The Journey to Bluefields

after a week in managua I was glad to leave!! We hopped on a bus late at night to head out to Bluefields. The bus was an old school bus that was packed with people, luggage, and bad local music.
It was a 6 hour bus ride and way uncomfortable. since it was dark, there was no scenery. I ended up passing out for most of the trip though. the ride was finally over at about 5am. Then we had to wait 2 hours in this shack filled with church pews for our Boat to arrive. Again i managed to sleep, and this time on a hard wooden bench. It's funny to me how the older I get, the easier it is to sleep in random places.
Finally the boat is ready to go. A guy starts shouting off names. My new name apparently was Evan Joseph. when we finally were ready to board there was no room on the boat. They had to go through one by one and figure out who was a stow-away. Lucky for us, the stow-away was big enough to take up 2 seats. They gave him the boot and we were off. The boat ride was something straight out of a Rambo movie. there were about 15 people on the boat, it had benches and a plastic tarp for a roof. I was really excited for this part of the journey, and turns out it was the worst part really. There was nothing for us to lean back against, so basically it got really uncomfortable quick. I was worried about my studio monitors in my suitcase cause when we hit waves it felt like the boat might break. There was no scenery other then the occasional shack on stilts by the water. Just Jungle and bush everywhere. Alas 2 hours later, and a aching back, we made it to Bluefields.

The Gig

On a brighter note, we linked up this really cool guy who owns a bar in managua to set up a show a few days after I arrived. His brother was in this very famous rock band in nicaragua. Basically they were so famous, in the US it would be like hanging out with someone from Metallica or something. We also hooked up with a friend of Zandar's named Xabier (sabi-air). He was a photogrophar from Spain and cool as hell! He took some shots of me in the main market in managua, then we headed back to his house outside of the city. This place was amazing! he pays $600 a month for it, and it was like a mansion. He had tons of really cool art and furniture. It was nice to see someone involved in some kind of art scene out here. He also had a ton of contacts and made our show the official afterparty for an art show he was having earlier that day.
The day of the gig i got Montazuma's Revenge they call it. Apparently everyone who comes out here from somewhere else, has to get past a crazy sickness from the food and water to build up a sort of immunity to it. Mine unfortunately came the day of the gig. During my hippie travelling days, I got disentary from a rainbow gathering in Arizona and it was a bit like that, although not nearly as bad. It kinda feels like your stomach is eating itself from the inside out, and everything that's inside of you is trying to come out. Not fun. Lucky for me, I started feeling better about an hour before I had to play. Some people are sick for a couple of days like that, but it was a mild case for me. Needless to say the gig was a huge success. The place was packed and filled with all of the most important people in managua, including the grandson of the previous dictator who was murdered. He showed up with 6 very pretty girls. Straight Pimpin! There was also a ton of famous musicians there. Basically it was like everyone involved in the music scene there. The place was way into house music. Most of the people there had never even really heard it before and they loved it. I did get a weird request from this girl to play Jeff Mills, and old Detroit Techno producer. That threw me for a bit of a loop. We made a pretty good amount of money at the door only charging $3 and having to pay out for sound and CD players. The owner invited us back to do 2 more shows in December. One of which I'll be playing with the most famous DJ in nicaragua, this guy named Bicentias. He has a huge hit on the radios here. Between him and myself, this is talked to be one of the biggest shows of the year. Kinda funny how easy it is to break in to the scene in a 3rd world county.
The next day he invited us to his recording studio. It was in this big complex owned by the president's wife's son. We got in as soon as we got past the armed guard. There are security guards everywhere here, and they all carry either an AK-47 or a 12 guage shot gun, and they have every right to use it without question. Still trying to get used to that. Anyway this kid had a pretty sick studio in here. I can't say I dig his music at all, but he had some serious gear. Out here, you have to be rich to have gear like that.

America's Influence

One day Zandar took me to see the capital building where the president stayed. Right out front of the building was this HUGE community of people camping out in front with home-made tents made out of
what looked like black visqueen. (sp?) This was pretty much a huge village where people have been staying for years. They are there because many years back they worked on the banana plantations which were
owned by the major US companies. ie. Dole, Chaquita, etc. These US companies decided it would be better if they sprayed a toxic pesticide to keep the bugs off of the bananas and increase production.
They knew full well that this pesticide was completely unsafe and was banned from use in the US. These poor people now are all dying and very quickly. They say that since Nicaraguan government won't help them, that they would rather just die in front of the president. It's amazing to me to see first hand some of the repurcusions of US corporations on countries
they get recources from. Believe me, this kind of thing happens all over the world and it's really messed up!

First Impressions

Upon arriving in managua, the first thing I noticed when I got off the plane is that it smelled like my grandma's basement. Sort of a musty funk. My boy Zandar was waiting for me when I arrived,
already drunk due to a break-up that happened that day. I knew this was going to be a crazy trip! Our place in managua wasn't too bad. All of the houses in managua have a garage (which is actually a front
porch) in front of the house that's gated and pretty secure. The showers here only have one temperature: friggin cold! It's kind of hard to get used to. I couldn't help but notice that the living conditions
here pretty much suck! You really can't do much about the bugs other then try and keep food off of the counters. The food here is pretty decent. Most meals consist of rice and beans, queso (a cheese patty that kind of looks like goat cheese) and fried plantains. I've eaten that exact meal
almost every day in managua. One of the things that really bothers me is that there are only really 2 types of beer here. They are both locally brewed, and they are both a bit different. One tastes like
water, the other tastes like more water. You can get heineken here, but it's pretty expensive and it tastes awful. I don't think they understand that beer shouldn't be cold, then hot, then cold, then hot.
The Rum here is pretty good though, and it's one of the things Nicaragua is famous for.
There are a lot of stray dogs around the city that are skinny,diseased, and on the verge of dying at any moment. People here don't regard dogs as pets. It's kind of heart breaking to see. I
did, however, see a couple of people with monkeys for pets.
We spent a lot of time in managua browsing the shops and markets looking for musical equipment for the studio in bluefields. It's extremely hard to find anything decent here. The prices for the things
that are here are more expensive then in the US. For example, I saw a roland synthesizer that sells for $800 in Cali going for $1300 here. Doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me. No one sells
anything used because they hold on to everything they get. If it's broken, they fix it. There are no USED anything stores out here. It's really a clusterfuck of people trying to sell anything and everyting,
but nothing really quality.