Few thoughts

As you, dear reader, already know, Isolde and I have arrived in Nicaragua. We got into Managua on Wednesday, Nov. 1, and have since settled into Granada. Rather than give you the play-by-play of our trip here -- which would go something like sat on bus, slept, sat on bus, hustled through scary streets, slept, got in cab, sat on smaller bus, arrived -- here are some thoughts and experiences from the past week.


La Vida Zona Viva, or Guatemala City as white, urban America

Guatemala City's Zona 10 is a weird, little oasis. It's a shinny 20-block zone vaguely reminiscent of University Village. The whole area is hospital clean, and squatty, sprawling glass skyscrapers dominate the scene. The U.S. embassy is here. So is the Citigroup building, as is another Guatemalan bank that went under a few weeks back. Everything costs a lot, like U.S. a lot. The police smile at you. The hookers do not.

Bad bus movie

United 93 should not be shown on any form of public transportation. Not on planes or trains. Not on buses running between Central American capitals. People should be able to choose whether they see movies about terrorists and doomed flights. It should not be forced on them by cruel Tica Bus a.v. directors. It's scary. Additionally, it should not be followed by Waynes Brothers movies about criminal midgets. I'll write a letter later.

The U.S. dollar

Why El Salvador decided to adopt the dollar is beyond me. But it was a nice taste of home to spend a few Washingtons in a very un-American city.

Rebuilding

At one time, Managua had a beautiful colonial city center. Or so I'm told. An earthquake leveled it completely in 1972. Instead of rebuilding, the Somoza dictatorship elected to call it a park and leave it ruined. Now the Nicaraguan capital is sprawling mess surrounding nothing. I guess it's a lot like Houston that way.

Pink

In order to soften his image, Daniel Ortega, the Sandinista leader, has chosen pink as his official color. His supporters still rock the red and black, but most of his signs are printed in a nearly girlish pink. This puts Oliver North and our President in the awkward position of opposing a man whose propaganda resembles an advertising campaign for new feminine hygene products.

He can't get worse

Nicaraguan voters will be going to the polls tommorow to decide who their next president can be. Many of them seem ready to vote for Daniel Ortega. His opponents refer to him as Comandante Ortega, a reference to the days when he was curtailing civil liberties and enforcing his will be none-to-nice means during the Contra war of the 1980s. His supporters call him Daniel. Those Isolde and I have spoken with have offered little to justify their like of the man. Mostly, they say he can't do much worse.

Granada

It's a great town. Rotten with tourists, it looks like the colonial city most travelers in Central America would hope to see. The people are kind, the streets well lit. No one's drinking now -- three days of enforced sobriety surround the presidential election -- but the bars are nice enough. And it's warm, unlike Guatemala.

Journalating

Nicaragua is packed with journalists right now. I ran into the Rueters people yesterday. They were arguing with a cab driver about how much it would cost for him to drive them to rich Americans homes for a story about how much rich Americans worry that Ortega will win. We met the NY Times stringer in Managua. She was very nice, as was her boyfriend and his Sandanista flag. Fun times to be a writer.