In my lavish hotel room. In my air conditioned hotel. Maybe I'll visit the deer that live on the grounds, later.
Yesterday, I spent the day and the evening with Elise, a student of Pitzer College, and ... really ... just a pretty incredible young lady. Think she's heading into junior year of undergrad. It's her 2nd time in Nicaragua. She's been quite a few other places, too. These younger folk kind of amaze me.
I knew her from La Mariposa, and she reached out to me when she was headed to Granada ... for which I'm thankful. We roamed the streets, had lunch, ate ice cream, had dinner, went up the bell tower of the ollllld Cathedral, and stared out at Mombacho Volcano.
She's from Davis, California, but ... her school is in the L.A. area. I warned her that -- if I was still in town when she got back to class (September), my mother and I would hit her up for a campus tour. Maybe let her buy Mom and me lunch, too. Who knows ??
It's important to note that Elise LOOKS like this:
I warned her about that whole "stop that, or your face will stay like that," but she has a wild side, and would not be dissuaded. Besides, it rather suits her personality.
At Hotel Casa Barcelona, I met -- but didn't talk with -- a German couple, two nights ago. They were downing -- I mean DOWNING -- Flor de Cana rum with Coke.
Apparently, after they got all liquored up, they walked into town, from our sketchy neighborhood.
Okay, so far.
Then they walked back FROM town, TO our sketchy neighborhood, about midnight.
Not so okay.
They were held up by three guys with machetes, and robbed of what they had, including her purse, with its ID, credit cards, and Passport.
Not good, and why I either get home early or take taxis in sketchy areas, and pretty much NEVER wander the streets of these towns after more than a beer or two ... which I only occasionally have, anyway.
I hope they're okay. I'm sure they're freaked out.
This morning, I went to pet the hotel dogs in the lobby. What I didn't realize is that one of them was sitting a foot away from a bowl of food, hidden under the table next to her.
She attacked me, and got a bite of my shin, as I pulled my hand back and jumped rearward.
No biggie. I cleaned the wound, and put antibiotic ointment on it, then telling the lovely hotel owner ladies that it was "just another souvenir from Nicaragua."
They felt really badly. They made me promise that I'd forget the dog bite, but remember them :-)
I told them that THEY had left an impression, but not a scar. I THINK the Spanish worked ;-)
I'm not 100% sure that it's 100% cool to have a hotel pet that will attack people, even in perceived defense of its food, but ... not my call. Had I seen the food, I wouldn't have approached the pretty puppy.
And Shakira and me (Apolo, too) were buds, the night before.
Dogs can be so fickle. Almost like cats :-)
I'm going to eat a LARGE dinner in the hotel, tonight, have a couple of pops, and go to bed early. I'm reluctant to run the a/c. A/c and I haven't seen each other in a long time, you know :-)
Tomorrow is a very long day, starting at 4am, leaving the hotel at 5am, boarding a flight at 6:30am, and not landing in Southern California until some 13hrs later (layovers in Miami and Dallas). I've rented a car in Orange County, and am really hoping that I'll be physically able to drive. Seeing ... is kind of a big deal, you know :-)
And I pretty much have to keep my eyes closed at all times, on airplanes, so ... I have to send a shout out to my inner Buddhist:
Ommmm Shanti. Peace. I wish they served free drinks. Ommmmmm.
And so on.
So ... Ciao for now ... from the redunculously opulent Managuan weekend villa of ... The Gulag.
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