La Costa Caribe

We have returned from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua and I am extremely excited to be going back there for three weeks to do my independent study project (which is on how the people of the Atlantic Coast express and have expressed their need and want for autonomy as well as how autonomy is culturally manifested...culturally means art, music, dance, writings, etc). Anyway, we drove across the southern part of the country for about 4 or 5 hours to El Rama where we all hopped into pangas, little motor boats, to drive through the river to Bluefields one of the main "cities" in the southern part of the Atlantic Coast. We arrived to our hotel on the water and ate some delicious rondown which is a fish, potato, yucca stew served with rice and beans that are cooked with coconut milk. And pan de coco which is the best bread in the whole world and I ate a lot of it over the past week. The next morning (Wed) we set sail to two different communities. 10 of us went to Orinoco and the other 10 went to Pearl Lagoon. Our panga ride to Orinoco was smooth for the first hour when we dropped the other group off in Pearl Lagoon. From Pearl Lagoon to Orinoco it was another 45 minutes across the Lagoon and they were a loooooong 45 minutes. We ran into a storm and the panga was tossed back and forth and out of the water--like an amusement park ride. We made it safely to the dock albeit sopping wet. We stayed in teh guest house of Miss Rebecca in the main part of Orinoco. She has been a nurse in Orinoco for 23 years.

Orinoco is a town of about 1500 inhabitants many of whom live out in the bush. The majority of the people are Garifuna, an ethnic group who are descendents from Africans who never actually became slaves because they escaped. It is one of the few Garifuna communities in Nicaragua as most Garifunas live on the coast of Honduras. THere are two schools--one primary and one secondary. They are bilingual schools because most people there speak Creole English but the national language is Spanish. They also recently began some classes in Garifuna. There is one main narrow cement walkway parallel to the watersedge and smaller ones going off to houses. THere are no cars or motorcycles--only bikes, horses and your feet to get around. THere are no stores except for a pulperia (minibodega in someones house) or two and another hotel and a bar. And a basketball court with only one hoop ring and a baseball field right next to it that the cows and horses pasture in once the sun goes down. There is no running water--bucket showers like Managua--but a couple of wells to get water from. Electricity is only available from about 4pm to 10pm by generator. Reggae and Island rhythms are the preferred music although some reggaeton, hip hop, 80´s songs, and country music can be heard. The place is alive with people and animals and well, life. It is not economically rich but because of the food from the sea and lagoon, the people get more nutrients and don´t physically manifest their poverty as much as on the Pacific Coast. Everyone seems to know each other in the community. One of the local guys became our tour guide. His name is Kevin and he is 26 years old. He plays in a Garifuna drumming group and dances in the same group. He also writes his own music about the land, his community, his culture. He has travelled all over to different countries and always greets the tourists who come into Orinoco. He thrives on sharing his culture with new people and learning new things in return.

Our first night he took us to the bar to sample some of their homegrown rum--cuzusa--the Nicaraguan form of Moonshine. They apparently drink it more than beer because it comes out to be about a buck for a pint while one beer costs about 75 cents to a dollar. It is an awful tasting liquid and a taste of it was quite enough for me. We did dance a bunch and for the 3 nights we were there I danced every single night. One night we got to hear some drumming and watch and learn some traditional dances. Then we went out to a bar to practice what we had learned. During the day we had some interviews with local teachers and the community president. One day we took a 2 hour panga ride to a community further down the river westward that houses a school for campesino kids (farmer kids) to learn about sustainable agricultivation and use of land. Teaching farmer kids how to better use the plethora of natural resources they have. A smart smart idea. The kids spoke spanish and were either of indigenous or mestizo descent.

I could go on forever with sotries and things I learned and experienced but I will stop here. Except to mention that the food we ate for each meal was absolutely delicious and some form of fish or shrimp or eggs and of course pan de coco...coconut bread. Suffice it to say I loved what I saw, heard, smelled, felt, experienced of the Costa Caribe and am very excited to go back. For now 2 more weeks of swealtering heat in Managua, lots of work and the relief from all of it in the form of my entertaining host family.