a BMW 3-series, Chrysler Sundance, several Suzuki Swifts, Toyota Yaris, and several Saturns.
I’m not sure what other cars my Dad had over the years, but I know he and my step mother had two Subarus in the 1990s.
So I got exposed to a number of different types of vehicles, and I learned what I liked based on those experiences. I really liked the Volvo; despite Hyundai’s reputation at the time, the Stellar was a cool car, big for a family of 5; the BMW was the very first car I drove, standard in downtown Toronto; I learned to really drive on the Chrysler Sundance which I also liked at the time. The Escort was also kind of fun to drive too.
Courtesy of my family, I took a preference to smaller cars. All of the cars except for the Volvo, the Hyundai and the Land Cruiser were smaller cars.
My mother even gave me Camaro magazines with women on the front. Well, I liked the cars… LOL!
I grew up when gas was $0.49/L – possibly even cheaper. Today it’s between $1.36 and $1.40/L; so it’s not surprising that when looking for a car in 2001, I wanted something that was fuel efficient. I don’t want to have to pay for gas and put it in the hands of the petrol companies. At the same time, I want to be environmentally conscious. Alright, if I truly wanted to be fully environmentally conscious, I would take public transit more often.
At the time North American cars were getting a bad rap for being gas guzzlers, and they were at the time. To me, there were only two companies that made sense to me – Honda and Toyota.
Way back in 2001, I actually did not have the intention to buy a car when I did, but I was in the market and taking a serious look. It was between a Honda Civic and a Toyota Echo. The Civic we knew to be reliable, and the Echo was the prefect Bear-friendly car that was tall enough to handle Scott and me comfortably. Being 6ft3, myself, I need height in a car.
We got the price quote on the Honda and it was well within my range. We then checked out a Toyota dealership and they had an amazing deal on what was supposed to be an “Absolutely Red” 2000 Toyota Echo without Air Conditioning, but it was a 2001 Toyota Echo with AC and a really great deal. I spent about two hours humming and ha-ing at the dealership and I proceeded to put the downpayment on the corporate AMEX the company I was working for, had given me. Okay, not something you’re supposed to do. *GRIN*
That car got beaten up so many times, gosh. The thing attracted accidents, it was actually quite sad. Still, we loved the car and with 4 men, our size or bigger in the car it looked like a clown car.
Sadly, the car was returned after an accident right at the end of it’s lease. It was time to get a new car and just cut our ties with the accident prone Echo.
Sossi, who is now at Markville Toyota (I believe), did a great job selling us the first car. I wanted her to sell us our second Toyota but she wasn’t at the dealer where we bought our first Echo. I highly recommend her.
So we went back to the same dealer to crunch numbers and see what we could afford. I really wanted a Toyota Corolla, and really wanted an upgrade form the entry-level Echo but it turned out we couldn’t afford the Corolla, so another Echo, this time in Indigo Ink.
That car, I am proud to say, never got hit, never got into an accident. We put 170,000km on it and really, we probably should have bought it out at the end of the lease and drove it into the ground. Alas, I wanted something else more fuel efficient, and we wanted a mid-sized car.
The sad thing? I have no pictures of our Indigo Ink Echo except for the one picture of the dashboard while driving to Sudbury! It’s not like we didn’t like the car, it was reliable the whole time we owned it and went on many a road trip to Detroit and Sudbury – hence the 170,000km on it. Probably because of the circumstances between picking up the car, and being so over mileage on our lease given where Scott and I were at in our life at that time, we – okay, I, wanted an upgrade. We earned it.
Enter the car of my dreams.
The next car had to be a mid-size car, as fuel efficient or better than the Echo, it needed to have cruise control and power windows.
There was only one logical vehicle that met our requirements and that was a Toyota Prius.
I love the Prius. Where everyone is being a nay sayer about it’s looks, questioning my masulinity and yelling at me to, “Get a real car” – Yes that happened to me, from a guy driving a tricked out truck – I’m laughing my butt off because the Prius has way more pep than anyone thinks and way more room. It’s technologically advanced, and quite honestly, I think it’s the prefect geek car.
Once again, I didn’t have plans to necessarily swap the car when I did, but I knew what I wanted and, well, why not? I wanted blue, but got black because that’s all the dealer had in stock and it was difficult to get 2009s at that time with the 2010s coming out.
We’ve had the car three years. With it’s, what I like to call, “Retro futuristic” styling, it’s kind of like the interior of the Enterprise NCC-1701A. We’ve been known to get up to 800km on a single tank of gas in warmer weather. We’re getting between 5.8 (40 MPG and 6.0 L/100km (39 MPG) these days though in one picture below you’ll see we were able to squeeze out 5.4 L/100km (43 MPG).
It’s got everything we wanted and I’d say it’s more than we need.
The Prius, unfortunately, picked up racing stripes by kissing a concrete pillar in a parking garage. I’ve never actually done anything about them – and it doesn’t look like the ‘kiss’ got down to the lower paint levels which is great. So I’ve put it off for about two years. Other than that, no accidents!
On Friday, I decided to stop at the local dealership where I get my car maintained, not the one I purchased my previous 3 vehicles from. In short, the sales guy who sold us the Indigo Ink Echo and the Black Prius was an idiot and his lack of professionalism when we purchased the Prius was astounding. Whenever Toyota sends me a survey I point out how unhappy I was with the sales rep and the dealer.
Anyway, at the local dealership, they practically pounced on me when I asked about trading in and getting a 2012 – thinking more for next year, but the Leasing Manager suggested we could potentially trade this year:
So we are looking at:
We would get way more car for less than I’m paying now. In fact, its way more care than anyone needs. And, by the way, I do laugh at people driving up supped up expensive vehicles. Do you really need it? No, I didn’t think you did.
Anyway, I digress – if it’s the same or more than what I am paying now, then I would consider buying out my 2009 – I really am quite happy with it. Or, if someone wants to buy a 2009 Toyota Prius base package, let me know. We’ll fix up the paint scratches.
So the question is – Red or Blue if this all comes through?
I see us sticking with Toyota for a while. While it’s nice the North American car companies finally got their act together, but for me the cars are bland. Other manufacturers just don’t stand up to the quality Toyota has – despite the challenges that Toyota had a few years ago, they stepped up to the plate and are doing some cool things.
Technologically the only car companies I would look at are Toyota, Ford and Honda.
Despite my ragging on North American car companies, Ford is the only company I would look at. They were smart bringing the European styled cars over, and using Toyota’s technology in their hybrids. Unfortunately, their cars are either too big or too small for my liking.
Honda’s design language doesn’t appeal to me anymore. I just don’t like it. As for their hybrid Civic and Insight, the mileage should be better. IMA is just too over engineered and isn’t a true parallel hybrid.
I will say GM caught my eye with the Volt. The problem is three-fold
Other than that, it’s pretty cool – Good on GM!
Toyota has a good thing going with Hybrid Synergy Drive – and now three Toyota cars and a number of Lexus vehicles that are fully hybrid. I will address that yes, you do pay a premium for a hybrid. So does it even out at all between buying a cheaper car with good gas mileage that’s not a hybrid versus buying a hybrid? I’m either putting it in the gas company’s hands, or the car company’s hands. Given the innovation at Toyota, I’m happy to put it in their hands.
And as a final side note – my aunt, Scott’s mother and Scott’s aunt are now all driving Toyotas.
On top of getting the reservation system for Scott sorted out, I’ve been working on getting back to the gym.
Since my trip to Nicaragua, my back has been screaming and twinging (if that’s even a word – it’s mine and I’m copylefting it) and it’s held me back from getting any exercise. Of course, may doctors will say, if you don’t exercise your back will get worse. Fair enough, but how do I get to that point?
Going to the Chiropractor has helped but it’s not the end-all cure, and no Chiropractor would say that. Enter Scott with his magic hands and my other RMT who both use vastly different techniques which are complementary – Scott is harder and turns me into a pretzel and my other RMT uses more of an energy work modality; which has helped quite a bit.
Enter swimming. It got to the point where lifting weights was getting boring for me and it really felt like everything was tightening up in a bad way, so I’ve completely stepped away from lifting weights. I was even humming and hawing about swimming.
Three weeks ago I decided to start building up and take my time getting back to swimming – I went once; two weeks ago twice and three weeks ago – three times. That first time I went, my back felt considerably better. As my back gets tighter during the week, I go swimming and it feels better. Add in the massage therapy and such, I’m doing better.
Now waiting on the completion of my ergonomics assessment at work…
But between the project I’m doing for Scott and swimming, I’m seeing this as treating myself on so many levels:
This is all good and I’m glad to be where I am right now.
I was in the cloud before there was a cloud…
But I digress. I’m feeling very proud of myself right now. Amazing what happens when you ‘call something into being’ and talk publicly about a home brew project you’re stuck on.
I’ve been able to get through all those tedious little areas of logic that I really didn’t want to deal with. Yes, memories of that really tough logic class from University came flooding back to me…
Scott needed three pieces of key logic on the reservation system – which would make sense to anyone who has been involved with any form of reservation system – and I certainly have the experience there (and in the cloud too!):
I got the ‘Unavailable’ piece mostly working last night and fully working today. I finished up the ‘Available’ piece tonight with the exception of one piece that I will be confirming with Scott tomorrow.
My biggest favourite piece of PHP coding out of this project is this:
$d_bookStart = date_create($e_createWhen->startTime);
The ability for PHP to convert datetime formats to it’s own native format. ZEND uses the RFC 3339 format within the Events class for datetime. I was dreading having to do all kinds of string manipulations just to figure out if the reservation time period touches an ‘unavailable’ or ‘available’ event and the associated logic. Instead, I can simply take two datetime variables an compare them.
So what is next?
Wheeee!
Ever since I was laid off from Nortel 10 years ago, and since my last programming job with iFire Technologies about 9 years ago, I’ve had a heck of a time trying to find something to feed my inner geek.
I can’t say I’ve sworn off software development of any kind – gaming, web application development, iPhone and iPad app development, etc…
I’ve dabbled off and on for a few years – even going as far as starting to write a simple Tic Tac Toe game that included wifi & bluetooth networking, game pieces that could be configurable, etc… I’ve just not finished what I started, and I can’t justify the $99 a year to pay for a developer license from Apple to ensure I can use my iPad or iPhone as the debugging platform.
More so, recently, I made commitment to my partner to develop a calendar web-app that would allow users to book appointments via his website, integrated with Google Calendar using the Zend gData connector and PHP.
I have to admit, I have been slow to make progress but I have made some great progress with the logic. I admit, I’ve been somewhat… scared. This would be the first ‘product’ I have developed myself that would be live in stepping away from software development in 2003. I have a bunch of what-ifs:
There is a part of me that says that I should mistrust leveraging a service like Google’s Calendar and I should just develop my own application using MySQL and PHP, that way I can control everything about the solution and keep all the various components up-to-date and let my web provider keep Apache up-to-date.
I think the plan I’m going to move forward is launch with Google Calendar, keep a close eye on how well the functionality is working and then develop the MySQL version and do a bang-up job on it.
All in the life of a home-brew CTO, I guess. This is definitely good experience for my future.
Way back when, when I was 11 years old, my mum, sister and I embarked on a trip to the UK to see my cousins who had spent a year in Europe.
I remember arriving via Worldways from Toronto to London Gatwick, to see my mother walk up to some man unknown to me, giving her a hug and a kiss. This man would be one of the highlights of that trip was meeting my grandfather’s brother – Uncle Reggie as we called him, although I guess technically he’d be great uncle.
I digress. Uncle Reggie fascinated me. He lived in or near Farnborough which is home to the UK’s best airshow, had been a test pilot, apparently contributed to the design of Concorde, and was an inventor, from what I remember.
Uncle Reggie and I connected on our love of technology and computers. He had a computer and a TV that also supported Teletext – Ah Ceefax and Oracle, precursors to the Internet and over the air!
I remember my cousin Tim mentioning that Uncle Reggie had a computer like an Apple ][, but it wasn’t. It turned out to be a BBC Micro.
I don’t recall how long I spent playing around with his television or the BBC Micro, but I certainly wanted to know more about it. It was a neat piece of kit.
Unfortunately BBC Micros were not big here in Canada because it would have been fun to trade programs and ideas back and forth with Reg. I had “the other British computer” – a Sinclair ZX81 (rebranded as a Timex Sinclair 1000) – $69.99 in 1983 wasn’t bad for a computer. Dad had also soon upgraded us to a Commodore 64.
Unfortunately Uncle Reggie passed away a few years later, but he always comes to mind every now and then especially whenever I think of the British computing scene in the 80s.
When I was studying in Norwich, I briefly had a chance to see an Acorn Archimedes running – A really cool RISC-based computer based on the famous ARM processor that runs iPhones, BlackBerries, Androids, and other devices.
The 80s, computer-wise, was a magical time, much like how younger friends of mine reminisce about gaming in the 90s.
Not only was Dad and my actual Uncle, Roger, major influences on me, but Uncle Reggie was my third influence.
I really like the fact that the Raspberry PI project is starting up a resurgence in homebrew computing again. May legions of children and even adults, learn or relive great moments in computing again.
Alright, this is totally a ‘first world problem’.
I’m a pretty staunch Air Canada fanboy these days. I still maintain after flying numerous airlines in North America, that Air Canada is one of the best airlines in North America.
I am a loyal Aeroplan fan as well. After flying Air Canada for so long, Aeroplan is a natural fit. Fly Air Canada – get Aeroplan miles. Use a CIBC Aerogold card, get Aeroplan points. The miles add up quickly.
Get this scenario – a friend of mine in Sudbury – less of an Air Canada fanboy but does like them, has a similar situation to me – travels more than I do – He’s away from home at least half the year but within Ontario.
He wants to fly to San Francisco in July with the routing of YSB > YYZ > SFO from July 25 to July 31st, 2012. I plan on going at the same time along with additional friends.
It use to be that at the cheapest point value, a short haul flight within North America was 15,000 points and a longer haul flight was 25,000. Over time the number of points go up with demand. Understandable and it was pretty much no matter where you flew. So it use to be that my friend could fly from Sudbury to San Francisco for 25,000 points.
With Aeroplan being spun off from Air Canada, not only are us Aeroplan fanboys having to fly sub-standard airlines than we expect, we’re having to pay more miles for it.
Based on routings provided by Aeroplan, my friend now has to pay 96,000 points for the routing. WHAT?!
Right – so if you tell Aeroplan’s reservation service that you want to start from YSB and fly to SFO, it comes up with itineraries that cost 96,000 points.
If you break it up into segments – so the first segment being YSB to YYZ and then YYZ to SFO and you manage your own itinerary, you can reduce that down to 56,000 points. 31,000 for YSB to YYZ and then 25,000 YYZ to SFO.
Why 31,000 for YSB to YYZ? Well, Aeroplan has two classes of fares –
It used to be that I could regularly fly up to Sudbury for 15,000 – and it was worth it. If you want to fly that Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, you can for 31,000 points. One way for 15,500; return for 15,500 – all because the owner of Aeroplan, Aimia, considered Air Canada a premium airline? I cannot believe that there is demand already set out for that week in July, and I’m surprised a Friday/Monday trip costs fewer points. I would expect those flights to be in more demand.
Still, 96,000 points to go to San Francisco; or 31,000 points to go to Toronto is ludicrous.
Leave it to Bernarda to negotiate the taxis and busses again!
Mercado
Mercado
This time, we went to the Mercado de Managua. Now, a lot of the guide books have implied that the market is a pick pocket’s dream, to be very alert, etc… Honestly, I think those descriptions take away from this cultural experience. Yes, again, be aware of your surroundings and you’ll be fine.
Face it, no matter where you are in this world – if you really want to act like a victim, go right ahead, but think – how is it really working for you?
Okay, I’m off my pedestal.
My inner 6 year old giggled
The market is a neat place. Food, flowers, shoes, a hair cut, trinkets, toys and even electronics – what you need versus what you want is here. We were here to pick up some home-grown things such as these beautiful wood bowls, that I have been given over time from my aunt, as well a beautiful wood heat pad, for Scott; some Joya de Esteli Cigars for the cigar smokers in my life including myself; and that was pretty much it. The rum I would pick up in 48 hours at the airport – Flor de Caña.
Be sure to hunt around at the market. For example, one place was trying to sell me a package of 6 cigars for US$25 and I got the box of 10 Joya de Esteli for C$250 marked down from C$260 without me even negotiating.
If you need to change US$ to C$, there are money changers there, and they are usually fair.
Don’t forget to check out the Bar El Bum Bum. You won’t see bums there, but you will hear booms of music. *GRIN* My aunt specifically pointed it out to me, and my inner six year old giggled.
DOH!
The mercado is also where I tried to order drinks and the order was completely wrong. Let’s see, I ordered “jugo naranja y medio-litro de Coke por aqui” – In short, orange juice and a 500ml bottle of Coke.
What I got was “jugo manzana y 1L de Coke por aqui” – Apple juice and a 1L bottle of Coke. And it turns out the glass bottles you have to get poured into a plastic bag in order to get it to take out – which Tim actually wanted. Oh well, I did my best and hey, if that is the only thing that went wrong while I was in Nicaragua, great!
Needless to say, other times where I ordered drinks didn’t go as horribly, and really I’m laughing about it as I write this.
Pollo Tip Top!
We headed back home and then out for a late lunch at Pollo Tip Top.
Seriously KFC, you were run out of Nicaragua because Tip Top rocks. Seriously, it wasn’t greasy, it was hot, it was tasty, and the best chips!
And I embarrassed myself (avergonzado, not embarazada which means I’m pregnant) to a certain degree. I ate too many pieces of chicken – and I’m not sure if I horrified or impressed the kids. I admit, I was hungry, and that was my fault for not eating more at breakfast – and hey, no one wanted the last piece of chicken. I rest my case. *GRIN*
At the mall!
From there, we caught the bus to Galerias Santo Domingo to go to the movies to celebrate Bernarda’s birthday where Stephen and I saw Johnny English with subtitles in Spanish. I highly recommend the film if you’re a James Bond fan.
Coffee, a bus, and cake later, we were home. I highly recommend the Tres Leches at Casa del Café.
Pochomil
Today was the day we went to the beach:
View Larger Map
Birmania did not go on the excursion to Selva Negra as she was studying English in the equivalent of summer school, so this was a chance for her to spend time with Stephen, her grandmother (my aunt), her dad, her siblings and me.
But firstly, we had to teach Stephen an important lesson in the local language. We were telling him that this sign means, “Don’t piss your grandmother off”:
"Don't piss your grandmother off" or "Don't walk on the grass"?
Or is it don’t walk on the grass? I forget!
Hilux
After picking up the Toyota Hilux that fits five in the cab, and two boys in the back; we stopped of at La Unión to pick up groceries.
A few things struck me about the grocery store – and this is not the first time I walked in to one in Nicargua, but here are my notes:
Firstly, if you are what you eat, then I’m not eating pan Bimbo Blanco. Yes there is a well known brand called “Bimbo”. Okay, it’s actually not that bad, but still quite funny.
Kellogs is straight up when they call Frosted Flakes, “Zucaritas”!Once we were done with the groceries, it was off to Pochomil to the Pacific Ocean and the beaches. The map says 57 minutes, but it’s closer to two hours on roads with potholes bigger than a Mini Cooper and then cobblestone roads.
Bienvenido a Pochomil!
I will never complain about potholes on Canadian roads after winter ever again.
And I do have to say, Tim’s driving was top notch – and I trusted him implicitly. There are considerations before you drive in Nicaragua, let alone just in Managua.
Firstly, get used to honking your horn. It’s required, especially if you’re passing a vehicle to signify that you’re passing them so if they have swerve to miss a pothole, they’ll wait until you pass. Honking is also a way of saying thanks as well, not just alerting attention.
Also people will pass each other regardless of if the road has a solid line or dotted line. Get used to it.
Beyond that, I can’t think of any other key rules of the road. I wouldn’t say driving was insane or anything out of the ordinary. If you’re walking cross the road, do be aware that the cars will not stop for you and you could very much get run over.
The Pacific
On to Pochomil – I’ve had several chances to swim in the Pacific Ocean – in Cabo, México; Noosa Head, Australia; San Francisco, CA; and Tofino, BC – I’ve never done it – until Nicaragua. And I will say it’s the warmest water I have ever gone swimming in. Swimming with the surf was amazing, and I had a great time throwing Ary, Anly and Stephen in it.
Driving
Lunch included a whole fish – we left the fish head to Anly who enjoys such delicacies.
We stopped on the way back to have sandwiches made by be – Jamón y queso con lechuga, tomate y mostaza. Incidently, lechuga became a favourite spanish word for the rest of the trip, and upon returning to Canada, I said to Scott, “Hola me poco lechuga” – “Hello my little lettuce” *GRIN*.
Heading Home
Océano Pacific
That was my final night in Managua. I gathered my things, got dressed up in my clothes for travelling back to Toronto, said my goodbyes in the form of a small speech, and received a new hammock for Scott and me as a gift from Bernarda and Tim. I gave Bernarda my Spanish > English phrasebook which she used tonight:
Bernarda: “con mi spanish, en la página 117. jajaja. that was amazing.!!!! jajaja”
Iain: Eso fie increíble JEJEJE
Early in Managua
I can tell we’re going to have a lot of fun talking back and forth. Admittedly, I am being quite shy, but it’s something I will need to get over.
I spent the night at a Best Western that is directly across from the airport. At US$80 a night, it can’t be beat when you have to be at the airport at 4:00am to check in.
Mexico City
Much thanks to the agent for giving me exit row seating on all of my flights.
One bottle of Flor de Caña and I was set for El Salvador, Mexico City and returning home to the cold temperatures of Toronto.
I highly recommend not connecting in Mexico City as you do have to pick up your bags, go out of security, and check in again with your airline. It feels like you’re walking through a rabbit warren and for miles. But that said, it was nice to get the exercise in.
Muchos gracias Bernarda, Bermania, Anly, Ary y Tim. Hasta próximo tiempo.
Lazy Day
Toña
We had a bit of a lazy day on January 10th as we were catching up from our travels, dealing with the heat, and my back was acting up in a bad way. Enter going to the pharmacy – which was located at La Unión. La Unión, ironically, is owned (33 1/3%) by Walmart. Walmart and unions? Forget it.
Anyway, purchasing drugs at the pharmacy was an interesting experience. For the muscle relaxants I got over the counter, I would have probably paid $50 (I might be over inflating the cost), they cost us $3! Not only that but they were made in Colombia! Okay, I realize I’m bringing stereotypes into my blog. Anyway, the Mio-Citalgan rocked and really helped my back.
Hecho en Colombia!
We took the kids to the Parque Japones-Nicaraguense where we played soccer and basketball with the kids. While we were at the mall the day before, Tim and I also got scooters for the kids so Ary and Anly brought one of them to use.
24 Hours in Matagalpa & Selva Negra
The next day we headed to Matagalpa which is three hours, by bus, to the North of Managua. My Aunt, Stephen, Tim, Ary and Anly joined us while Bermania and Bernarda stayed home.
Autobus
Firstly, this was my first experience with the bus terminal in Managua, and I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. If anything, it was the most uncomfortable part about the trip. Face it, those of us from Canada stood out like sore thumbs. The other thing I wasn’t sure about was the pick pocketing that I had read about. In short, if you’re traveling, just be aware of your surroundings and you’ll be fine.
You buy your ticket from a wicket and from you take your place on the bus – seats are numbered.
When you’re on the bus, waiting for the bus to leave the bus station, a lot of people will come on trying to sell drinks, fruit, and other foods. So don’t be surprised at this. You’ll also find that at spots long the way, the bus will stop and people will come on, selling the same things.
Cruise Director Anly/Director de la travesía Anly
Once we arrived, we got a taxi to The Monkey which was a restaurant we decided to eat at before heading to Selva Negra. After we stopped at the Cathedral in Matagalpa – beautiful and not an ostentatious. Ary seemed interested in the statue of San Miguel so I got a picture of him with it.
The taxi ride up to Selva Negra – translates as “Black Forest” which was settled by Germans, was fun with the taxi driver explaining things to us about the area. Five in the back with Mary, Stepehen, Tim, Anly and Ary; and lucky me in the front.
I enjoyed teasing Anly by taking pictures of her in the car, and her hiding her face saying, “Tio!”.
Cabaña
Selva Negra made me feel like I wasn’t in Nicaragua but up north in cottage country here in Ontario. Firstly, you never see brick buildings in places like Central America and the cottage we stayed in was brick. Also the temperature was about 18C – everyone was complaining how cold it was, and I was out in my short shirt and shorts. LOL! Prefect temperature for me!
The food at Selva Negra was great! The coffee was very good, especially given we were on a coffee plantation.
Sloths!
Tim and I were up quite late drinking rum and, later, me reading the Steve Jobs autobiography and Tim playing with his BlackBerry playbook. I have two side tangents here:
¡Coffee!
The next day we got up, had breakfast, looked at a sloth in the tree, hiked through the cloud forest and coffee beans and then down to pack our bags up and take the taxi back to Matagalpa, and then the bus home. We had more of a coach bus going home, with a movie playing. I actually finished the Steve Jobs biography on the way back to Managua.
We stopped off at an old tank at the entrance of Selva Negra, which was left over from the civil war in the 1980s. At one level a neat thing to see, at another reminder of how much the United States used to and still does love fucking around in Central America and world politics. There, I’ve said it – and definitely something that was on the back of my mind when traveling around.
I was much more comfortable with the bus terminal this time in both Matagalpa and Managua.
BTW Scott just looked up the details about Mio-Citgalan and it’s main active ingredient Carisporodol. Looks like it’s considered a Schedule 4 medication on watch lists, meaning the USDA is keeping an eye how addictive the medication is. That said, I did not feel any euphoric feelings and it worked better than Robaxicet, which I will say is actually helping my back these days back home in Canada.
