Nicaragua trip report

Ollie North is just a traitor, plain and simple, blows my mind they give guys like him their own freakin talk show

I do believe it was the Clinton years that ignored Latin America, and Central America. Dont blame Bush/Reagan for having balls

Where would Panama be now? A direct route for the coke trade (Nortega was a CIA man afterall)

Back to the report: Thanks for your opinions. I don't drink coffee but my husband always comments on the fact that it's mostly instant in a coffe growing country. The begging children in the cities is a fairly recent developement (past 4 years). It's brought on by poverty and tourists. Once the tourists start to give the children money, it's all over. Too bad your daughter got sick, That was probably hard on everyone. Go back again and do the things you missed. It's a great country.

My dearest germuno

regarding the basura question: I too come from a country that is equally ridden with garbage and hurt big time by US intervention. Cleaning up the garbage is not as simple as you might think. It is not as simple as "picking up the garbage from the beach". It involves changing the attitude of the people and making them aware of the issue. It is a process that might take years and years. And that is why I would not bring the discussion towards a question that is so black and white, while ignoring the shades of gray in between. When I start a discussion, I try to never criticize, I ask a lot of questions and I try my hardest to not sound like a know it all, just because I now live in a prosperous western country.

And yes I agree with Nicaraguablog: it takes way more than a few books to get to know and understand the politics and economic policies of any country not just Nicaragua.

Well there you have it folks. I wanted to avoid this type of discussion in a travel forum and that is why I tried to keep the report as impartial as possible. Aaaaah...

Dollyd

thankfully, I managed to find some really good coffee and took a few kilos back home. The taste is very rich and smooth and no sugar is required, delicious.
I did meet some ladies from world vision who enlightened me in the begging issue but still it was hard to see. It was even harder to not give anything like I was advised.
Definitely going back! I want to do the North. I will probably combine it with a trip to Colombia. I wonder how expensive the tickets would be...perhaps I should start a new thread for that.

always find great, people having politics consideration. A subject close to weather condition today.
as history proved it.
nice moral commitments, don't help, just because human being are human being, nothing to expect.
better to appreciate the people and help few beggars from time to time time that to deal with the subject.

Maybe this was already mentioned, but Nicaragua is the main CA country where you can really get in good political conversations/debates. The people just seem much more in tune to politics, probably from the awareness created during the whole Ortega epoch