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.